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PDC 2009: Day 2

pthurrott — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 15:43:46 GMT

4:37 pm. Recording Windows Weekly with Leo.

Dinner at 7 and then the Underground@PDC party.

12:28 pm. Rafael and Stephen finally showed up to the press room. Bright and early ;)

Not as busy today going forward: Meetings regarding Windows 7 for developers and IE coming up. I'm recording the podcast today off-schedule at 4:00 pm PST as well.

8:15 am. Office 2010 Beta Preview'>Office 2010 Beta Preview'>Live blogging from the keynote should be starting up in earnest soon...

7:42 am. In the press room with Andrew and Tom (Neowin) and Long. Today promises to be more interesting than yesterday. (not that Azure isn't interesting, but...)

PDC 2009: Day 1

pthurrott — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 17:49:57 GMT

6:00 pm: An afternoon of meetings are over. I think I'm finally starting to grasp how Windows Azure works (it only took a year) and how it really differs from classic, on-premise Windows Server. The big change since PDC 2009 is that Microsoft heard from developers that they weren't only interested in hosting new applications on Azure; they also wanted to move existing apps to the new platform and transform them, sometimes over time, to utilize new Azure capabilities. So this has been a big focus of the past year. This will also result in a number of articles, I guess, but it might even be early next week before that happens.

11:10 am: From the session, some interesting advice about moving from traditional menu/toolbar-based apps to a ribbon UI. Resist the urge to map menus to ribbon tabs. Think in scenarios ("what users want to do").

Pic from Tom:

10:50 am: Going to attend Windows Ribbon: Technical Deep Dive session with Rafael, Tom, and Andrew. Then it's back to back meetings for the rest of the day.

10:30 am: So it's hard not to be underwhelmed here. Don't get me wrong, I'm sure this is big stuff. But it's not interesting stuff. And the problem there is that you sort of see a future where Microsoft is a big and successful company but is no longer interesting. Comparisons to IBM are, of course, both obvious and apt.

Keynote appears to be winding down.

I'm in the press room covering the PDC 2009 Day 1 keynote event. Follow along live on my PDC 2009 page.

Blurry image from my wake-up call this morning at 6:00 am:

PDC 2009: Day 0

pthurrott — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 18:26:59 GMT

I'm at the Los Angeles Convention Center (LACC) today for the Professional Developers Conference (PDC) pre-show events, which involve some workshops--including the one I'm attending right now, Windows 7 Developer Boot Camp, which features Microsoft Fellow (and tech genius) Mark Russinovitch. On a related note, I interviewed Mark two weeks ago at the Microsoft campus for the print magazine; I'll republish the interview on the SuperSite as well, as soon as I can.

Today is likely going to be pretty quiet, but I'll have more info from the show when it makes sense.

WWDC 2009 Reality Check 2.0: iPhone 3G vs. 3G S

pthurrott — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 13:36:45 GMT

But wait, there's more.

Apple has published a handy chart comparing the iPhone 3G to the iPhone 3G S. As you might expect, it does not clearly portray some key problems.

First, existing iPhone 3G customers cannot upgrade to a 3G S for $199 or $299. Those prices are for new customers only. You will pay $599 or $699. Yeah, really.
Amazingly, several software features Apple showed off yesterday will arbitrarily not be made available to other iPhone users. These include Voice Control and Compass. What??

Also...

Tethering, a feature of iPhone Software Update 3.0, will not be made available in the US. (Thanks AT&T.) If it happens later, it will be after AT&T adds a more expensive data plan.

MMS, another feature of iPhone Software Update 3.0, will also not be made available in the US.

The white iPhone 3G is being discontinued. If you want a white phone, you have to get a 3G S. (Not a huge deal, just pointing it out.)

By the way, was anyone else amused at the sly way Apple "countered" the Palm Pre's useful and easy-to-use multitasking capabilities? In the iPhone 3G S Guided Tour video, the commentator notes, "The first thing you'll notice is how quickly you can launch all your applications, return to the home screen, and then launch another one. Or jump between apps using embedded links." See! It's just like multitasking!

Ah well.

WWDC 2009: Time for a reality check

pthurrott — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 18:33:21 GMT

Apple is providing its WWDC 2009 keynote address today, providing some interesting info about its Mac and iPhone platforms. But this is Apple we're talking about. So it's time for a reality check.

75 million Mac OS X users. Apple claimed that the OS X user base magically jumped from 25 million to 75 million active users in two years. But it didn't. It jumped to 35 million users. The other 40 million are using iPhones and iPod touches. So if there are 1 billion active PC users (and that's an old figure), than OS X usage share right now is 3.5 percent. Everyone's onboard with the math, right? 3.5 percent. "No wonder everyone is trying to follow in our footsteps," Apple SVP Phil Schiller said. Right.

Macbooks magically become Macbook Pros. Apple rebranded the 13-inch Macbook as the Macbook Pro and added SD slots across the line-up. FINALLY. I've only been asking for this handy little feature for, what, 6 years? The batteries are non-replaceable. I'm pretty sure no one was asking for that feature. And they added Firewire 800. Seriously, how about two more USB ports? Oh, and $1699 to start for a lowball 15-inch unit? To Mac guys, this is big news.

Hypocrisy around Vista/7 and Leopard/Snow Leopard. This year, both Microsoft and Apple are working on revisions to existing OSes. In Microsoft's case, Windows 7 is a nice revision to Windows Vista. And Snow Leopard is a minor revision (service pack) to Mac OS X Leopard. Both Windows Vista and Leopard have had their share of problems, but Vista's are more high profile and thus, apparently, news to the wider world. But look how Apple's Darth Vader, Bertrand Serlet, describes these updates:

Windows 7: "Even more complexity is present in Windows 7. The same old tech as Vista. Just another version of Vista."

Snow Leopard: "We come from such a different place. We love Leopard, we're so proud of it, we decided to build upon Leopard. We want to build a better Leopard, hence Snow Leopard."

Um. They sound the same to me. Jerk.

For the record, Snow Leopard looks just fine to me. It should, after three years of development on a point release.

Exchange support in Snow Leopard. Apple makes fun of Microsoft to comic effect (see above) ... Unless, of course, they need Microsoft. Which they do, to add Exchange support to its products. Oh, wait. "With Exchange support built into Snow Leopard, there is no extra charge for Mac OS users while Windows users usually have to pay extra." There it is.

Safari 4 today for OS X, Windows. Yawn.

QuickTime X for OS X, Windows. Actually, this looks good. I especially like how the UI looks like no other OS X app. Nice consistency there from the HIG.

Mac OS X is not fully 64-bit. While Windows users get 64-bit versions of Windows, Mac OS X users will, in Snow Leopard, get an OS in which most of the system is 64-bit, but many "non-major system apps" are still 32-bit.

Snow Leopard pricing. Apple is finally charging the right price for the latest in a long list of minor upgrades: $29 to Leopard users. This is exactly right, and should serve as inspiration for Microsoft. Seriously.

iPhone 3.0. The iPhone is really popular, and let's face it, it's awesome. iPhone 3.0, which I've been using since February, is a very minor update, and mostly adds things that should have been there in the first place. Biggest disappointment: Apple is adding tethering, but AT&T refuses to allow it. Hey, AT&T. F#$% you. Yeah. Really.

Apple needs to tone down the boring stuff. Look guys, here's another iPhone app. We get it. Move along, please.

iPhone 3G S. Was curious what they were going to call the iPhone 3, since the iPhone 3G was the iPhone 2.0. Now we know. Built in 7.2MBps HSDPA for data. New camera (finally). But same form factor. (Which makes sense, given the add-on market, but lacks a certain pizzazz.) I mean, where could they go with this, really? Anyway: Pricing is $199 (16 GB), $299 (32 GB). Surely there's an upgrade program for existing users. [Cricket chirps.]

Voice Control. (3GS only.) Apple copies Microsoft Sync, no one notices. And by the way, the notion of talking to a smart phone should be obvious. Just saying.

Best live keynote coverage. Engadget, hands down.

Tonight: Live blogging the Steve Ballmer CES keynote

pthurrott — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 23:45:23 GMT

I'll be live blogging the Steve Ballmer 2009 Consumer Electronics Show (CES) keynote address this evening with Mary Jo Foley and Tom Warren. Right now, the event page is down but we'll open it up a little bit after 9 pm EST and get things rolling around 9:30 pm when the keynote actually starts. There are a number of ways you can access this live blog:

Live Blog: Steve Ballmer's CES 2009 Keynote (SuperSite for Windows)

Live Blog: Steve Ballmer's CES 2009 Keynote (Friendfeed)

January 7: Join our Ballmer CES live-blog keynote coverage (ZDNN)

Microsoft CES 2009 Keynote (Neowin)

Also, stay tuned to the front page of the SuperSite for some very special news once the keynote begins! :)