We smackdown about the classic argument. And Eric and Zuney are back!

Ok, I am a bit late with this post but Rich over at WindowsObserver.com posted something on Sunday that is quite an eyebrow raiser.  According to rich:

After seeing a few tweets on this I had to go check it out myself and was quite amazed at what I saw. On the Amazon.com MAC OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard product page it shows what customers ultimately buy after viewing the item – and it shows that 75% of them head over and purchase either the Windows 7 Home premium Upgrade (50%) or the Windows 7 Professional Upgrade (25%).

If the OS X update is #1 in Software already then that means a lot of people are buying the Windows 7 upgrade from that page. I would love to talk to some of those folks and find out how they got on that page in the first place and then ended up buying the Windows 7 upgrade.

WHAT?!  Some interesting developments.  What does all this mean? One thing is for sure, the Win7 vs. OSX debate will be a fantastic one once both OS’s are ready to go.

Any thoughts?  We welcome your comments.

Is the iPhone going double-wide with iTablet?  Is Microsoft photocopying Apple with their stores?  Plus, Cal gives you an assesment on his netbook and Win7.

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I’ve been happily using Vista 64 for several months without a single problem, until now.  Here’s the story.

Two days ago when my computer booted up, my desktop icons were missing and an unfamiliar icon appeared in my systray.  On ‘mouse over’ the icon divulged itself as the Presentation Settings application and that I was giving a presentation.  Double-clicking the icon opened Presentation Settings, which reported that I was, indeed, NOT giving a presentation.  So Vista was confused in the sense that it was booting up thinking it was giving a presentation, but Presentation Settings was reporting that it wasn’t.  What?!

With a right click on the desktop and a hide then show desktop icons, I could regain the items on my desktop, but after rebooting the same thing happened again.  After searching the internet a while, the solution seemed to be that somehow my power settings were ‘changed’ to ‘Quiet Office’ mode.  Changing the power settings to ‘Entertainment’ or ‘Performance’ mode solved the issue entirely.  No more presentation mode on start up, no more missing desktop icons.

So how did my computer get to ‘Quiet Office’ mode?  I don’t know.  Maybe it was caused by closing the lid of the laptop and going into hibernation.  Or maybe it was a stray touch on a console button or keyboard command.  Or maybe something running from an old Corel application confused this newer 64-bit operating system.  Who can say for sure, but it wasn’t a virus.  It wasn’t getting hijacked.  It was just plain old Windows quirkiness or user error.  Anybody out there have an idea?

According to Appleinsider, design consulting firm Lippicott has leaked some preliminary plans for the layout and design of the upcoming Microsoft retail stores.

On closer inspection, though, the influence becomes at times extremely close. The reference store seen by Gizmodo would have a Guru Bar — in some slides labeled as an Answer Bar or Windows Bar — that would directly copy the Genius Bars at Apple stores and let customers make appointments either for help or just to ask questions. The number of products would be kept to a minimum to avoid the confusion present in stores where most Windows PCs are sold today. Microsoft’s outlets would even revive the theater component that Apple has mostly tossed aside: an “event space” at the back of the store would provide a dedicated screen and seating for training sessions or social events.

Are you kidding me? Really?  Really? (I know, sorry Rachel)  Guru Bar?  You couldn’t even come up with a half-way original name?  Why not Guru Central, or Guru Help Desk?  Geez.

Furthermore, when you see the images below, I am sure Windows and Mac fans will smack their collective foreheads and say…WTF?

Let me make one point perfectly clear.  If THIS is their approach, AND they intend on putting these next to Apple stores I can some this all in one word…FAIL.

I welcome your comments.

Microsoft stores and Google Voice.  Lots of fun stuff to talk about as we are one episode away from our 100th show!

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CNET Reports today:

Users of Computer Associates anti-virus software were complaining on Thursday after the company’s anti-virus software mistakenly identified a Windows XP systems file as a virus.

Some customers were concerned that the Windows Service Pack 3 and files from the commercial Cygwin application files deleted when they couldn’t find them. However, CA said the files were intact but quarantined and the file extensions were modified.

CA said it learned on Wednesday that its software had detected the file “Win32/AMalum.ZZQIA” as a false positive and was urging customers to update Signature 6606 to address the situation.

The CA advisory reads:

“CA Internet Security Suite users should restore affected files from quarantine using the GUI. CA Threat Manager customers should search local hard drives for files with the extension .AVB and manually rename to their original file extension by removing the appended text on the original file name.”

Through its customer support CA also is offering a tool to search for the affected files and restore them to the original extension.

In the meantime, CA customers were griping on the CA forum. “Shame on CA for not being on top of this,” one customer wrote. “Sure things happen, I’ve seen game patches erase hard drives, stuff happens. But it’s what you do after that defines the value of your company.”

Thanks to Packard Sonic for the heads up on this one.  Man…just too funny.

Mark (The Zune Guy) Metz and Cal take on the subject of what makes a Mac or a PC what they are in a new CAGEMATCH edition!

Episode 397

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Oh come one Rachel, you KNOW I have to post this.  People, just watch this for now.  We will discuss on the show tonight.

Pitiful, just pitiful.

You have to almost do a double take now adays at how cool some of the new is surrounding Windows 7.  Especially if you are a Mac person.  Because, let’s face it, we are not used to Microsoft being very user-centric and cool.  BUT (very big but here) Microsoft, it is rumored, is planning to sell Windows 7 on a USB key aimed at installation on netbooks.  Windows7news.com reports:

According to a source which was not revealed by CNET, Microsoft could end up selling Windows 7 on a USB drive, whereas right now the only way that a user can obtain a retail copy (legally) of Windows 7 is via retail or by download. This would be a good move for Microsoft as they had announced that any edition of Windows 7 will be able to run on a netbook; however, the trick would be getting it installed.

According to CNET, not selling Windows 7 on USB drives would be detrimental to Windows 7’s success:

The challenge of getting Windows 7 on to older Netbooks threatens to cast a shadow over the technical work Microsoft did to get Windows 7 running on Netbooks. Its predecessor, Windows Vista, proved ill-suited to Netbooks forcing Microsoft to continue selling Windows XP as its answer to the low-cost notebook phenomenon.

Complicating matters further is the fact that most Netbooks are running Windows XP. Those moving from Windows XP can buy an upgrade version of the software, but must back up their data, do a clean installation of the operating system and then reload their applications.

So here we have Microsoft actually focusing on Netbooks just when you thought they didn’t care.  VERY slick move.  I have to say I am really liking the consumer focus Microsoft is maintaining these days.  What are your thoughts?  Leave a comment.