Editorials

Have you ever loaned someone money and as soon as you gave it to them you thought “well I will never see that back”. I have to wonder if Steve Ballmer is thinking that very thing right now. His company, Microsoft, has just written a very big check to Nokia and a few other EU based phone makers for a huge marketing push on Windows Phone 7.5 (aka Mango). We wonder if this is too little too late. So far Windows Phone 7 has not managed to even capture 2% of the market share. Much of this is due mistakes made in the way Windows Mobile 6.5 was coded. Yes, I am saying that Microsoft started losing market share as far back as Windows Mobile 6.x.  From there they had a good chance to build on the relative success of the ZuneHD but failed to read the market queues properly and ended up making two of the worst received mobile phones ever. These were the Kin phones which had a product lifespan of only six weeks.

After that things began to decline rapidly and Windows Mobile never really took off again. We have talked about some of the reasons for this in recent articles and it really does boil down to Microsoft’s in ability to understand the market and the competition. However, for once they are going to try and do some marketing. We honestly do not feel that any amount of marketing done by Microsoft can save the Windows Phone division (unless they hire the entire Apple PR team. Still we do think they have to try.

The reality is that Microsoft and its partners must change the image of Windows Phone, they have to offer better hardware, faster response and more content than either Apple or Android can, the problem is that Microsoft just does not have the apps to match either of these two companies. In my opinion they do have a much better music service, but you cannot produce a winning phone with just that.

Steve Ballmer will need to keep his check book handy as 2011 runs into 2012 because I have a feeling they will need it just to get on the map for the Holiday Season. To give you an example of what I mean; I asked a few people what they thought of Microsoft’s mobile OS and all I got was a blank look. They did not even know there was such a thing. Like I said, this is going to be an uphill battle and all the trash talking and cash is not going to replace the lack of handsets and market knowledge about the product.

Source Mobile Today

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So Sprint got the iPhone 4S, and they are selling them like crazy… There is just one tiny little problem. No one seems to have trained their support staff on how to deal with them. Let me tell you about the 3.5 hour ordeal that we personally went through and after talking with more than a few other excited iPhone 4S owners ours was not a one off event.

The call started around 12PM Eastern Time as the phone had just arrived and we were excited to get things going. Previous to our return to Sprint we were with AT&T through the introduction of the iPhone 4. Unfortunately with the iPhone 4 we had issues, from a four hour battery to the grip of death. It was not a fun time and prompted us to move to Sprint. However, we knew that there are always activation issues when a new phone comes out. What we did not expect was to have activations issues with the personnel instead of the activation or iTunes servers.

After about a 30 minute wait (which we thought was quite short considering the circumstance) an activation rep picked up the line. Our first indication that all was not as it should be was when the rep told us to remove the back of the iPhone and take out the battery.  We explained that this was impossible on the iPhone and that the IMEI and Serial numbers on the box as well. The rep then told us that without the numbers from under the battery she could not activate the phone for us. As you can imagine we were more than a tad annoyed by this point, but we pressed on. After some time we were able to convince the tech that we could not remove the battery and that the serial on the box was indeed valid. Just as we saw light at the end of the tunnel… we were disconnected at just about 1 hour and 15 minutes.

We called again and at 1 hour and 45 minutes into our ordeal we were back on the phone; again we had to explain that the serial was on the box, but at least this rep did not ask us to remove the battery. The next hurdle was running the activation wizard on the phone. This completed successfully but did not apply the phone number to the phone. The rep then tried to manually program the phone but the iPhone would not recognize any of the programing codes that he tried. We were advised to wipe the phone completely and start over. At 2 hours and 30 minutes we still had not been able to activate the phone and were grasping at straws, doing everything from activating over WiFi, iTunes and more than one wipe of the phone. Finally one of the wipes must have done something (or the system caught up) as we saw the new number displayed on the phone. Our attempt at running the iPhone 4S on Sprint’s network was finally running and it only took 3.5 hours out of our Friday afternoon.

We would suggest to Sprint that they update their activation steps or give better training as they are only going to get more iPhone customers in the coming months. If everyone has to go through 3 hours to get activated they might have more than a few that will turn to other companies that do understand the iPhone instead of waiting for Sprint to catch up.

Let us know your iPhone 4S activation stories either on Facebook or on our Forum

If you have been living under a rock for the past few weeks (or are in the mainstream media) then you might not have heard about the Occupy the world movement that is going on. I am not just talking about Occupy Wall Street, but literally Occupy the world. In fact as I am writing this Occupy Orlando is starting up not all that far from where I am sitting. Although these protests are non-violent the ratings and profit based media companies will be sure to highlight anything that is remotely violence related, but I digress.

Many have wonder about the whys of these protests and have asked about the specific goals. What does Anonymous and the people that are actually at each days event want? The media has been very confusing here as well, they have pointed out multiple times that there have been no statements about why these protests are happening or what the goals are. This is despite numerous press releases from Anonymous and also from the people that are actually in the streets! You have to wonder if there is not someone trying to put out misinformation about these protests to downplay their importance.

One of my favorite statements that have been put out was reposted recently by a commenter on TorrentFreak.com

“We The People demand that ALL corporate influence in politics and the courts come to an immediate and permanent end. No more “Citizens United”, no more lobbying, no more “Justice that only money can buy”, no more corporate campaign contributions, no more lying sellout puppet politicians, no more illegal tax breaks for corporations, no more bailouts, no more pro-corporate legislation, no more corporate impunity, no more predatory lawyers, no more oppression. We demand the Voice of the People be heard loud and clear, and corporate money shuts the fuck up. It’s OUR world, it’s not for sale, and we’re taking it back!”

Anyone else think that is ambiguous? I did not think so. Now this comment (taken from another blog) was under an article that illustrates exactly what people are talking about with corporate involvement in politics and the judicial system. It appears that in many bit torrent cases Law Enforcement Officers, Politicians, Public Figures (most notably actors) and US Military serving overseas are excluded. Now wait a minute…. Haven’t the Big Media companies talked about the massive harm that Bit Torrent downloads cause and the importance of reclaiming the money lost from these activities? You would think that no one would be excluded especially people that have the ability to pay the disproportionately large settlements. It also raises the question of “why are politicians excluded from ANY law”. You would think that as lawmakers and leaders in our country that they would (and should) be held to a higher standard. Alas this is not and has not been the case for many years.

It shows that with the right amount of money or a lobbying group (which is also money based) you can get what you want in our legal system. This has impacted our technology sectors in many ways, where companies attempt to crush competition in the court room instead of in the market. All you have to do is look at the number of useless or broad patents and you will see how low we have sunk. I am all about a company protecting its inventions and their products from blatant theft and or reproduction, but someone has to draw the line and reign in these corporations. Soon there will be nothing new out there or we will be faced with bland and boring products that are nothing more than refreshes. This hurts the consumer and the economy. So the next time you hear one of the big media companies say that Anonymous or the Occupy movement has no clear goal, just take a quick look on the internet and you will quickly see what they are angry about. You might also find that you agree with them and what they are hoping to accomplish.

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There are two things you can do when you are at the bottom of the pile. One is to work harder and smarter so that you can fight your way to the top. The other is to talk smack hoping that the people above you will believe you are competent and you can BS your way up a few notches. There are complications with both of these but the latter has more dangers. Unfortunately it is this latter course that the folks over at Microsoft’s Windows Phone division are taking.

Andy Lees, President of Microsoft’s Windows Phone Division sat down for a quick talk with the people over at the Seattle Times and some of the things he said were interesting, but also a little laughable. He calls Apple’s one million unit selling iPhone 4S a missed opportunity and Android Chaotic. These are some bold words for a company that only captured less than 2% of the market in 2011 so far.

It is true that Apple might have missed an chance at putting out a better product, both hardware and software wise, but the market is speaking and it is saying that they do not care. Over one million iPhone 4S’ have been sold so far. That does not sound like consumer disappointment no matter how much you dislike Apple. As for Android’s chaotic development, well one of the things that people like about Android is that they can get the version they like. I personally like the SenseUI version of Android that HTC uses and prefer it over the stock version and the same can be said for many Android owners.

No, the comments sound more like someone grasping at straws and asking you to ignore the obvious. This leads us into the next comment Lees called the Mango UI a “flowing, almost singular experience” however others have called it the Jitterbug of touch screens. The tile layout is eye watering and almost obnoxious. The fact that Microsoft is forcing this on the Xbox 360 and Windows 8 is quite annoying. Having tinkered around with a Windows Phone recently I can tell you that there was nothing flowing or singular about the experience and after a week fighting Windows 8 and the MetroUI I could not imagine having to deal with that on a daily basis. I think that the developers at Microsoft do have a good concept and vision, but they are still falling short of what the Market wants. The tile based UI is not it, they like icons and widgets that they can drag around and manipulate. You would think that Microsoft would have learned this by now and maybe tried to find a way to make their UI more fluid because a bunch of square tiles is anything but fluid.

I think that all we are seeing is a PR push from Microsoft hoping that this gets pushed around enough to generate interest. So far, there really has not been any in Windows Phone, and the disappointment in the developer’s release of Windows 8 has probably caused some concern as the Metro UI with its large and ungainly tiles is the way Microsoft wants to go; now they are just hoping they can convince us that is what we want too…

Source Seattle Times

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