Microsoft in the Pink…Redux

Rumors are flying yet again about an upcoming Microsoft project codenamed Pink. MS has now hired an ad agency for the project (McCann Erikson) who just happens to be the same ones that do the Zune campaigns. Seemingly on the strength of that connection alone the old Zune Phone rumors have started up again (Pink + Zune ads = Zune Phone? Yeah right.), even though half of Microsoft and Steve Ballmer himself have sworn upside down and backwards that Microsoft is not getting into the handset business.

Of course, there are many indications that a handset of some kind is still in Microsoft’s future. Why else purchase Danger, the creators of the Sidekick phones, unless you will have them design you a phone of some kind? While they may be there just to give a new look and feel to WinMo, their strength was always in intuitive physical design. Also, Mary Jo Foley at ZDNet is still quite convinced this is going to happen…of course she was quite convinced that a secret project named Pink was going to be a Microsoft phone and was about to be announced six months ago as well. However, she is seldom that wrong about Microsoft.

At the moment all we really know for sure is that MS hired an ad agency for a project they call Pink. That’s it. Not much to go on, but the rumor mill is spinning fast. It seems like the tech press is desperate for a Zune Phone, if for no other reason then to mock it compared to the iPhone. Go figger.

Microsoft is refusing to comment of course, but “We are NOT making a phone” has become Microsoft’s version of Apple’s “Steve is perfectly healthy, move along please” mantra. However, Steve was so healthy he now has a new liver…so maybe there is a Zune Phone coming after all, despite the mantra.

(Mock up Credit: SlashGear)

           

Oracle, the new king?

Oracle stock price is going up since May when Oracle announced that it bought Sun Microsystems, one of the biggest distributors and makers of Linux and the creator of Open Office the biggest competitor against Microsoft Office.

[Read more]

           

Waiting for September

September is already looking like a hot time in the gadget biz, with several major releases tipped to be happening in or around the beginning of autumn. This makes a lot of sense since most products hoping to make a splash in holiday shopping will want to be on shelves by October, which means a September release is very important. September is also the hot time for back to school/college buying, which always is a big time for notebooks, netbooks and MP3 players.

So, what’s on the agenda for the fall of 2009?

• The new Zune, the Zune HD, has been reliably rumored all over the place to be set for release on September 8th. The device, featuring a OLED multi-touchscreen, HD Radio and a Tegra chip for superior video quality, has a good chance to be a major hit with students looking for an all-in-one media machine for those long nights in the dorm room. If the price is right, this could be the first really big seller in Microsoft’s Zune line and solidify their Number 2 position behind the iPod in the MP3 market.
• The Second generation iPod Touch was released last September, so the rumors that the third generation will be released THIS September sound reasonable. On top of the history, I think that Apple will need to respond in some way to the Zune HD as well as to Touch users complaining they didn’t get any of the 3GS goodness. What new features will we see? No clue yet, beyond general speed and performance improvements in line with the iPhone 3GS specs. However, I would not be surprised if Apple didn’t go after the one glaring gap in the Zune HD feature set and added full Bluetooth A2DP to the iPod Touch allowing VoIP as well as wireless syncing, maybe skipping the wired earbuds in favor of a wireless Apple Bluetooth set..or perhaps activate FM transmitting. Whatever way they go, I am sure the leaks will begin mid summer.
  (Note: Eric noted to me below, quite accurately, that OS 3.0 DID activate the broadcom BT chip in the iPod Touch, but it is only for stereo, no two way with Bluetooth headsets)
• The Apple “netbook” rumors are still swirling this time saying that Apple will be releasing a “large form” iPod Touch in the early fall, featuring a 7 to 9 inch touchscreen. We do know that Apple has been buying up touchscreens in that size range all over Asia, and the fall would be the right time to roll out such a product. Of course, this is still relatively wild speculation, but I could easily see Cupertino turning out a premium PMP/Internet device, heavily integrated with the iPhone and MacBook Air to steal some Zune HD thunder (Steve, you bully). They would be going for college students and the same high end market that Sony touches with the Vaio P “Not a Netbook”. Such a product would be just the sort of thing Steve Jobs would love to use as a solid “I’m BBBAACKKKKKK” kind of statement.
• Phone wise, I am pretty sure the much hyped BlackBerry Storm 2 will be appearing in September, along with a whole slew of new Android phones. I would also not be surprised to see the next Palm WebOS device appear in the fall, and a number of the talked-about Snapdragon based “Smartbooks” from Samsung and other vendors.

Whichever way these rumors go, I am already saving up my gadget money for September. I have a feeling this is going to be a VERY interesting autumn for tech buyers.

           

Windows 7 for just $49

Microsoft is offering the update to Windows 7 with a 50% off and free shipping! The whole list of 12 stores offerings this deal can be found here.

           

More Zune HD Leaks

Neowin is running a brief but tasty interview with a source they call TK, who is supposedly a software engineer at Microsoft and has a good track record with them on Zune info.

The put several key questions to him about the upcoming Zune HD, and here are some of the most interesting ones, with his responses…

RR: What are you most looking forward to with the ZHD & Zune 4.0?

TK: Improved battery life, multi-touch and movies.

RR: Ah, so movies are coming to the marketplace at long last?

TK: The Zune team is working hard to get all the licensing agreements in order.

RR: What are the sizes of The Zune HD?

TK: 16GB and 32GB, Microsoft is considering adding a 64GB Zune later on in the model year

RR: When is Microsoft planning to ship the Zune HD?

TK: Early September

RR: How much is Zune HD projected to cost?

TK: The prices are not set in stone yet, but the 16GB will be somewhere in the range of $249 -$280

A 64G on the horizon is great news, though having it available at release would be much better. A lot of people may hold off on buying it for the larger version, which will help the tech press label it a failure early on. They need to come out at release using all their advantages if they mean to take a piece out of the iPod Touch market.

The price looks nice up against the iPod Touch, especially with the additional features of the Zune HD…but expect a Touch price drop as soon as these numbers go official….IF they go official.

           

Giz: Zune HD coming in 16G/32G

 

A tipster whose name was not revealed just dropped some internal marketing documents over at Gizmodo that list the initial capacities for the Zune HD, 16G in black and 32G in silver. The documents also mention the US release date…September 8.

Two and a half months…think that is enough time to convince MS to release one in 64G, maybe in charcoal or gunmetal? Gosh I hope so.

Oh, the tipster also provided the beautiful picture shown above. That is one sexy device. Shame about Heroes being front and center. Couldn’t they have made it Torchwood…or at least Dollhouse?

           

Protected by Microsoft Security Essentials

Yes, I installed Microsoft Security Essentials Beta. It’s too early for an educated opinion. Testing an AV is not easy unless you have a private Zoo full of Virus and Spyware.

Still, I scanned my PC and it found two issues. One of them is a version of VNC that I use to remotely assist some clients. So even when there is some risk I would call this a false alarm in my particular case. The other one was a legit one.

Here are some screen shots of the program in full action.

[Read more]

           

New Zune Rocks a Tegra – HD confirmed to stand for Hot Damn!

Microsoft has confessed that the Zune HD WILL feature NVIDIA’s high-definition Tegra chipset. On the Zune Insider podcast, show hosts Matt Akers and Jessica Zahn along with special guest, Product manager Brian Ledford admitted that the leaks about Tegra powering the upcoming touchscreen Zune are completely TRUE.

In fact, he said that thanks to Tegra the Zune HD would be “like a mini laptop in your hand” with “much better battery life” and graphics acceleration, both advantages of Tegra by NVIDIA. The chipset supports up to1080p video output via an HDMI port, and a whole slew of power-saving features and hardware graphics acceleration tweaks.

There has been some verbiage on this site about if the HD stood for High Definition, HD Radio or something else. Now it is clear that thanks to Tegra, the HD means Hot Damn!…or maybe Hyper Delicious! What else can we expect from a Tegra chipset on the Zune? Well, according to Nvidia’s website, Tegra features support for the following (among other tasty bits)…

• ARM11 MPCore
• 32-bit LP-DDR
• NAND Flash support
• 720p+ H.264 Video
• D1 MPEG-4 Video
• JPEG Encode and Decode acceleration
• OpenGL ES 2.0

Listen to the Zune Insider Podcast HERE.

Can I order one now in 32G? Please…pretty please?

Don’t make me beg, dammit.

           

Microsoft announces free antivirus beta program

Microsoft will make available a Beta of it’s new Antivirus software next week.

A beta of MSE will be available in English and Brazilian Portuguese for public download on June 23, 2009 for the first 75,000 users. This is a target number, but Microsoft is willing to increase it if necessary.

MSFN - Microsoft announces free antivirus, limited public beta

           

Better with Windows?

Has Asus given up on being Linux’s vanguard in the consumer marketplace? Back when the Eee 701 was the new hotness it came with Linux , and it was widely considered a sure thing that such netbooks would popularize Linux in the real world. Companies like Asus were seen as Open Source saviors who would heavily promote Linux as a cheaper, less bloated alternative to Windows software for weaker machines.

Guess not.

A new campaign has been started, in which a somewhat amateurish looking website extols the fact that Eee PCs run better with Windows using mostly 701s in the demo video. Of course when this campaign first went public there was an outcry across the Linux blogosphere calling it a hoax…but Asus quickly owned up to it being legit.  However, the site itself appears to be the work of an employee of Arbitron, a PR firm with a history with Microsoft (hence why it looks like something circa 1997), so it is likely Asus didn’t do much connected to the site save for give their permission. No Asus branding or logo appears anywhere except in the video.

Still, if Asus is continuing to defect from the Open Source camp on a large scale and will continue to draw back from putting Linux on netbooks in the factory, could they also be stroking Redmond in advance of the Windows 7 netbook release. I am sure some heavy vendor agitation got MS to lift the “3 Windows Only” spiking of their entry level Win7 release.

Check out the demo video at the site…so what do you think…better with Windows? I am a big MS fanboy by and large, but my Asus Eee 701? Better with Ubuntu NBR, actually.

           

Zune HD FINALLY Official

After what seems like 14 years worth of leaks, rumors, tweets and snotty comments from iPod users, Microsoft has finally officially announced the Zune HD, the newest addition to the Zune media player lineup. The HD refers to HD Radio reception, one of the key new features of the device, cleverly avoiding having to call the thing a ZuneTouch or something similar since after all, the new feature we are ALL looking forward to and are going to be talking about from now till Christmas is THE OLED MULTITOUCH SCREEN..ZUNNNEEEEEE TOUCH SCREEN TOUCH SCREEN OLED YYYYYAAHHHHHHHHH OMFGBBQ.

There…I said it, and I feel better for it.

Going on….

Here are the key new features as listed in the Microsoft press release.

• Zune HD comes with a built-in HD Radio receiver so users can listen to higher-quality sound than traditional radio on the go. Users also will have access to the additional song and artist data broadcast by HD Radio stations as well as additional channels from their favorite stations multicasting in HD. If you don’t like the song playing on your station’s HD channel, switch to its HD2 or HD3 channels for additional programming.
• The bright OLED touch screen interface allows users to flip through music, movies and other content with ease, and the 16:9 widescreen format display (480×272 resolution) offers a premium viewing experience on the go.
• The HD-compatible output lets Zune HD customers playback supported HD video files from the device through a premium high-definition multimedia interface (HDMI) audiovisual docking station (sold separately) direct to an HD TV in 720p.
• Zune HD will include a full-screen Internet browser optimized for multitouch functionality.
• Zune HD is Wi-Fi enabled, allowing for instant streaming to the device from the more than 5 million-track Zune music store.

That big multitouch screen utilizing OLED technology and WiFi capability means that a big part of the possible success or failure of the Zune HD will lie in the web browsing. If the browser screams and the screen performs well, this could be a definite hit. I also really like the somewhat angular styling and the physical controls unobtrusively placed on the sides of the device.

No word yet on an official release date (MS is saying a US release will take place this fall, nothing more specific then that, so hope for September and not November) or on capacities, though I can expect we will see the classic 8G/16G and maybe 32G mix…however a 64G model would be REALLY great. I would also really like to see some specs on battery life and supported formats.

We shouldn’t have too long to wait however for some answers and the hands on reports, since Microsoft says it will be showing off the Zune HD and it’s interaction with XBOX Live at E3 next week.

           

Supercharge Your Outlook with Agendus for Outlook v5.41

I’ve had a Windows Mobile device since 2000.  But recently my work gave me a Blackberry 8350i to replace my aging Nextel phone.  I had the opportunity to reduce my load from two devices to one.  I had to make a lot of changes in order to accomplish my goals of continuing to carry my important business information and integrating the Blackberry into my business routine.  One big switch I made was moving from Act! Contact Manager to Outlook.  I suppose I could’ve kept Act! if I used the excellent CompanionLink software to sync my device, but I want a more direct solution.

Outlook excels at email, but is not a great contact manager.  Act! is a great contact manager but does not excel at email.  Hmmmm.  If I downloaded the Business Contact Manager for Outlook add-on, I’d have to use CompanionLink, so I felt stuck.  That is, until I demo’d Agendus for Outlook.

[Read more]

           

Facebook for your Windows Mobile 6 Phone

Yes, this one is official. This is the legit real thing finally. There have been some leaks and one that was extracted from a ROM already, but this is strait from Microsoft. It was officially made available today.

• This Facebook application is the only version on the market today offering the ability to upload video right from the phone.
• People will also be able to access status updates, friend requests and photo tags, as well as read and create wall posts, share photos, send messages and update profile pictures.
• Facebook users will also be able to share many of their Facebook activities, including photos and status updates, across the full range of Windows Live services.
• Facebook will be available for new Windows Mobile 6.5 phones coming out later this year.

You can now grab the free download from the Windows Mobile Website or directly from your mobile Web browser.

           

Looking for a job? Work on Windows EIGHT!

Good grief man … I just [finally] upgraded my system to Vista, am thinking about going to Windows 7 when they release it and now you’re talking about Windows 8? So it would seem, according to this article published in  Redmond Magazine.

Obviously Version 8 would be several years away but sometimes this gets crazy.  For some reason I thought I read somewhere else that Windows 7 was going to be the last major release for awhile.  Guess not!

One thing’s for sure; there’s not going to be any lack of work for this Olde Country Windows programmer for a long time!  Click on the Logo below to read more about it.

-CB

           

Tellme App coming to WM 6.5

Despite the fact that Voice Command is already available for Windows Mobile phones, Gizmodo, and other technology sites are reporting that a Tellme App is coming to Windows Mobile 6.5 in the fall. The new App should be available for free via the Windows Marketplace for Mobile, or embedded on handsets.

Tellme a mobile voice company became a subsidiary two years ago, and currently have products available for the Blackberry platform,  Samsung Instinct as well as for Ford’s Sync System. It includes using voice command for text messaging, making calls, web searches etc.

None of these features are new to long time Voice Command users, and even using voice command for web searches has been available in Live Search. What Tellme does seem to do, is create a unified interface for all of this functionality, and best of all it’s free!

Sources also state that the product will be more integrated at the carrier level, and use GPS and Cell tower triangulation to localize searches such as traffic searches and movies.

Head over to Tellme’s site if you want to be notified when this product becomes available for Windows Mobile, (Blackberry users remember there’s already a client available for you) and also check out a brief video over at Windows Mobile Experts on some of the functionality of Microsoft’s Tellme.

What other things do you think Microsoft could improve about Voice Command, and in turn Tellme?