InBox: Canon, Microsoft’s Music Plans, Weather.

“Only a few weeks old and already in dire need of a firmware update! Never quite right off the shelf, but always the “hope” of the next patch or upgrade fixing the problem no?  I have the new 20D and love it, I also have a Sigma SD9, and sure wish there was a combination of these 2 cameras, that would be the perfect one.”

“Apple can provide you with such an integrated and seemingly mystical experience because they make everything. this doesn’t have anything to do with good design or Steve Jobs having wam fuzzy feelings for each Apple customer.

It has to do with the the fact that it’s very simple to design one thing for one need. manufacturers on the PC side have to deal with hundreds of possible situations and come up with contingencies - a.k.a. the real world. the solutions are not always elegant, because the real world is not always elegant.”

“Apple, on the other hand, maintains absolute control over everything - including their resellers, their hardware, the majority of the software that most Mac users run each day. they’ve made it easy for themselves. as long as consumers can buy into the Apple fantasy, sure, they might have a better experience, but it’s not because Apple cares - it’s because they’re a dictatorship.  ”

“I, too, have stuck with the free version of WeatherPop, simply because (in general) it works! As long as I have a valid internet connection, WeatherPop has never failed to work, never given me strange errors, etc.  The other weather menu bar items I’ve tried have given me nothing but grief. And I don’t want weather in my dock, either.”

“Tera, I thought this was an effective and thought-provoking satire. It is interesting to contemplate that Microsoft does not yet perceive Apple as a danger, and as far as we know is not taking the type of drastic steps you dramatize. They should, but it would not change the fact that inevitably they will lose market share. In your fantasy, Microsoft comes off as a much more in touch and effective company than they are in real life.”

“It will probably hit them that they were too complacent at this critical juncture when it is far too late to do anything about it; Microsoft is not know for its corporate “agility"." “To some of those who responded, I say: lighten up. I guess some people have a hard time dealing with being fooled for any length of time, as well as some of the harsh truths that are pointed out here. I have to remind myself that some people just don’t have a sense of humor.”

“This is silly disinformation at best, worthless crap at worst. Beyond that though, even Microsoft just couldn’t come close to accomplishing all this stuff in that time frame.  Regardless of the resources they could throw at it, developing software is a time-consuming task.  You think Apple and RealNetworks are a bunch of chumps?  They spend years making stuff to kick Microsoft’s ass.”