March 22, 2006

Windows Vista Delayed

Yesterday Microsoft announced that Windows Vista has been, you guessed it, delayed.

Vista will be available to volume-license business customers in November (even my own workplace, a Microsoft-centric shop with 1000 employees in the US, obtains Windows as OEM licenses with new computers). Consumer availability will occur in January 2007.

Right now, all the press is focusing on the impact to hardware vendors in the “all important” Christmas shopping season, as consumers hold off on new hardware purchases until they can get Vista with it.

But as I skimmed the Channel 9 boards and saw the comment, “Who releases product in January?!?”, I thought of something…

Apple does. MacWorld - usually in the first week of January - is an Apple showcase event. Based on earlier comments from Steve Jobs, we’re very likely to see the next version of MacOS X released in early 2007. By releasing Vista in early 2007, Microsoft can use their marketing juggernaut to try to defuse Apple’s now-regular domination of the tech press.

Now, I’m not saying that Microsoft would change their release schedule of Vista just to try to steal/minimize Apple’s thunder. But tell me - just try to tell me - that the people involved in marketing Vista aren’t relishing the chance…

Posted by jim at 10:32 AM

October 04, 2005

Newsgator buys Ranchero (NetNewsWire)

Wow. I’d thought that the state of the Mac online press had deteriorated since the founding editor of MacMinute departed, but I hadn’t realized how much.

This morning, Scoble posted a rumor (via Om Malik) that NewsGator was buying Brent Simmons’ company Ranchero Software in order to buy NetNewWire. By lunchtime the rumor was confirmed - and while there are now official announcements and an interview on the NewsGator site (nothing on Ranchero or Inessential), there hasn’t been a peep from any of the major “frequent update” Mac news sites (*)

Why is this a big deal?

“NetNewsWire is the premier desktop RSS reader for Mac OS X. According to some statistics, it’s the most popular desktop RSS reader on any platform, even though it’s Mac-only. It’s also one of the earliest desktop RSS readers - the first public version was released July 2002.”

Not to mention, Brent has been a very active - and proactive - developer for Mac OS X, championing new technologies, best practices, community, and good, clean UI design.

If you’re a Mac user, and you’re regularly reading sites via RSS, you’re probably using NNW. Maybe it’s not your primary reader (a lot of folks like NewsFire), but it’s certainly in your toolbox. One could argue that NetNewsWire has been something of a seminal work in news aggregators - on any platform.

Congrats to Brent. And for the Mac news sites out there - why did I have to hear about this from Microsoft’s lead blogger/evangelist, hrm?

Edit: While I was writing this, John Gruber of Daring Fireball - who is quoted in the NewsGator press release - posted about this in his Linked List section.

(*) Why didn’t I link/list to all those news sites? If they aren’t serving the news, why should I up their googlejuice? MacMinute, MacFixIt, MacRumors, AppleInsider, MacInTouch, MacSlash… miss any?

Posted by jim at 02:53 PM | Comments (0)

July 18, 2005

.NET on Rails

Laughter. Of course, I make a smack about MS jumping on the Google/37signals AJAX bandwagon, and my humor is slower than the Internet. Back on June 28th, Microsoft announced that they’ll be adding AJAX support to ASP.NET.

Of course, it won’t ship with the Visual Studio 2005 product, and developers won’t even see a preview version until September, but the announcement should be enough to prevent the larger, slower moving shops from jumping to, say, Ruby on Rails.

I gotta step up the funny.

Posted by jim at 10:27 AM

What's in a name?

Scoble wants people to “…call Longhorn all the bad names you can. Let’s get it out of our systems.”

Oh, yeah, and link back to his post so he can follow the link-tracking on Technorati, Bloglines, and the supah-seekrit blog-tracking thing he’s privvy too. Always nice to kill two birds with one stone.

Longtime was the name used in Wired’s fictitious article about Linus Torvalds being hired by Microsoft, and it’s still the name I use when speaking of it. And that includes when I’m speaking to my “featured in a MS Windows Server 2003 advertisement” CIO.

We could call it Copland. Or Rhapsody. Because I think that’s the more apt comparison. Microsoft is obviously struggling both to get Longhorn out the door (witness the long delays and last year’s Longhorn Reset) and to make it relevant (witness the Gnomedex ballyhoo about RSS in Longhorn and IE7) Even with the betas looming, there seems to be confusion about what Longhorn is going to be.

God help us when we find out what changes the server product will force upon us.

What’s hurting Longhorn is the same thing that has hurt every spoken-of-in-advance Microsoft strategic technology in the last decade - Microsoft. Too many back-door promises have already been made (“Just wait until Longhorn!”), too many products were delayed for Longhorn technologies (there wasn’t going to be an IE7, remember?), and too many projects (MS and non) are trying to get some Longhorn Importance rubbed off onto them.

It’s still a year away. Long enough for them to demonstrate support for security updates via podcasting, and announce “.Net on Rails”…

Posted by jim at 09:05 AM

July 17, 2005

And thinwire doesn't even NEED a crossover! That's COOL!

Scobleizer notes:

Networking at 30,000 feet: Eric Mack shows how he builds a network in an airplane using Tablet PCs and a crossover cable. That’s cool! Tablet PCs are the only way to fly.

Gosh. A crossover cable. Golly. That’s cool. Ahem.

No. You want cool? How about iChat AV - voice and video - at 35,000 feet? And not with someone else in the plane, but with a co-worker back in the office? Scoble’s a good guy, but sometimes I think he reaches a bit to try to make using Microsoft products look “cool”…

Edit: Windows side - how about Skype at 30,000 feet? See how hard I had to look to find the cool?

Posted by jim at 11:06 AM

June 06, 2005

Weighing in NOW

I want to say these things now, so I'm on the record before the pundits weigh in.

I think Leander over at Cult of Mac nailed it: one of the big reasons Apple (Steve) is switching to Intel is to get hardware that will let him do the next ITMS - iTunes Movie Store.

I think Leander was also correct in saying that Transitive's binary translation technology is one of the huge roadblock removers for this to happen.

But what about the Osborne Effect? Who is going to want to buy a Mac G4/G5 now knowing that the entire platform will shift starting in 2006 and ending in 2007? More importantly, what about Apple's profits during that time?

Everyone will point to Apple's well-known 4 billion in reserves. But there's one other item that I want to mention: iPod.

The iPod division accounts for over 1/3 of Apple's profits right now. Right now - while iPod is still generating that kind of cash, is the best time for Apple to take it on the chin in their Macintosh division. iPod cash flow will help carry Apple during the coming lean times of Macintosh hardware sales.

So, why is Apple doing this?

What are the roadblock removers?

Posted by jim at 11:10 AM

January 29, 2004

Mac Punditry

Updates to PowerMac G5: We'll see these soon - it's no secret they're coming. But Apple will wait until at least next week, if not later, rather than overlap with the big Pepsi/Apple iTunes promotion that'll be officially announced in SuperBowl ads.

Old Politics: Steve Jobs was one of Apple's original founders. Steve hired John Sculley as Apple CEO - he recruited Sculley from Pepsi, with the now-famous line, "Do you want to sell sugar water all your life?" Sculley later ousted Jobs in a corporate coup. Jobs went on to found Pixar and NeXT. NeXt was bought by Apple in the late 90s, and Jobs returned. So am I the only one to find a Pepsi/Apple joint contest ironic, especially with Jobs at the helm of Apple?

Changing Names: Apple had been using the URL AppleMusic.com to pimp their iTunes Music Store. But they ran afoul of old agreements with the Beatles' Apple label, which allowed Apple Computer to keep the Apple name under certain music-related provisions. Qithout fanfare, the AppleMusic.com URL seems to have vanished from advertising, replaced with iTunes.com.

Posted by jim at 11:28 AM | Comments (0)