Frank Arrigo. At last.
November 7, 2014
Frankly Speaking Podcast 100
07November
July 17, 2014
Microsoft. Saves You Time
17July
I’d love that as a new tagline. I’ve really enjoyed reading some of the analysis of Satya’s memo. In addition to the ones I mentioned in my earlier post, I’ve found these to be particularly interesting: this, this and this. There seems to be three main areas people are focussing on: It’s wordy and bloated There’s going to be job cuts Oh, and we’re not...
May 2, 2014
Microsoft Patches IE Security bug on XP too. Gets Criticised
02May
Microsoft fixed the recently advised IE security bug today (the bug affects IE versions 6 through 11 and is pretty bad). They decided to release the fix to XP as well, even though XP is officially no longer supported. Seems like a ‘good guy’ Microsoft approach to me. But not according to Emil at The Next Web. Emil instead notes: This is a poor move on Microsoft’s part. Just because...
March 19, 2014
Should Office for iPad be free?
19March
It will be interesting to see what Microsoft’s pricing strategy is when they release Office on the iPad soon. Already talk of the release has positively affected their share price, so it’s all down to their release strategy – will they charge for it, will they require an Office 365 subscription, or will it perhaps, be free? I’m dreading Microsoft forcing users into having...
March 18, 2014
OneNote for Mac
18March
I’m gonna take back something I said in a recent post about Microsoft’s OneNote strategy. In that post I said I reckon hardly anyone would use OneNote for Mac. But I’m rethinking that today, after trying the new OneNote for Mac release. Here’s why: Not the Free part (although that is good), but the availability. With Microsoft putting in the effort to make OneNote...
March 17, 2014
Metro
17March
Mozilla’s announcement last week that they are mothballing their Metro-specific version of Firefox for Windows 8 is pretty much a non-event in my mind. Although people will try to read into it all kinds of things (just take a look at the comments), surely it’s just an example of good resource allocation based on data. The data said this particular implementation wasn’t being...
March 13, 2014
Microsoft Office and non-Windows platforms
13March
Good to hear that Microsoft is supposably releasing an updated version of Office for Mac later this year. When I switched to Mac a little over a year ago, I thought I’d spend most of my time running Windows (eg on Parallels), but I actually found myself surprisingly content with the Mac OS. Pretty much everything I do now runs in the browser, with the exception of a few programs: Word and...
March 1, 2014
Windows 8.1 Free Edition experiments
01March
A free version of Windows 8.1? Perhaps. Gotta say that I think the idea of Microsoft experimenting with vastly different pricing models is a good idea. Experiment away. Some good thoughts here. The issue of course will be setting the balance between forcing apps and Bing bars and other shite on users, as opposed to just letting them get used to (and hopefully liking) the stigma-ridden version...
August 22, 2013
Microsoft, Community Engagement and Being an Underdog
22August
Here’s a good example of what Microsoft should be doing more of – constructively engaging with the ‘haters’ on a prominent The Verge post about the recent Bing for Schools initiative. Watch and learn from Matt Wallaert as he skilfully changes the whole tone of the comment stream from what could have turned into the usual MS hate-fest. Read the story, and then read the...
April 6, 2013
Social Intent
06April
Back in 1971 Herbert A Simon noted the rising abundance of information and, in turn, the scarcity of attention: …in an information-rich world, the wealth of information means a dearth of something else: a scarcity of whatever it is that information consumes. What information consumes is rather obvious: it consumes the attention of its recipients. Hence a wealth of information creates a...