09.20.10
Posted in Apple, GNU/Linux, Google, Microsoft, Search at 9:04 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
Summary: The dark future of Vista Phone 7 [sic] is shown with the backing of many news articles and explanations about the suicidal gambles Microsoft made
Msmobiles.com is apparently dead. It was an interesting place in which to learn about customers’ gripes, not just Microsoft’s utterly bad mobile products (back when the flag to be carried was
“Windows Mobile”). “Interesting article[s] to read and site,” said our reader Girts to us.
“Yes, Windows Mobile is dead until it will be open source then it will have maybe bright future,” he added.
“Yes, Windows Mobile is dead until it will be open source then it will have maybe bright future.”
–GirtsLast night we shared some links about mobile market share estimations. Linux seems like the long-term victor and bar software patents it’s unstoppable. Referring to US market on the face of it, comScore reported good growth for Linux. Microsoft Nick reported on that and comScore is paid by Microsoft [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10] (comScore is usually showing opposites of what everyone else is showing, so maybe it sells bias to Microsoft). This helps show that even sources that are biased in favour of Microsoft could not help reporting a sharp decline in Windows market share in mobile.
“Nearly Ninth Inning For Microsoft Smartphone Effort” says an article whose language is explained as follows: “Pardon the baseball metaphor but it seemed appropriate: the impending debut of Windows Phones (Windows Mobile 7) is a very high stakes moment for Microsoft, especially in the wake of Kin’s recent failure. [...] The fate of Windows Phones and Bing’s future are not necessarily inextricably linked. Bing has diversified beyond Windows Mobile and can succeed potentially even if Windows Phones fail. But it needs to succeed on its own merits rather than count on default search deals like the one with Verizon (which has seen some user backlash).”
“Linux seems like the long-term victor and bar software patents it’s unstoppable.”Samsung and others are reluctant to experiment with the poor phone platforms which Microsoft produces, especially after “KIN” [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7]. Some Microsoft partners got severely burned by “KIN”, so unless (just perhaps) Microsoft pays them to do so, few companies will even bother with Vista Phone 7 [sic]. “Verizon Wireless Will Take Its Time To Sell Windows Phone 7″ says this headline.
Maybe Verizon Wireless still has a sour taste left its mouth when Microsoft (NSDQ: MSFT) abruptly shutdown the teenage-focused KIN project less than two months after Verizon started selling it? Maybe not. But whatever is the case, the largest U.S. carrier said it will wait until next year to start selling phones based on Microsoft’s Windows Phone 7, reports Bloomberg.
“Microsoft has gotten very desperate and it’s nowhere near competitive enough to fairly compete in the mobile space.”Also see “Verizon will not sell Windows Phone 7 devices until 2011″ and “First generation Windows Phone 7s won’t be on Verizon or Sprint”.
The Microsoft boosters cheer Microsoft’s scheme of paying to exclude rivals at Verizon (background in [1, 2, 3]), whereas others are more critical (“Fascinate Fiasco: Is Verizon Blocking Google Search?”).
They just can’t compete, so instead they try to tax Linux-powered phones. “Microsoft Must Make Its Own Phone If Wants To Make Money,” says Business Insider, but Microsoft tried it with “KIN” and it won’t be doing that again. See “Microsoft Isn’t Planning On Making Any More Cellphones” and “Microsoft Has No Plans for Design Another Smartphone – Executive.” It just won’t happen, unless Microsoft is lying yet again.
“An alternative route Microsoft seems to be exploring is entry through acquisition and/or entryism (the cheaper way).”An alternative route Microsoft seems to be exploring is entry through acquisition and/or entryism (the cheaper way). Recall Yahoo! hijack through entryism and see the news about “Microsoft Windows Phone 7 exec leaves for Yahoo” (also covered in [1, 2]). The original report (“Another Former Microsoft Exec to Yahoo, Joining Other Ex-Softies”) says: “He is now SVP of Yahoo’s communications products and communities unit.” Many of his ‘new’ Yahoo colleagues are former colleagues from Microsoft, who helped take over Yahoo! so that it doesn’t need to be acquired in order to be exploited.
“This potential Nokia invasion would require Elop to surround himself with former colleagues from Microsoft (like Maritz in VMware) or sign some new Microsoft deals.”Speaking of entryism, here is the type of articles we alluded to some days ago; it’s titled “Will Microsoft And Nokia Team Up To Take On Apple, Google?” (source: TechCrunch).
This potential Nokia invasion would require Elop to surround himself with former colleagues from Microsoft (like Maritz in VMware) or sign some new Microsoft deals. Nokia soared when the appointment was announced. There are also some suggestions (still) that Microsoft should by RIM. One columnist asked, “Will Steve Ballmer Buy RIM Now Just To Destroy Nokia?”
One financial news site asked, “Should Microsoft buy RIMM?” Another one asked, “How Would You Feel If Microsoft Buys RIM?”
“Microsoft just cannot buy Apple and Google.”Microsoft may need to borrow more money to just duplicate and saturate what it already has (shades of Danger) and have more proprietary software whose market is stagnating due to lack of technical edge anyway. Microsoft just cannot buy Apple and Google. Microsoft was asleep behind the wheel for far too long and investors who pushed for the ousting of Ballmer were mentioning RIM takeover almost 2 years ago (when Microsoft was in less of a desperate state).
RIM has just bought DataViz [1, 2, 3], which significantly reduced chances of RIM planning to be acquired. The question is, will RIM’s ownership of DataViz impact support/availability on other platforms? “DataViz Keeps Documents To Go Updates Coming” says IDG. Oddly enough, one article says “RIM Buys Another Company — This Time To Defend Itself Against Microsoft”
“Joe Wilcox, a former Microsoft watcher, says that IDC and Gartner mobile OS forecasts may not be trustworthy…”Microsoft is hardly its main competition in phones, just in office suites. The thing about Microsoft in mobile is that it is almost irrelevant everywhere in mobile devices (tablets too), it just roars a lot and organises a funeral for BlackBerry rather than for itself.
Going back to Nokia again, the Microsoft boosters have an audiocast about this subject which we covered too much already. Microsoft executive Stephen Elop jumping to Nokia is something which we mentioned in the previous post and well before that. Joe Wilcox, a former Microsoft watcher, says that IDC and Gartner mobile OS forecasts may not be trustworthy (check their clients list because IDC and Gartner have questionable practices). Scepticism withstanding, one writer is saying or rather just asking, “Can Android Be Stopped in the World of Smartphones?” He is confused by IDC and IDG (see cross/strikeout), but they are inherently the same, one is a subset. “Microsoft Faces an Uncertain Future in Search, Mobile OS and Cloud Computing (MSFT)” says another new article and even firms that Microsoft is paying cannot spin in Microsoft’s favour anymore (neither regarding present nor future). Microsoft boosters just admit that “Research firm has low expectations for Windows Phone 7″ (this is Microsoft Nick’s headline).
“Way to spend half a billion dollars marketing a technically bad product!”“Microsoft Struggles to Gain in Mobile Search” says the headline from Murdoch’s press and the advertisements (brainwash) for Microsoft’s mobile business get negative reactions/reviews. Way to spend half a billion dollars marketing a technically bad product!
“Yes, Windows Phone 7 is doomed” says the headline from TG Daily, a site which is usually in favour of Microsoft’s interests. “Because I’m not sure if there is anyone I know who would seriously consider purchasing a Windows-powered phone,” wrote the author. “Seriously, folks, how many people do you see running around proudly flashing their Zunes? “Um, yeah.
” Probably not that many, right?”
“Delays and setbacks are already hitting Vista Phone 7 and it is not helping that Microsoft has been ‘rebooting’ everything, including backward compatibility.”Delays and setbacks are already hitting Vista Phone 7 [1, 2] and it is not helping that Microsoft has been ‘rebooting’ everything, including backward compatibility. “The Windows Phone 7 gives a fresh start to Microsoft,” says this article. Does that make Microsoft a startup contender? Again, this is suicidal and a lot of marketing is the only impact Vista Phone 7 will have. Expect a lot of marketing (as much as Vista 7 marketing, budget-wise). Just how many gullible souls can Microsoft lure into Kin2K? Frankly, in order to save money, Microsoft ought to just cancel this whole product before launch. It does not need to be launched just for the sake of it. Learn from Courier, Microsoft, and spare the money.
Just don’t expect any pornography to attract users to Vista Phone 7. Microsoft is barring that too, just like Apple and unlike Android/Linux/Google. Given that Microsoft starts from 0% market share, is it not too risky and premature to place restrictions on developers? This is gonna be atrocious; both journalists and analysts feel that way too (not necessarily Microsoft PR people or bribed journalists/analysts in this $500,000,000 marketing frenzy). █
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Posted in Microsoft, Standard at 6:57 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
Summary: Silverlight is sliding down the toilet, but Flash continues to be a major barrier to reliance on Web standards alone; Nokia’s new CEO (Macromedia COO and then Adobe executive, Microsoft president) seen as a threat to the Web, too
Silverlight dying is a subject we explored quite a lot recently [1, 2]. Techrights was cited quite a lot on these matters and Microsoft entered into “damage control” mode, soon stating that Silverlight is not dead and that it can co-exist with HTML 5 (there were several articles about it this month and that’s just about the only news, except announcement of some third-party products that depend on Silverlight). As we explained a fortnight ago, Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF) is dying/dead and Silverlight seems likely to collapse with it because they are closely tied to one another.
Microsoft's friend suspects that Microsoft will “embrace and extend HTML 5″ in order not to surrender to Web standards that everyone can use. But either way, “In Flash-HTML5 Battle, Silverlight Is the Big Loser,” says this new article. Yes, Adobe Trash is still a major obstacle to Web standards, especially in video streaming.
While Apple and Adobe bicker over whether HTML5 or Flash is the best platform for delivery of video, games and other interactive applications, Silverlight gets nary a mention — even from its own team. And Microsoft itself has increasingly moved to HTML5 for new interactive applications in its products.
The ‘Microsoft press’ desperately craves for Nokia to save Silverlight now that it’s run by a former Microsoft president and has a Silverlight deal. Microsoft — like Adobe — is going against Web standards and it’s rather telling (Adobe circulates a new PR story at the moment, something about HTML). Remember where Microsoft’s president who recently became Nokia’s CEO came from. That’s right, Macromedia.
It is worth working to ensure that Nokia never falls into the trap of promoting a binary Web and dying technology like WPF (like Vista Phone 7 [sic] does). Actually, the subject of the next post will be the impending death of Microsoft’s next mobile venture, which is negatively affected by WPF’s demise. I was rather disappointed to receive the E-mail below 6 days ago because it turns out that some hedge funds foolishly rely on WPF (and .NET), but then again, this is England. Microsoft software thrives the most in English-speaking countries. To the world at large, Silverlight is niche or unheard-of product. █
Hi Roy,
Leading Hedge Fund in West London has a new requirement for a Matlab developer with good technical experience of C# and/or Java.
This role requires solid working knowledge of Matlab and C#/Java, and it would be advantageous to have experience of WPF and .Net. Prior use of TDD would also be beneficial. A strong mathematical background is preferred, however, prior banking experience is not essential.
This role is based in Germany 3 days per week – all accommodation and expenses will be provided. The other two days will be spent on site in West London.
This position is for an initial 6-month contract and is paying up to £500/day dependent upon experience.
[...]
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Posted in Apple, Videos at 6:25 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
“My Interview with Steve Jobs!”
Summary: The rudeness of Steve Jobs helps show that even after his near-death experience the Apple superstar patronises his surroundings
With memorable phrases like “that’s the dumbest fucking idea I’ve heard since I’ve been at Microsoft” and “Fuck! It took you a year to figure that out!”, it ought to be clear that Bill Gates is not the polite guy people see on camera. Likewise, Steve Jobs in not the gentleman people are led to believe that he is (the image of company founders is immensely important to the company’s image and thus performance in terms of sales).
“Now Steve Jobs Is Having An Email Pissing Match with A College Journalism Student,” says this headline about Jobs telling a young lady: “Leave us alone.” Who is “us” anyway?
Steve Jobs is known for replying to random emails sent to his personal Apple email address. Well, a college journalism student from Long Island emailed him about a problem she had with Apple’s PR department. Jobs’ response? “Leave us alone.”
Remember Jobs’ rather menacing or rude response to the FSFE. “A patent pool is being assembled to go after Theora and other “open source” codecs now,” he said.
Apple is a major threat to software freedom and Techrights treats Apple just like it treats any other company that jeopardises computing and turns ingenuity into toys with limited functionality and artificially-elevated/high cost. “Consumer watchdog lambasts Apple’s Iphone 4 rubber band program,” says this new headline from The Inquirer which starts as follows:
SWEEPING MATTERS under the rug only works if everyone forgets about it, but for Iphone 4 antennagate it seems that Consumer Reports isn’t nearly ready to let Apple forget it.
As Apple wraps up its free rubber band giveaway, the US consumer product testing magazine Consumer Reports has come out and fired another salvo at the fruit themed toymaker by repeating its recommendation not to buy the Iphone 4. The outfit also denounced the ‘new’ rubber band program, charging that it is “less consumer-friendly in several respects”.
Apple CEO and cult leader Steve Jobs offered customers a selection of cases in order to overcome the faulty design of the Iphone 4 antenna. Since then, the cappuccino company has laid the groundwork for withdrawing its offer by claiming that the number of those customers affected by the problem was “even smaller than we originally thought”.
“Apple tries to spin its broken Iphone 4,” says another headline from The Inquirer:
FRUIT THEMED Apple is having another go at spinning itself out of the public relations disaster that is the Iphone 4.
After initially pretending that the Iphone 4 dropping calls was all in the imagination of the press and nothing to do with poor design, Apple offered to “fix” the problem by giving users a free rubber band.
At the time it said that it would stop giving anyone a rubber band by September. The assumption was that the problem would be fixed by then.
It is disappointing to see so much attention being paid to minor issues (gossip almost) like Steve Jobs carrying ‘ninja throwing stars’ in hand luggage. From The Register:
Steve Jobs has vowed never to visit Japan again after being prevented from leaving the country with a set of ninja throwing stars, according to a local magazine.
“Steve Jobs no ninja, says Apple” stated a followup from The Register the following day:
Sensei Steve’s supposed double life as a black-clad Japanese assassin was revealed yesterday, when Bloomberg reported a local magazine’s account of the alleged incident.
“Steve Jobs ninja story won’t die on Web” says CNN.
Steve Jobs is apparently not arming himself for ninja warfare.
Apple has found itself in the bizarre position of having to deny that claim this week after a tabloid report that its CEO was stopped at a Japanese airport with ninja throwing stars.
It’s more like gossip and not a big deal [1, 2, 3, 4] although one could argue that Jobs’ obsession with weaponry does not look all that great, even if it’s just a souvenir. █
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Posted in Bill Gates, Patents at 5:59 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
Summary: An explanation about the drugs (patents) Bill Gates is investing in and promoting in populations too poor to legally fight back when something goes awry
The following is a verbatim copy of an article just sent to us from China for publication (for background, see our page about Gates Foundation, learn about girls' deaths caused by a Gates-backed HPV vaccine project earlier this year, and remember those staff intersections between Merck, GlaxoSmithKline [1, 2], and the Gates Foundation).
Here is an article you may find interesting for your readers about how Bill Gates of Microsoft is funding more unethical business practices for profiteering on socially disadvantaged people in India (and other nations) under the “Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation” philanthropy outreach masquerade as plundering IPR pirate profiteers.
HPV Vaccination Experimentation on Children backed by “Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation”
Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation [1], with Merck and GlaxoSmithKline are providing the (Gardasil and Cervarix) vaccine that has been causing the following serious side effects such as seizures, strokes, autoimmune diseases, chronic fatigue, hair loss, chest pains, muscle weakness, menstrual cycle changes, temporary vision and hearing loss, and paralysis. Deaths (78+ in U.S.) have also been reported after receiving the vaccine.
Comment: Merck and the CDC classify the symptoms as non-serious. However, if it was your daughter who was suffering from the above adverse reactions wouldn’t you – as a parent – consider them to be serious side effects?
Just why should the “Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation” NOT be held socially or financially responsible for having supported human rights violations, where young healthy girls (living in poverty-stricken regions) had to die for being part of a philanthropy-endorsed experiment, initiated by a profit-making private company?
There have been allegations on ethical violation issues, and even exploitation. It seems that some of these (14,000) girls and their families (whom are socially disadvantaged) were given a document in which they were told that, ”The vaccine has no side effects, creates life long immunity and will not create any health problems for their child”, according to Activist Kalpana of Saheli who has been tracking this case for the last eight months.
Comment: The two human papillomavirus (HPV) Gardasil and Cervarix vaccines have been implicated in at least 78 deaths and 18,461 reported adverse reactions in the U.S., by the Vaccine Adverse Event Report System (co-sponsored by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration), prompting no response from U.S. officials other than to keep pushing it on the public, but the six deaths in India have prompted the government there to immediately stop all trials of the vaccines.
According to reports, the trials were wholly unethical and illegitimate to begin with, and were nothing more than blatant exploitation by drug companies of disadvantaged people from a developing nation. Both the Gardasil and Cervarix vaccines, were allowed to undergo clinical trial (Phase III) in India, before being granted permission for import and market authorization,” explained S. Gandhiselvan, minister of state for healthy and family welfare, in a statement to India’s parliament.
Gardasil is intended to protect against FOUR types of HPV. There are over 120 different strains of HPV. Also, there are no studies indicating how long this “expensive” vaccine is effective in clinical trials longer than five years. According to Dr Harper (a paid speaker and consultant to Merck)[3], “11 to 12 year olds are not promised protection until they leave the age range for highest acquisition of high risk HPV infections, which is (the age of) 36. So, even if there was a chance it would last 15 years – which is highly unlikely – girls vaccinated at 12 still would not be fully protected.”
While, if you are already infected with HPV (60% of the U.S. population – according to Merck’s website), the risk of cervical cancer actually increases if you are given the vaccine, which are NOT effective in women already infected with those specific types of HPV.
Less than 0.8% of the population carries one of the four HPV strain types that both the Gardasil and Cervarix vaccines are intended to protect against. In addition, HPV vaccines are not tested to see if they are carcinogenic (cancer causing). Cervarix has over twice the amount of aluminum adjuvant as gardasil contain
This makes Gardasil very limited, if any, clinical benefit. Who does it benefit most, the philanthropy investor or the healthy young women here before taking the vaccination?
Sources
[1] http://truthaboutgardasil.org…
[2] http://articles.mercola.com…
[3] printed version of the Irish Examiner Monday, August 30, 2010 “Cancer Vaccine Warning” by Jennifer Hough
The explanation above was kindly contributed by a Chinese reader, so editors of Techrights need not be held accountable for inaccuracies, if any. █
“Gates has created a huge blood-buying operation that only cares about money, not about people.”
–AIDS organisation manager in China, December 2009 (New York Times)
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Posted in Deals, FUD, GNU/Linux, Microsoft, Patents at 5:35 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
Summary: New evidence of the patent trouble which is Centrify
EARLIER this month we wrote about Centrify [1, 2, 3] getting sued for patent violation. Some days ago Centrify strengthened its relationship with Microsoft, too.
“Patent Agreement” called it the press release [1, 2] and Centrify’s many problems are a subject we covered before. In short, as we argued back in January, Centrify is strengthening Microsoft’s patent FUD against GNU/Linux. █
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Posted in Site News at 5:24 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
Sailing away for Asia-grade wages
Summary: Professional Developers Conference (PDC) takes a big hit as the company no longer bases many of its activities around Redmond
IN recent years, as Microsoft cut down expenses by cancelling a lot of its events and laying off staff (especially in an “expensive” place like the US), we saw a lot of spin and explained what happened beyond it. For instance, Todd Bishop (Microsoft booster) spins the latter issue by saying that Microsoft is hiring; he just doesn’t say where in particular. Mary Jo Microsoft is trying to spin PDC by naming some big number of events while admitting that “Microsoft may be limiting (severely) attendance” in Redmond (other events were previously cancelled very much around there and we provided examples).
Microsoft may be limiting (severely) attendance at its upcoming Professional Developers Conference (PDC) in Redmond, but it is adding 65 regional “mini” PDC events in the U.S. and other countries worldwide to compensate.
Over at Washington Microsoft is basing a decreasing amount of its development (except imported workforce on a visa). Microsoft, just like many other companies, is moving more of its operations to the East. It’s getting hard even to pretend to be a Caucasian worker for Microsoft in Seattle. From the Seattle P-I:
Having admitted to playing the parts of a Make-a-Wish Foundation employee, a Microsoft executive and an old-money millionaire to con businesses, Richard Ruben Wakeley Jr. spent a year in jail and state prison.
[..]
On another occasion, Wakeley described himself as the operator of a ranch for disabled children. He was able to bluff his way into a room at the Roosevelt Hotel in Seattle — he claimed to be in town on Microsoft business, dropping executives’ names until he was believed — and managed to rack up a $5,000 bill during his month-long stay.
Yes, it’s off topic, but it’s only amusing in the sense that criminals describe themselves as Microsoft executives. It makes proper camouflage. Remember that Microsoft got rid of Judge Jackson after he had called Microsoft “criminals”. He knew what he was talking about, he didn’t just have loose lips. █
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Posted in Africa, DRM, Microsoft at 4:57 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
Summary: Microsoft has its partners build its castle of dominance and examples are given from the news to explain how that works
Microsoft is not just Microsoft, it’s an ideology embraced and fought for by a large group of companies that work to benefit one another and especially the ‘queen termite’, Microsoft. Just like with AMD and Intel, there is a great deal of benefits/kickbacks to partners (crudest forms of bribery would be too risky) and vendors are playing favourites, meaning that just like a bunch of schoolmates or siblings they compete for affinity from the teacher or parent. This is done for self gain.
“Microsoft holds Partner Conference and Award Ceremony,” says this headline and to put this in crude terms, these are the events where Microsoft decides who to bribe best based on the dirty work done for Microsoft by the recipients. “Dirty work” can be changes to government policies, sabotage of a GNU/Linux migration, many sales of Microsoft software (with commissions), and so on.
“It’s the glue that keeps many parts of society stuck with Windows.”It is always curious to see and to keep track of names of companies once they get labeled “Gold Partner”, Microsoft partner, or something along those lines. They even turn out to have something called “innovation alliance”. Just like Microsoft “MVP”, it’s a reputation one must live up to by sucking up to Microsoft and maybe even voting against sanity (for interests rather) in some OOXML ballot. While we routinely and quite comprehensively mention Novell partners when they get named, we do not do the same for Microsoft because there are just too many of them. It’s the glue that keeps many parts of society stuck with Windows.
It does not take much to see that Microsoft continues to distribute awards to buy companies’ loyalty and this includes promotion of Microsoft DRM, which Samsung and Nokia DRM deals, for example, ensure gets used more widely. Here is a newer example:
Microsoft PlayReady is the latest DRM technology that Verimatrix is supporting through its MultiRights strategy.
The same is being done in other areas like IPTV, but since these are private businesses rather than public institutions, nothing too unethical is being done here. One can dismiss what they do here for DRM and IPTV (a lot of what they say in general) as just marketing (or “Slog”), teaches us history. They fight against the rest of industry by promoting the One Microsoft Way.
“They fight against the rest of industry by promoting the One Microsoft Way.”Microsoft will be recruiting more advocates, e.g. [1, 2], even in places like South Africa where Microsoft plays quite dirty and always needs the support of some local businesses to suppress free/open source software. Despite the PR from Microsoft’s friend Brier Dudley, for Microsoft to have friends in Africa is not beneficial to Africans. It makes them dependent.
Here is a new article which says that “Microsoft might have liked perks” (it’s the headline), using it for blackmail on tax issues, having states compete between one another at taxpayers’ expense. Microsoft should be dealt with not like any normal company. It works as a group of many companies and mapping their influence is the tricky task. Techrights will continue to explain the more important partnerships that harm society at large. The rest will be ignored due to time contraints. █
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09.19.10
Posted in Deception, Marketing, Microsoft at 10:44 pm by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
Summary: Internet Explorer 9 (IE9) is marketed using misleading claims that Microsoft has not corrected and the decision to make it incompatible with Windows XP is insanely stupid
IN MANY RECENT posts about IE9 [1, 2, 3] we showed that deception merely continued as it had started months ago [1, 2, 3]. Reality is not so important to Microsoft as long as lies it tells sell and do not harm sales. It’s as simple as that. It works better for shareholders. For users and customers? Not so much. For competitors? Hell no (this is false advertising and we mentioned this before, so no need to go through it again).
“A lot of proprietary software has already died on Windows due to Microsoft’s despicable actions.”Microsoft is making misleading and arguably false claims (“misleading” is the polite term to use, maybe “inaccurate” too) and Microsoft conveniently assumes a Windows-only world (especially when it comes to hardware acceleration, e.g. with Microsoft DirectX). Mozilla should pay attention to this and realise that Windows is a hostile platform and should therefore not be treated as a higher priority than GNU/Linux, for example. A lot of proprietary software has already died on Windows due to Microsoft’s despicable actions.
Some say that Microsoft’s comparative analysis of Web browsers is not up to date and that Microsoft has not corrected out-of-date information, either. The latter is even more shameful because it means that Microsoft is deliberately misleading. Is anybody shocked by this? IE9 fake 'leaks' were mentioned here about a month ago. That too was an example of dishonesty for the sake of hype.
One cited article states: “Microsoft created some controversy on its IEBlog this past weekend with a post claiming that the IE9 beta release was “the first and only browser to deliver full hardware acceleration of all HTML5 content.”
“Mozilla chucks Roc at Microsoft’s new hardness,” says The Register:
Microsoft has claimed that Internet Explorer 9 is the only browser offering “full” hardware acceleration.
And Mozilla has accused its old rival of talking nonsense.
With a Friday blog post, Microsoft web graphics program manager Ted Johnson laid out a trio hardware acceleration “phases,” before telling the world that only IE9 does all three. “With IE9, developers have a fully-hardware accelerated display pipeline that runs from their markup to the screen,” Johnson said.
To quote another headline, “Microsoft has made IE9 a ‘non event’ for enterprise says analyst”:
The 800 pound software gorilla Microsoft has rendered its new web browser IE9 virtually useless for enterprise users. This is the conclusion drawn by a senior ICT market analyst who believes that the software giant has completely missed the mark with its new browser.
Watching the Microsoft boosters talk about IE9 is especially regrettable. It is hardly coverage and more like promotion. Mary Jo Foley published a Q&A and her colleague at ZDNet says (based on readers) that “No IE9 on XP is a mistake Microsoft will regret” (hello… people can run Firefox, Chrome, Opera and just about any other Web browser on XP, so Microsoft’s Vista 7 rush may backfire rather than spur sales of Vista 7).
“Microsoft’s IE9 incompatible with widely-used Windows XP” says this headline, so they might not buy Vista 7 but rather get the latest Web browser from the competitors. Besides, as IE9 is just aping Chrome, why not just use the real thing? “IE6 Screws IE9″ says one last article about IE9. This smells like a problem in the making. What on Earth was Microsoft thinking when it ignored compatibility with prior versions of Windows? It’s just common sense, is it not? █
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