Free phones

Yep, MSFT will be giving away thousands of free Windows Phone 7 phones this fall. There is one minor catch, however.... you'll have to be a MSFT employee. MSFT wants to get as many apps as possible for the phones as quickly as possible and I guess they think having their own developers build the apps is the way to get there.

It will be interesting to see how long it takes to catch up with the number of apps available for the iPhone and Android phones. My educated guess is: NEVER!!!

CES 2011

The registration system for CES 2011 in Vegas is now open. I've already completed mine and have an approval in hand. Look out Lost Wages, I'll be back the first week of January!!

August newsletter

The August issue of our newsletter was sent out this morning. If you're not a subscriber just let me know and I'll add you to the list!

Another phone bites the dust!

Google made this announcement today:

"Earlier this year, we announced that we will be closing the Nexus One web store. This week we received our last shipment of Nexus One phones. Once we sell these devices, the Nexus One will no longer be available online from Google. Customer support will still be available for current Nexus One customers."

MSFT Office 2010

We finally received the blessing from MSFTs PR firm and we have been "approved" to review MSFT Office 2010 for our newsletter. You would think that MSFT would welcome as many reviewers as they can get considering the bad press they have been getting lately.

We've downloaded the code and will start an in-depth evaluation shortly. I really hope Office 2010 turns out to be a worthwhile upgrade. Personally I still use Office 2003 when I need to use a MSFT product but prefer other, far less costly, options.

iPhone problem

Apple has announced they are giving all iPhone 4 users a free case to try to fix the antenna problems that people have encountered. I guess that's a as good a resolution as were going to get.

Steve Jobs seemed down right testy when he spoke about the problem and denied ever being told that there might be a problem before the iPhone 4 shipped. Knowing how Apple operates I'm sure any engineer who knew about the problem would keep it quiet. Don't rock the boat is the real Apple motto.

Posts

I must apologize for the limited number of posts for the past month or so. Since the first week of June I've had more important responsibilities to deal with, two of my grandchildren. The kids are back home and I'm back to work so I'll try to have a new post every day from now on.

Steve Ballmer

I've read several pieces on Steve Ballmer of MSFT recently and I've got some thoughts to share. The CEA has announced Ballmer's keynote date and I'm wondering if he'll still be with MSFT or if he'll "step down" in order to spend more time with his (fill in the blank)".

MSFT has performed poorly since he took over for Bill Gates and Steve's failures have been enormous. The Kin phone, canceling their tablet project and the continued Windows/Office malaise. All you have to do is look at this chart to see how poorly he's doing.