It’s been over a month since the Lauren & Giampaolo campaign struck a nerve on most Americans where the cheaper computer system is the better choice for you and for your family. You might not be cool enough for a MAC, but definitely you are good enough for your family’s welfare especially in today’s landscape where the global crisis is affecting everyone on the this planet.

In an excerpt:

Under Steve Jobs, Apple has almost always sought to position the Mac as an antiestablishment high-end computer, a computer for those who “think different” and get excited by their computers. Price is not a consideration for those willing to think different.

The only thing the PC industry is excited about right now are Netbooks, which they fail to mention are eroding their margins even more than they have already been eroded after decades of price wars. And now Microsoft is once again driving the price message, training consumers to expect ever lower prices from their computer salesperson.

Apple, meanwhile, with the best margins in the personal computer industry and two highly profitable consumer electronics products funding its growth, has now had its marketing message of the last two years–Macs are better than PCs–amplified by its rival’s message–PCs are cheaper than Macs.

In Tom Krazit’s last paragraph, he writes that the world needs Kias while the world wants BMWs which further cements that MACs are an aspirational product. I do not agree that MACs are an aspirational product because my aspiration is a $ 6,000 USD dollar Alienware laptop that would pop my eyeballs everytime I use it. Ok, $ 6,000 dollars is a high aspiration.

Go ahead and read the article here.

Windows 7 Reviews: Radically Different Early Opinions Surface (CIO)
With Windows 7, Microsoft learns from its mistakes (TheGlobeandMail)
Windows 7: It’s not you, it’s us. Really.(InfoWorld)

Microsoft Azure Impress Ms Partners (Techticles)
Windows Azure FAQ: The future in a cloud (ComputerWorld)
Microsoft reveals Windows Azure ship date, pricing metrics (NetworkWorld)
Cloud Computing Journal: Live Mesh or Windows Azure? (it-sys-con)
Is Microsoft dissing SOA just to push Azure Cloud computing? (TechTarget)

PC makers try a Windows Vista end run (Tech Yahoo)
Microsoft warns of IE8 lock-in with XP SP3 (ComputerWorld)
T-Home unveils MySoftware for Windows Vista (Telecom Paper)

I remember trying out speech recognition softwares back in College when I was doing a major project for my Artifical Intelligence class. That was around 9 years ago and all the software I tried was frustrating — lack in technical speech adaptability.

I am just reading this blog post from Dave Johnson who discuss how he had his hand placed in a cast and had to opt using Windows Vista Speech Recognition. The same as his experience, he had trouble with earlier speech recognition software; but was amazed upon trying out Vista speech recognition.

Overall, he was satisfied and it saved his job who required him for extensive hand jobs.

In an excerpt:

I found the accuracy of Vista’s Speech Recognition to be nothing short of startling.

It takes about twenty minutes to set up and train
the software, and then you can start dictating directly into your
favorite programs. I created documents in Microsoft Word, e-mails in Outlook, and random notes in OneNote. If the software made a mistake, it was easy to correct.

Read his post here.

Angry Listener Attacks Steve Ballmer During Presentation (Techticles)
Has Windows Vista’s UAC feature failed Microsoft? (ZDNet)
Windows Vista Not Popular In Big Corporations, Symantec Says (InformationWeek)
Developers slow to build on Windows Vista (TechRepublic)
More than 200,000 demand Microsoft save XP (InfoWorld)
More Windows Vista Woes (HalfLifeSource)

Windows Media Player Basics in Windows Vista (Informit)
Gates: Vista is doing just fine (News)
Vista security credentials tarnished in malware survey (TheRegister)
Clamoring for Microsoft to keep XP alive (MarketWatch)

Sony Offers Bloatware Removal Service — For a Fee [Updated] (Slashdot)
Windows XP vs. Vista: An Explosion of Opinion (ABCNews)
Windows Vista SP1 Flunks Out At Penn (InformationWeek)

How Can Investors Play Both Sides of the Microsoft Vista Debacle? (Market Intelligence Center)
We can be stupider than me (The Globe and Mail)
Creative releases new X-Fi drivers for Vista and XP (Tech Spot)
Win Server 2008 Directory Services, Windows Server 2008 Functional Levels Overview (Server Watch)

Cheaper Vista Means Cheaper Yahoo! (Fool)
Windows Vista Price Cuts Are Historic, But Not Significant (InformationWeek)
Windows Vista Hack Circulating (InformationWeek)