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Mar 25, 08 - 08:28 am Comment from: Mr. Reeee

Sheesh, if Microsoft decides to write iPhone applications, will 16GB be ENOUGH memory to hold it/them?

Mar 25, 08 - 08:39 am Comment from: WindozeKiller

If they were SMART (I know, that's a mighty BIG IF), they would simply pay Apple to develop whatever they "think" Office users need.

A microsoft product for the iPhone is guaranteed to break UI conventions, slow down the entire phone, and may very well introduce macro viruses to the iPhone (like they did with Office for the Mac in the 90's).

The virus thing might even happen intentionally. I'm sure Microsoft engineers have been looking into that for over a year, now.

I don't think 32GB would be enough...

There are those who accuse Microsoft of copying Apple's ideas and features in their operating systems.

It makes you wonder if they are looking at Mac OS Mobile with a view to their continuing development of Windows Mobile 7, due out in 2009.

"what we can bring to the iPhone"

Don't they mean "copy"?

Mar 25, 08 - 08:49 am Comment from: Woody

Ugh. Ew.

...

Sorry, had to go throw up at the thought of MS-written software on my iPhone.

Never underestimate the power of Micro$oft to write bad and unintuitive software, even while using Apple's own SDK and Apple's hardware.

"Microsoft probes Apple’s iPhone for profit opportunities"

Without the courtesy of lubrication, no doubt.

Mar 25, 08 - 08:51 am Comment from: Jay-Z

As much as I don't want it on MY iPhone - enterprise users will want as many Office capabilities as possible on their iPhones. And Apple obviously cares about iPhone in the enterprise.

The only reason Microsoft wouldn't develop iPhone apps is if they want to cut the iPhone off at the knees. This will just leave the opportunity for someone else to develop software that edits Office docs on the iPhone.

Thank God, Apple will vet all software through the App store! And if MS does manage to come up with something decent, Apple will receive a 30% cut!
Apple wins both ways. Keep the crap out and make money off anything good. In any event, it won't have anything to do with WinCe. Who knows, maybe they'll come out with a great version of Solitaire or something.

I run my own business and I do it without one single Micros**t product of any kind.

I decided to put my money where my mouth was and remove all traces of Micros**t from my life. My website has a notice on the back page. It reads, "Micros**t free company. No Micros**t product was used in the production of this site."

It can be done. I recommend everyone at least try.

You are a Mac user and you use Micros**t? Cut the cord.

Would love to cut the chord, but Pages choked when I threw it a biig text file, and Numbers choked when I threw it a biig spreadsheet. I have to get my work done... without wasting too much time. Had high hopes for Pixelmator too, until I threw it a biig scan... etc. Maybe in a few years... when the capabilities surpass that of the established bloatware corporations, I can leave them "behind" - [MW].

embrace and extinguish

don't trust microsoft one bit.

I'm fine with it - provided that the iPhone Applications Store has health warnings attached to all MS software.

Mar 25, 08 - 09:36 am Comment from: Buster

Its great that Microsoft, with its resources, will develop software for the iPhone. MS has name brand recognition and people will flock to buy the numerous different apps that MS can quickly produce in response to consumer wishes.....and Apple will make money off of it.

OK Zune Tang....here is the text you asked me for....

Apple should ban them.

Many many people will buy the program because its Microsoft Office for the iphone. They will write BAD CODE that will clog up your beautiful iPhone. This will make you think there is something wrong with it and ditch it.

Hey hey... arn't we here to encourage creativity and focus.

We should let microsoft find it's true image, it's zen... maybe they'll make something good, after the vista flop, they really are trying hard to keep their software firm...

Maybe the iPhone is their answer...

"It’s really important for us to understand what we can bring to the iPhone," Tom Gibbons...

Misery? BSOD? Slowness? Crappy software?
Why ask, you know all the answers.

Mar 25, 08 - 09:44 am Comment from: Spark

MS has a history of punishing Apple when it decides to compete on what MS has decided is its territory. The latest, of course, is pulling the macro capability from the new version of Excel. Idiots! I would have upgraded to Office 2008 had they not crippled Excel, but I have to stick with '04 version for the macros. As far as the SDK goes, MS is looking at it not to build applications, but to get clues on copying the iPhone OS. Plain and simple, that's what they do.

picture the scene form 2001 where the hairy apemen are surrounding, grunting and screaming (kinda like Ballmer!) at the monolith (iphone resembles it a bit eh?) and you get the idea of what research is like at MS.

YAY! Solitaire!

Mar 25, 08 - 10:10 am Comment from: Jubei

Errr.. I think their just trying how to figure it out so that they can copy it on Zune Phone Thang!

No, don't feed the beast. Office apps are their next major source of revenue besides Windows. Only way to kill MS is to start starving them to death slowly.

The 2001 Space Odyssey shot of the monkeys around the monolith comes to mind with this story.

sorry, macview, you beat me to that one. Great minds (or at least Mac minds) think alike.

Mar 25, 08 - 11:47 am Comment from: WinFreeSince2003

Article:

"Don’t think for a minute that Microsoft is ignoring the iPhone. In fact, the software giant is probing the gadget for profit opportunities."

Translation:

"Don’t think for a minute that Microsoft believes the bullshit they've been saying about the iPhone. In fact, the software giant is probing the gadget for original ideas and hard code that they can steal and roll into their antiquated windows mobile OS."

Mar 25, 08 - 11:50 am Comment from: WinFreeSince2003

Comment from: KanMac
"The 2001 Space Odyssey shot of the monkeys around the monolith comes to mind with this story."

ROFLMAO! Perfect!!

>MDN wrote: It's because Microsoft wanted to force businesses to keep buying PCs ... by creating artificial lock-in. It's the Microsoft way.

You hypocrites! It's also the Apple way.

Here's a hint iTMS+iPod locks you into future iPod purchases unless you're willing to throw lotsa money away.

It's amazing you nameless MDN editors are taken seriously, being so far up Apple's ***.

"Here's a hint iTMS+iPod locks you into future iPod purchases unless you're willing to throw lotsa money away."

Heres a thought, give examples to back up your "theory" as above and maybe we won't designate you a troll. The only thing that locks you is any PAID content that has Rights management on it, otherwise there is no lock-in - use iTMS and iPod any way you want - it's called choice something you can't comprehend.

Mar 25, 08 - 12:33 pm Comment from: Not Bill

Beware of Greeks bearing gifts. This remindes me of a time in the mid -eighties. Microsoft was going to serve the new Macintosh platform by writing application code for it.

Here's a hint. I legally play music I've bought from the iTS on my computer or listen to songs burned from iTunes on CDs in my car.
There's no iPod. You can play your own ripped songs from the iTunes jukebox or rip iTS to CD. All legally.

"You hypocrites!" No. You're just not very bright because you keep repeating this hoping it will come true. Just STFU already.

Mar 25, 08 - 12:57 pm Comment from: Hm...

@ Mr Reeee and Gil

"640 kb is all anyone will ever need..."

Mar 25, 08 - 01:00 pm Comment from: Big Al

Gee, this story reminds me of monkeys and a big black monolith on a prehistoric plain.

Didn't you just love Planet of the Apes and all those lousy sequels?

It is spelled s-a-r-c-a-s-m.

"The 2001 Space Odyssey shot of the monkeys around the monolith comes to mind with this story."


HA HA HA, priceless

@LiM:

I just opened a 9 MB (138 printed pages) Word file with Pages. The document has a number of photos and and other jpg files (more than 50). The text also contains several instances of Central European characters. There was no indication of any kind of problem.

I have a suspicion that the problem is not with Word to Pages conversion. The lack of a definition of "biig" suggests that the writer is not a reliable observer.

Mar 25, 08 - 02:29 pm Comment from: Mac-nugget

Be afraid, be very afraid.

> macview wrote: otherwise there is no lock-in - use iTMS and iPod any way you want...

Apple holds the lead in PMP sales. They have a huge lead in online music sales. The iPod software is actually their online music software bundled into one. Once you start buying iTMS songs, you're virtually locked into buying iPods in the future. Sure you can, do the burn-to-CD jailbreak, but what if you've purchased 200 albums? 2,000 songs? The burn-to-CD jailbreak is an option for those who've bought few tracks.

Besides, reread your argument as you contradicted your points by saying use "iTMS and iPod any way you want". By your reasoning, you are in essentially locked in.

---
---

>No Lock-In wrote: You're just not very bright because you keep repeating this hoping it will come true.

Ummm, Mr. Sensitive, I said it once. What makes me not bright is if I were to say something stupid. I didn't do that. You're just in a bad mood today or something. Take a breath and gather your thoughts. Try again later when you can come up with something intelligent and worthwhile. Good luck.

"Once you start buying iTMS songs" - again a choice there is actually people who don't buy on line, rip their own cds to mp3s and use the ipod with that. If you want to rip to MP3s with itunes and move them to another player go ahead. Once again KNOW ONE IS FORCING YOUR TO BUY THROUGH iTUNES.

There was no contradiction in my thoughts, only what you see as contradiction. Use itunes to rip your music to Mp3s, put on another player OR put on iPod. Or buy your tunes (YOUR CHOICE) through Apple and use with itunes.

Sorry but you can't blame a company for being successful by giving you a decent product, a decent software that Enhances that product, a buy OPTION within that software that further enhances your use or choose to use other hardware software offerings. I guess they are doomed to fail huh?

"I said it once."

No, you've said it before on other threads.

"The burn-to-CD jailbreak is an option for those who've bought few tracks."

It hasn't been a problem for me and I have several thousand songs.
Locks you in and virtually locks you aren't the same thing. Pick one before you start calling other people hypocrites and accusing others of "being so far up Apple's ***."

"Try again later when you can come up with something intelligent and worthwhile." You can shove that up your own smug self.


http://www.apple.com/legal/itunes/us/service.html

Mar 25, 08 - 04:22 pm Comment from: ragarcia

Printing for the iPhone

Who cares about Microsoft Word when I can't even print my boarding pass from my phone?

C'mon Apple I don't care if I have to buy from you the iPrinter because it is the only supported printer for the iPhone, just get that functionality working.

@Abraham Bainbridge

400,000 words - no pictures. Opened fine. Scrolled slow, and got slower and slower... beachball... adios.

2-1/2 seconds to open in Word - and we know Word is the worst file system there is. Unformatted text paste into BBEdit: 7-seconds - scrolls super fast. Oops... 320,000 words in 1,625 pages... must've edited it down.

MW: english (no shit).

I hope Apple beats them to the punch with an iWork suite for the iPhone. That would be sweet!

is there a word processor for the iphone yet?

>>No Lock-In wrote: No, you've said it before on other threads.

Actually I did post this a couple of times. The ones who take offense at it are usually the fanatical, bend-over-backwards-for-Apple types.

A good example of the type of person who'd throw a fit about my post is you. Look at your first response; you couldn't come up with a reasonable counter-argument so you attack me on a personal level. That's typical since your entire position isn't based on reason; it's based on a complete dedication to a corporation named Apple. I'm a fan of the company too, but I can still see the hypocrisy of many other fans and fan sites.

You're just angry because I pointed it out.

>> No Lock-In wrote: It hasn't been a problem for me and I have several thousand songs.

You've bought several thousand songs on iTMS? Really? Thousands? 2,000? 10,000? Did you just throw that out there to try and make your point seem more valid?

Whatever the case, let's assume you're telling the truth.

The fact that you've got that much time on your hands and are willing to waste money on enough CDs (and the time to apply the jailbreak), doesn't mean there isn't a lock.

Not everyone is willing to jump through hoops - you obviously are with thousands of jail-broken tracks, thousands!

>hardmanb wrote: It makes you wonder if they (Microsoft) are looking at Mac OS Mobile with a view to their continuing development of Windows Mobile 7, due out in 2009.

That's the way a competitive world works.

Unless you live in a vacuum, you're affected by what happens around you. Every company does it (including Apple)! Every person does it! That's just how the world works. To think otherwise is naive, no matter what company you have in mind.

>macview wrote: Once again KNOW ONE IS FORCING YOUR TO BUY THROUGH iTUNES.

But then again, there once was a time we had fair use of the products we bought. Like the way a DVD works, we could play a Sony-pressed DVD in a Panasonic labeled DVD player.

If companies are going to use DMCA and such laws to lock down fair use, more people need to speak out. The vocal ones are people who so willingly give up their right to fair use.

As for "KNOW ONE FORCING... ITUNES", perhaps NO one is forcing people but that's not what my argument was. I raised concern about the iTMS-iPod lock. iTMS is the music store part of iTunes. Each purchase in iTMS is a step towards being locked down into buying an iPod. Buy enough tracks and for all intents and purposes, you're locked in to Apple iTMS/iPod plans.



Back on topic, it'd be cool to see some Microsoft products on my iPhone. Entourage is actually one of the best apps I've tried!