Mitchell Ashley

iPhone, Google Android phones, Windows 7 Mobile, SmartPhones, etc... More cellular data bandwidth is always better, right? If you can get an unlimited plan, that's better right? Maybe, if you're willing to pay for it...and now, only if your wireless carrier offers it. AT&T, and others like Verizon, are starting to reign in the unlimited usage plans in favor of plans priced on bands of usage, giving the carriers the ability to capture additional revenues and reign in high data usage.

Whether it's fact or Internet folklore, we've all heard rumors that iPhone data usage on AT&T's wireless significantly exceeded plans or expectations. It's hard to know for sure but eliminating the unlimited usage plan for new accounts is a pretty good indication. I have to ask myself, what is it about the iPhone that's driving up bandwidth usage?

Microsoft's Ray Ozzie significantly blew past the basic Exchange, SharePoint and SQL database hosting services with the Azure announcements at PDC 2009 yesterday. The announcements also blow right past Amazon EC2 and targets Microsoft at Google, Force.com (Salesforce.com's cloud), OpSource and others offering hosting on demand, web services and bus interconnection services in the cloud. Microsoft peeled back last year's Azure onion, showing us how Microsoft wants to do much more than just offer computing platforms or hosted Microsoft products.

There were three significant parts of the announcement that most interested me. First was AppFabric, which is Microsoft Azure's way of interconnecting to services in the Azure cloud, or through the Azure cloud to other services connected to Azure.

Windows 7, it's here! Well, it's actually been here since PDC 2008 in some form or fashion, but Windows 7 has reached its official launch day. You've heard about the new taskbar, you've heard it's more stable and faster than Windows V(ista) (I don't want to say the V word anymore.) Windows 7 starts up, shuts down and sleeps faster, it doesn’t have all the junk loaded in it Windows V had, and Microsoft's finally tamed UAC enough that it stays out of the way.

But now that Windows 7 has officially launched and everyone can have the real thing, what are the coolest and most beneficial things about it. What should you try first as you take Windows 7 out for a spin? Here are some of the more useful, and not as well known, enhancements in Windows 7 I think you'll enjoy.

When Microsoft announced the death of OneCare, I had a pretty good suspicion that wasn't the last we'd heard from Microsoft about anti-virus software. Microsoft doesn't just suddenly, for no reason, drop out of markets. Rather they stay at it until three or four versions down the road when they finally get it right. With OneCare canceled (a pretty decent product, I thought), the most likely move would be to give it, or some form of the anti-malware software, away. That's how we got Microsoft Security Essentials available for free, (later) today.

More than just photos are leaking out about Courier, Microsoft's booklet sized tablet currently in development. Gizmodo has a video showing the Courier's user interface in action. The Gizmodo video is on YouTube (see below) and you should also check out Gizmodo's article about it. The second video looks at an earlier engineering prototype called Codex, also with very early UI design ideas. Courier looks to be the digital equivalent of your calendar, address book, notebook, photos and access to the web -- kind of like an "iPhone meets notebook and pen" device.

While the Courier does use gestures and multi-touch commands, probably the biggest question that popped up for me is whether the pen interface (digital ink) is the right choice for the job. Is the pen interface something that belongs in the Tablet PC era, but not in new touch interface devices? Part of me says the pen's a good idea because that's how we are used to capturing information in our notebooks.

I'd hate to think exactly how many times I've installed some version of Windows 7 since its debut back at Microsoft PDC 2008. There was the Windows 7 pre-public beta (that didn't have the new UI and menu bar), the Windows 7 public beta, the Windows 7 RC and the Windows 7 RTM. On my daily use laptop alone I've installed each of these Windows 7 versions, some more than twice. Then there's all the Windows 7 installations I've done under Hyper-V and on test machines prior to using them myself. So let's conservatively say I've probably installed Windows 7 at least 8 or 10 times (but it's probably more like 15 or 20.)

Now Microsoft is saying it can take anywhere from a half hour to 20 hours to install a fresh copy or do an upgrade in place, respectively. If you are upgrading from XP, well, you've probably got the longest road ahead of you and frankly would probably be better off doing a fresh install in my opinion anyway. When I can, I'll go the fresh install route most times.

I'd hate to think exactly how many times I've installed some version of Windows 7 since its debut back at Microsoft PDC 2008. There was the Windows 7 pre-public beta (that didn't have the new UI and menu bar), the Windows 7 public beta, the Windows 7 RC and the Windows 7 RTM. On my daily use laptop alone I've installed each of these Windows 7 versions, some more than twice. Then there's all the Windows 7 installations I've done under Hyper-V and on test machines prior to using them myself. So let's conservatively say I've probably installed Windows 7 at least 8 or 10 times (but it's probably more like 15 or 20.)

Now Microsoft is saying it can take anywhere from a half hour to 20 hours to install a fresh copy or do an upgrade in place, respectively. If you are upgrading from XP, well, you've probably got the longest road ahead of you and frankly would probably be better of doing a fresh install in my opinion anyway. When I can, I'll go the fresh install route most times.

Got a cool smart phone? Here's a list of apps that are just as smart

TweetDeck

Everyone wants to take their shot at what's wrong with Microsoft these days so here's mine. Ribbon menus. I've long detested Microsoft's ribbon menu user interface. The biggest issue is what you once knew how to do, you now have to find again (and again). The net gain being a big net loss in productivity. How many of us have spent 2, 3, 5 or even more minutes trying to find some menu item that seems hidden on one of the ribbon tabs. I'm not trying to be a stick in the mud about it, I generally like trying new ideas but ribbon menus and me just don't seem to get along. To add insult to injury, enter Outlook 2010 and Windows 7 Paint.

Now in Office 2010, the application I probably spend 80-90% of my general computer usage time in, Outlook, has ribbon menus. Ribbon menus. These things are like Tribbles.

I regularly use both Windows and Mac PCs, so any comments that I've never used a Mac are bunk. I've been using Windows 7 since before its public beta release at the first of this year. I use my Mac for video editing, iPhone development, etc. I love all of my computers equally -- my Windows PC, my Mac and my Linux servers. They all do what I ask them to do very well, and I have things about each that I like and things I don't.

Artwork: Chip TaylorBut frankly, the differences in the Windows 7 and Mac OS X platforms from a usability standpoint are pretty much nil. Windows 7 has simplified much of the complexity introduced in Vista and made Windows a very clean and easy-to-use OS. I would even go so far as to predict that the days of Apple trampling all over Windows in the "I'm a Mac" commercials are pretty much over. Not to say Apple won't go after Windows 7 as soon as Windows 7 has some vulnerability or issue Apple can exploit in a TV commercial. I'll grant, too, that Apple still has its "cool" factor and Windows isn't like to encroach on that. But Windows 7 is not only a "good enough" operating system, it is so much better an OS and user experience that Apple will have to think hard before using the same advertising tactics that worked so well on Vista.

Kevin Turner, Microsoft COO, is claiming Apple lawyers called him requesting Microsoft stop running the "laptop hunter" ads based upon outdated pricing information. Apple recently updated their laptop line and lowered some of their prices, something that was much needed as Apple's prices were a step above the price improvements we've been seeing.

So, with Apple's price drops, are the Microsoft ads inaccurate or is their premise still true, that there's an Apple tax making Apple's computers more expensive than those from Windows OEMs? I suspect there is still an Apple tax but I've not seen any updated comparisons showing if there's a gap, and how much it might be.

The surprises from Microsoft just keep coming. The most interesting aspect of this week's Microsoft Office 2010 announcements was that the online web version of Office 2010 apps will be free. That's free from three perspectives; free to users with a Windows Live account, free Microsoft hosted Office Web apps, and free customer hosted Office Web apps for Microsoft Software Assurance enterprise customers. Free, free, free. Only SMBs who opt for Office 2010 web apps instead of buying regular Office software will have to pay extra, some estimate at a comparable (to Google Apps Premier Edition) $50 price. It may not be $50 but I'll bet that's not too far off.

Yes, Office 2010 web apps will be lesser functional cousins of the full software versions, but there's a good chance many will be able to make use of the web versions of Office, otherwise why would Microsoft bother offering it for free to Software Assurance customers, and in a paid version targeted at SMBs? I expect one of the biggest pluses of Office web apps is their integration with SharePoint 2010, giving the apps a full backend data store to organize and access documents, and an integrated experience via a SharePoint portal. Office web apps gives SharePoint an extra leg up on the competition, by embedding a much richer set of apps into the portal software, vs. the standard web page editing form nearly all other portal and wiki technologies rely upon.