by Conrad MacIntyre
By Conrad MacIntyre
The iPad-customized version of Microsoft’s Office software suite could soon be heading to Apple’s App Store approval team, after The Daily managed to spend some hands-on time with the new application and snap a photo of it running on an Apple device.
How much you wanna wager this sells like the proverbial hotcakes?
Even if Apple no longer considers Microsoft to be a 'threat' (which was probably intended to point out the differences in their approaches and userbase, rather than being an arrogant offhand remark), both of them are going to be working very hard to keep from being upstaged by the other and to provide the best experience they possible can.
I agree. This can only benefit consumers. I especially appreciate that Microsoft is taking a different approach than Apple is. Microsoft isn't full of idiots or anything. They are smart people, but the company is lazy and complacent. Maybe getting pushed around by Apple and Android in the mobile space has woken them up. This will be fun to watch.
Ina Fried:
Although they are doing it in different ways, Apple and Microsoft are aiming for a similar goal with their next desktop operating systems: To make the computer more like the phone.
Jim Dalrymple, in response:
There is a big difference between what Microsoft and Apple are doing.
Even a cursory knowledge of the two OSes should yield that conclusion.
Paul ‘Supersite’ Thurrott on the OS X Mountain Lion release:
There were absolutely no rumors to indicate such a release was coming, and given the timing, one can logically assume that Apple is trying to steal some thunder from Microsoft’s eagerly-awaited Windows 8.
Apple CEO Tim Cook to the Wall Street Journal:
I don’t really think anything Microsoft does puts pressure on Apple
Who to believe, who to believe…
I bet Mountain Lion ships well before Windows 8. But! While Microsoft has been trying to get Office and Windows Phone 7 out, Apple has been sitting on it's hands so… not really a fair fight.
Tim Cook:
“I don’t really think anything Microsoft does puts pressure on Apple.”
Buuuuurn!
(Via The Next Web)
Mark Shields, of Change.org:
At Foxconn, one of Apple’s biggest manufacturers, there is a history of suicides, abusive working conditions, and almost no pay. These working conditions are appalling, especially for Apple.
I suppose we can infer that such practices are okay for Microsoft and Nintendo (among many, many others at Foxconn and, elsewhere in China).
(Via Cult of Mac)
Also announced today: Internet Explorer on ARM machines will not have Flash support.
Ryan Kim, reporting Adobe's optimism 1 year ago:
This year, the company expects more than 132 million smartphones to have Flash Player installed, including 40 percent of all smartphones shipped in the first half of the year, while more than 50 tablets will ship or be able to download Flash Player.
Danny Winokaur, Adobe's Official Blog, four months ago today:
We will no longer continue to develop Flash Player in the browser to work with new mobile device configurations.
Anyone know any good Flash developer courses?
Apple’s iPhone business alone is larger than all of Microsoft’s businesses combined. And — just as remarkably — if you took away Apple’s iPhone business from the chart, the remaining Apple businesses would still be larger than Microsoft’s total business.
Wow. Who could have predicted this when Start Me Up was antheming in Windows '95? Ballmer didn't even see it coming six years ago.
Fresh off the leaked Windows Phone 8 news that seemed to signal the end of Zune as we know it, Microsoft has a new deal out that seems to paint a very different picture.
The new Zune will be less of a poo brown and more of a mud brown. Delightful.
Killean Bell (one of my favourite CoM cotruibutors):
Apple has made another addition to its team this week with a former Microsoft Product Marketing chief, Robin Burrowes, joining the ranks to become the head of App Store Marketing for iTunes Europe. Burrowes was previously part of Microsoft’s Xbox LIVE team, and he’s not the first gaming executive to head for Cupertino as Apple gets serious about battling consoles head on.
I think we all know what this means… Pippin II!
(via Cult of Mac)
Frank X. Shaw (Corporate Vice President, Corporate Communications at Microsoft):
“During the last week or so, there has been a fair amount of discussion about how Google is making some unpopular changes to some of its most popular products
....
You can see some of the concerns and worries about lack of choice and so on in these links. When we read the coverage last week, it was clear people were honestly wrestling with the choices that had been made for them and were looking for options or alternatives.”
Well, well, well.. how the turn tables...
(via The Next Web)
Ben Brooks agrees with Paul Robert Lloyd's well-reasoned argument that Facebook has become arrogant, then simply arrests:
[S]o too has Google, Apple, Microsoft, and RIM.
That's a lot of people to throw on the pile with no rationale behind it. Not saying he's wrong necessarily, but you need to back that kind of a statement up.
Firefox 10, Opera 11, Chrome 18 – These release cycles are crazy. Chrome 17 was released on January 5th, Chrome 18 came out 11 days later! And some of the release notes are mind-boggling. For Chrome 11.0, released last April 27th:
HTML5 Speech Input API. Updated icon.
That's it!? An new API and an icon update? That warrants a new x.0 release number? They're worse than Microsoft.
BSR, the company that the NYT used as a source for their shocking exposé on Apple said today:
There are several areas where the text you provided us is inaccurate and therefore presents an inaccurate account of events you aim to describe. It is untrue that Apple has consistently disregarded advice that BSR has provided about problems related to working conditions in its supply chain.
Also, Foxconn manufactures products for companies:
Bill Gates:
Steve was an incredible genius who contributed immensely to the field I was in.
Classy.
(via The Telegraph & Apple Insider)