5 ms·

I think the point was about non-obvious features. Lets take the Aero snap feature in Windows 7. How many would know that it is possible to drag a window to the

I think the point was about non-obvious features. Lets take the Aero snap feature in Windows 7. How many would know that it is possible to drag a window to the sides and the top etc. and have it snap into place for split screen view or to maximize? Most of the people who know would be either geeks, or someone who saw someone else do it or discovered it by accident. Contrast that to Apple's features, which are demoed in keynotes by Jobs and watched by a BIG percentage of Apple users. This is the reason that Apple is an ultra secret company with very high penalties for leaking things out. The hype that precedes every conference, with all the guessing etc. keeps Apple in the headlines and in people's minds. That's what people mean when they say Apple is a marketing company. Contrast that to Microsoft, how many people would watch them tout new features? They do make good stuff, but without their marketing, sales would be a lot slower.

kenjackson 15y ago
Did you see the SkyDrive features at the MS event? No. Actually neither did I. In fact it wasn't in the recent MS events. In fact it was announced with with a blog entry: http://windowsteamblog.com/windows_live/b/windowslive/archive/2011/06/07/don-t-wait-for-your-cloud-use-hotmail-and-skydrive-today-on-your-pc-mac-or-phone.aspx http://windowsteamblog.com/windows_live/b/windowslive/archiv... Why didn't MS talk about this at their special Mango VIP event? No idea. MS seems to think that getting too much attention for features is a bad thing.
- lotusleaf1987 15y ago
  Skydrive is also quite useless with file restrictions like no files over 50mb. Why not just use Dropbox?
- WrkInProgress 15y ago
  I agree. It appears that turn by turn navigation (via Bing Maps) is also coming in the Mango update and if so, it would be a really big differentiator (only Android has it thus far) for their platform. Not a peep during their event. -- John Gruber recently critiqued the Windows 8 preview video that was uploaded to youtube. It looked like a high school project. I doubt Apple would ever preview their OS with such a poorly produced video. Here it is: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p92QfWOw88I http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p92QfWOw88I
  - recoiledsnake 15y ago
    >It looked like a high school project. I doubt Apple would ever preview their OS with such a poorly produced video. I think it's pretty good and clean. The iPad UI looks like a scaled down version of OS X in 2001 compared to that now and I've heard the same sentiment from many other people. Metro looks like that to new people but is very functional once you start using it. Here is a good primer on it. http://www.riagenic.com/archives/487 http://www.riagenic.com/archives/487
    - kenjackson 15y ago
      I didn't read the Gruber post, but I think he was refering to the actual production quality of the video, not the UI itself.
  - tomkarlo 15y ago
    Whoever shot that video had no idea what they were doing. Get a lav mike or boom mike, for a start, so that your primary narration track doesn't pick up all the reverb from the room. It was definitely amateurish - not only would Apple not do such a crappy job, I doubt most startups would, either. You can have an outsourced service make a demo video with proper voiceover for less than $1,000. That video from Microsoft is just sloppy, not frugal or homespun.
marknutter 15y ago
Give me a break, the only people watching these keynotes are geeks.
- simonh 15y ago
  My wife is a nurse. She has no real interest in technology, though she loves her iPhone. When a new iPhone or new major version of iOS comes out she always asks me about because all her nursey mates on the ward chat about it.
  - ndmccormack 15y ago
    Agreed. A fellow co-worker, who doesn't even have an iPhone, loves watching Steve Jobs present keynotes due to his presentation style and they way he/apple demo's new technology. While she may be a producer in a digital agency she is certainly not tech savvy and not trying to keep up with the latest apple news. edit grammer
- recoiledsnake 15y ago
  What about the media frenzy before and after the event? Don't tell me that it doesn't have a beneficial effect.
- JCB_K 15y ago
  Definitely not, I know loads of people who are happy Apple users but by no definition geeks, and they watch it. Just because they want to know what way the platform is going they're using.
- mturmon 15y ago
  Anyone who presents technology to non-expert audiences can benefit from studying these presentations. They're masterful.

kenjackson 15y ago

Did you see the SkyDrive features at the MS event? No. Actually neither did I. In fact it wasn't in the recent MS events. In fact it was announced with with a blog entry: http://windowsteamblog.com/windows_live/b/windowslive/archive/2011/06/07/don-t-wait-for-your-cloud-use-hotmail-and-skydrive-today-on-your-pc-mac-or-phone.aspx http://windowsteamblog.com/windows_live/b/windowslive/archiv... Why didn't MS talk about this at their special Mango VIP event? No idea. MS seems to think that getting too much attention for features is a bad thing.

lotusleaf1987 15y ago
Skydrive is also quite useless with file restrictions like no files over 50mb. Why not just use Dropbox?
WrkInProgress 15y ago
I agree. It appears that turn by turn navigation (via Bing Maps) is also coming in the Mango update and if so, it would be a really big differentiator (only Android has it thus far) for their platform. Not a peep during their event. -- John Gruber recently critiqued the Windows 8 preview video that was uploaded to youtube. It looked like a high school project. I doubt Apple would ever preview their OS with such a poorly produced video. Here it is: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p92QfWOw88I http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p92QfWOw88I
- recoiledsnake 15y ago
  >It looked like a high school project. I doubt Apple would ever preview their OS with such a poorly produced video. I think it's pretty good and clean. The iPad UI looks like a scaled down version of OS X in 2001 compared to that now and I've heard the same sentiment from many other people. Metro looks like that to new people but is very functional once you start using it. Here is a good primer on it. http://www.riagenic.com/archives/487 http://www.riagenic.com/archives/487
  - kenjackson 15y ago
    I didn't read the Gruber post, but I think he was refering to the actual production quality of the video, not the UI itself.
- tomkarlo 15y ago
  Whoever shot that video had no idea what they were doing. Get a lav mike or boom mike, for a start, so that your primary narration track doesn't pick up all the reverb from the room. It was definitely amateurish - not only would Apple not do such a crappy job, I doubt most startups would, either. You can have an outsourced service make a demo video with proper voiceover for less than $1,000. That video from Microsoft is just sloppy, not frugal or homespun.

marknutter 15y ago

Give me a break, the only people watching these keynotes are geeks.

simonh 15y ago
My wife is a nurse. She has no real interest in technology, though she loves her iPhone. When a new iPhone or new major version of iOS comes out she always asks me about because all her nursey mates on the ward chat about it.
- ndmccormack 15y ago
  Agreed. A fellow co-worker, who doesn't even have an iPhone, loves watching Steve Jobs present keynotes due to his presentation style and they way he/apple demo's new technology. While she may be a producer in a digital agency she is certainly not tech savvy and not trying to keep up with the latest apple news. edit grammer
recoiledsnake 15y ago
What about the media frenzy before and after the event? Don't tell me that it doesn't have a beneficial effect.
JCB_K 15y ago
Definitely not, I know loads of people who are happy Apple users but by no definition geeks, and they watch it. Just because they want to know what way the platform is going they're using.
mturmon 15y ago
Anyone who presents technology to non-expert audiences can benefit from studying these presentations. They're masterful.