As ? aims to become the world’s number one Internet services company …

~ michael_msft ~ Leave a comment

A lot of people not in Asia will probably not know who the company representing the question mark is. I myself didn’t really take notice of this company till they bought Viki – just due to the fact that it was a Singapore deal in the video space. Anyone who has ever been to Japan will have heard of Rakuten and of course all around Asia they have been launching various initiatives and buying up companies.

Now they buy Viber for some serious cash.

Where is this going?

This is their statement regarding the Viber deal:

“As Rakuten aims to become the world’s number one Internet services company, this acquisition will enable Rakuten to penetrate new markets with multiple digital content offerings, in combination with its e-commerce and financial services platforms,” the company says.

At first you could just pass that comment off as PR hubris but when you look at who they are buying and if you have ever heard Hiroshi Mikitani talk, one must take the statement somewhat seriously.

Rakuten wants to go global and it looks like they are going to buy and build whatever they need to get there.

I still don’t see the cohesive vision or how all the pieces fit together but for sure they are trying to make it happen.

This is going to be fun to watch.

One app store to rule them all?

~ michael_msft ~ 5 Comments

Not talking about mobile phones but about TV’s. I won’t hide my disdain for the TV ecosystem and the supposed smart TV mess. Nothing smart about it really. I was recently at a telco in Singapore on their pipe, meaning a very fast line, using a new TV and when I clicked the app store button I looked at a spinner for about 3 mins. Imagine doing that on a normal internet line.

This TV stuff is a mess. Apple TV, Roku and Google are trying to cut through it but all have their flaws. Apple is Apple only, Roku is not an open platform and Google didnt make chromecast as easy as implementing AirPlay is for iOS. Yes I know chromecast is android and iOS and that it has some sense of apps but they didn’t make it dead simple to build on. Bummer. They also did not take into account DRM and encryption as much as they should have.

So the TV’s and their app stores will still exist and they suck but they are not going away just yet. So I am liking a little of what I am hearing from Opera – yes Opera. http://www.operasoftware.com/products/tv-store

Opera wants to try to build one TV app store and then get various TV manufacturers and OEM’s to embed it. Then you go to one app store, QA it and launch it – hopefully getting all the platforms that Opera is running on. Still a pain but not as bad as going to each TV vendor for each QA and legal process. Yes – legal. Unlike iOS and android app stores you have to sign contracts that lawyers make. It is a silly, silly process.

Can Opera do it? I am not sure. I am cheering them on though.

You add that Roku is doing the same thing with their stuff by getting it into TV’s. True but the Roku platform is a proprietary non HTML stack and they don’t take all apps due to there cozy DISH relationship. So Roku might have a similar plan as Opera but it won’t work is my guess due to the way they have tackled it.

We shall see.

I still want the TV is dumb glass scenario and I just project on it. One can hope.

Wonder if the new CEO will seriously overhaul Windows?

~ michael_msft ~ Leave a comment

Before I rant – I am cheering MSFT on to win a lot more than they do :: http://www.nokpis.com/2014/02/06/microsoft/

In order to do that they need to fix the turd that is Windows at some point.

Gruber linked to this, from a MSFT fanboy at – scathing indeed :: http://winsupersite.com/windows-8/what-heck-happening-windows

I don’t own a windoze box. Got rid of the last HP netbook we had laying around cause it ceased to boot anymore.

So I run Parallels and had windoze 7 on it. Then I bought windoze 8. Tried upgrade and couldn’t. Tried a clean install and couldn’t.

Finally discovered I had to upgrade over win 7 but I needed to use the win 8 32 disks cause for some reason my win 7 was 32 bit.

Horribly confusing, very slow process and lots of rebooting.

Windows needs to be redone from the ground up at some point.

Or maybe it is too late?

We shall see what the new dude does.

Microsoft

~ michael_msft ~ 1 Comment

Microsoft has a new CEO. I know little about him but he seems to curry favor with the troops and judging by what is being written about him I am guessing he looks to be the right guy to turn the place around. Yes – it needs turning around. Why you might ask? Cause tech folks like myself don’t really use anything from Microsoft anymore. I practically cut my computing teeth on everything Microsoft but now I use mostly Apple products, iOS (and the many made for iOS apps), and lots of other services in the cloud of which none of them are made by Microsoft.

However the world needs competition. A google and apple world is not great for any of us.

BB is dead – let’s not even pretend to think otherwise.

I would love to see bing compete.

I would love to see windows phone compete.

I would love, also very surprised, to see windows wow me with stuff that might tease me away from OSX.

I would love to see azure, or whatever name you call Microsoft cloud services, compete head on with AWS.

I would love to see xbox own the living room, I don’t give a SHIT about gaming, and challenge the notions of what a home entertainment (console) device could do when everything is connected up.

Lately I have been somewhat surprised at working with Microsoft around some Spuul stuff. They have engineered some good tech and offer good support but they still seem to focus everything around windows versus windows phone. Mobile and cloud is where it is at. Bottom line – they need to sort that out quick.

Office – yes I still use it unfortunately but I am miffed they don’t properly support it across all of my iOS devices well. I am guessing the new guy will change that.

So Microsoft is back in the spotlight and people like me are quietly cheering them on. Maybe even less quietly now that they have a CEO that isn’t going to mock or berate people like me.

The clock is ticking but I expect to see the new Microsoft slowly appear this year.