What Can I Say, I Have a Sweet Tooth For Schadenfreude

So no one is biting on the price of Microsoft’s Surface Pro:

Microsoft is discounting its Surface Pro tablet this weekend, following heavy reductions to its Surface RT costs recently. The 10 percent price cut to Surface Pro reduces the cost of the 64GB and 128GB models by $100 each in the US.
As I’ve said before, I don’t watch sports. I watch design and technology and Apple is my team. This doesn’t mean I can’t call out Apple when they mess up. Like when they launched their shitty maps in 2012 (they’re still pretty useless to me in cities like San Francisco and New York where I need subway/bus directions). Or when my iMessages don’t show up in chronological order on my Macbook.
Back to Microsoft. Last fall they tried to “pivot” and move from being a company focused on desktop software to one that can do desktop software and consumer-focused mobile software with Windows 8/Metro/Not-Called-Metro OS and mobile hardware with Surface RT and Surface Pro tablets.
I said the whole thing sounded half-baked (John Gruber agreed).
The Surface tablets are almost a year old, and they’re still looking half baked. In fact, at this point I’m not even sure Ballmer knows how to use the oven. It doesn’t matter. Not only is Microsoft sticking with their Windows 8/RT/Surface pivot, but they’re raising the stakes and making it even more pivot-y by reorganizing the whole company. (For what it’s worth I was talking with some ex-Microsofties a few weeks ago when I was in Seattle and I asked them what they thought of the reorg-pivot-y-goodness. They laughed.)
I laugh too. The same way I laughed at Windows Vista, the brown Zune and the Kin (you totally forgot about the Kin, didn’t you?). I also laughed at Steve Ballmer, when he laughed at the iPhone in 2007.
I laugh at Steve Ballmer and the team he’s mismanaging (even more so than Bill Gates) because Microsoft is a company built to sell software to companies. They’ve never understood how to sell software or devices to human beings with emotions.
Yes, the XBox has been a phenomenal success, but if Microsoft relied on their Entertainment division to carry the company, their upper management would probably all jump off a bridge. If you’re wondering how much money the Entertainment division makes for MS it’s not much.
Maybe I shouldn’t be filled with this much schadenfreude because at least Microsoft did try to pivot with Windows Phone 7 & 8 and Windows 8 but it’s clear people and businesses are not nearly as excited about Microsoft’s new products as Microsoft is.
I recently asked my father, who’s been a Windows user since it debuted in the 80’s, if he was planning on upgrading to Windows 8. He told me, “no way.” He said he’d likely get an Apple computer the next time he needs to upgrade. I think that’s telling. You could argue that he’s older and doesn’t “get” Windows 8 and he’s not the target demographic for Window 8, but all demographics are buying iPhones and iPads so clearly Microsoft is doing something wrong. Or maybe they’re ahead of their time. I’m serious. Ok, I’m not.
I’ve read some articles saying the XBox One is Microsoft’s last chance to gain a foothold in the consumer electronics space.
I doubt it.
What I do know is schadenfreude goes down smoooooth.

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Technology

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Oh Really?

BGR: Frost & Sullivan: Apple is ‘too late and too limited’ to tackle automotive market:

Well known business consultant and market research firm Frost & Sullivan recently issued a report that claims Apple’s move to take on the automotive infotainment market with Siri and iOS 7 is “too late and too limited.” Apple announced this past June that it will introduce deeper Siri integration with in-car systems when it releases iOS 7 this fall, but Frost & Sullivan thinks Apple’s move into the space will never amount to much.
Too late and too limited?
If you say so.
But I say you’re wrong.

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Vehicle

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Designers & Gigs

There’s a great discussion on Quora on, Why is there such a stunningly short supply of designers in Silicon Valley right now?
All the responses are insightful, including Mike Davidson’s:

This is not a supply problem. It’s a demand problem. There are more talented designers in the world right now than there have ever been; more than enough to supply all of the startup ideas that are actually good ideas.
As well as Willie Lim’s:
Designers are not only short in supply because of demand. Designers who can cope with the quick, ever-evolving demands of the technological landscape are rare to begin with.
The technical skills required just to be considered for a visual design position are high in today’s world and the positions available in the Valley aren’t always compelling to the sophisticated designers they’re looking for.
The elusive “rockstar” designer you’re looking for isn’t interested in playing on piece of wood with a few wires stretched across it. Unless of course you’re Jack White and then you start your own band.

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Career

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A Zero-Button Mouse

John Carmack from ID Software shares his thoughts on the new Kinect for XBox One at Quakecon, calling it, “A zero-button mouse with a lot of latency on it.”
As someone who’s currently working on an application for XBox One, I’ve seen the v2 Kinect firsthand, and that’s a spot-on analogy.
Kinect, at least in it’s current form, is still half-baked.
It’s also tiring and not gratifying to stand around and wave your hands with no haptic feedback. Kinect is one of those technologies that seems awesome in concept and in movies like Minority Report.
The reality is something different.

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Human Experience

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Scoop of All Scoops

BGR has unearthed leaked photos of Apple’s next-gen iPad:

FanaticFone has just published fresh pictures of the next iPad’s rear shell and has found that its frame measures in at 24 centimeters by 16.8 centimeters, which is slightly smaller than the current-generation iPad that measures in at 24 centimeters by 18.6 centimeters. FanaticFone also notices that “the distance between the border and screen of the iPad 5 is much shorter than the former iPads'” and now measures at 3 millimeters…
The distance between the border and screen of the iPad 5 is much shorter than the former iPads!
Sweet fancy Moses!*
Talk about a scoop.
I’ll need some time to process this.
*hat tip, George Costanza, again.

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Product

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