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Microsoft has created a truly great media multimedia device in the Zune.   It exceeds the media capabilities and quality of the classic touch versions of the IPod but there’s a problem and Apple and others have already figured it out while Microsoft has not:

The days of the media player are as dead as the Sony Walkman.

The iPod Touch, droid, and iPhone are all platforms that support gaming, GPS, internet, and communications (of all types).   In the meantime, Microsoft is still supporting Windows, Windows Mobile, xBox and Zune as seperate but connected platforms.

What it needs to do to dominate is consolidate these sperate platforms into a unified vision and brand that works seemlessly with Windows, Linux and Mac.

Zune while far superior in ergonomic design, display quality, and software integration with Windows can’t compete with the smart mobile devices available today.  Windows Mobile 6.5 is a huge disappointment and devices like the droid skyrocket and surpass their sales in mere weeks of launch.   Why is this?  Some aspect is hype but  the deep reason is functionality.  Within weeks of launch there are nearly twenty thousand (20,000) applications for droid.   Zune HD – Launched in late summer and still there are less than 12 – That’s TWELVE.

DUH

Want to win?

By next July here’s what Zune has to do and by the end of 2010 you’ll have real marketshare:

• Kill Windows Mobile 7.0 NOW
• Leverage Microsoft brand recognition and create a unified marketing direction for consumer portable devices
• Seemless integrate this device with Windows Media Center on xBox and Windows 7
• Provide a compelling Mac experience
• 3G Phone capability AND skype
• Improve the browser
• Put an application store on Zune
• Support Java and .Net development for applications
• Make it easy to choose
• Keep all the great stuff you have now

Want more information on the MS SharePoint Conference 2009?

Twitter Search #SPC09 or follow me @WebGuyNJ

Although its not shipping yet – Sharepoint 2010 is an extremely hot topic this week in Las Vegas – no pun intended.

It made top 5 trends on Twitter this morning as more than 15,000 tweets went out of the Keynote address.   Here are some of the highlights as I saw them.

Search – Now scalable and recoverable without a single point of failure.

Development – Integrated with Visual Studio 2010 allows building deployments and deployment from within the VS UI.  Developer dashboard built into sharepoint.  Sandboxing that allows what can be deployed and when.

Data Services – Bind live SQL data as site content types

Governance – Content types and Meta data traverse sites, site collections, web apps and farms.   Inhernent tages, ratings and Social Networking tie ins

UI – Ribbon bar, Live oin browser WYSIWYG site editing

Upgrade – Simplified and fixed major SNAFUs from the 2007 bsituation where site owners get to choose when they get the new features and UI

Sitting in SharePoint Joels session right now.

Here’s a cool feature I found by accident this morning in Windows 7.   It only applies if you have a multi-monitor configuration and I’m not sure if its a Vista feature or not.  Select any application and Press Shift-WindowsKey-Left Arrow or right arrow and the entire window moves from one monitor to another.  Supper easy to re-organize your overall desktop or of you monitors are different resolutions to see more or less of the application.

Its been a long time since I posted anything anywhere but a lot has changed and some developments have started me thinking that it is time to start expressing opinions about these changes.  Here are some of the things that are making me think this way.

• Windows 7 and the Vista Marketing Fiasco
  • Cool little things about Microsoft Products
• SharePoint and Office and why these are great together and what does this whole social networking thing offer to business anyway
  • Scripting
  • SharePoint implementation and the unexpected acceleration of adoption
  • Governance why is something so important so difficult?
• Google
  • Some of their recent announcements (OS and wave) What’s hype and what’s not
  • Should anyone be concerned about privacy with Google
  • Dependence on Google as  a single source provider?
• Apple Zealots and the iPhone
  • Why does everyone think that there wasn’t a mobile platform before Apple
  • Security and Viruses
  • Why Apple is great for the industry
• Cloud Distributed Computing – Why the word cloud is so appealing is beyond me and why I avoid it.
• Just cool stuff

I’m planning on writing some longer articles over the next few weeks and a few short blurbs as well.   I want to seriously start writing again and rebuild some communication skills that I haven’t exercised as much as I should recently and see what happens.

I think I’m also going to make an investment is some video equipment to do video blogging like Mike Gannotti.  With more than an hour a day in the car, there’s no reason to waste that time.

I’ll probably highlight some of the blogs I read on a regular basis as well.

This is a a tall order and I hope I’m up for it.   Let’s see what happens

I try to do a lot of home based projects.   Everything from painting, to building, to stonework and cabinetry.   I collect a few tools to do these jobs but you can never have enough of certain things.    Here are a few items I need to round out my tools for the projects I currently have on my list to complete:

• A high quality stacked dado set
• Cyclone dust collection system like this one or this one
• Larger band saw 14″ w/a 2HP motor
• Shelves, shelves, and more shelves
• An extension table for my JoinTech SawTrain system

In August of 1990 we moved to this home in Hope, New Jersey.   At the time we were told the house was about 100 years old.   After 15 years in the home we decided that it was time to move on to a slightly larger home and the house has now been for sale for a while.  Anyone interested should look on the Burgdorf website and cross linking this post on several historic home sites.

As we lived there we cleaned, upgraded and restored many features of the house and over time discovered that the home was significantly older than we had thought.  Although I haven’t dome complete deed and title search on the home I can tell you based on construction and details uncovered during restorations that the home dates back to at least 1816, but I am sure that the core construction is significantly older than that.  

I think sometimes that I have too many interests…   Anyway on the home theater from here are the top three things I am looking for…

• Nice Home Theater Receiver with upmixing to Component or HDMI.   It must have home network MP3 streaming capability.   It should have some DSP optimization tools.
• A HD display capable of 1080p and at least 56″.  Top considerations are Samsung thin DLP, Sony XSRD.
• The last item doesn’t exist yet.   I want HD Tivo for DirecTV.

Not to much

Chris Angel the illusionist swallows a coin that is marked by an observer and then cuts it out of his arm.   What devilry is afoot here?

I think fake skin and rare earth magnets are definitely involved, but how does it get from inside his mouth to inside the fake skin pocket?