Posts Tagged ‘microsoft’
So, Microsoft’s 30Gb Zune players can’t handle leap years. That’s the reason why many of them froze yesterday morning just as the 366-day year of 2008 was coming to a close. Most users simply let the battery drain before turning their Zunes back on again and, hey presto, everything’s back to normal. But could this short term oversight point to a more long term issue? Why was the leap year neglected in the product developers’ minds?
Well, the 30Gb model that features the leap year glitch was launched back in February of 2006, meaning it was in development probably as early as 2005 if not before - a whole three years before the next leap year would come around. Now in…
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A few months ago we reviewed Google’s Chrome browser on this blog and found it a pretty high-standard product, roughly on a par with both IE and Mozilla. But we all knew that it would be nigh on impossible for any new browser to seriously rival IE on features alone, as it’s at the pre-install stage that Microsoft’s dominance is rooted. With today’s announcement from Google it seems the picture could soon look a lot different…
Having released 14 major updates in just over 100 days since Chrome’s launch, Google now feel they have an adequately stable and developed product to end the Beta testing stage. Though even now Chrome is by no means perfect, Google clearly feel it is ready to…
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A couple of days ago the now slightly infamous Yahoo CEO, Jerry Yang, announced he would be stepping down from his position once a suitable replacement has been found. Yang has only been in the job for just over 18 months and undoubtedly his tenure of the post will be remembered for only one thing - his rejection of a takeover bid valued at around $44bn from Microsoft back in early 2008. The obvious question now is - will this change fuel renewed takeover speculation and offers?
Well the simple fact is that despite a recent bounce Yahoo shares currently sit at $11, well below the $31 that Microsoft was offering back in February. Many then accused Yang of acting contrary…
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Microsoft’s recent high-profile ad campaign featuring the American comic Jerry Seinfeld was not the success the company had hoped it would be. Responses were lukewarm at best, with most finding the ad to be slightly laboured and quite unfunny, like some awkward middle-aged attempt at quirky offbeat cool (read the original relevant blog post in our archive).
Anyway Valleywag has confirmed that as of tomorrow Microsoft will officially announce the termination of the working relationship with Jerry Seinfeld, stating that it had always planned only a brief working connection, and instead now focus on the new ad campaign, unveiled last week. Question is: is it any better than the old one? Or does the change of tact simply smack of panic and…
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Microsoft’s latest tv ad is possibly one of their most high profile ones to date. It features American comedian Jerry Seinfeld randomly encountering Bill Gates in a shoe shop at the mall, after which a brief and slightly bizarre dialogue ensues. The ad is fairly significant in its signalling of a slight rebranding strategy from Microsoft - but does it succeed where others failed? Can it make Microsoft cool?
First things first; the ad is certainly a little puzzling. After all, it is clear from the first few seconds (once Bill Gates is introduced) that we are watching a Microsoft ad and yet, despite this, no further real brand message is either introduced or developed. Instead, for pretty much another whole…
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