Feeding America Migrates to Windows 7

Feeding America has jumped on the increasingly crowded Windows 7 bandwagon. The workers at Feeding America will be more productive and be able to feed America’s hungry more efficiently now that it has transitioned the entire desktop infrastructure to Windows 7.

A Windows For Your Business blog post explains, “everyone at the national office and 100 percent of supported food banks are enjoying Windows 7. Feeding America couldn’t be happier with the results – from IT’s ease of adding peripheral devices, to 85 percent reduction in service calls reporting errors, to employees’ overwhelmingly positive responses to Windows 7 features like Snap, Search and the Snipping Tool.”

Last year I got to follow two other organizations as they went through the process of switching to Windows 7. Cupcake Royale and Balin Accountancy were the subject of a pilot experiment conducted by Microsoft and Dell to demonstrate the value of migrating to Windows 7.

If you haven’t yet switched to Windows 7, take a look at these success stories and explore whether your organization should take the plunge. If your organization has migrated to Windows 7, comment here or email me and let me know what prompted the switch, how smoothly the transition went, and your thoughts on how things are now compared with the platform you were using previously.

Microsoft Tacks New Features Onto Office Web Apps

I guess I picked the wrong time to decide to spend an entire month using Google Docs. While I am living and working in the Google-verse, Microsoft is rolling out new features that make Office Web Apps better. I miss out on all the fun!

The changes are not Earth-shattering, but as I am learning while immersed in Google Docs–it is often the little things that count. In the PowerPoint Web App, Microsoft now lets you change the design theme of the presentation from within the Web app.

The Excel Web App is even better. The Microsoft Office Web Apps blog explains, “You can now insert, delete or rename sheets in a workbook within the Excel Web Apps, and use familiar tools like AutoSum and formula assistance to crunch data more efficiently.”

See, the little things add up. I am sure that inserting, deleting, and renaming worksheets is nice, but I excited about AutoSum. I am not an Excel guru, or even power-user, but I make frequent use of the AutoSum feature in Excel and I have missed it when using the Excel Web App.

I like Office Web Apps, but really I am looking forward to Office 365. Still, I will definitely check out the new Office Web Apps features next week after my 30 days with Google Docs is over.

Keep Your Windows Environment ‘InTune’

A lot of the buzz about “the cloud” is just marketing hype. The cloud is all the rage, and everyone wants to jump on the cloud bandwagon. But, marketing buzz aside, there are actual advantages and benefits to be realized from moving certain tasks and technologies to the cloud. Windows InTune is a prime example of a tool that delivers on the promise of the cloud.

Don’t take my word for it. InTune was recently recognized as “Best of TechEd 2011” and “Best of Cloud Computing” at the Windows IT Pro Awards Party at TechEd 2011.

A Windows For Your Business blog post quotes Windows IT Pro explaining the decision to award Windows InTune with these honors:

Windows Intune makes system management easy. Companies of all sizes can begin managing their clients in hours rather than weeks or months. And this significant first step opens the door to a whole range of future management services to be released at a pace that traditional on-premise products simply can’t match. Windows Intune will change the way we manage everything.

If you haven’t checked out Windows InTune, take a look and see what Windows InTune can do for you.

Microsoft Buys Skype for $8.5 Billion

Microsoft is buying Skype.

For the past week there have been rumors that a Skype purchase was imminent, but all of the speculation revolved around Facebook and Google as the new custodian of the VoIP calling and online communications icon. Microsoft swooped out of nowhere to announce that it has agreed to purchase Skype for $8.5 billion in cash–the largest purchase in the history of Microsoft.

It will be interesting to see what Microsoft does with Skype and how it integrates Skype services with other Microsoft products. The Microsoft press release mentions tie-ins with Xbox and Kinect, as well as integration with Lync and Outlook. There are many innovative ways that Skype can add value and enable better real-time communications for Microsoft products.

Of course, I’m sure Microsoft is glad that it was not the steward of Skype the past couple months when it was discovered that Skype for Android exposes personal data on the smartphone platform, or the revelation that Skype for Mac leaves Mac OS X systems open to dangerous compromise. Those types of events would not be good for Microsoft’s reputation, and hopefully the first thing Microsoft will do with Skype is tighten the development process and implement better security practices to ensure those things don’t happen on its watch. 

For more details, read the Microsoft press release: Microsoft to Acquire Skype

Apple Ditching Intel in Favor of ARM Processors?

There are rumors circulating that Apple intends to move to ARM processors for future generations of its MacBook laptops. Are Intel’s days of dominance coming to an end?

The speculation on the street is that Apple is ready to embrace ARM processors for its laptops (and possibly even Mac desktops) as soon as there are 64-bit ARM chips available–likely late 2012 or early 2013. Moving to ARM would continue the convergence of traditional PCs and mobile devices, and would allow Apple to engineer and manufacture its own processors.

Considerthat Microsoft intends to embrace ARM on some level as well. Microsoft probably won’t abandon x86 processors completely any time soon, but it has demonstrated an early prototype of Windows 8 running on an ARM platform, and it intends to make the next-generation Windows OS more tablet friendly–a market where ARM is the dominant architecture.

Because of its dominant role in server, desktop, and laptop PCs, Intel will not be hurt too much by an Apple defection to ARM. But, the rise of mobile devices–smartphones and tablets–, combined with Microsoft giving its official blessing to ARM, and Apple possibly dropping Intel chips in favor of ARM, illustrate the culture shift that is going on, and indicate that Intel’s days as a virtual monopoly may be over.

Maybe Microsoft’s Tablet Strategy is Genius

Microsoft seems to waiver between dismissing the tablet market as a non-issue, and embracing the tablet market…when the time is right. Microsoft is taking its time jumping into the tablet fray, which I have previously thought foolish. But, perhaps there is a spark of genius in the “wait and see” strategy.

Other vendors are rushing ahead at their own peril. Their strategy seems to be more like rushing in with a blindfold on and hair on fire and hoping something works. The Samsung Galaxy Tab was going to be an “iPad killer”, then the Motorola Xoom, then the BlackBerry PlayBook, and there will continue to be more.

The problem is that these tablets focus too much on hardware specs–processor, memory, etc.–and not enough on actually delivering a solid user experience that people are willing to pay for. Some of the tablets–namely the BlackBerry PlayBook–seem like a beta unit that still needs some finishing touches developed before it should be offered for sale.

The Apple iPad, and now the iPad 2, continues to sell as fast or faster than Apple can produce them–easily outselling all rival tablets combined…by a lot. Many will enter the market, and many will fail. Eventually the dust will settle and only a couple tablet players will remain. Meanwhile, Microsoft can take its time, learning from other’s mistakes and developing a solid mobile OS and tablet experience, and come in with guns blazing ready to fight.

Only time will tell if that strategy is sound, but what we know for a fact so far is rushing a product to market is not the way to go.

Pin Hulu Plus in IE9 to Get a Free Month

It was big news this week that Hulu Plus is now available on the Xbox 360. Yay! In fact, in celebration, Hulu Plus is giving Xbox 360 users a free week of service!

I have a secret for you, though. If you use WIndows 7 and Internet Explorer 9, you can get a free month of Hulu Plus service. All you have to do is drag the Hulu Plus site to the Windows 7 task bar to pin it, and Hulu will set you up with a free month of service.

Take that Xbox 360 users!

What If Your PC Could Just Recognize You?

Forget hitting CTRL-ALT-DEL, or having to remember archaic username and password credentials to type in. This is 21st centruy Star Trek type stuff where you’re just on a first name basis with your PC.

Technologizer’s Jared Newman points out in this Time.com Techland post that leaked early builds of Windows 8 contain signs of the facial recognition technology that was hinted at in leaked memos from Microsoft last year (maybe Microsoft should do something about all of this leaking…unless it’s the kind of ‘leaking’ that is done intentionally on the sly to build anticipation without publicly announcing anything).

You have to admit, it would be pretty cool to have a PC that will turn a cold shoulder to unauthorized users, but will instantly light up and log in when you sit down. However, the technology is not without its potential downsides as well.

What happens if an attacker just holds up a roughly life-sized photo of your face in front of theirs when they sit down at your computer? What happens if you change your hair style, or get a black-eye, or there is some other alteration to your face and your PC doesn’t recognize you? Or, what happens when hackers figure out how to tap into the camera connected to your PC that is always on and constantly scanning the area so it recognizes when you sit down?

Still, put the facial recognition together with voice recognition, and a vocal response capability and you have a computer capable of interacting conversationally a’ la Star Trek…or HAL 9000.

Visiting Madrid? Rent Yourself an iPad

[Note: This post has been updated to correct some confusion over pricing. The Pad In The City rate is 39 euros, not 39 euro cents. So, I still think the concept is awesome, but I think that these guys are pricing themselves out of the market.]

I am going to file this one under the “Damn! Why didn’t I think of that?” category. A couple of friends have started what could be an awesome tourist industry–renting iPads by the day for people visiting and touring Madrid, Spain.

The business–Pad In The City–rents out 3G iPads pre-loaded with a comprehensive selection of apps to make your visit more enjoyable. The apps include weather, car rental apps, the Metro Madrid app, videos about Madrid, a unit converter for the metric-challenged, local maps, and even Angry Birds HD for when you just need to chill.

The Pad In The City crew will arrange to deliver your rental iPad to you when you arrive in Madrid, and they will even come and pick it up from you when you’re done with it. The rental does require a 390 euro deposit in case you decide to skip town with the tablet, but  the daily rental rate is 39 euros per day. At current conversion rates, that is about $55 USD per day, so you could use an iPad to help you plan and navigate your Madrid trip for about $385 per week.

I think the concept is brilliant. If I were doing it, I think I would charge less–something like $5 per day, or $25 per week. The Pad In The City rate is too high. If you wanted to rent it for more than two days you’d be better off to just buy one, and then sell it on eBay when you’re done. People are willing to pay $20 a day to rent a stripped down Chevy Aveo from Hertz, so it seems reasonable to think they’d be willing to pay $5 a day for an iPad that will make the visit much more efficient and enjoyable.

I wonder if they’d be willing to sell me the Pad In The City rights for Houston?

Windows 7 Hits New Milestone

Microsoft announced today–exactly 18 months to the day from the official launch of Windows 7–that the flagship desktop operating system has hit a new milestone. Windows 7 has officially sold 350 million copies worldwide.

A Blogging Windows post notes that total licenses is one way of measuring success, but providing a positive and productive PC experience is equally crucial. The post explains, “Analyst firms like IDC estimate that more than 90% of businesses are currently in progress with their Windows 7 migrations. And we’ve seen that companies who have deployed Windows 7 save an average of $140 per PC per year – showing a 131 percent return on investment in just more than 12 months.”

Windows XP still ranks as the number one OS globally, but Windows 7 recently surpassed XP in the United States to reign as the leading OS, and it continues to climb in market share. Any predictions for when it will hit the 500 million mark, or when it will pass XP for good to be the number one OS in the world?