Microsoft Experience Project: Report 2/3

Well, I’ve officially done three weeks of this, and I must say, it has been an extremely smooth experience. I must sadly report, however, that I am currently downloading my first non-Microsoft program: iTunes. I’ve been wanting to connect my iPhone to my computer for a while, but it was the free $25 iTunes gift card that I got today that pushed it over the edge. I’ve had no viruses, or threats. My ram has stayed at 30% or below. Everything just works better without third-party software interfering. I’m even thinking of turning this computer into an all Microsoft computer when I get a new one. Zune is the BEST method of purchasing music there is. Personally, I prefer Amazon over iTunes, so Zune has been first for a while. Over all, this experience has been amazing, and I plan on trying again when I get a Windows Phone 7 and will have no need for iTunes.

Week one of Microsoft Experience

So before I begin the report, I must say that I broke the rules. I downloaded the new beta of Windows Live Essentials, and it is AWESOME. The newest version of Messenger is quite possible the best free program Microsoft has ever released.

But to get down to things, the project has, so far, been a major success. I’m now using Internet Explorer 8, which works very well when there aren’t any plugins from third party developers. Microsoft Office 2010 is amazing, though I haven’t had to use it much (school starts tomorrow).

Windows Live Essentials is absolutely necessary to this project, because without this free suite, there isn’t much you can do with a PC without spending a lot of money.

I’ve done a lot of experimenting with the latest Internet Explorer 9 Platform Preview. If the final version works as well as the latest preview does, it will be a major success. It’s quite obvious that the reason Internet Explorer 8 jumped in the market in the past couple weeks because Microsoft did more advertising (I noticed it more in Hulu). If they do just as much advertising with IE9, Microsoft will once again own the general browser experience.

If you haven’t tried out the Bing Bar yet, I strongly recommend it. It is a very useful tool that is installed by default with Windows Live Essentials 2011, and it works beautifully.

I’m using Microsoft Security Essentials as my security software, and I have yet to find any problems, although I have had problems in the past. It runs in the background, using very few system resources, and adds very little time to startup. It has the options for quick scan, full scan, or custom scan. When the new version comes out in the next couple months, I intend on downloading it.

Zune is an absolutely wonderful media player, I’ve found, as long as you have plenty system resources. I’ve always preferred the Zune software over iTunes, but I may now prefer it over Windows Media Player 12. The new Bing/Zune collaboration is absolutely amazing. All you have to do is type the name of the song into Bing, and you can play it right there.

Microsoft Experience Project

So, I recently needed to reinstall my operating system, and I decided that this would be an excellent opportunity to try out an experiment I’ve been planning for a while called the “Microsoft Experience Project.” Basically, the only programs installed on my computer will be Microsoft programs. I will use them exclusively for one month just to see if my Windows 7 experience gets better or worse. I will post weekly updates, and a random update anytime there is something I need to report. Here are a list of programs I plan to use:

Browser	Internet Explorer 8
Music playing/purchasing	Zune
Word processor	Microsoft Office Word 2010
Spreadsheet	Microsoft Office Excel 2010
Presentation software	Microsoft Office PowerPoint 2010
Messenger	Windows Live Messenger Wave 3
Mail Client	Windows Live Mail Wave 3
Movie Editor	Windows Live Movie Maker Wave 3
Photo client/editor	Windows Live Photo Gallery Wave 3
Blog editor	Windows Live Writer Wave 3

Just to insure that I won’t run into any issues, I will TRY to refrain from using any Microsoft beta software. Internet Explorer 9 Beta is supposed to come out in the next month, so that will be pretty hard.

Apple… Seriously? …..

 

When the BP Deep Horizon oil spill started earlier this year, BP replied by stating that they would do everything in their abilities to stop it. When Windows Vista showed to have many bugs and errors, Microsoft responded by sending out a lot of updates at the start to repair the issues. When the iPhone 4 showed to have antenna issues, Apple responded by saying, *PARAPHRASE ALERT* “Well, they did it too!”

Let me just start by saying that I would NEVER suggest that Apple take an example from Microsoft, simply because they’re two different companies, and their users want two different environments. However, in this case, Apple should definitely take an example from how Microsoft has dealt with sticky situations. When Windows ME showed to be awful, Microsoft released Windows XP, which is considered by many to be the best Windows distribution yet. When Windows Vista showed to be another stinker, they not only released many updates that made the operating system quite usable after two service packs, but they released Windows 7 which I actually consider to be the best Windows distribution yet.

Since the beginning of the Apple/Microsoft battle, Microsoft has yet to release bad press about Apple, and Apple has yet to release a Mac advertisement that shows Mac features rather than how it is better than a PC.

They should have maintained their professionalism and stated that they would do everything they could do to fix the problem and abstained from removing forum posts referring the issue.

Single Greatest Thing EVER About the iPad.

So, if you ask the people of my household, they will both agree that I rant entirely too much about the iPad, however this rant is actually significant because it states the single greatest thing about the iPad, and possibly the single greatest thing that Apple will EVER allow.

If you are undecided on whether or not you should get the Wifi or the Wifi+3G, this could help you make your decision. With the Wifi+3G, you aren’t required to purchase a data plan for it. If, however, you do purchase a data plan, it’s REALLY simple to do so. You don’t ever have to step foot into an  AT&T store or even talk to any of their horrible associates.

All you do, is go to a page in the settings app on iPad, and you tell it how much you want and your credit card number, and voila! It’s that simple! You can decided you only want it for that month, or you can renew payment each month.

This simplicity has definitely affected my decision on whether or not I want Wifi or Wifi+3G. Because my income is quite random at the moment (Seriously. I don’t even know when I’m getting paid next) the whole “no contract” thing is an amazing feature.

And here’s the bad part:

Well, I just finished an article complementing Apple on a job well done with the iPad, but they have once again managed to blow my mind with their unprofessional selfishness.

Either you’ve been living under a rock, or you’ve heard about the iPhone 4 reception problems. Because of this flaw, Consumer Reports has decided that they aren’t going to recommend this product, and Apple handled this like they handle all bad publicity: quite poorly.

Just yesterday, six mentions of the review were removed from the Apple message boards. This is comparable to an issue with Google China a few months ago, when Google blocked some information from Chinese users, as ordered by the Chinese government.

I won’t say this often, but Apple has a few things to learn from Microsoft. When Microsoft get awful reviews from Windows ME, they fixed it with Windows XP. Also, no one can deny that after 2 service packs, Windows Vista was quite usable. But even though it’s name was slandered, instead of removing bad comments on message boards, Microsoft came out with Windows 7, which boosted Microsoft’s satisfaction rating above Apple’s, and became the fastest selling operating system in history.

This is the second thing in the past couple weeks that has made me want to throw my iPhone out the window  and never purchase another Apple product again . The first was when information was released that Apple was stealing users’ information with iPhone OS 4.0.

iPad…. Wait, What? …. Oh!

Well, I’ve officially been hired for my first actual job, and I’m already planning on ways to blow my first couple paychecks. I could purchase a new camera, a convertible netbook, or even start saving up for my first car. But, I’ve decided that I want the new “pointless” “redundant” product from Apple known as the iPad. This is coming from the one who wrote an article a couple months ago about how absolutely awful the iPad really is, but after doing quite a bit of research, and using a few in various Apple stores, I’ve decided that I’m madly in love with this device.

Many people consider me quite a Microsoft man, and I am therefore quite skeptical of many Apple devices, and of the Apple company itself. I’ve recently started hating my iPhone 3G, and would be quite ready to get the new 4G, but my contract just started with AT&T, and I would not like to spend $400 now when I can buy one in about a year and a half (right around when the next iPhone will be coming out) for $200. Being a Microsoft man, I was wondering exactly what led me to decide that I absolutely need an iPad in my life, so I looked through the keynote and counted the number of positive words said about the iPad. They are as follows:

Better – 9
Thin – 5
Extraordinary – 1
Best – 11
Great – 19
Phenomenal – 5
Incredible – 4
Awesome – 4
Remarkable – 3
Capable – 2
Gorgeous – 4
Intimate – 1
Fast – 1
Amazing – 3
Powerful – 1
Magical – 3
Bigger – 3
Easy – 1
Simple – 8
Wonderful – 4
Cool – 2
Nice – 4
Super – 4
Terrific – 1
Huge – 3
Smooth – 1
Beautiful – 1
Unbelievable – 4
Unbeatable – 1
Fantastic – 1
Interesting – 1

The overuse of these positive words (when the device is really only very few of these things) is surely the reason why many, including myself, have completely fallen head over heals for the device. Here are the main perks to which I’m looking forward:

Safari

Safari on the iPad is quite possibly the greatest feature. You can import bookmarks, passwords, and settings from your browser on your computer, and just like that, your browsing experienced is customized to your preferences. While there is STILL NO FLASH, it does support HTML5, which can single-handedly be the downfall of Adobe Flash. Also, when you want to Bing something, all you have to do is go grab the iPad, and it’s much quicker than waking up your computer (Mac or PC) to do it, and a touch interface (at least on an Apple touch screen device) is much more pleasurable than using a cursor and keyboard. The size of the iPad really lets you take advantage of the full website. On many sites, you can see the entire site, and read the text well without zooming in.

Photos

At first, I wondered why anyone would buy an iPad for the photo options, until I found out that there is an extension that allows you to get pictures straight from a memory card or camera. That completely changed my entire perspective on the matter. With this feature, you can completely bypass the computer, and upload pictures to famous sites like Flickr, Photobucket, or Facebook straight from the device. I’d always planned on buying a first generation iPad, then using it as a digital photo frame when the second generation comes out, but now, I’m much more willing to have pictures on it, as well as buy one with a larger memory capacity to hold more pictures. I also learned of a new feature that makes the device go into a picture slideshow when on the lock screen, and with the dock that you can purchase for it, you can have an excellent slideshow going when you’re not using the iPad.

iPod

The iPod app on iPad has been completely redesigned from the one on iPhone. It now looks much more like iTunes in how it organizes your music, and I favor this highly over the iPod touch interface for music. When you tap on an album, a smaller window swivels into view, showing a list of songs and you can choose one to play. This is even better than the iTunes interface, by my opinion, because all of your albums are still in full view.

iBooks

When Apple decided to make a device perfect for reading e-books, I completely forgot my dreams of getting a Kindle, and immediately, the iPad moved into full view. One of the major benefits of getting an iPad for e-books is that you aren’t limited to one manufacturer’s book options. You can get Kindle for iPhone, B&N E-reader, and iBooks on the same device, and therefore triple your library options. Also, no one can deny that the page-turning animation for iBooks is completely awesome.

iWork

The iWork application suite is definitely one of my main reasons for wanting an iPad. If I have a project for school, or something, it is much easier to lug around an iPad than to lug around a computer. Pages is an absolutely incredible application for typing Pages, Word, or PDF documents. Numbers is basically a spreadsheet. And, Keynote is an awesome application that allows you to create high-definition, impressive presentations. With an extension, you can plug the iPad into a projector and display your creation straight from the device.

Promising future

One of the most intriguing things about the iPad is the promising future ahead of it. iPad 2G will surely offer one, if not two camera(s), and most definitely printer support. These features combined will be the key to moving from laptops to tablets permanently. I personally believe that printing capabilities may even be available before the 2G. The extension that allows for transfer of pictures from camera to iPad clearly shows that the iPad is capable of interacting with external devices. The fall update for iPad to iOS 4.0, will also be a major step forward with the inclusion of multitasking.

Below are the current prices of iPad and extensions.

	16 GB	32 GB	64 GB
Wi-Fi	$499.00	$599.00	$699.00
Wi-F- + 3G	$629.00	$729.00	$829.00

Keyboard dock – $69.00
iPad dock – $29.00
iPad 10W USB Power Adapter – $29.00
iPad Case – $39.00
Apple iPad Camera Connection Kit – $29.00
iPad Dock Connector to VGA Adapter – $29.00