- HP does deal with Microsoft to embed toolbar on desktop.
- nVidia takes on the Intel Atom chip with its own processors. The line is called Tegra.
- Windows 7 GUI to be designed by Office 2007 interface? That cannot be good.
- Time-Warner experimenting with metering the Internet.
- Venezuela appealing OOXML.
- ASUS now doing a Shuttle-killer. A computer the size of a pound cake.
- Gphone delayed until 2009?
- Computex underway. One hot topic is Wi-Fi replacing Bluetooth.
- Lots of stories about Windows 7.
Right click here and select ‘Save Link As…’ to download the mp3 file.
Forcing hardware manufacturers to test their drivers on Windows 7 is great. Microsoft forced them to make 64-bit Vista drivers to get their Vista ready certification and it worked out well. 64-bit Vista was almost as compatible as 32-bit Vista right from the start. Hopefully starting this early for Windows 7 drivers will result in a smoother transition than the XP -> Vista upgrade. Some of the major hardware makers like Nvidia and Creative took months to produce good Vista drivers.
I like Office 2007/the new interface, it made it easier to find everything. I think once people realize that the office orb at the upper left is a menu they adjust to it quickly. Predicting that Windows 7 will flop because Microsoft is trying new interface ideas seems a little out there. It’s not going to be available until 2010 (minimum), nobody knows what it’s going to be like.
“I always get cut out of these deals because I do it way too soon.” JCD addressing how his right-on predictions of the future are soooo prescient and pithy—but so far ahead of pop consciousness—that when the truth of them finally cascades into existence, everybody has forgotten how truly visionary he really was.
Hmm. It’s time to review the consistency and accuracy of his major nay-says. Let’s pick a topic that he has addressed several times; Apple.
“Apple should pull the plug on iPhone (March 2007 months before launch)” and “Apple should dump OS X and just go to Windows (Feb 06)” and “(iMac) milking this one pricey and faddish device is going to ruin the company (2004)” and “Nobody in their right mind will use a MOUSE!!! (1984)”
Well, that’s perhaps symptomatic of a blind eye to the Apple thing, so maybe this one will actually become accurate.
Some doctoral dissertation may actually compile an exhaustive list of JCD predictions—weighting them for high and low importance—then mate them with the eventual outcomes. I think (wet finger in the breeze) it will show he’s 55.3% accurate. Slightly better than a coin toss.
I mean that mouse thing was such a whopper that it rather skews the exercise into the twilight zone right off the bat.
What’s your favorite JCD prediction?
>>I like Office 2007/the new interface, it
>>made it easier to find everything.
Argh!! You’ve got to be kidding me. I think it makes just about everything almost impossible to find, and once you do find things, it’s so counterintuitive where they are that it’s difficult to find them again.
If businesses start using Office 2007, I predict productivity will grind to a screeching halt for months.
I’ve been using word processing software heavily since the demise of the electric typerwriter, and never had much of a problem getting it to do what I needed (and I’ve used just about every program that’s come down the pike). Office 2007 is a problem. Everyone (except you, apparently) seems to feel the same, hence the proliferation of addons that make 2007 look and act like 2003.
Even Microsoft seems to recognize that the new “ribbon” interface is just about unintelligible to experienced users, they have a facility on their web site:
http://tinyurl.com/y85r6y
where you can perform an action in the “old-fashioned” way, and it will show you how to do it using 2007.
Somehow they managed to leave the most of the 2003 keyboard shortcuts intact, but watch for that to change in the next iteration.
Once they impose this unintelligible interface on Windows 7, that will be the greatest impetus yet for people to flock to Linux or OSX.
I hope that advertising thing works out for them, because they seem to be doing everything in their power to shoot themselves in the foot when it comes to software.
It would be nice if Asus traded on Nasdaq. I tried to toss a little money into their stock when they were rolling out that EEE PC, but gave up when I couldn’t decide if the money would even go into the right company. A very low cost little sub-notebook could be fun, especially if it had a DVD player tucked inside and could act like a good GPS unit. Windows 7 isn’t trying to get inside these things, which have an aura of inevitable ubiquity about them.
As long as market competition is alive “metered” Internet will not gain ground. As of “inevitability” of it by the Great John’s words – many other countries already have much better and “unmetered” service which works without clogged tubes and profitably at prices far below ones typical in the USA… So, it can be done. Hence, by the market forces: it will be done here as well.
@Somebody_Else:”64-bit Vista was almost as compatible as 32-bit Vista right from the start.” … in your own words… (In my words: 64 bit Vista was slightly bigger catastrophe than the 32 bit Vista right from the start).
>>64-bit Vista was almost as compatible as
>>32-bit Vista right from the start.
So what you’re saying is that 64-bit sucked ass even more than 32-bit.
Jeez. I REALLY hope that advertising thing works out for Microsoft. The way they’re going, future generations will look back on MSFT like we look back on the Edsel.
John please keep pushing the other columns.
“Why Disney should buy TiVo”
http://www.marketwatch.com/News/Story/
John+Dvorak%27s+Second+Opinion?dist=skey
I wonder if they’re going to have the computers in Lemon cake flavour too.
Actually there is a link to blog search on the Google News site. I suspect they’ll eventually tie the two together with a clear indicator of the source.
Mister_Mustard
I know not everyone likes the Office interface, but I’ve found that finding stuff on the ribbon is much easier than having to dig through menus. I can actually remember where stuff is because I just have to remember which tab it’s on. Like I said, once people realize that the office orb is the file menu people quickly adjust to it.
As for calling Vista being a “disaster” I’ve already commented my opinion on other stories. I think the criticism of Vista is overblown. Just like the transition from 2000 to XP it took awhile for driver performance to catch up. Vista is now equal in performance to XP, it provides a massive security upgrade, and 64-bit Vista is the first really good 64-bit OS for consumers.