WYNK: What You Need to Know: Computers and Internet

So something might be rotten at Apple...

Tue, 26 Aug 2008 23:03:22 GMT

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

My.live.com: down, slow, buggy: under maintenance?

Tue, 26 Aug 2008 22:45:12 GMT

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

Windows 7: Possible Footage?

Thu, 26 Jun 2008 05:36:06 GMT

In the video Microsoft made for Bill Gates, they had some scenes where some people were interacting with a very unique UI, which could lead to being pieces of Windows 7 and beyond. I pieced the involving scenes together in the following clip. You be the judge.

- @lbert

New MSN.com Marketing?

Sun, 17 Feb 2008 20:09:07 GMT

I was on that StupidVideos website after being linked there by a video on the MSN Video site, which turned out to be an extremely hilarious baby video, when I found myself waiting on an ad to finish for the video to play and I thought I had heard "should have gone to MSN today...." and I was like...what?! After a laborious time looking through Internet Explorer's cache and figuring out what to do with the ruthless SWF file, I was able to end up with a WMV of the file. Now, it's on YouTube and for all to enjoy. But anyway, since when did Microsoft announce an MSN marketing campaign? We know we're expected to face a Windows Vista/Windows Live marketing blitz, but we never heard of an MSN advertising campaign under the works? The ad itself looks much like it could be a TV ad, but for now, just watch and enjoy, until we know more about this, we'll keep looking out for more of these on-line marketing videos.

- Albert

Windows Vista + Windows Live

Thu, 08 Nov 2007 02:40:23 GMT

So WindowsLive.com has launched, and with it comes these two marketing videos. They did really well with addressing popular features in the Wave 2 launch of Windows Live, but they should definitely consider making shorter commercials based on the same kind of concept, since it would really let people know of what Microsoft does offer. So here are the two videos, enjoy.

Share

Connect

New MSN.com organization?

Thu, 20 Sep 2007 22:54:04 GMT

MSN.com continues to update its design and it's almost becoming a monthly event. MSN.com, "the world's most popular Internet destination," seems to be working on a new design with major visual changes in the main header navigation area. Currently, the "new" design seems to be only appearing at:

http://www.msn.com/defaultb.aspx

MSN.com has already used the "/defaultb.aspx" before when it was working on the previous major UI change, and seems to have used it again as a placeholder for some upcoming changes. Here are some screenshots of the current design compared to the "defaultb.aspx" design.

Current MSN.com

"New" MSN.com

Current MSN.com Header Navigation

"New" MSN.com Header Navigation (made the red boxes to show some of the new changes)

After being impressed with almost all of the MSN.com re-designs over the past year or so, I'm very disappointed to say that this is the first time a new-design-in-the-works has not impressed me. The new "tabs" of Hotmail, Messenger, and Spaces don't appear to be very eye-catchy. The previous design with the icons was instead much more appealing and separated to show the dominance they represent. Also, the new yellow "Popular Searches" creates confusion with MSN's previous exclusive use of different font colors to attract attention to "breaking news"-type cases. The only things that I find to be for the better are the addition of "Election Guide" to create awareness of the page, the name change of "News" to "MSNBC News" to create an even greater brand recognition and connection between MSN and MSNBC, and the addition of "Specials," which seems to be a page of all of the current MSN.com-hosted "special" pages like Halo 3, Dog Central, and the LeBron page. Besides that, I hope MSN refines this work and provides to us a final and perfect MSN.com we are so used to.

- Albert

New on MSN.com: MSN Extra

Fri, 07 Sep 2007 00:15:14 GMT

What is MSN Extra?

"MSN Extra is an experimental showcase that allows users who welcome a novel experience to interact with a wide range of content from all parts of MSN and its partners. It also emphasizes a new Microsoft product called Silverlight, which is a plug-in that enriches the media experience through graphics, interactives and video." - About MSN Extra

So, just like the description says, MSN Extra uses Microsoft Silverlight:

This part of MSN Extra uses Microsoft Silverlight as a way to allow you to navigate the content that materializes below once you click. Each photo signifies a category. Click on a photo or use the slider to navigate into each of the pages. The gradation of color, left to right, is a visual cue of the seriousness of the news: To the left usually you'll find harder news, going from the hottest content on MSN, by popular clicks, to celebrities or leisure news on the right. Also, downloading Silverlight is a requisite to the MSN Extra experience, and we've worked hard to ensure it's one of the easiest plug-ins you'll ever acquire. Learn more about Silverlight by clicking here.

This seems to be a very good idea to distribute Microsoft Silverlight, as MSN.com is one of the world's most visited websites. Finally, Microsoft is beginning to take advantage of its huge MSN power to bring attention to its other solutions. More news as it comes along.

-Albert

Mom? Then get "Real Live" with Windows Live

Sat, 25 Aug 2007 08:42:25 GMT

I was just about to shut down for the night when I noticed a new ad link on the MSN.com header. I thought that it would be something about avoiding "baby talk" with babies and I've always had this little annoyance with exaggerated amounts of that...so I clicked on it, not being a mother, or even a parent myself.

So, instead I seem to find Windows Live's latest marketing push for Windows Live Messenger, Windows Live Spaces, Windows Live Search, and MSN Lifestyle.

It seems like a pretty smart move. After Cafe Messenger, which seems to be aimed at younger folks, Windows Live seems to be marketing at specific demographics with specific projects, which is good. By offering certain groups of people solutions they would find useful, it works as a good way to expose them to Windows Live services that they might not even be aware of. It also shows at least some sort of integration between Windows Live services coming together to help with specially designed resources, and even better Real Live Moms seems to bring together MSN as a content provider and Windows Live as a service provider.

Take a look around the site; they did a great job at advertising some of Windows Live's services in a simple and effective way that shows off the best and even simpler features under an amazing glow. In other words, it might excite moms to get involved and take advantage of all of the services and features that not many are aware of. Here's a good example at what I mean:

Well, you're going to have to explore more on your own now, I need to hit the sack. See you guys tomorrow.

- Albert

MSN.com "Live Earth" Video Streaming Makes History With 10 Million Viewers

Sat, 07 Jul 2007 22:08:47 GMT

Here's an article from the Live Earth New site:

"History Made with Live Earth Online Video
REDMOND (WASH), July 7 -- With plenty of music yet to be broadcast in the July 7th Live Earth series, MSN reported today that it already has served more than 9 million live online streams to users viewing the worldwide music event aimed at promoting awareness of climate change. The concert series opened in Sydney and then moved across the globe to Tokyo, Hamburg, Germany and London, to name just a few cities. The U.S. leg of the concert kicks off at 2:30 p.m. EDT in Giants Stadium just outside of New York City.
'History is being made today,' said Joanne Bradford, corporate vice president and chief media officer of MSN. 'Millions of people around the world have joined together to fight the climate crisis. The more than 9 million streams MSN has delivered so far today represent a milestone in live Internet broadcasting. We expect to see an even greater number of streams after the concerts are over as people return to watch their favorite performances or enjoy them for the first time if they missed the concerts live.'
MSN teamed up with former Vice President Al Gore and concert producer Kevin Wall to promote and broadcast the Live Earth series of concerts. After the conclusion of the live broadcast, MSN will make the concerts, exclusive video, photo galleries and artist interviews free to users of MSN.com."

Nice to know that all of the hard work MSN is putting into this project is paying off with an amazing traffic to the network.

UPDATE: Microsoft.com has now also published a press release. But in their article, they talk about 10 million streams.

- Albert

Internet Explorer 7 for MSN

Tue, 12 Jun 2007 07:52:17 GMT

Before leaving to my friend's house for our "Kyle XY" Season 2 Premier Party, I opened my IE for the last time. What do I find? Well, that same header that appears when you first visit the site and asks whether or not you should make it the homepage, said something else this time. This time, it was offering an "optimized" IE7 for MSN. I haven't had time to download it or look into it, but I think it's much like Yahoo's IE7. I'm really tired right now, so I would have looked for more details or downloaded it to provide screenshots. According to the site, these are the "features":

Quick access to your MSN Content and Features

Customized MSN links, feeds and favorites

MSN.com as your home page

Windows Live Toolbar

Live Search set as your default search provider

To me, it doesn't sound like much. I do see it as being beneficial though, especially when I am asked to fix a friend's computer, instead of downloading and setting up all of those settings, I can now just download this and away we go.

Website: Internet Explorer for MSN
Release Notes: Link

- Albert

Windows Live Spaces: Minor Updates?

Sun, 03 Jun 2007 02:44:27 GMT

I've been noticing minor updates appear and disappear here and there on Windows Live Spaces. Two things I've noticed so far have to do with the Friends feature.

It seems like they are adding the Windows Live Messenger buddy next to each Friend's picture to show the status of their Windows Live Messenger.
The Friend count is being fixed. Now (or before), when you're in Edit mode, the count includes all of the friends, even the ones that haven't accepted the invitation. This seems rather annoying because in your "Exit Edit Mode," you would have the actual number of friends. But now, in your Edit mode, the number is being changed to only include the number of friends that have accepted your invitation.

Here's a screenshot that displays both "updates."

- Albert

All Things Digital: Bill Gates and Steve Jobs

Thu, 31 May 2007 23:34:23 GMT

AllThingsD.com has finally made videos of yesterday's historic event. This video is more than what my words can do for your enjoyment so I'll just stop here. Enjoy the video.

- Albert

Windows Live Hotmail not so "Hot" for MSN Premium Members

Tue, 15 May 2007 05:08:00 GMT

So now that Windows Live Hotmail has officially launched, we would have expected for all of the "bugs" and "kinks" to have been worked out...we now know it was a faulty assumption. Like myself, I assume there are many MSN Premium members out there that already have suffered for not being able to join and test the Windows Live Hotmail beta, and still remain paying members (I get my membership through Verizon Online DSL). We waited and waited for a date when they would announce that MSN Premium members would be able to join the beta and be part of the rest of the crowd (most of MSN Hotmail's members), but the wait is now over: the beta has ended and the product has launched! Yay!...yay? What?! That's what I said when I got an invitation [in my MSN Premium inbox!] to upgrade to "The Next Generation of Hotmail." The following screenshots can tell the story.

1. I get invited...by email.

2. I login to MSN Hotmail, and there too get invited.

3. After two different types of invitations, I get encouraged and give it a try. But...I get this.

I live in the US, so the second bullet is not it. I control the parental controls and am not under 13, so it's definitely the first bullet. I know that in the end, we might get the benefits because they will have to raise the bar even higher since we pay for our service and all of the free accounts now have 2GB and access to Outlook Express. But shouldn't this have been resolved already? Or are they planning to incorporate some amazing services that are still way before being considered public betas (like Live Folders, a really cool service to give additional perks as an MSN Premium member). The point is, I just don't know what is going on, and having to wait makes it worse. I just hope the Microsofties have something amazing planned...or I'm going to have to actually reconsider paying extra, especially when having a free account has the possibilities of easier integration in the future.

- Albert

Windows Live Hotmail is Coming!

Fri, 04 May 2007 00:52:36 GMT

PC World is reporting that Microsoft's Windows Live Hotmail will launch next monday, allowing its 250 million Hotmail subscribers access to the final release.

"Microsoft Corporation on Monday will finally bring its completely revamped version of its popular online e-mail service out of beta and into full release.
According to sources familiar with the company's plans, Microsoft has been quietly rolling out version 1 of Windows Live Hotmail in smaller international markets such as Belgium and the Netherlands to test the new system. Monday's rollout give U.S. users and the other estimated 250 million Hotmail subscribers around the world access to the application, sources said." more...

Links:

PC World: Windows Live Hotmail to Debut Monday
Live.com: Windows Live Hotmail
LiveSide: Windows Live Hotmail
Spaces: Windows Live Hotmail Blog

- Albert

Office 2007 on MSN.com

Fri, 20 Apr 2007 05:31:02 GMT

MSN.com seems to be listening to their visitors a lot more; now, a whole site (Inside MSN) is dedicated to providing feedback on the MSN.com homepage. Well, it seems like due to recent feedback on the advertising shown on the MSN.com, they have decided to take a very interesting approach with a one-day marketing blitz for Office 2007. When visiting MSN.com today (April 19, 2007), you might find yourself with an eye-catching animation and template that has taken over the MSN homepage. Although quite awkward at first, you find yourself playing with the interesting "Office Ribbon" integration into the site just seconds after finding what you have just landed on. With the "Ribbon," you are able to change the fonts and modify pictures. "Too much," some people might say, but when you think about it, this must be some of the best marketing campaign work Microsoft has done in a while. When MSN receives a monthly audience of 465 Million unique visitors, what better way to show-off the cool new features that Office 2007 offers, but to implement them on a site where people can experiment and become more interested, and more importantly, aware of the product? Here's what Inside MSN has to say about the one-day event:

"During one 24-hour period, MSN embarks on its initial foray into an interactive ad experience that enables users to preview and manipulate the fonts and pictures on the MSN.com homepage just like products in the new Microsoft Office suite, such as Word and PowerPoint."
"The goal is to make it more than just interesting or tolerable, but engaging."
"'We want to showcase some of the exciting new features of Microsoft Office so that our MSN users have the best insight into how this new product can work for them,' explains Nichole Peterson, MSN's director of strategic relationships. This bold approach lets 'consumers demo Office 2007 and test-drive it.' People intrigued by its potential can then go to the Office 2007 site and either download a trial version or buy it."
"This effort is tied to an April advertising campaign that provides Microsoft a twofold opportunity: promoting a major software upgrade; and allowing MSN's advertising team a new level of creativity, complexity and interactivity with an in-the-family advertiser."
"At the brainstorming stage, the digital advertising group that focuses on branded entertainment and experiences landed on this idea: What if MSN was inside Microsoft Office Word for the day?"
"Leveraging the Flash capabilities, users can preview and adjust font styles and photo styles by interacting with the Word toolbar as it changes the MSN homepage. Users who arrive from a co-branded site such as Verizon may not see it."
"For the ad's 24-hour run, the editors required that the unique advertising experience not interfere with users' ability to get news and information, and so updates to the homepage continue, uninterrupted."
"'People getting to their daily news and information and using search is a top priority for us,' Peterson says, 'so we purposely didn't interfere with the ability to do that. At any time they can go and do what they normally do.'"
"Not everyone will think of it as a 'one-day celebration of Office on the MSN homepage' as one interactive specialist has called it. The presentation received usability and focus testing before it was deployed, but the nature of consumers, whether TV or Web, is that few admire advertisements."

Hope you're able to experience it before it is taken-off the face of the internet.

- Albert

MSN.com Beta/New Template?

Sun, 18 Mar 2007 03:29:33 GMT

Because I've recently been experiencing some weird technical problems with my IE7 browser, I've been forced to use Firefox. (Update: The issue is now resolved). So, one of the times that I opened Firefox and my homepage loaded (MSN.com), I noticed something really cool. MSN.com changed, again! This time, the improvements were more on the layout aspect and minor technical changes to the way you personalized it. It seems like they began to notice that many of their visitors probably had widescreen monitors and decided that they could accommodate the website to take advantage of that extra space, and so they did. The reason it seems to be a BETA site is because the address has this at the end: /defaultb.aspx. The "b" probably standing for Beta. (Update: Now that defaultc.aspx has launched, I doubt that "b" stood for beta). What I found weird was that it randomly automatically loaded in Firefox when I would visit MSN.com, but not in my IE browsers. Nevertheless, I can still visit the site by typing it in. Here's a screenshot of it in IE7.

UPDATE: There seems to be yet another page: http://www.msn.com/defaultc.aspx; it seems to just have one minor, yet visible update: the page options button has been highlighted yellow, assuming it is for drawing attention to the new customization option that was not obvious in /defaultb.aspx.

Site: www.msn.com/defaultb.aspx

- Albert

Daylight Savings Time Change

Thu, 08 Mar 2007 00:02:03 GMT

"Beginning in 2007, daylight saving time (DST) will be extended in the United States. DST will start on March 11, 2007, which is three weeks earlier than usual, and it will end on November 4, 2007, which is one week later than usual. This results in a new DST period that is four weeks longer than in previous years. Unless certain updates are applied to your computer, the time zone settings for your computer's system clock may be incorrect during this four-week period. In particular, you must make sure that both your Windows operating system and your calendar programs are updated." - Microsoft Help and Support

Q: Do I have to update my computer so the time changes are applied?

A: Home Users: If you use Windows Vista or have Automatic Updates turned on, you may already have the updates installed on your computer and should be ready for DST. If you want to confirm, visit Microsoft's Daylight Saving Time Update Guide.

A: IT Professionals and IT Managers: You should definitely visit Microsoft's Daylight Saving Time Update Guide to lead you to KB articles and downloads for the products you specify in the guide.

- Albert

WWW War: Google vs. Microsoft vs. Yahoo

Mon, 05 Mar 2007 02:40:51 GMT

Donna Bogatin from the Digital Markets blog over at ZDNet has published a really interesting article on a recent warning Google has made to its shareholders. Apparently, Google is confessing about how difficult it is to compete versus its two biggest competitors: Microsoft and Yahoo. After reading this, you most definitely will have a completely different view on the website that currently ranks #1 in online searches. Here are a few sentences from her post with my input:

"Google considers Microsoft and Yahoo to be its primary competitors, acknowledging in particular that their Internet portals may have a greater ability to attract and retain users than Google does.

Apparently, Google seems to be very afraid of the potential that both Microsoft and Yahoo each have and how vulnerable Google is in terms of user usage patterns.

"On the Microsoft versus Google front, Google underscores the risks it faces because Microsoft has more employees and cash resources than it does. Microsoft development of features making Web search a more integrated part of its Windows operating system and other desktop software products are also of concern..."

Here we can see that clearly Google acknowledges the potential Microsoft has yet to make use of and the integration that Microsoft can offer to its customers via Windows with search, communication, and service technologies, Office with online services, etc.

"...On the Yahoo versus Google front, its longer operating history and more established relationships with customers and end users is recognized by Google as a Yahoo competitive advantage."

This is absolutely true and similarly applies to Microsoft with MSN with its 365 million claimed unique users per month in the sense that if either Microsoft or Yahoo continued to integrate more of the competitive service into the already-popular services users are using (i.e. Microsoft's Hotmail, Messenger, Spaces or Yahoo's Mail, Messaging, and Search) Google could see a considerable effect on their only popular service: search.

"Of particular note, Google warns that acquisitions could result in operating difficulties, dilution and other harmful consequences, saying 'We do not have a great deal of experience acquiring companies.'"

It seems like what Google might be talking about here is YouTube and how difficult is has become to manage the company, now that many media companies have begun to take advantage of the situation and file lawsuits against the availability of copyrighted content on YouTube. Comments?

- Albert