Chances are that if you work in a stuffy, cold, stereotypical business, these super sweet Super Mario Brothers filing cabinets will never see your eye’s gaze. But if you happen to trudge through the daily grind in a bit more friendly environment, pat yourself on the back, because you can rock something just like this in your little space.
Paired with countless other SMB themed material, you could create one hell of a work/play space.
As I myself look for a new computer, I find myself pulled every which way trying to make sense of the non-sense that normally fills my head on top of spec sheet after spec sheet. What should I get? Well, if I want to save a buck or two I can enter “Mac Office Loves You and win a free Macbook Pro. Sweet. Who doesn’t love free, not to mention a shiny new Macbook Pro free? Answer: No one. The irony: It’s a giveaway by Microsoft.
I totally get the whole Office for Mac push (I hate iWork by the way), but giving away a free Macbook Pro even if it benefits Microsoft in the end run is still mighty comical if you ask me. Then again, Microsoft makes a lot more money on software than they do on hardware purchases. Of course, a Windows OS license costs a bit more than Office. Oh geeze. It can go both ways. What do you think, smart decision?
It isn’t too often we see a corporate minded gadget get us all hot and bothered. I mean, the differences between the corporate world of gadgets and the consumer world of gadgets are like comparing the a horse and buggy to flying cars. But every once in a while, a gem makes it’s way past our visual receptacles and excites us. In this case, it’s the CubeTube.
Everyone knows what a solar panel is and what it’s main function in life is — to recycle solar particles into usable energy for whatever plugs into it. An office uses a ton of energy but has generous amounts of worker bees crammed into tiny cubes, away from the outside world (and sun) meaning any solar advancements have to typically be thrown outside or on the roof of the business costing eye bleeding amounts of money. And we all know how giving your typical business is with modern tech. That’s where CubeTube comes in.
Taking solar recycling and giving it back to the people, the CubeTubes sit atop your cubicle or desk and actually draw the ambient light from indoor lighting — not solar/sun light — to recycle into usable energy. Color me thoroughly impressed yet skeptical. I mean, even the best solar panels have a pretty paltry efficiency rate with real sunlight let alone a few fluorescent lights. Are the photovoltaic cells really that good at their job? I simply don’t think so. Michael Trei of Dvice thinks the same too. Also, if these photo cells are so efficient with light (and can run off of indoor lighting no less), I’m pretty sure we would have seen a much larger media presence and more implementations already, wouldn’t you say?
In the end, I’m highly intrigued though still a fence sitter at this point. Unfortunately, we’ll have to wait until “sometime next year” before getting our hands on some. What do you think: Do these seem plausible or do you see “late-night infomercial” written all of this?
While those stuck reading this in some dimly lit, cold, and rank smelling cubicle may have nothing but malice and dissent for Microsoft Outlook as it takes up countless hours of their lives each day, people who actually choose to use it on the outside seem to think pretty favorably of it. Outside of the enterprise world, Outlook itself is a pretty decent desktop email client that can at least hold it’s own against many other desktop email clients from various software companies. But even in the consumer space, Microsoft Office still feels like it’s at work. That stodgy corporate image is hard to shake.
Last year, Microsoft announced that they would be rolling out a “Social Networking Connector” plugin for Office 2010 that would allow social networking sites to be more deeply integrated with the defacto corporate standard desktop email client. No surprise here, LinkedIn was the first to jump on the bandwagon seeing as how it is a Facebook of sorts for the corporate world. But LinkedIn integration is hardly going to pick up any worthwhile amount of consumer based users as most of those said users don’t use LinkedIn.
Consider that problem solved. Microsoft has officially announced that within the next few months, two new, big partners are joining the Office social frenzy — MySpace and Facebook. I’d say that by integrating two of the most consumer focused social networks into the corporate workhorse email client can only go up. That is, if the integration is deep (we don’t know yet), well laid out, and easy to use. If not, it will be an epic failure.
I hold out hope however, as I myself am one of those very people I outlined above — stuck in a cold, dark, dimly lit cubicle that reeks of old cheese and 1974. Now, the only question is if those who run the network I use will allow such social shenanigans to take place. At least in my case, I think not. But for the rest of the Office/Outlook using world, this new social madness is looking might nice.
Question: Will MySpace and Facebook integration keep you from leaving Outlook or even draw you in if you’ve never used it before?
Why would you want to pick up a copy of and install BlackBerry Application Suite on your Windows Mobile device? Well, if you wanted to give RIM’s BlackBerry OS a try without jumping fully on board, this would be a way to do so. It’s been quite awhile since the Application Suite was shown off on camera — many months to be exact. At that time, RIM themselves mentioned that both BES and BIS versions were coming. See as how this leak is an unofficial release, the lack of a “complete” package isn’t too surprising.
If you’re feeling lucky, head on over to xda-forums to score yourself a copy of the Application Suite.
As you wait to for page to load, there’s a few things you should know. Namely, this leaked version is the BES version meaning you’ll have to have access to a BES server or else it won’t work. Period. Second, the OS that you’re emulating is of the 4.5 era (according to BerryReivew) — hardly new or exciting anymore. While I don’t necessarily discredit BerryReview’s claims, if the image displayed on the image above — which was pulled from BerryReview — is the ApplicationSuite, it looks more like 4.6+ to me as no 4.5 devices had the newer BB Precision theme. It could be a special skin for 4.5 and the Application Suite though. In the end, BlackBerries are BerryReview’s thing. So more likely than not I’m in the wrong. Anyone care to chime in and set me straight?
So far a few WinMo users have chimed in saying they got the App Suite up and running on a Windows Mobile 6.5.x ROM and all was well except not having access to a BES server. Even for users not on 6.5, you should be pretty well off regardless. Let us know how it goes.
Looking to pick yourself up a fresh copy of Microsoft Office or Word ’07 versions? Hope you have a fresh copy backed up somewhere (or know a good torrent) because Microsoft has missed the January 11th deadline. That deadline mind you was the date in which Microsoft had to comply with a court ruling which accused them of infringing on certain XML code within Word/Office ’07.
Strolling through Microsoft’s online store will currently bombard your ocular cavities with several “Not Available” labels. Not exactly the best outcome for a multi-billion dollar company trying to drastically improve their faltering image. Oh well, there’s always next year right?
One would think that a multi-billion dollar company would have the intelligence and know how on pushing out clever and insightful ads showcasing the companies talents and achievements. At the very least, if hiring an ad company, one could be led to believe that the ad company would at least dot it’s eyes and cross it’s t’s. In the case of the latest secret agent-esque Microsoft Office commercials, someone missed a couple of i’s and t’s.
While Office is the main deal behind the ad below, having Microsoft loot throughout seems like a no brainer. Apparently, BlackBerries are better secret agent tools than Microsoft’s mobile offering if we’re to take the commercial seriously. At the end of the day, it seems to just be a careless oversight. Well, at least I would hope it was an oversight as any intentional showcasing of your competitors products can’t be good for business.
And so I bring you the latest marketing flub of 2010: The Microsoft Office/BlackBerry conundrum.
Not even 24 hours ago we heard the news that Microsoft lost their appeal to i4i — a small XML developers firm — and that the presiding judge decided to uphold the January 11th ban on Microsoft ’07. Yesterday the two most obvious choices for Microsoft were to pay up and forget about it or appeal again, risking losing more money and another court case. Microsoft however is choosing plan c. Plan C is simply selling new versions of Word ’03 and ’07 without the infringing and “little-used feature” according to Microsoft.
With respect to Microsoft Word 2007 and Microsoft Office 2007, we have been preparing for this possibility since the District Court issued its injunction in August 2009 and have put the wheels in motion to remove this little-used feature from these products. Therefore, we expect to have copies of Microsoft Word 2007 and Office 2007, with this feature removed, available for U.S. sale and distribution by the injunction date. In addition, the beta versions of Microsoft Word 2010 and Microsoft Office 2010, which are available now for downloading, do not contain the technology covered by the injunction.
While Microsoft will escape the dreaded ban hammer on their bread and butter Office Suite, they will also still be responsible for a $240 million payment as awarded by the first judge and upheld by the second. That payment however is still up in the air as Microsoft has stated they are pursuing other legal options. We shall see…
Fighting a losing battle and getting stuck in a vicious black hole of denial seems to be the name of the game for Microsoft. A month or so back Microsoft found a fresh lawsuit on their doorstep compliments of i4i. The infringing code revolved around Microsoft’s use of protected algorithms dealing with the handling of .xml, .docx, and .docm files in Microsoft Office — more specifically Microsoft Word 2003 and 2007. Not surprisingly Microsoft appealed — and they lost, with the court ordered Office ban going into effect as originally planned on January 11th.
Microsoft does have a couple more options. A second appeal is all but certain. After a likely second (third if you count the original lawsuit) failure, Microsoft can always just shut up and pay up. I can understand wanting to protect your pride and fighting for your beliefs, but after losing twice in court, I’d seriously take a look at how much the lawyers are costing the company as well as what any settlement cost would be.
And companies wonder where their money goes…
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