1/18/2009 - ZY2K (2 videos)

Ah, Microsoft... It seems like every one of your products has some kind of flaw that inspires ridicule or scorn. Red rings of death on the XBox, anyone? How about the system requirements of Vista? Microsoft's Zune may not be competitive with Apple's iPod, but it can be said that it is more feature complete than the iPod (if you discount the iPod Touch, of course). Its style might be lacking, but it wasn't considered to be a "broken" product that made it a non-viable choice of an MP3 player. Well, that was the perception of the Zune before December 31, 2008. That was the date when all 30gb Zunes suddenly stopped working. Why? Because 2008 was a leap year. That's right: the programmers for the Zune's software handled programming for a leap year incorrectly, and the result was dubbed ZY2K:

9/6/2007 - In Your Face, Microsoft! (2 videos)

I've made my points about Microsoft and Apple in the past, but what happened yesterday really has solidified my position. First came the announcement that the Microsoft Zune was discounted $50 to make it $199. Now, the only real reason to discount something is to sell more of them (as long as you have the supply and can still make a profit). Everybody knows that the Zune really hasn't done that well, especially when compared to its direct competitor, the Apple iPod. Well, wasn't it curious that Microsoft would make the price cut on the exact day that Apple was introducing its new line of iPods? Coincidence? I think not.

Boy, I tell ya... if I were Microsoft or any other media player manufacturer, I'd be sweating bullets at the prospect of competing with Apple this holiday season. With the new iPods Apple introduced yesterday, they have something for pretty much everybody...except me, but that's another story (or blog entry). Everybody pretty much knew that the iPod was going to go with touch controls like the iPhone, but seeing it in reality is a different story, especially with a price point affordable to most gadget fans. Now, I'm not one to rub in the failures and the faults of others, but with Microsoft, I'll make an exception:

This is what would happen if Microsoft designed the iPod package:

It's funny because it would be true.

And this is what Microsoft's smart phone would be like:

Yeah, I could see that.

8/14/2007 - Zune Ballmer

I'm taking another swipe at Microsoft's Steve Ballmer with today's video. Mostly because I've had it up to here with how buggy Microsoft Outlook is and the fact that I have to have it installed and configured on all our work computers. You'd think that a product used by millions of corporate users (and by Microsoft employees themselves, I would hope) would be smarter, easier to configure, and be somewhat stable. But NO! It's a great piece of bloatware that most people are forced to use just because it's a Microsoft product. Did you know that it takes less than 30 seconds to configure a Blackberry to work with an Exchange server while it takes ten times as long to configure Outlook? And that's if nothing goes wrong during the process!

Anyway, you know those Apple iPod ads with the silhouettes rocking to the ubiquitous MP3 player? Well, what would an ad like that look like with a Microsoft Zune instead of the iPod? Something like this:

5/23/2007 - CNN ridicules Microsoft Zune

I'm not a Microsoft hater... I use Microsoft products all the time. I use their operating system at work, our servers are running Windows, and I program using Visual Studio. As someone who provides computer support at work, though, I just get sick of using Windows, dealing with its shortcomings, and fixing problem PCs. That's why my home computer is a Mac.

I've used Macs since around 1990 and I've never really had a problem with them. In fact, I just like using them better. People may think they're like toys, but hey, I like playing with toys! I can get my work done on Macs and do recreational activities without giving much thought as to the internals of the machine or the delicate balance of managing applications within the operating system environment. See, when I use a PC, these are the things I have to worry about... because I see everyday what happens when you ignore these things!

A microcosm of the Mac/PC battle can clearly be seen with the iPod/Zune rivalry. The way Microsoft copied OS X with Vista is so blatant, it's almost laughable. Microsoft's patent-ignoring ways carried over when they created the Zune. But no matter how many features they copy from Apple, they will always lack that special elegance that Apple products have. The following video sums it up beautifully. What begins as a tepidly positive review of the Zune, turns into a "meh"-fest when all the limitations of the Zune are presented. The best part is when one of the news anchors whips out her iPod Shuffle, though. They can't stop gushing over it!