MSN.com has highlighted an excellent article Farhad Majoo has written over at Slate.com about Apple's recent troubles. He goes into the dubious claims about the iPhone 3G, the infamous experiences with MobileMe, and recent negative quality experiences with Macs themselves.

On the iPhone 3G:

"In its ubiquitous TV ads, Apple claims that its new iPhone is twice as fast as the original version and just half the price. Neither is true. The half-price fib has been obvious for some time: When you add the price of AT&T's required two-year contract, the new phone costs slightly more than the old phone. In a lawsuit filed last week, an iPhone owner named Jessica Alena Smith argues that Apple hasn't been honest about the phone's speed, either. Smith, echoing thousands of complaints logged on Apple's Web site, says that her iPhone rarely connects to AT&T's fast 3G network, instead staying fixed to the pokey EDGE service that was the bane of the first iPhone. Smith's iPhone doesn't just fail on tasks like downloading e-mail and surfing the Web, she says. It also drops many of her voice calls."

On MobileMe and Macs:

"MobileMe failed spectacularly in its opening weeks, with some users reporting losing years of saved e-mail. In a widely circulated post, Techcrunch's Michael Arrington claimed last week that Apple's PCs aren't doing so well either. Arrington, a longtime Apple fan, says he's had four new Macs break in different ways—one refused to connect to Wi-Fi networks, one suffered a keyboard flaw, and two shut down mysteriously."

There's a lot more cooked up in his article, including what Steve Jobs has got to do and what he isn't doing.

>> Read the complete article...

- Albert

Since early in the day, my.live.com has been a little slow and buggy. The "Windows Live Personalized Experience" has been my second home since it launched, and today I was surprised at how slower than normal it was acting. Eventually, after several F5s, I got the following:

The apology has since been removed and now the site fully tries to load but with IE's classic "Done, but with some errors on page."

I am yet to find any UI or feature updates, so this is either really a "maintenance" period or it's still being worked on as we type. Or the site just crashed and they're yet to get a hold of the beast that also attacked the FAA servers.

- Albert

Via Reuters:

"(Reuters) - Jerry Seinfield will be one of the key celebrity pitchmen in Microsoft Corp's  $300 million advertising campaign aimed at changing its image, the Wall Street Journal said on Thursday, citing people close to the situation.

Seinfield, known for his eponymous television sit-com, will appear in ads with Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates and will receive about $10 million for the work, the report said.

The attempted image overhaul comes in the wake of Apple's "Mac vs. PC" ads, which feature a nerdy PC guy getting upstaged by a hip Mac counterpart.

The new ads, likely to debut on September 4, is expected to use some variation of the slogan "Windows, Not Walls", the paper said.

For its new campaign, Microsoft also considered a range of other famous personalities, including comedians Will Ferrell and Chris Rock, the paper said, citing people familiar with the matter.

Microsoft was not immediately available for comment."

This is so very exciting! Considering how Will Ferrell and Seinfield both used to be Mac fans, it will definitely be an interesting case with these commercials.

I can't imagine much with what they mean with "Windows, Not Walls", but we'll see how they tie it in with the rumored "FTP" (Free The People) theme that the marketing guys had chosen. It seems like this is just breaking, so we'll see how it develops in the next couple of hours.

- @lbert

Threat Level: Medium/High
Description: It has been reported that many people are receiving fake email from MSNBC and CNN with enticing links to "news articles," but in fact contain links to spyware/virus infected websites. We stronly urge people to avoid clicking or opening any emails that you are not expecting from a known source.

More from MSNBC: http://redtape.msnbc.com/2008/08/msnbc-cnn-hit-b.html

Associated Video Content: Watch

Finally, the first official trailer has just been released. Enjoy.

- @lbert

The site is now up and running.

^ Cool loading intro...

^ Tricky, yet cool video layout page. This is the main page with links to all-things Windows Vista. Tricky meaning it's very sensitive and responsive to your cursor. It is a lot of video content, so I guess this is pretty good to showcase it; instead of having thousands of pages with sub-pages and so on.

"What do people think of Windows Vista when they don't know it's Windows Vista? We disguised Windows Vista as "Mojave," the "next Microsoft OS," so regular people who've never used Windows Vista could see what it can do--and decide for themselves. Now decide for yourself."

I personally think the videos are pretty cool, but there are far too many; I don't imagine someone watching them all like I did. I'll have the best stitched together very soon. Stay tuned. For now, I'm tired of waiting for the site and need some sleep.

- @lbert

Just caught this over at Engadget.

If whatever is launched tomorrow on this site is worthwhile or seems worth +/- $500 million, then we might be seeing the beginnings of Microsoft's long-awaited marketing blitz to fix Windows Vista's tarnished image (Thanks to "no name," we now know it is in fact not part of the huge marketing blitz Microsoft has in store for us). It would be very nice (and quite possible too) to see some Windows Vista ads during the 2008 Olympics, considering the strong bond NBC and Microsoft have further formed recently. But for now, all we have is this, and whatever it is, I hope it makes a splash.

However, if it is the big hoopla, the chances for Microsoft to pick a particular brand of computer and make it so clear, for such a big marketing campaign, is quite unlikely. This is of course unless HP decided to drop in a couple of bucks or be part of this big movement. I don't know about you, but I'm quite excited to see what kind of "results" Microsoft has in store for us.

- @lbert

- @lbert

- Albert

There seems to be a nice update to the look and feel of the search.live.com (or search.msn.com?) site. Could this be the future live.com (since the "personalized experience" of live.com will move to my.live.com in mid-April)? Well anyway, here it is:

• Observations
  • Lots of blue
  • Some green
  • Huge search bar (what's up with Microsoft and oversized search bars?!)
  • Mini link menu at the top
  • What's up with the green spyglass search button inside the search bar?

- Albert 

Citing "strong and innovative financial and technical" qualities as key for her
Hillary-Bill-Bill combo

Today, New York senator and presidential hopeful Hillary Rodham Clinton has announced that Bill Gates will serve as her running mate for the 2008 presidential election.

"Very few people have achieved what Bill has. And I'm not talking about my Bill Clinton this time, I'm talking about Bill Gates. His tremendous achievement in the technological and computing industry sets him apart from everyone else I was considering, all while having such philanthropic activities that will push America into the next level of solving the future's challenges, including global warming, global health, and global poverty, or as I and Bill Gates like to call it, "America 2.0" [crowd laughs]. That is why I would like to take this opportunity to announce the Clinton-Gates ticket!" - Hillary Clinton

Hillary further stated that her only new challenge will be to devise a method for communicating efficiently with her two Bill's (Bill Clinton and Bill Gates). Bill Gates then chuckled and recommended a Windows Live Messenger-based communication method. Furthermore, the pair has already introduced legislation to make unconstitutional the use of Apple Mac's and iPod's in public areas, citing First Amendment rights by surrounding Zune users. Bill Gates later added:

"I am very excited about using my intellectual and financial resources to help make the Clinton-Gates ticket a success." - Bill Gates

- Albert

Happy April Fools! Yes, this post is all a joke, sadly. ;)

I just got back from a very strenuous and fun weekend, but I thought this post deserved some of the little time and ounces of energy I have left for today.

So it seems like those features that were long promised to be able to "refine" image search results based on color, face, etc., have finally been implemented in the Live Search UI (some of these little "refinements" were available via adding an instruction word before your search query). Here are some screenshots for your enjoyment.

We can see that the new "Refine by" section has been added above the "Related People" Live Search tool.

Here is a close-up of the "Refine by" section.

This shows results with the "Face" refinement. Clearly, it did a very well job.

- Albert

Check it Out!

- Albert

"SAN FRANCISCO - Yahoo Inc.'s board has concluded Microsoft Corp.'s $44.6 billion takeover bid undervalues the slumping Internet pioneer and plans to reject the unsolicited offer, a person familiar with the situation said Saturday.

The decision, first reported by The Wall Street Journal on its Web site, could trigger a showdown involving two of the world's most prominent technology companies.

If it wants Yahoo badly enough, Microsoft could try to override Yahoo's board by taking its offer — originally valued at $31 per share — directly to the shareholders. If Microsoft pursued that risky route, it will likely have to nominate its slate of directors to supplant Yahoo's current 10-member board.

Alternatively, Microsoft could sweeten its bid.

Many analysts believe Microsoft is prepared to offer as much as $35 per share for Yahoo, which still boasts one of the Internet's largest audiences and most powerful advertising vehicles despite a prolonged slump that has hammered its stock.

Yahoo's board reached the decision after exploring a wide variety of alternatives during the past week, according to the person who spoke to The Associated Press. The person didn't want to be identified because the reasons for Yahoo's rebuff won't be officially spelled out until Monday morning.

Microsoft and Yahoo declined to comment Saturday." - MSNBC.com

Playlist 

- Albert

- Albert

I just read this on the Microsoft CES website,

"Join Bill Gates, Microsoft Chairman, and Robbie Bach, President of the Entertainment & Devices Division, along with their surprise guests for the opening keynote of CES 2008. Since Bill Gates first keynoted CES almost 15 years ago, consumer technology has changed dramatically. Listen as Bill Gates and Robbie Bach discuss the impact of the digital decade and the future of connected experiences enabled by Microsoft’s consumer technology."

As if the fact that it's Bill Gates' last keynote at CES , this could not be anymore exciting! For that and other reasons, I hope to be able to bring the latest video the fastest I possibly can. In the mean time, you can watch Bill Gates' keynote Live using the following feed:

Launch Windows Media Player

- Albert