Posts Tagged ‘microsoft’

Own A Piece Of Facebook! TILE Two-Liners 1.3.11 >> 1.7.11

Tuesday, January 4th, 2011

MONDAY

  • The National Weather Service and the stock market go together like frigid weather forecasts and rising oil prices. That’s cold. (Reuters)
  • Big news: “It’s hard to anticipate the direction of financial markets.” (thanks for the heads-up, Wall Street Journal)

TUESDAY

  • Middle-aged white guys at Goldman Sachs value Facebook at $50 billion, scramble to get a piece of it before the company’s stock becomes publicly available. (Wall Street Journal)
  • 6,000 new jobs at dollar stores are still new jobs, aren’t they? (CNN)

WEDNESDAY

  • Microsoft-Google deathmatch: Who gets to provide email services to the U.S. Department of Fish and Wildlife? (Wall Street Journal)

THURSDAY

  • Reason 1,174 to be glad you’re a person and not a state: States lost an average of 30% of their revenue in 2009. (The Washington Post)

FRIDAY

Microsoft Fights For Space On The Smartphone Stage

Monday, October 11th, 2010

Microsoft basically threw its old smartphone operating system out and tried again. Worth it? We’ll see…

  • Microsoft has just unveiled seven new smartphones it will be launching in partnership with several cell phone companies (AT&T, T-Mobile, Deutsche Telekom AG) over the next few months. So far, the new technology isn’t compatible with Verizon or Sprint Nextel networks.
  • The handsets are produced by different manufacturers, but they all run on the new Windows Phone 7 mobile operating system. The system has been totally redesigned in an attempt to compete with the more popular iPhone and Android.
  • Windows Phone 7′s interface is inspired in part by the company’s Zune mp3 player, and will feature an optional paid service (U-Verse) that allows users to watch cable shows on the device.

Facts & Figures

  • The seven new devices go on sale beginning November 8th
  • Three of the AT&T-branded phones are priced at about $200 with a 2-year contract
  • In the 2nd quarter of 2010, Microsoft’s piece of the smartphone OS market pie dropped to 5.5%

Best Quote

“The phones are always delightful, and wonderfully mine. This is a different kind of phone.” – Steve Balmer, Microsoft Chief Executive

Following Gates, Co-Founder Of Microsoft Plans To Donate $13.5 Billion

Thursday, July 15th, 2010

Billionaire co-founder of Microsoft plans to leave the majority of his fortune to philanthropy.

  • Paul Allen is worth an estimated $13.5 billion and has announced that he’s donating most of it to continue the work of the Paul G. Allen Family Foundation.
  • This public announcement was in response to Bill Gates’ and Warren Buffet’s campaign to encourage billionaires to donate half of their wealth to charity.
  • Allen’s Foundation was started 20 years ago, and it has distributed 3,000 grants totaling about $400 million.
  • For the most part, the Foundation has remained local (Pacific Northwest) and personal.

Facts and Figures

  • Paul Allen is 57 years old.
  • Forbes ranked Allen as the 37th richest person.
  • Allen has donated approximately $1 billion in his life to date.

Best Quote

“As our philanthropy continues in the years ahead, we will look for new opportunities to make a difference in the lives of future generations.” – Paul Allen, Co-Founder of Microsoft

Computers Are Too Complex, Make Them More Like iPhones!

Wednesday, March 3rd, 2010

Sometimes it seems as though computers are more trouble than they’re worth, but they may become much simpler in the not-too-distant future.

  • Although personal computers have become easier to use since their inception way back when, most people still encounter problems while using their computers and their current operating systems (like Snow Leopard for Mac or Windows Vista).
  • iPhones are the picture of simplicity, and could serve as a model for how computer companies construct operating systems in the future.
  • While it may seem a simple solution to the complexity problem, integrating an operating system similar to the iPhone’s would be difficult for a multitude of reasons, and especially troublesome for the implementation of the multitouch interface (that thing that allows you to move stuff on your iPhone with your finger).

Facts & Figures

  • Back in the day, if you wanted to open up a Microsoft Word document, you would’ve had to type in a cryptic command, like this:

DIR*.EXE
MSWORD.EXE A:\REPORT.DOC

  • Microsoft tries to make all their new versions of their primary operating system (Windows) familiar to customers of earlier versions, which accounts for the continuing complexity of the system.
  • Apple uses the iPhone’s operating system in its new iPad computer.
  • It would be easier for Apple to design a completely new operating system instead of implementing the multitouch interface onto a desktop computer.

Best Quote

“With the iPad and the horde of tablets that will follow it, we can expect computing to become much easier than what we’re accustomed to today.” – Brian Chen, Wired magazine