Can Bill and Jerry pull it off?

Lately, there has been a lot of buzz of new Microsoft ads featuring Bill Grates and Jerry Seinfeld. The ads are in direct competition to Apple's Mac vs PC ads which are short, smart, and usually funny. They are also part of a $100 million ad campaign. I have yet to see the ads on TV, but I got to see it on another computer.

It shows Jerry walking in a mall with a baguette (picture) when it stumbles on a shoe store call "Shoe Circus - Discount prices why pay more?" and walks in and happens to bump into Gates who is tyring on a pair of shoes. When he introduces bill to a new type of shoe. Personally, I find the ad a bit funny when Jerry talks about waring the new conquistadors shoes in the shower. People then look in the window and go "ooh. Look at those shoes" Bill keeps trying shoes until he finds a one that fits which is a size ten. Jerry dose his usual Seinfeld body language act by waving his arm and saying "That's a ten". When he goes to by the shoes the clerk asks if he has a store card. He shows one up with a picture of himself when he was young and then says"platinum".

Overall the ad dose not make since in terms of how I can relate myself to a PC. Some critics say the ad is similar to the nothingness of the show Seinfeld, but I have never felt that the show is about nothing. Some point out that while Seinfeld was extremely popular and still is in reruns, Jerry has not participated in anything Major since the end of the show in 1998 except for the voice in the animated film The Bee Movie. I agree it is a poor choice since Microsoft wants to target the young. Having a guy from a show that they can vaguely remember as a child is not a good idea, nor is having Bill as part of the cast. But they wanted Jerry so badly in their new string of ads that they paid him $10 million for it.

The most important thing in my opinion, is that Microsoft gets people talking like myself in the bologisphere and other forms of media. Its likely that the ad will make since once I see the other that follow it. Time will tell.

Google Crome

I recently downloaded Google Chrome to check out what all the hype was about. It turns out- not much. Goggles new Internet browser is in direct competition with Microsoft's diamond solid age old browser, Internet Explorer. People don't think too much about browsers and do not have many problems with explorer.

When you first enter chrome, nine boxes of your most popularly visited sites appear. You can click on one and it will take you to the site. It also has bookmarks or favorites to add but they are not compatible with explorer as they are not added to the favorites directory. Other things chrome can do include: closing a tab while being on another, highlighting a phrase and then selecting from the right click menu to search it, and downloading box that appears on the bottom left of the page.

Apart from these few things, the new and hyped Google Chrome is not impressive. I even had trouble with it. When I tried playing a game, it said I didn't have the appropriate drivers such as Flash or Shortwave downloaded. But I did. Time will tell if this new browsers dose anything for the company.

T-Mobile G1

While none of us will know what the computer industry will look like in ten years, its safe to assume that people will all be running around with a smartphone in their hand. Google has tried attacking Microsoft on many fronts including Internet browsers lately when it released Google Chrome. But smartphone are still in their infancy, they will likely mortf into the next big thing.



For these reasons, Google has launched the T-Mobile G1.












It has a 3.2 magipixel camera, 3.2 inch touchscreen, a sliding QWERTY keyboard, 256 MB flash memory with micro SD card expandable, and Goggle's own operating system-Android 1.0. This operating system allows users to create their own software, unlike the iPhone were one must get permission from the Apple.
It combines the iPhone's touch only screen with RIM's Blackberry QWERTY system. The problem was that the iPhone was grate for internet browsing but poor when it came to text messaging. RIM's Blackberry was excellent for text messaging but poor for Internet use. Google seems to be targeting those that want to easily use both in one phone. However, it has small buttons which mach the problems of the touch screen QWERTY keyboard of the iPhone.

Because its a 3G phone it can quickly download huge amounts of data unlike the typical 2G cell phone. Its this new data hungry market Google is hoping to capture. It can access Goggle maps among other applications. One big downside is that the 3.2 magapiziel camera cannot capture video, nor can it digitally zoom. Most cameras in phones are poor anyway, which is why I carry around a $350 digital camera. The phone comes with a much needed 1GB micro SD memory card to store pictures, MP3's and so on. The battery last about four to five hours and has over 100 hours of standby time. Like the iPhone, it can since its orientation. This is an overview of the new Google phone.

Its anyone guess as to how well Google can tap into this emerging market. The question with smartphones is what will they do next? A whole lot more is the answer. The next thing to look out for is if Microsoft can afford ignore this trend towards advanced phones.