Dave Caolo

Gizmodo:

“Microsoft execs informed the internal team that had been working on the tablet device that the project would no longer be supported. Courier had never been publicly announced or acknowledged as a Microsoft product.”

Too bad, it was a nice-looking concept. One can only assume that Apple’s low-cost tablet (the Courier’s dual displays would have put it in another price category) and the threat of a webOS-based Slate from HP hastened its demise.

From last week:

“Microsoft’s naming conventions continue to baffle me. ‘Zune’ was good. ‘Windows Phone 7 Series’ is too long. People will feel compelled shorten it.”

Now, users are beginning to refer to it with the cryptic nickname “WP7.” What is that, Word Processing 7? It’s from Microsoft, is it some new version of Word?

Nice job branding, guys.

Microsoft’s naming conventions continue to baffle me. “Zune” was good. “Windows Phone 7 Series” is too long. People will feel compelled shorten it.

“Nice Zune.”
“Nice iPhone.”
“Nice Windows Phone 7 Series.”

To all the Microsoft fanboys who’ve dismissed the iPhone because it doesn’t support Flash and lacks a physical keyboard: Suck it. The Windows Phone 7 Series* doesn’t support Flash and lacks a physical keyboard.

Update: And no copy/paste.

*See? Way too long.

You’ll remember the television special that Family Guy’s Seth MacFarlane made with Microsoft to promote Windows 7, which Microsoft killed before it aired. Here are several clips from the show that could have been. Three more follow.

[Via Your Tech Weblog]

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“It isn’t the best music player, but it’s the cheapest!”

That’s the sentiment in Microsoft’s new Zune ad (as you might have noticed, that’s Wes Moss from season 2 of The Apprentice in the role of “Certified Financial Planner.” Who trusts a financial planner these days?), which claims that it costs $30,000 to fill a 120GB iPod classic* with music from the iTunes store. Let’s examine that claim.

The assumption is that all of the music on an iPod will come from iTunes. Most of my music came from CDs that I purchased years ago, which transferred for free. That’s sunk cost, yes, but those tracks consume storage space just as greedily as new iTunes tracks do. Also, they’re assuming that you buy all of your music one track at a time. An album is cheaper than the same 10 songs individually.

As an alternative, the ad promotes the Zune Marketplace. For $15/mo., you may download and keep as many songs as you want, as long as you maintain your subscription. Additionally, you may keep 10 songs a month for good. So, you’re purchasing 10 songs at $1 each, and paying $4.99 to rent unlimited songs. It sounds like a good deal but I don’t ever want to rent music.

The ad also assumes that there are no videos, TV shows, movies (rented or purchased) photos, free podcasts, audiobooks or data stored on the iPod. Those who buy the 120GB model are certainly using it in disk mode.

In the end, price is the deciding factor here so let’s talk price. I’ve recently canceled my Netflix, Sirius Radio and a few other subscriptions in an attempt to save money. If I don’t want to spend money in iTunes during a given month, I don’t. My music library is unaffected. If I cancel my ZunePass subscription, the vast majority of my collection goes with it. Finally, my friends have set goals for themselves other than “Fill my iPod to the brim with music from the iTunes Store.”

*Microsoft calls the 120GB iPod classic “…the lastest iPod.” Actually, that model was released on September 9, 2008. The latest iPod is the iPod shuffle, which was introduced on March 11, 2009. At 4GB, it would cost $1,000 to fill the shuffle with new iTunes tracks at “…a buck a song.”

Originally intended to be off of shelves by January 30, 2009, Windows XP will be available until May 30, 2009. Microsoft needs to wipe the whole place clean and just start again.

[Via Lifehacker]

Would you want to stare at that all day? First look at Ars.

The Bill Gates/Jerry Seinfeld Microsoft ads will stop running as of today. I guess I was wrong.

Instead, Microsoft is running new ads featuring an actor who looks and dresses just like John Hodgman’s PC character, saying, “Hello, I’m a PC, and I’ve been made into a stereotype.”

Celebrity cameos continue (without Seinfeld), including Bill Gates, Eva Longoria and Deepak Chopra. More importantly, the ads feature real-world Windows users who are the antithesis of the Hodgman character. One user states “I’m a PC” (via a white board) while scuba diving inside a shark cage.

It aims to turn a perceived negative — “being” a PC — into a positive. That’s the specialty of Crispin Porter & Bogusky, the agency behind the ads. And that’s a switch that Microsoft must flip in consumers’ minds.

Apple has defined Microsoft for many with the “Get A Mac” ads, and now they’re trying to take their brand back by parading real customers in front of the camera. Windows users are not out-of-touch nerds who love their Excel spreadsheets as they do their own mother, they’re shark-diving scientists.

As for the “old” ads, Microsoft claims they intended to drop Jerry from the beginning, so we assume that Phase I, the Seinfeld ads, were meant to get people talking in preparation for Phase II. Still, they barely ran for two weeks and cost $10 million (Seinfeld’s take). That’s one hell of a conversation starter.

While better than the Seinfeld ads, the new ones have a schoolyard feel to me. I think of the kid who, after being called a nerd by his peers, can only reply with “AM NOT!”

The second Microsoft ad featuring Jerry Seinfeld and Bill Gates has appeared, and Cameron Hunt makes this observation:

“Excluding their visually rich iPod ads, Apple’s commercials focus strongly on product; their Get A Mac campaign humorously illustrates the differences between Windows PCs and Macs, while the iPhone is advertised by simply showing the device’s innovative interface … The ‘Jerry and Bill’ advertisements, so far, only mention product in vague terms, usually resulting in a very stale routine of Seinfeld asking Gates about a “goldfish with a website” or edible computers.”

The interesting thing is that, for years, the opposite was true. Microsoft’s ads touted features while Apple’s were abstract. The “Window” iMac ad is a perfect example:

Today, Apple has abandoned the abstract for concrete information, and Microsoft has eliminated any mention of their products.

So what are those ads about? Well, they aren’t about Windows, and that’s the point. Vista is troublesome. XP is old. “PC,” as played by John Hodgman, is a self-conscious, out-of-touch dweeb in a drab, beige suit. Everyone (and I mean everyone) knows what Windows is. Everyone uses Microsoft products. They needn’t be told about either yet again.

The new ads are about associations. Jerry is funny, and by pairing him with Bill Gates (who, dare I say, actually seems kind of cool in these ads), Microsoft hopes that some of his snarky humor will become associated with their products in the consumers’ minds.

I like them a lot. They’re quirky, they make Bill Gates (arguably the quintessential geek), seem cool and they make me laugh. Apple fanboys will dismiss them as nonsensical, but they’re wrong. These ads are great.

No, they aren’t about Windows, Office, etc. That’s the point.

More

Michael Mistretta offers a counterpoint, while Daniel Jalkut and and Adam Lisagor agree.

Daniel Jalkut:

“…these ads are not meant to influence the immediate buying patterns of viewers, but instead to alter the long-term impression of the company that develops and markets the world’s leading desktop computer operating system.”

Exactly right.

How to make Vista less annoying