When it came to “business” Jobs wasn’t that different than Gates

There is a lot of press written about how different the two men who forever changed our computing world were. I am of course referring to Bill Gates and Steve Jobs and how each of them has two totally different ideas of how computers and the people who used them should interact.

But, when it comes down to business were the men really that different?

Of course much of Bill Gates’ thoughts and behaviors regarding the business of computers and software is well documented but what about Steve Jobs? Read More

Jobs and Gates, not so black and white

I ran across this image over at 9GAG and while the image is interesting in itself some of the comments that followed it were even more entertaining to read, and predicable, just as I imagine any comments here will be.

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Xbox and Zune Combining Account Preferences. More Unity To Come?

Have specific preferences for both your Zune and Xbox account? Not anymore, according to an email from Xbox marketing team. Your accounts preferences for both Zune and Xbox are combined, and all marketing will be under the Xbox brand.

Some virtual clerical work before the great collide?

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How do you say good-bye to someone like Steve Jobs

Steve Jobs passes away on October 5, 2011

Everywhere you turn right now you are seeing thoughts streaming by at the news of Steve Jobs passing away. Memories, images. thoughts. They all flow by like tears on a stream of electrons.

That is the profound effect that Steve Jobs has had on our world, an effect that is as deep as the emotions that everyone is feeling regardless of whether you where an Apple user or not; and that is a testament to the person, to the vision that Jobs embodied.

Only rarely in our recorded history has any one man had such a profound impact on our world but Steve Jobs is one of those men, and for that we should be forever thankful.

Regardless of one’s feelings about the company that he brought back from the brink of disaster and its policies there is no denying that he forever changed our perceptions of what technology was and how it should be used. Read More

Microsoft to buy Yahoo? In your dreams maybe.

There is a rumor going around that Microsoft has once again decided to punch the dance card for Yahoo, and really it’s a pretty slim rumor at that. Read More

At least one person thinks Ballmer is doing a good job

Even though the Microsoft board may think that Steve Ballmer is underpaid for all the hard work he does the majority of pundits think that Microsoft is in real need of a new CEO; well, with the exception of Peter Yared at VentureBeat it would seem.

In a post today Yared quite rightly points out that anyone who gets dreamy-eyed at the thought that Bill Gates might return and save the company obviously doesn’t know much about Microsoft or its history. The fact is according to Yared the company has done very well under the stewardship of Ballmer. Read More

Cracking down on app store “spam” isn’t enough, Microsoft needs to clean up existing garbage as well

So, Windows Phone Marketplace has hit over 30,000 apps; or at least that is what Microsoft is bragging about; and as great as that might be the market has a really big problem – crap or “spam” apps.

Now Microsoft has come out today and said they are going to be cracking down on this by limiting the number of apps a developer can upload in a day. They had previously set the limit to 20 but that didn’t seem to stop these app spammers so now Microsoft is going to set the limit to 10.

That’s great, and maybe it will help going forward but what about all the crap that is already in there and polluting the marketplace. I was chilling out last night and exploring the marketplace on my Windows Phone and I’m sorry, but Jesus there is a lot of crap in there, and even though Microsoft might not want to take away from their bragging rights something should be done.

Take this for example from the Music + Video category Read More

I was wrong, and gladly so

In case you hadn’t notice today Microsoft has managed to pull off what many people, myself included, thought would be impossible - the global roll-out of the Mango update for Windows Phone.

With the exception of of Spain, and a few models of Windows Phone on some carriers, Mango started rolling out around the world starting at 10:00AM PST and so far I have not seen a single report of any problems. None. Nada.

This is a far cry from the fiasco that was the NoDo update release and something that I didn’t think would happen. In fact I have written a number of times, and talked about on the podcast, how I thought that as much as Microsoft might have good intentions when it came to getting the Mango update out smoothly I didn’t think that it would happen.

My reasons for this was that having a smooth roll-out for all Windows Phone users required the participation of the carriers and given their penchant for dragging their feet when it comes to updating anything I didn’t believe that the Mango roll-out would be any different. Read More