Tim Marman's Loosely Coupled

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• The Enterprise, The iPhone, and the Role of Silverlight

  With its recent announcement to support ActiveSync on the iPhone , Apple is clearly going after the enterprise user. The problem, as Colin puts it, is that the decisions that consumers make decisions on a radically different set of criteria than organizations . Lack of Exchange support was surely holding back enterprise adoption, so that move was both obvious and inevitable. The fact that they are also supporting remote wipe is a bigger deal than most might realize too - security is a major concern for large enterprises, and for a long time Blackberry was the de facto device in large part because of this. (Windows Mobiles devices weren't allowed at my last job until the Remote Wipe feature was enabled). Fundamentally, I think we're moving to a model where enterprises are going to demand a certain baseline for devices to play in their garden. Features like over-the-air Exchange connectivity, remote wipe, and support for .NET, Java, and Flash are quickly becoming non-negotiable. It... Posted Mar 27 2008, 09:00 AM by Tim with | with 2 comment(s) Filed under: Technology, Rants, Gadgets, Microsoft, .NET, Enterprise, Apple, Programming

• Windows Home Server

  One of the more exciting announcements that many may have been missed in the iPhone haze last week was Windows Home Server . It's a headless Windows 2003 appliance that 1) backs up data from all computers on a network, 2) streams media, and 3) provides remote access to documents over the Internet. Alex and I had discussed doing something awhile back based on Microsoft Small Business Server 2003. In fact, Alex even have a virtual machine image created, where the OS was on one drive and all data was on another - in our case, on external flash storage. The three features above are great, but there are three other features we felt were core to such a system, and I'd love to see them addressed before this is released. First of all, a local mail server. I know they want people to use Live.com, but the fact is more and more businesses are blocking web mail. They mostly likely won't know, and thus won't be able to block, your home PC. Furthermore, the integration with Outlook with Live.com is not... Posted Jan 14 2007, 07:48 AM by Tim with | with no comments Filed under: Technology, Gadgets, Microsoft, Apple

• A look at Apple and Microsoft strategies

  I've been thinking about some of the interesting strategic decisions that Microsoft has made lately. I already discussed their curious IP licensing strategy , and their choices with Zune and Windows Media Player have me similarly baffled. In many ways, these moves have been something I expect more from Apple than Microsoft. Apple has always been known for delivering closed systems, controlling the experience from end to end. Apple software runs on an Apple OS on Apple hardware. Conversely, Microsoft has thrived largely because it has recognized the value in delivering not just products, but platforms. Office and Windows are both successful not just because of what they do as a product, but because they leave room for third party developers. It is those developers, not just Microsoft itself, that really enable a true ecosystem. Even the Xbox 360 has been a platform, not just for the media content providers, but now for the independent game developers. Given their history, it should come... Posted Jan 01 2007, 02:42 PM by Tim with | with 2 comment(s) Filed under: Rants, Gadgets, Things that amuse me, Music, Innovation, Business, Microsoft, Apple, Audio

• dopisp adds iPod support in WMP 11

  Like most people, I would prefer to use a single media player to manage my library. I like Windows Media Player 11 more than iTunes 7 , and this is especially true since I've subscribed to the Urge subscription service . (I really wish Apple would provide a subscription-based service for the iPod). The problem, of course, is that Windows Media Player still doesn't support the iPod - something I complained about in 2004 with WMP10 . As it turns out, someone finally wrote a plug-in to support the iPod in WMP ( via LifeHacker ). I downloaded the trial last night and will give it more time, but so far it seems to work very well. Assuming I can figure out a good way to handle podcasts, it is well worth the $15. Posted Dec 28 2006, 11:33 AM by Tim with | with 1 comment(s) Filed under: Technology, Gadgets, Music, Microsoft, Apple, Audio

• iTunes 7 vs. Windows Media Player 11

  One of the main reasons I prefer Windows Media Player to iTunes is that WMP monitors folders and automatically updates your library. In other words, if you add or remove folders on your hard drive, the changes are reflected in your library - automatically. For some inexplicable reason, iTunes doesn't do this. I had been using a wonderful little product called iTunes Library Updater to "fix" the library, but it's a manual process and one that really started to grate on me. While I really liked some of the new interface and features in Windows Media Player 11, the first beta was just too damn slow - but Beta 2 is MUCH, MUCH faster. The instant search works well, and the video interface is very nice and clean. The integrated Windows Media Connect is also a nice touch. People are raving about the changes in iTunes 7, so I decided to give it a go with my new 2nd generation nano. Paul calls it "the best software-based media jukebox [he's] ever used." The first thing I noticed is that they finally... Posted Sep 22 2006, 05:20 PM by Tim with | with 12 comment(s) Filed under: Technology, Gadgets, Microsoft, Video, Apple

• Another Apple tablet sighting... on Apple's site?

  Ok, I jumped the gun - maybe Digg isn't entirely useless . I just found this link to an Apple promotional picture . So, tell me - what is that guy writing in the front writing on? Sure looks like a Tablet to me, and I can't imagine Apple would feature a Windows device... And we know Apple needs a tablet . Posted Mar 21 2006, 05:24 AM by Tim with | with 4 comment(s) Filed under: Technology, Gadgets, Tablet PC, Microsoft, Apple

• Is there more to the Apple Tablet rumor than we know?

  Marc mentions Rob's post about the Apple Tablet rumors. According to Rob's source: I have no less than 5 sources saying an Apple Tablet announcement is due soon. Or something, as some of these press people (Apple diehards at that), who normally cared not about Tablets, and thought it was all just Microsoft vaporware, are suddenly so interested in the Tablet PC concept, and asking tons of questions. Pretty easy to read those tea leaves, so somethings up. What's perhaps more interesting is that this source also seemed to be on the money for the Intel announcement: And the Intel talks are for battery saving Sonoma-like Powerbook and Tablet tech, I'd heard this 3-4 weeks ago from 3 sources, and other sources talked as it just hit WSJ today. Everyone is speculating just ARM or Embedded hits per iPod or like, but I'd heard more for Powerbooks...etc. Time will tell, but it would be an interesting move indeed, especially in light of the move to Intel chips. How cool would it be if I I could buy... Posted Jun 14 2005, 02:35 PM by Tim with | with no comments Filed under: Technology, Gadgets, Tablet PC, Microsoft, Apple