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Nov 16, 07 - 04:34 pm Comment from: Mac n' Cheese

What's this guy smoking and where can I get some of it?

Nov 16, 07 - 04:35 pm Comment from: Jimbo von Winskinheimer

J Allard = tool

Yes, you can skip a track by simply pressing the microphone twice quickly.

Nov 16, 07 - 04:36 pm Comment from: JadisOne

The idiocy that comes from the MS Camp never stops amazing me. The iPhone is a great phone that happens to be a wonderful iPod. And for jogging, Apple has so graciously PARTNERED with Nike to give us a great, working solution.

MS let it go, you are has-beens and cannot compete on a level playing field.

Well, he should be worried about the facts that the Zune makes for a lousy iPod and Windows Mobile phones make for lousy iPhones...

Nov 16, 07 - 04:38 pm Comment from: Andy

Beyond all that corporate-speak, Microsoft is still its own worst enemy. It built itself into a locked room by flooding the tech industry with Windows - and is stuck with all the legacy baggage therein.

If it wanted to truly compete, it would ape Apple's model for success.

If Microsoft had any spirit, they wouldn't issue those statements, but prove their edge with products alone.

However, that might be a long wait...

Nov 16, 07 - 04:44 pm Comment from: stormy

What did you expect him to say..that the iPhone is a great iPod? M$ knows they have had their butt kicked. How much is the Zune being discounted in order to get them to sell?

Saddest of all for Microsuck is that Apple has sold twice as many iPhones as they have Zunes, and the Zune has been on the market for 8 months longer.

Wanna skip a track without looking? Double-click the button on your headphones - boom. Robert's your father's brother...

Nov 16, 07 - 04:45 pm Comment from: Chris ][

Well, which is it... magic or WOW?!

Nov 16, 07 - 04:46 pm Comment from: Macromancer

"Ooh, phones that squirt!"

I think that really should be a cue to MS to get into a market they haven't considered: ketchup bottles.

Who really cares what these MS people think?

Nov 16, 07 - 04:51 pm Comment from: Gandalf

The guy is going ballmery™ (confluence of barmy and Ballmer).

If we can put the customer first, we prefer to do it with partners.

Parse that? Nonsense newspeak saying we ignore the customer. Apple? - puts customers first.

Allard is a symptom of the mind rot that's pervasive in the management of the Evil Empire these days. Any normal person can take a glance at someone like him and figure out that he's a poseur, but MS's senior managment simply lacks the ability to do so.

Ballmer is the ultimate example of the Peter principle, and Allard is the proof.

-jcr

Nov 16, 07 - 04:55 pm Comment from: Andy

It's basic psychology, really. If you know what your competition is saying in statements like these, you can actually garner a fair bit of the company's overall opinion of itself as compared to you, and maybe get an inkling for what they're planning to counter you with.

Microsoft feels threatened fairly easily, and this is manifested in the desire to dominate everything it touches.

And like Sun Zi said, "Know your enemy."

Yeah, I hate when I read stuff that says you have to look at the screen to pause or skip.

One click: Pause
Two clicks: Skip

Click on the headphone mic that is.

If there isn't a recession in '08, it'll be Apple's most successful year by far.
Even with a recession, I believe they're going to do well.

yours,

Gavron

i have an iPhone for the phone and internet, with the occasional music/video playback, because it's a great phone and i'm looking forward to some neat additions from Apple

i have a 1 Gig iPod shuffle for working out at the gym, 'cause it's small, light and rugged.

i have an 80 Gig iPod for music, playing longer videos/movies and file transfer, because that's what i had before the other two devices and it's an awesome iPod.

i think the iPhone's a decent iPod. sure it would be nice to have more control without having to unlock it. but i certainly wouldn't call it "lousy." sounds like sour grapes from "we rebranded a Toshiba Gigabeat because we couldn't innovate our way out of a paper bag" Microsoft.

Nov 16, 07 - 05:04 pm Comment from: Brian Allen

I agree the iPhone is not the best iPod.

The current playlist is secondary to whole list of albums. Why would I be playing a blues playlist and turn the unit sideways to start see every album that I have on the iPhone.

As for running with the iPhone, it has no Nike+ support. You can't skip to the next without double squeezing the ear buds, which doesn't work well while running.

The iPhone is designed to be looked at during usage, while the iPod can be worked by feel.

The iPhone has duplicate buttons throughout the user interface. Example: The album view (the default during while playing) can be tapped just like the button in the upper right corner to switch from album to list view and back again.

But, I hope Apple improves the design with future updates.

Nov 16, 07 - 05:08 pm Comment from: John Gee

"The iPhone is a lousy iPod!"... Well...

The Zune is a LOUSY Plays for Sure device. It doesn't even play the same content.

You can't run with an iPhone, but you could run with a zune? What a tool

Nov 16, 07 - 05:13 pm Comment from: loopy_nj

J Allard has absolutely no credibility. The last I looked his Entertainment division at Microsoft has lost billions of dollars over the last few years.

Nov 16, 07 - 05:24 pm Comment from: El Guapo

@Anonymous

Exactly how do you press the microphone twice?

"Yes, you can skip a track by simply pressing the microphone twice quickly."

Are you referring to the "Home" button? That only brings up the mini player controls. From there you can skip a track if that is what you mean.

Nov 16, 07 - 05:27 pm Comment from: El Guapo

@Anonymous

Okay, okay. So you explained it later on (twice). I'll read more next time.

"Wanna skip a track without looking? Double-click the button on your headphones - boom. Robert's your father's brother..."

and

"Click on the headphone mic that is."

Nov 16, 07 - 05:32 pm Comment from: ron

"You can say that again (last sentence)! Now, about that "magic," it's where, exactly?"

You plant a brown Zune, (try to stop it squirting first), then wait for the beanstalk to grow up to 'Never Never Land".

If MS entered the market with a Zune Phone the Windows Mobile makers would pack up and disappear overnight. Plus their attempted monopolising of the music and phone markets as they have with the OS, Server & Office markets would get them back into regulatory trouble.

It is MS's monopoly of the Server & Office through lack of interplay with alternative clients and server apps that stops other players into these markets. This is what over-protective governments should be looking into.

Bob's your uncle. It's Robert's nickname.

Nov 16, 07 - 05:40 pm Comment from: ndelc

I've always though J Allard was a buffoon, but in all fairness, if you follow the link and read the article, he was actually being pretty complimentary to the Apple and the iPhone. I expected much different.

Windows is a lousy OS
PowerPoint is a lousy presentation program
Windows Media Player is a lousy media player
Zune is a lousy portable media player
XBox is a lousy money making machine
Surface is a lousy use for $10,000
Chairs have a lousy chance in Unky Fester's office
You Potential. Our Passsion is a lousy theme
J is a lousy name . . . isn't that the name of one of the judges on American's Next top Model???

Nov 16, 07 - 05:47 pm Comment from: mike_in_helsinki

The Zune is simply a brown turd, and these imbeciles making it are examples of incompetent morons. They have, are, and continue to fail.

Nov 16, 07 - 05:49 pm Comment from: Roberto

"Microsoft prefers to work with partners, he said, referring to cellphone makers, but he added that 'we’ll never say never' to making a Microsoft phone."

=

"As everyone knows we're vicious backstabbing bastards, and just like we betrayed our 'Plays for Sure' music suckers partners, we'll have no qualms about doing the same to the Windows Mobile cellphone makers if we feel like we might be able to make some extra bucks."

Sounds like someone has been looking for faults with his iPhone.........


Allard, don't let Ballmer know you have one

Nov 16, 07 - 05:53 pm Comment from: Eric

Zune unit zappa!

Okay, that was dumb, but anyhow...

What a tool! Obviously under orders by Gates/Ballmer to use their standard tactic... outright lies. I mean seriously, does anyone REALLY think Allard doesn't know that the iPhone can skip a song by pressing the mic button twice?

Widows: It magically frustrating. Boy after two days restoring our Windows XP workstation, I sure could have used some magic. Sure is magical when Service Pack 2 crashes mid installation, now that is what I call magical.

Nov 16, 07 - 06:47 pm Comment from: Jubei

Geeeez.. just like Ballmer stating on a C/Net interview that no iPods have WiFi in them, or Gates with his everyday Mac comment. ahaha... yeah typical from MS.

Nov 16, 07 - 06:50 pm Comment from: BustingTheSkullsOfIdiots

It is funny that he refers to something that doesn't exist (magic) to promote something that doesn't exist (products that Microsoft makes that people actually want). Note: geeks are not considered people for the sake of this argument.

Nov 16, 07 - 06:52 pm Comment from: Arnold Ziffel

I don't know where my comments fit in, but here goes.

Of all the websites I look at on my iPhone, MDN is the one and only one I can count on to not load reliably while on EDGE. I find this ironic and frustrating, as I have been a regular reader of the site for quite a few years now.

MDN, fix this problem. Thanks.

As for the Z*ne, have yet to see one in the wild.

Nov 16, 07 - 06:55 pm Comment from: Kit-N

Go easy on Allard. The poor guy wakes up every morning to this:

"Mr. Allard runs Microsoft’s Zune unit and handles some other development for its Entertainment and Devices division, which includes the Windows Mobile phone operating system."

A waking nightmare!!!!!!

I like my iPhone as an iPod better than my 3G iPod. It does exactly what I need it to do without hacking it. Great Job(s) Apple.

J Allard forgets to mention the fact that the 8 people who bought a Zune so far all started running. As fast as they could.

Nov 16, 07 - 07:14 pm Comment from: Ampar

And Clippy does one poor ass job of paper clipping.

Nov 16, 07 - 07:16 pm Comment from: Ampar

"As for the Z*ne, have yet to see one in the wild."

That could be brown blindness. You might want to get that checked.

just testing...

Nov 16, 07 - 07:28 pm Comment from: GoldFishy

I've seen exactly one Z*ne. And he returned it to BestBuy the next day. Ouch

Nov 16, 07 - 07:43 pm Comment from: MikeK

I don't believe for a second that Allard didn't know you could skip songs by pressing the button on the earbuds microphone..

You know he got an iPhone the day it came out to study and disect it's features so that they could copy them for a future ZunePhone.

Furthermore, why would he think that you can't run with the iPhone? It's flash memory is much more suitable for running than the HD based Zune.

This guy is a schmoe.

Wow, you guys left a lot out of the quote to make it sounds worse than it is. Here's the full one:

"People are buying it because it’s an Apple phone, not because it’s an iPod. It’s a lousy iPod. You can’t skip a track without looking at it. You can’t go running with the thing. It is the first consumer product that has done browsing [on a cellphone] extremely well.

[The success of the iPhone] is the hangover from their relentless pursuit of building beautiful products for 25 years. That is their brand. [Consumers are saying that] Steve [Jobs] and the guys in Cupertino build beautiful products that are simple and they integrate nicely with my life. My phone is hard to use and it’s ugly, so I’ll try theirs."

So, yes, he's right on (in my opinion). The iPhone IS a lousy iPod, unfortunately. I CAN'T go running with it or easily change the volume without looking at it. However, as he says, Apple's the first company to get browsing on a phone perfect and the "guys in Cupertino" DOES build beautiful products.

Stop taking bits of the quotes and removing it from context just to stir an argument!

Nov 16, 07 - 08:48 pm Comment from: zmarc

I've been running more with my iPhone than with my Nike+ nano. I carry my phone with me anyway, so why not have it be an iPod? One less device to carry now.

And I love being able to control volume/track via the headset. I couldn't do that with my nano -- I had to keep the nano's controls locked because the controls would rub in my pocket and change things. That meant needing to pause or skip a track was a real pain -- have to fish the thing out of my pocket, unlock it, and fiddle with the controls. With my iPhone, the controls I need are right on my headset! The iPhone is a BETTER iPod.

I do wish Apple adds support for Stereo Bluetooth support. Then you also get play/pause/next/prev as well as answer the phone all at once, without needing a cable to the iPhone [or iPod Touch if you ignore the answer phone part]. It sucks to need an external bluetooth adapter to get functionality that should be included [particularly since it's software-only].

Why is Anonymous?

It is paradoxical that I, Anonymous, can say wise things as often as I proclaim jackassian nuggets of thought upon MDN.

I, Anonymous, encompass a collective of thought.

Bow!