Windows 2 Apples

The last few weeks have been jammed with news and announcements about both Apple and Microsoft. Apple released an update to its OS, began shipping new and improved iPods, pushed out release 9 of iTunes, and enjoyed an impressive jump in stock price.

Microsoft along with Amazon, voiced concerns over Google’s plan to scan and distribute books in electronic form, began an aggressive to push its revamped MSN, a.k.a., Live search engine now renamed Bing, continued with improved advertising campaigns promoting Windows based PCS as a cost effective alternative to Macs, released a hand full of advertisements hyping the new Zune HD, delivered the Zune HD on schedule, pushed out version 4 of Zune Market place software (now supporting browser streamed music) , all the while continuing to show lack luster stock gains.

Of all this news, perhaps the continued steady rise in Apple stock is the most telling. The stock price certainly reflects the continued dominance of Apple in US smart phone and portable media player markets, as well as its ability to wow consumers and produce innovative, quality products, while Microsoft struggles to find itself and lick self-inflected wounds. Perhaps, the best way to contrast Apple and Microsoft cultures is to watch presentations by Jobs and Ballmer. The difference will smack you between the eyes and you will experience a gut level appreciation of why Apple steams ahead and Microsoft seems to be slogging though a Louisiana swamp.

Microsoft appears to be stuck in a never-ending struggle to find itself. Live search has become Bing and Zune now seems to be Microsoft’s branding for all things fun and entertaining. Call me jaded if you wish, but I simply cannot believe Microsoft when they profess to have seen the light and now have a plan to “make it so.” I would not be surprised to see Microsoft re-brand Zune before the battery in my second generation Zune 80 dies nor would I be surprised to see the Zune Market place go the way of Plays 4 Sure and Encarta.

I am wondering, if my perception of Microsoft being unable to focus and simply stay the course is one of the reasons Apple is doing so damn well!

All this said, I am looking forward to the official release of Windows 7 and have been drooling over the grow crop of well executed All in One PCs. The Lenovo IdeaCentre PCs are beautifully packaged, competitively priced and getting good reviews. When I started this podcast, I confessed to a fascination with and lusting for the “All In One” form factor and I now see I am not alone. Today, the question is not when can I get my hands on an All in One equal to the Mac in performance and quality, but which one would I choose.

Snow Leopard demonstrated the charmed life Apple fan boys and girls live. As one would expect when releasing an OS with major changes in its underpinnings, some pain will follow. In the case of Snow Leopard, many applications broke or misfired. Software vendors, including Apple, were unprepared for all the compatibility issues that arose and the lost time in retooling and updating. The miseries continue, but you will see little in the press nor will many Apple fans be willing to concede any similarity between problems traceable to Apple OS releases and the issues experienced by Windows users when shifting to Vista.

Factor in the exponentially higher number of Windows applications, hardware configurations and a reasonable person should be able to credit Microsoft with a job well done and see Apple is not the always the personification of perfection foisted upon us by the Apple propaganda machine and besotted media. But for fear of losing one’s life, I don’t recommend you hold your breath for this realization to surface or be widely acknowledged by the “news media.”

Recently, I had another near death experience with my main work horse Vista machine and stroked my beard a long time as I looked at the seemingly frozen HP boot screen and pondered an office with two Macs … one running the Mac OS and the other Windows 7 in boot camp. Fortunately, the anticipation of my PCs death was greatly exaggerated and it is now running as smooth as silk. Turns out, the 5 – 6 minute delay in booting was traced to the OS’s repeated attempts to revive the USB card reader in my sleeping HP Photo Smart printer.

I spent at least 12 hours trouble shooting and running my ever-faithful SpinRite disk maintenance and recovery software before I simply unplugged the HP and released my PC from its painful struggle find the unresponsive USB port. This is the kind of frustration that leads everyone one to curse the day they allowed a computer to occupy desk space. And, this is the kind of problem most often seen in Windows machines. Apple seems to have always done a better job of implementing USB and FireWire technologies.

All was not wasted. I learned two important lessons:

Always Google or, if you prefer, Bing the symptoms before pulling hairs and second, assume the fix to be simple rather than complex. Perhaps I should add a third corollary, if possible take a break before diving into fix. Cool heads will prevail and retain more hair.

I am sure you have noticed this podcast is not hosted by Sam but rather by Alex … the voice behind the amazing Apple text to speech technology shipped with Leopard. The Apple implementation is truly a groundbreaking advance in this arena and leaves me hopeful Apple will apply the same resources to producing a quality Speech to Text product for Apple users.

I often wonder why there seems to be so little interest in developing speech to text technologies beyond those designed to provide assistance to persons with disabilities. If you price the cost of professional voice over talent, you will quickly see an opportunity to develop text to speech technologies at least on par with the many amazing visual animation products found in the consumer market. Please drop me a line addressed to hello@inetsunch.com if you have leads on this kind of software or show comments and suggestions in general.

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