I'm not generally a fan of analysts, or more specifically analyst firms. When vendors pay for research, one must suspect each and every finding. Are most legit? Sure. Is too much research seriously sketchy? Fo sho.
One outfit I really like is Directions on Microsoft. Powered by ex-Microsoft execs, Directions (no one calls it DoM...but perhaps they should) doesn't do Gartner-style prediction research. DoM is all about analysis -- bringing clarity to the complex ever-changing world of Microsoft.
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Posted by Doug Barney on 09/28/20111 comments
Pretty much all of us (unless we're on an iPad) run Flash to some extent. And that means we are all vulnerable.
Adobe, whether it is because its software is so ubiquitous or poorly engineered, has more patches than a Three Stooges car tire. And like Microsoft, it releases patches on a fixed schedule. And like Microsoft, it tries to be transparent about its issues.
Case in point: Last week a patch came out to block a zero-day Flash cross-scripting vulnerability -- one that left users of Flash Player 10 and earlier open to hackers taking over you machine to crash it or use for misdeeds.
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Posted by Doug Barney on 09/26/20111 comments
The busiest job at HP is updating the CEO bio page. Carly Fiorini ran HP 'til 1995. She was fired during a massive reorg and equally massive layoff of staff.
Mark Hurd took over and survived the scandal of the company spying on journalists and its own board. In this case, the buck didn't stop at the top, but underlings took the fall. Hurd got the boot for expense report improprieties (he didn't make enough to pay for his own, non-company expense?). Then Lee Apotheker stepped in.
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Posted by Doug Barney on 09/26/20114 comments
Readers share their thoughts on Microsoft's smartphone line:
Having used a (company supplied) Blackberry for many years, I needed to find something to use when I retired. I chose Win Phone 7 for many reasons (Samsung Omnia 7 on Orange UK). I am very pleased with it, and have now used it in Middle East, Asia and various European countries -- without a single problem. Links well into my e-mail account on Offcie365. Looking forward to Mango.
Only issues I have found so far are: lack of Skype (coming), the need to 'dock it' with Zune to download podcasts and its inability to 'download contacts' over Bluetooth to my car's built-in car kit, which was no problem with my Blackberry.
Biggest problem I have seen (in the U.K., at least) is its lack of availability / visibility. I went into my local Car Phone Warehouse (U.K.-wide mobile phone shop) and the guy was very positive about Win Phone 7, but said I had to go to bigger stores to get them. In Manchester, I wandered into various stores (Orange, Vodafone, etc.) and in each store there were umpteen Androids, iPhones and Blackberries, plus numerous cheapies, and then perhaps one Win Phone 7.
Not sure how Microsoft (or more likely, the phone dealers) expect to sell any phones if they do not actively sell them (and only someone who actively asks for one can buy it). Even on their mail-order Web sites, usually there is an extra menu for iPhones, and Blackberries, but for Windows Phone 7 you need to crawl through the umpteen entries under 'smartphones' to try and find Windows Phone 7 devices.
A number of the guys who used to work for me swapped their iPhones for Win Phone 7 and ,without exception, they are all pleased with their decision.
I was in IFA in Berlin two weeks ago, and thought I could find Microsoft to look at Mango in more detail. After asking around, finally found them in the 'Windows Phone truck' in the garden -- about as easy to find as the phones in the stores.
-Roger
My girlfriend has an HTC with Win7 and I am impressed with the GUI -- easy to set up mail and the sounds, speed and general user experience were great. Microsoft needs to get this on more phones. Having to use Zune to update is a chore and it does take a while to update however it has yet to crash at all.
Not having to use iTunes for audio is more than enough reason to move from Apple to Microsoft.
-Moses
The problem with a lot of watchers is they assume what happens in the first three months reflects personal opinion of everyone. I, for example, was waiting and waiting for Windows Phone 7, and when I couldn't wait any longer, I got an Android phone. It didn't really fit my need that well, so I switched to an iPhone. Better, but still not great. Then three months later, the Windows 7 Phone finally released, but I can't even consider it without a heavy penalty for more than a year yet.
So yes, I do think a large percentage will consider it, and 44 percent doesn't sound too out of line. Of that, expect about 20 percent conversion so yes, it should be viable if not 'likeable.' What really drives this, though? Business purchases. Otherwise RIM would have died a long time ago. If Mango really is good (especially for business), don't be surprised if it hits closer to 90 percent conversion as businesses drop RIM like a bad habit for the Microsoft platform. That is a BIG IF though.
-Anonymous
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Posted by Doug Barney on 09/26/20111 comments
Windows Phone 7 may get a much-needed kick in the pants this week with the possible release of Mango, the code name for Windows Phone 7.5.
(Before I write about this more, I have to ask why on earth Windows Phone 7.5 needs a code name. Isn't the name Windows Phone 7.5 clear enough?)
The update, rumored to start shipping out by OEMs this week, switches between apps faster, multitasks and offers "multiple live tiles."
Posted by Doug Barney on 09/26/20111 comments
Microsoft has been relatively forthcoming about Windows 8. It even gave thousands of developers Samsung tablets loaded with the latest test release of the OS.
One area where details are scant concerns the ARM version. This is the hardware platform that promises to drive smaller form factors for Windows 8 devices, with power-miserly battery lives. Microsoft simply will not say to what extent these machines based on non-Intel-compatible chips will run older software. If the past is any indication, I'd say not very well.
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Posted by Doug Barney on 09/23/20112 comments
If you look at market share numbers, Windows Phone 7 is a bigger dud than Christine O'Donnell's new book "Troublemaker" (if you read it, share your thoughts with the crew at [email protected]).
The sub-10 percent market share numbers for Windows Phone 7 devices are the now. The future may (or may not) be brighter. A group called Connected Intelligence has research claiming that some 44 percent of current cell phoners are considering Windows Phone 7. Interestingly, one percent more -- or 45 percent -- don't even know that Windows Phone 7 exists.
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Posted by Doug Barney on 09/23/20117 comments
A co-worker of mine, Dana Vedder (I haven't asked if she's related to Eddie), tipped me off to an analysis of Bing financials from CNNMoney.
Perhaps overlooked in a recent financial analysts meeting is the fact that Microsoft loses a cool (actually an uncool) billion dollars a quarter on Bing. The money is going into making the search engine not just good enough to counter Google, but hopefully better enough to beat it.
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Posted by Doug Barney on 09/23/20114 comments
A hole in the Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) protocol could let a hacker commandeer your computer through rogue Web sites.
The flaw, found by two researchers, will be demonstrated this Friday at a security conference in South America. The researchers have proof-of-concept code called Browser Exploit Against SSL/TTS --known by the much cooler name BEAST -- that exploits the flaw.
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Posted by Doug Barney on 09/21/20110 comments
Remember Richard Clarke, the head of cyber security under President George W. Bush who resigned due to feelings that the administration didn't take terrorism seriously?
Now Clarke is beating the drum, claiming the federal government isn't taking the threat of cyber attack seriously.
This isn't just conjecture. Clarke points to recent break-ins to prove his point, arguing that these criminals and sometime foreign government backed hackers are getting smarter and have better and better tools at their disposal.
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Posted by Doug Barney on 09/21/20110 comments
Recently I told you about a Dutch digital cert player that allowed itself to be hacked, resulting in a flood of bogus, useless certs.
Well, Microsoft remedied the problem with a DLL update -- at least it thought it had. Turns out the fix didn't block all the bogus certs, so a fix for the fix has now shipped.
The problem really just impacts older software such as XP and Windows Server 2003. Anything later than that should be fine, but I'd check just in case.
Posted by Doug Barney on 09/21/20111 comments
Microsoft has said it is "all in" the cloud, and that means being all in with Azure. At last week's Build show, Microsoft talked in a lot of generalities, but also laid out a fair share of specifics.
On the general side, company server and tools president Satya Nadella talked about the need for "a rich portfolio of storage across blobs, tables and full relational capabilities to handle the complexity of data [with] Windows Azure."
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Posted by Doug Barney on 09/19/20110 comments