Things I Have Told The "Microsoft Support" Telephone Scammers

One scourge of modern life that has been plaguing anybody with a wireline or cellular telephone in the past couple of years has gotten calls from somebody speaking with a heavy accent working in a boiler room call centre somewhere in Asia claiming to be from Microsoft support to report that their home computer is infected with all kinds of malware.  The scammer tells the potential victim to look in the Windows event viewer and tells them that everything marked with a red X is caused by viruses.  The scammer collects a credit card number from the victim and then instructs the victim to download a "remote access removal tool" which turns out to be malware as well.  

Getting these calls and getting sick of it, I have told the scammer that I own a Mac, even though I don't the scammer didn't know that I was lying.  That was over a month ago.  Some of these scammers don't accept that as an answer and will insist that their computer is badly infected  and they need to let them into your computer and charge you for it.  

If telling them that using your using an operating system that doesn't come from

Microsoft isn't enough to get you off the scammers' call list.  There are some things you can tell them that will help get out some of the frustration from getting all these scam calls and have some fun at the scammers' expense.  

"I'm so glad you called I keep getting a message that says illegal call from ID 10 T". Most of these scammers have some technical knowledge and most likely would know that ID 10 T is a geeky way of calling somebody an idiot.  The scammer will ether get mad which you can tell them to get a real job and hang up the phone.  Alternatively they will stay on script and try to continue with the scam.  You can tell them to get a real job and hang up the phone.

One I have been waiting to try is picking up the phone and answering "FBI Cybercrime Investigation Unit, This call is being recorded for quality control".   This may not scare the hard core professionals pulling off this scam but the for the beginner might get scared off and hang up.  

It would be worthwhile to tell the scammers that your hearing isn't very good and ask them to e-mail the information they have about your computer.  If they do e-mail you that e-mail with the complete message header  can be turned over to the FBI or RCMP to assist them in their investigations of these international frauds.  

The problem with these telephone scam operations they are using inexpensive VOIP systems that costs next to nothing to make hundreds of calls from Asia to potential victims in North America.  One remedy that will hit them in the money maker is to make up an excuse to put them on hold.  Making scammers sit on hold probably won't cost them a whole lot but if making one operator in the boiler room sit on hold will slow down the ability to make calls, making it harder to find the poor souls who get sucked in and hand over their credit card numbers.

As much as it would make it a better world of these scammers were put out of business tomorrow, that unfortunately isn't going to happen.  These boiler room operations can and will spring up anywhere.  The only thing that will slow down this scam is educated computer users who simply will not fall these scams.  Yes there are creative ways that to tell them that you are one of those who will not fall for it.  

What Will Canadian Gamers Get On The Xbox One

Gamers and the video game industry as a whole got excited by the Xbox One announcement from Microsoft earlier this week.  Just like current and next generation consoles the Xbox One goes above and beyond playing video games to be home entertainment device.  Pulling from streaming services such as Netflix just as the 360 does, the Xbox One will support Hulu Plus out of the box. 

Games and game content there won't be much difference however there may be differences in price for content depending on exchange rate.  While most of what Canadians will get on Xbox One will the same what gamers will get in other parts of the world outside of the United States.

Could Apple Make A Move Into Video Games?

No single company has come to dominate digital content as much as Apple.  Most music, movies and TV shows sold and delivered online is sold through iTunes.  The single most popular content apart from music is games for iPhones, iPod Touch and iPad, naturally rumors have been swirling that Apple will make a move into the video game industry taking on Microsoft, Sony and Nintendo. 

Now more than ever could be the time for Apple to get into video games not just portable handheld gaming where sales of Nintendo's DS systems and Sony's Playstation Portable and Vita systems have seen large declines due to the popularity of iPhones and iPod touches.  For numerous reasons moving into home game consoles could lead to new success and revenue for Apple. 

Well established platform:  With iOS powering Apple's handheld devices as well as Apple TV, there are already is millions of potential of devices and millions of potential gamers already out there.  Using an Apple TV as the home console and iPhone or iPod Touch as controllers gives gamers a low cost of ownership because they are using Apple hardware they already own but gives Apple room to sell that one piece of hardware that potential gamers don't already have most likely the Apple TV.

Established relationships with game developers:  No video game system can be successful without game software for customers to play.  With iOS devices as ubiquitous as they are game developers and publishers from the giants like EA and ActiVision right to the independents making games for iOS a supply of games is already guaranteed to be there.

If Apple ends up taking on  Microsoft, Sony and Nintendo the video game industry which has seen lackluster sales in the past few years, will get a shot of new life that it desperately needs.  The established giants of the industry will be getting a competitor they simlpy cannot ignore.  Apple is already bigger than Microsoft, Sony and Nintendo and can crush any of them if Apple gets a chance.

A Eulogy For The Zune

After a long battle with public apathy Microsoft's portable media player the Zune passed away quietly.  Zune came to marker late in 2006 and attracted a small but very loyal fanbase.  Zune offered unlimited music by subscription an FM radio and WiFi sync, features that Zune's arch nemesis iPod lacked.  iPod's better music store and less restrictive DRM won people over.

Early in life Zune suffered from ugly device syndrome, looking like a brick with a screen, and brown as you know what.  After a while more models in different colours came out but after the ugly device syndrome was treated, poor marketing lead consumer apathy had set in which would turn out to be terminal. 

Zune was predecased by Plays For Sure and Windows media player.   Left to mourn Zune's passing are Xbox 360 and Windows Phone 7.

Windows Phone 7: What's Next?

In the past few months since Microsoft launched Windows Phone 7 all that has been seen is a bunch of ads promoting Windows Phone 7 as the smartphone for those who don't typically use smartphones.  Despite the claim 1.5 million Windows Phone handsets have been sold to carriers, there has been no mention of how many Windows Phone 7 handsets have been sold to consumers.  Undoubtedly there is so much more that can be done to sell Windows Phone 7.  Microsoft to their credit, including access to Xbox live and allowing developers of games that play on Xbox 360 to develop games to run on Windows Phone 7 that integrate into Xbox live will most certainly appeal to gamers.

To those who would never buy a smartphone and video game players, Microsoft has those users covered but for any other smartphone user, does Windows Phone 7 offer anything better than what they get from iPhone, Android, or Blackberry? The answer is generally considered to be an overwhelming no.  How can Microsoft turn things around before Windows Phone 7 ends up a lost cause, and not become another WebOS?

Firstly, the Big M will need to get Windows Phone 7 on every cell carrier they can.  Leaving out CDMA in the initial release of Windows Phone 7 was a fatal flaw, Now that Verizon will be carrying the iPhone Microsoft kissed away one of largest groups of cell phone subscribers.  That leaves Sprint's 45 million subscribers, may be the third largest carrier but still a large enough group of potential customers to make adding support for CDMA worthwhile for Microsoft.  There are still many subscribers on regional cell carriers where the only smartphone they have access to is Blackberries. That's is starting to change though, Android phones are now starting to appear on smaller carriers. 

Microsoft's long path to greater market share is not just getting Windows Phone 7 Handsets on more of today's wireless networks, but tomorrow's as well. Long Term Evolution or LTE currently being rolled out by Verizon, with deployment by AT&T next year and by T-Mobile to follow, getting Windows Phone 7 on LTE based smartphones will get Microsoft in ahead of most of the competition.  The only operating system will be available in the short term is Android.  Apple and Research In Motion have not yet even announced LTE iPhones or Blackberries.

Since Blackberry is widely considered to be in decline, and WebOS is considered to be a crash and burn, The smartphone OS market is shaping up to be a two horse race.  It would not be impossible for Microsoft to come from behind and become the third major player in the market. They can do it, they have done so before in home video games.

Windows Phone 7: When Can Canadians Get Theirs

For those potential smartphone subscribers looking for an alternative to Blackberries, iPhones, and Android phones in the Great White North, Windows Phone 7 the smartphone operating system from Microsoft that is being watched with some interest by technology industry journalists and analysts launches on November 8th will be available in Canada on the Launch day through the big three cellco's Telus, Rogers, and Bell.

For subscribers on Wind Mobile and Mobilicity there will be a little bit of a wait, while the models launching on T-Mobile in the states will work on Wind and Mobilicity, the startup cell carriers will need to make deals with Microsoft and handset manufacturers before they can offer Windows phone 7.

For those on Sasktel there will be a wait for six months to a year, their new HSPA network supports the same Windows Phone 7 handsets that Telus, Rogers and Bell offer, the big national carriers will have short term exclusivity agreements with handset manufacturers to carry those phones.

Subscribers on MTS and Public Mobile are out of luck for a year or more.  Microsoft has chosen not support CDMA in Windows Phone 7.  Support for CDMA is supposed to be added sometime in the end of 2011, depending if handset manufacturers choose to make CDMA phones with Windows Phone 7 will remain to be seen.

Zune Pass & Marketplace Content Coming To Canada (Some of it anyway)

For some of those who were looking (in Canada) for a viable alternative to Apple's iPods and iTunes, who bought Microsoft's Zune media player only to find that the online music store, the Zune Marketplace wasn't available outside the United States.  The only sources of legally obtained music was through importing songs from CD's or other online music stores such as puretracks.com that sell songs as regular .mp3 files without the restrictions imposed by digital rights management.  Microsoft later introduced a music by subscription service called Zune Pass, again only available in the United States.  It was not long after that Microsoft pulled the Zune players from the Canadian market. 

It has finally come to pass that Zune Pass and Marketplace content will be available outside the United States.  Just about all Zune content will be available across Europe, Zune Pass Music Subscription will not be available in Germany.  Canada, Australia & New Zealand  will get video rentals and purchases but no music.  Looking on zune.ca shows that Microsoft is using Zune as a service for video rental and purchase on the Xbox 360.  There is very little mentioned about the portable media players.  Even then, wouldn't Zune Marketplace customers also want to buy the songs as well, without having to deal with a third party online music store?  Some analysts no longer consider Microsoft to be a leading edge technology company, I wonder why?

Could Microsoft Get Shut Out Of Tablet Computing?

The introduction of Apple's iPad earlier this year has made tablets the fastest growing segment of the computer industry.  Multiple hardware manufacturers are said to be ready to launch competing tablet computing devices featuring Google's Android operating system by the end of the year.  HP is working on a tablet of their own running WebOS, the operating system HP acquired when HP bought Palm last year.  Research In Motion is also rumoured to be working on a BlackBerry tablet as well.  With all these tablets about to go head to head with the iPad, running different operating systems, one question is top of mind. Where is Microsoft in all this?  Where is their operating system for tablet computers?

Just before the announcement back in January when the iPad went from rumour to reality, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer in his keynote address at the Consumer Electronics Show, Ballmer announced that tablet computers running Windows 7 were on the way from HP, Dell, and other PC manufacturers.  Since HP bought Palm all the talk of a Windows 7 based tablets have vanished.  Potentially Microsoft could find themselves on the outside looking in if the tablet computer market takes off when more tablets from more manufacturers end up in consumers' hands.

Just shoehorning Windows 7 onto a tablet would be the wrong path to take to try to move into the tablet computing operating system market.  Despite calls from many tech industry analysts and journalists to put a full version of OSX onto the iPad, and went with iOS instead because Apple understands that a full sized computer operating system is just unworkable on a tablet.  The Windows Phone 7 OS and user interface would be much better suited for a tablet than a full version of Windows. 

Could it be that Microsoft executives are asleep and are just not seeing the potential that the tablet market holds, or are they consciously forfeiting the tablet market to Apple, Google, HP, and Research In Motion?

Canadians Deserve a Price Break on Game Consoles

One of the newest capabilities of new game consoles that has been talked about since the recent E3 convention isn't the new motion capture technologies from both Sony and Microsoft designed to compete to Nintendo's Wiimote and Nunchuk control system on the Wii.  The attention of many in the video gaming speculators and analysts ability to watch Hulu on the Playstation 3.and Xbox 360.  Hulu complementing the service for the consoles unveiled by online streaming video store Netflix last year.

This leaves Canadian Playstation 3 and Xbox 360 buyers paying the same price as American consoles but getting less functionality since both Netflix and Hulu have never been available in Canada.  Could Sony and Microsoft recognize that and offer some kind of price break for Canadians, of course they can.  Even a small price break even if it is five or ten dollars off the price of the systems would offer an olive branch to console buyers north of the 49th parallel.

Sony and/or Microsoft could work with content creators to secure the rights for streaming video content to create online stores to sell and rent online video and keep the profits for themselves instead of handing it over to Netflix and Hulu.  That would mean treating Canadian consumers like intelligent people who understand watching online video through legitimate means is better pirating.  Could Microsoft and Sony understand that? All signs are doubtful.

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Could Microsoft's Kin Phones Make It In Canada?

Next week, Verizon Wireless subscribers will be the the first to get new phones that implement Microsoft's new mobile phone strategy, out with the downscaled version of Windows, and in with an interface similar that used by Microsoft's Zune portable media players.  On the 13th the Kin One and Kin Two will be available through Verizon Wireless stores.  Both the Kin One and Two are both are slider type phones, that do more than a regular cell phone but not as much as a smartphone. 

According to leaked information obtained through some reverse engineering on other blogs, there are provisions in the Kin phones' operating system for both the CDMA version that Verizon will be carrying but also for a GSM version that will be compatible with both AT&T and T-Mobile.  For Canadian subscribers looking at the Kin as their potential next cell phone, the same information extracted from the firmware of the Kin shows Fido as the only Canadian carrier for the Kin.  That's not to say that Fido will have the Kin as an exclusive.  It would just take a Firmware update to add other carriers to the Kin, since Rogers owns Fido, Rogers could end up with the Kin as well.

Bell and Telus could carry the Kin as well, since their new HSPA networks are compatible with that version of the Kin that Fido and potentially Rogers would carry.  Bell and Telus' older CDMA networks are also compatible the version of the Kin that Verizon will be carrying but for their main branded services launching new CDMA handsets would be highly unlikely since a GSM/HSPA version of the phones would also be available.  If the CDMA version of the Kin ends up anywhere it would be on the discount brands offered by Bell and Telus.  The lineups of phones offered by Telus' Koodo Mobile and Bell's Solo Mobile are still CDMA.

The CDMA version of the Kin phones can also find homes at the smaller regional CDMA networks of MTS and Sasktel. Microsoft is trying to market the Kin phones as having a younger cool factor, it's the young cool phones that the regional carriers have been lacking for a very long time. 

Who Are The Potential Suitors For Palm?

Pioneering maker of PDA's and Smartphones, Palm is seeking to get bought.  There has been speculation about who would be a suitable buyer, since the announcements that sales of the WebOS based pre and pixi smartphones have been disappointing to tech industry observers and investors.  These companies have already been named as potential buyers looking to buy Palm:

Microsoft:  The big boys in Redmond are seen by some as a likely buyer for Palm mostly just to get another smartphone hardware manufacturing asset.  Additionally for Microsoft, buying Palm gets two competing smartphone OS's (Palm OS and Web OS) out of the way in advance of the release of Windows Phone 7 Series at the end of 2010. 

Google:  For the king of search also being the provider of the Andoid operating system, seen by many as the rising star of the cellular industry buying Palm would provide Google with Palm's large library of Patents.  With HTC facing lawsuits from Apple from Apple's claims that HTC's Android handsets violate Apple's patents.  With Google potentially on Apple's lawsuit hit list, owning Palm's patents would give Google some rear end protection.

Apple:  Buying Palm would bring former Apple engineers who worked on development of the iPhone who bolted from Cupertino to join Palm to create WebOS.  Apple would expand their own library of patents to use against the makers of other competing smartphone operating systems.  But that would make Apple a patent troll, not a maker of insanely great products.  Apple wouldn't do that, would they?

Those are the likely suspects but there are other tech companies would benefit from owning Palm and are most likely to be looking at bidding:

Nokia:  Nokia's Symbian OS based smartphones maybe popular in Europe, but has virtually no users in North America.  After Nokia's licencing fee scrap with Qualcomm half a dozen years ago Nokia found themselves vanquished from CDMA carriers.  Buying Palm would give Nokia a Smartphone operating system that have market share in North America and Palm's licensing agreement with Qualcomm wouldn't hurt ether.

Samsung or LG:  The big two from South Korea sell a lot of cells in North America, but attempts to make the leap to Smartphones have fallen flat.  Making WebOS phones for a lower cost, rather than having to buy Windows Mobile or Google's Android would be more attractive for cellular carriers who would not have to spend as much money on subidizing the cost of smartphones.

Amazon:  For one of the Internet's most successful online retailer, selling WebOS Smartphones would be a similar business model as the Kindle, buy content such as e-books and music on a device that people have to buy from Amazon.  Adding smartphones to the Kindle would help Amazon compete against Apple. 

Intel: Smartphones are going to be the largest segment of the devices with CPU's market in the next few years, and so far Intel is on the outside looking in.  Buying Palm would not just give Intel a smartphone hardware business, but an operating system that could be used to spotlight Intel's mobile CPU's

The sale of Palm is expected to happen very quickly, the interesting question is not when Palm will sell, but to who and for what purpose.

Five Badly Overpackaged Tech Products

For many of those who make modifications to their lifestyles to create a cleaner world in the days to years to come, choosing products with less packaging is one of the most important steps to decreasing the amount of waste going to landfills.  Many technology products however still come with more packaging that there needs to be.  Here's five products that technology companies still put into packages that are way too much.

1. iPod, Shuffle, Nano, and Touch: Look at the displays of portable media players in retail stores, and the shiny iPods in their plastic boxes are sure to leap out.  For every pair of Apple's iconic white earbuds seen just about everywhere there is a plastic box that once held that iPod sitting in a landfill somewhere.  The first generations of iPods came in a cardboard box.  Going to the clear plastic box to house iPods during their journey from the factory to the customers' hands was just to make the iPods look pretty on retail store shelves it serves no other useful purpose.

2. Cardboard DVD/BluRay Sleeves:  More often or not buying the latest movies on DVD or BluRay comes with a piece of packaging that serves no purpose and becomes waste just as fast as the shrink wrap comes off.  Many movie DVD's and BluRay discs come with a cardboard sleeve over the plastic protective case for the disc.  The graphics on cardboard sleeve are identical to the graphic on the insert sheet in the case and completely unnecessary.

3.  Microsoft Xbox Live subscription and points cards:  Players on Microsoft's Xbox Live online service need to pay to play online and pay for points to download add-ons for games such as extra levels.  Both the subscriptions and points are sold on plastic cards with codes on them which are redeemed online.  Buying the cards in electronics stores and in specialty video game stores the cards come attached to a cardboard backer card and the whole thing comes in a plastic blister pack.  Xbox live cards sold at convenience stores come without the blister pack, this at least gives consumers the opportunity to choose not to buy unneeded packaging.

4.  Microsoft Windows & Office:  Recent version of both Windows and office have come in hard plastic cases where retail packages for Windows and Office in the past was just a cardboard box.  While other software publishers have reduced the size of the boxes that their software is packaged in, Microsoft has made a similar reduction but has made an unneeded switch from cardboard to plastic. 

5. Printer ink cartridges:  The ink cartridges for most printers come in a sealed bag in a cardboard box.  Isn't it possible that the sealed bag could become the retail package and skip the cardboard box entirely?  It has been worse though, some ink cartridges also had a plastic blister pack to hold the cardboard box that holds the sealed plastic bag.  While it is encouraging to see those blister packs gone the cardboard boxes should go too.

For more information on decreasing the impact on the environment while using and enjoying technology check out the 25 Things Geeks Can Do To Go Green

What does Microsoft hope to do with a Zune Phone?

If a recent rumor coming out of Redmond is to be believed, Microsoft will attempt to prop up their floundering Windows Mobile and Zune products by marrying them together.  According to an entry on a blog on allthingsd.com Within two months from now ether at the mobile world conference in February or the Cellular Telephone Industry Association conference in March, Microsoft will announce a new smart phone running Windows Mobile 7 using a Zune style user interface.  The phones will be made by Microsoft and sold through a carrier (Verizon most likely)  While other handset makers will be able to make phones with Windows Mobile 7 the Zune style media player functionality will be exclusive to Microsoft's phone.

If Microsoft is hoping to compete with the iPhone, that ship sailed two and half years ago.  At best Microsoft can only expect to hold ground against Google's Android.  While Android has a better overall UI it hasn't been exactly been the strongest portable media player in a phone not made by Apple.  Microsoft needs the handset makers for Windows Mobile to survive, and given that Microsoft is has become a handset maker when they acquired Danger (maker of the well known and now infamous sidekick), and going further into making actual smartphones, that doesn't exactly give handset makers a reason not to defect to Android. 

News Corp's Stupid Gamble - Delisting From Google

Reports are surfacing that News Corporation is considering any offers for payment in exchange for de-listing it's newspapers and Fox news from Google News.  It is said that Microsoft is talking to News Corp about a deal where News Corp will make it's properties available through Microsoft's Bing search engine.  Bing's market share in search has fallen into the mid single digits after capturing 12 percent of all web searches when Microsoft launched Bing back in the summer.

For News Corp and other struggling news outlets the thought of the kind of money that Microsoft can bring to the table is at the very least worth considering, any such move to delist from Google may end up being hurtful in the end.  It's not just Google's web search market share of 80 percent or more that would make delisting from Google foolish to say the least.  People who use competing search engines often just use them as a second resort after searching Google first. 

A quick injection of cash from Microsoft may help News Corp in the short term, but in the long run sticking their online news properties on a search engine that is only capturing five percent of all web searches will rob them of the very thing that all online and offline media companies fight over, eyeballs.  Online advertising hasn't paid out the kind of money that media companies had expected, and people didn't pay to subscribe to online content.  Craig's List stole their classified cash cow, it's not hard to understand how traditional news outlets are struggling in the online age. 

Microsoft Plans to Offer Windows 7 Students For Cheap

For many years Microsoft has offered a reduced version of Office to students for a much lower price than the full versions of Office that Microsoft offers. Microsoft has announced that a similar student discount offer on operating systems when Windows 7 arrives in October. Instead of a reduced version at a reduced price, Microsoft will be selling the full version of Windows 7 Home Premium but the purchasers will have to provide proof that they are qualified college/university students. For 30 dollars students will get to directly download Windows 7 and burn their own installation DVD.

On the surface Microsoft makes the discount program as a way of providing cash strapped students a cheap way to get away from Windows Vista, but then again Microsoft chose a date to ship Windows 7 that's about month after college and university students hit the books for another year. Microsoft, more than any other software publisher knows how much software piracy happens on college and university campuses. Many of the hacks to circumvent the Digital Rights Management that Microsoft has built in to prevent piracy of the Windows operating system such as Product Activation and Windows Genuine Advantage came from computer science students.

Rock bottom academic pricing on operating system software has worked well for Apple in the past, somethine tells me that it won't work so well for Microsoft.

Zune HD Launch Delayed in Canada

September 15th is the date that all those who want a portable media player that does it all but don't want an iPod have circled on their calendars. That's when Microsoft's Zune HD arrives in stores. The Zune HD adds a touch screen and a web browser to the floundering line of portable media players from the big boys in Redmond.

Selling consumer electronics I see many memos and bulletins from the manufacturers and distributors of the products I get paid to sell. I have seen in print in a notice from a distributor that the Zune HD will not be launching in Canada on September 15th. The notice goes on to state that existing Zune hardware will be price to clear them out of retail stores. That essentially means that Zunes are being withdrawn from the Canadian market. The absence of the Zune in the great white North is said to be temporary. The Canadian Zune web site makes no mention of the Zune HD which further confirms the absence of the Zune HD in Canada.

Since the Zune marketplace online store has not been available to Canadian Zune owners since Microsoft launched the Zune in Canada about fifteen months ago. It is likely that Microsoft will try to negotiate with Canada's recording industry and relaunch the Zune sometime in 2010. Given that recording companies have been detesting Apple's pricing and distribution structure, they'd better make a deal with Microsoft.

Is the Zune HD a Matter of Do or Die for Microsoft

By Microsoft's standards, the Zune hasn't exactly been a success. In the two and half years since hitting the market what was once dubbed as Microsoft's iPod killer hasn't even come close to injuring the iPod. The original brown as you know what (UPS Trucks) captured 12 percent share of the portable music player market when it launched, but after upgrades to 80 GB and then 120 GB and then introduced 4 GB and 8 GB flash based Zune players, the market share has fallen to just 3 percent despite adding features such as an FM radio and WiFi syncing.

Microsoft is taking another at making shot at making a better Zune to attempt get back some market share. The Zune HD will come in two versions a 16 GB version and a 32 GB version which will come with a touch screen and a web browser. The HD moniker comes from the ability to display High Definition video using a docking station that hooks up to a HDTV (sold separately). The Zune HD also has an HD radio tuner which can play higher quality digital radio signals from compatible radio stations. (more info)

Selling the Zune has been a tough sell for Microsoft so far and there's nothing to say that the Zune HD will be any different. One of the problems that preventing public acceptance of the Zune is the fact that the Zune Marketplace music store is not available outside of the United States, The iTunes music store is one of the biggest reasons for the success of the iPods. Microsoft has been trying to apply the PC industry pricing structure to the Zune. Windows based PC's cost less than Macs which has lead to Windows being the dominate operating system in the PC industry. Zunes have typically been priced lower to comparable iPods many view iPods to be better than anything else and are willing to pay the extra cost.

Microsoft Kills OneCare and Offers It's Replacement For Free

After two years of offering OneCare, the security suite and capturing a tiny portion of the security software market, Microsoft has announced that they are pulling the plug on OneCare on June 30, 2009 to replace it with an anti-malware program code named Morrow in the second half of 2009.

Morrow is being promoted as a lightweight alternative to other security suites offered by Symantec or MacAfee. Morrow is targeted at people who have underpowered PC's or who are bandwidth impaired. Many more are expected to be attracted to Morrow because of the price that Microsoft has set for it, Free.

There have been free lightweight Anti-Virus programs such as AVG and Avast around for years, but Microsoft's Morrow will be the first from software maker that every computer user knows.

Microsoft isn't expected to bundle Morrow with the upcoming Windows 7 but the other makers of security software are going to have a problem competing with free. With a Democrat back in the White House it won't take very long for Symantec or MacAfee to cry Anti-Trust.

Microsoft's Xbox 720 Dilemma

In preparation for the next next generation console wars expected to start in 2010 or 2011, Microsoft announced that the third generation of Xbox console will be named Xbox 720. Some of the expected improvements over the Xbox 360 are faster frame rates, Dolby True HD digital surround sound and again the promise of better graphics.

Microsoft faces a dilemma when it comes to the media that games are distribuited on. Currently Xbox 360 games are distribuited on DVD however at 8.7 GB on a dual layer DVD that means Microsoft's competitor Sony's Playstation 3 can already hold more six times the data because it uses BluRay technology which can store 50 GB on a game disc.

Microsoft backed HD-DVD a couple of years ago and got the short end of the stick. Microsoft needs a new option for distribution media for any future generations of Xbox consoles. Somehow selling games on up to 6 discs may not be the best option. The idea of switching discs during installation or during game play only brings only one word to mind, cumbersome. Microsoft may have the option of licensing Blu Ray from Sony but Microsoft has already ruled that out.

Microsoft could try to revive HD-DVD by buying the intellectual property for HD-DVD from Toshiba. This would give Microsoft higher capicity media to sell games for the Xbox 720. Another option would be some kind of read only flash memory. That may banish loading screens to the history books but would add to the overall cost of games. Pumping out games on discs only costs Microsoft about a dollar per copy. Going to a flash memory would cost at least 20 dollars per copy.

Microsoft could forgo distribution media altogether and sell games online only, which would work well for those customers with an upper tier cable broadband connection or a Verizon Fios connection but for those with a 1Mbps DSL downloading 20 or more gigabyte Xbox 720 game would be an overnight download. Not what Microsoft would want to offer to to customers who want to buy now and play now.

There would be another downside to the paid download to sell the games and that would be the resentment that would foster to the retailers who would be expected to sell Xbox 720 consoles. What incentive would Wal-Mart have to sell Xbox 720 consoles if they didn't have the games to sell with consoles.

There is another two to three years before the Xbox 720 hits store shelves the decicion that Microsoft makes on distribution media is critical. The wrong choice would help Microsoft lose the title of console game market leader back to Sony or even back to Nintendo.

Steve Ballmer Wrong Again

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer has once again made another prediction that makes me start to think that it is possible to have one foot on their mouth while having their head stuck up another orifice. Ballmer predicts that Apple and RIM will Nokia will lose and Microsoft will win the battle of the Smart Phone operating systems according to a CNET News.com article.

Ballmer claims that because the competitors to Microsoft's Windows Mobile because they design proprietary hardware and tie it to proprietary software. In Ballmer's distorted view smart phones are just going to be like little PC's with most hardware manufacturers buying Windows Moble.

What goes to show that Steve Ballmer really has the blinders on is that he makes absolutely no mention about Google's Android which like Windows Mobile is designed to operate on just about any smart phone regardless of manufacturer.

Hardware manufacturers such as Motorola have have relied upon Microsoft's Windows Mobile to power their smart phones are now taking a serious look at releasing new phones that use Google's Android. While any Android phone may only join a line up smartphones that are powered by Windows Mobile, it's only a matter of time before smartphone manufacturers drop Windows Mobile and go Android only. Let's see what Steve has to say happens when Windows Mobile loses.