Sad. But true. I can’t believe this is still happening in 2020. This article mentions that Microsoft had a bad experience with forcing users to use their product before. It is shocking that they would try to do this again. Especially when Apple is now doing the exact opposite.
And I’m not surprised that some angry Windows users are already railing against the fact that this came as part of a forced Windows update, which Microsoft has already had a damn hard time justifying without invading people’s desktops as well. It’s going to be harder to buy the argument that forced updates are necessary for security when they’re pulling double-duty as an intrusive marketing tool.
I have been trying to get the new version of Outlook to work on my MacBook Pro for about as long as I can remember. We use an older version where I work and I have always wanted to try the newer shinier version. You know, because I am a geek.
This morning I had a revelation concerning settings and I tried it.
It worked.
The new version seems pretty cool.
Now, if we could only do something about Communicator…
The caveat – I love using One Note. I think it is one of the best apps that Microsoft ever made.
The problem – Microsoft does not understand sharing, what it truly means, and why clamping the file down to the computer that created it is a bad idea.
I’ll elaborate. There are certain times when I do not want data I create for work purposes to be solely on the work machine I created it on. Why not, you may ask? Excellent question. Sometimes it can be a security issue where I may not entirely trust our IT department to back up the data or more often than not, I just want to have access to that information from various devices. I could be out at the mall and get a call from work that requires that I look at some of my data. It has happened more often than one might expect.
One Note is not friendly to this type of use. I cannot create the notebook in Dropbox and then use their app to see that notebook across platforms. That is not sharing. For instance, I’ve created a great notebook on my work computer which is a Surface Pro but I can’t access that notebook on my MacBook Pro. I know that I should be able to. That isn’t the reality.
I’m sure tons of techie folks will challenge what I’ve said. Whatever you suggest will never make One Note work the way I think it should.
I noticed a small issue with Outlook 2010. I use it at my day job. If I compose a message but decide not to send it, I’ll choose to delete the draft. Outlook marks the message as “unread” and then puts it in the trash.
Because I may suffer from a touch of OCD, seeing that there was an unread message in my trash bothered me.
The follow picture is a building I have constructed in Minecraft. I sealed up the building when I created it. The only way inside is by going through doors you have to open (they are not automatic). My question is how do horses end up on top of my structure? There is no logical way for them to be up there and yet, there they are.
Of course, I am keeping my eyes on this one. The official release of the new xbox gaming console will be later this year. Novemberish? Microsoft has an official site.
There are a few sites that are offering up more details. Links below.
The Mac operating system has changed over the years but not in very dramatic ways. In fact, anyone who has used OS 9 will know exactly how to use OS X. If you have used Tiger (10.4) then you can use Mountain Lion (10.8) without much todo or fanfare.
Steve Jobs knew that tablets were the future of computing and built the entire Mac eco-system around that idea. The features you find in iOS are readily becoming available in Mac OS X. This is deliberate.
What Microsoft is doing with Windows 8 is try to bridge a gap that has been building over a period of years. They are trying to jump ahead to a point that they were not preparing for. While Windows dabbled in touch screen interfaces, they saw something that was really “cool” but didn't really know how to apply it and use it to their advantage. I remember seeing Vista for the first time and listening to Microsoft tell me how awesome it was and was going to become. I also remember yawning and noting that all of those “cool new features” had been in Mac OS X for months or even years.
I am willing to bet (without having read the entire Steve Jobs biography) that Steve saw an episode of Star Trek The Next Generation's use of the PADD and snapped his fingers. I don't doubt that for a second because after watching the show, I myself wanted such a device. Man, the things you could do with a tablet computer! Steve Jobs did the same thing with the Xerox interface. While Xerox may not have fully understood what they had, Steve Jobs did. That is vision.
That is what Microsoft doesn't have.
This version of Windows is such a big jump from Windows 7 and so confusing to such a large base of users that this whole thing simply “smells” bad. Big jumps in OS are usually bad for consumers. I haven't even mentioned IT folks that may end up abandoning Windows in the workplace all together. They will have to weigh training hours, troubleshooting time, and costs against other alternatives that are much cheaper and offer less of a shock to their users. Let's face it. Windows in the workplace is expensive.
Windows 8 is such a big jump that it would be like paying someone to shoot you in the face if you are an IT guy.
