Nokia's downfall?

I see that both Nokia and Blackberry are suffering from the onslaught of iPhones and Android devices. Nokia is now thinking of transferring more production out of Finland, which could have interesting effects nationally, and is, presumably with some sense of desperation, trying to come up with an answer.  Having appointed an ex-MSoft man to head up the company, I suppose it was inevitable that he would reach a deal with MSoft on phone software.  Probably a big mistake.  Microsoft has never really been a phone company and has been running behind Apple and Google for months now - as a (relatively) late arrival on the phone scene its chances of catching up are remote.  I suspect that we are not only seeing the beginning of the end for Nokia, but perhaps the beginning of the end for Microsoft.  Inconceivable?  Well, all companies have a lifetime and if you pause to think of how many computer companies have disappeared or have been eaten by other companies, you'll realise that there's no such thing in this industry as an improbable event.

iMAC experience

For a company with an enviable record in the design of technology, Apple can certainly make mistakes. A lot of users have never been happy with the so-called 'Mighty Mouse', which seems to function rather erratically at times. Certainly, the one I have is no where near as positive in use as the Logitech wireless mouse I was using with my PC - in fact, as it will work just as well with the iMac. I may well switch.

Imperfect as it may be, the mouse is at least ergonomic - the same cannot be said for the keyboard, which is a design disaster. The keyboard measures just 28 x 17.5 cms - the num pad has gone, the arrow keys have been minimised and incorporated into the space normally occupied by other keys on the main board, the main navigation keys, such as Home and End, Page up and Page down have gone, there is no Delete key - instead one must use other key combinations to achieve the same result. Also, because of the small width of the keyboard, ones hands are brought together in the centre of one's body, instead of being spaced apart at about shoulder width, as the best ergonomic keyboards are.

In this respect, if in no other, Apple lags way behind Microsoft. I've been using one of the Msoft ergonomic keyboards for some years - in fact, I think it was the first one they introduced and one can now get several, not only from Msoft but from other makers - some of whom, unfortunately, don't operate in the UK. But wouldn't it be ironic if I had to attach a Microsoft ergonomic keyboard to the iMac and thereby destroy the beautiful unity of design?!

I figure that one of these days we are going to see a class action brought against Apple as a result of the all the RSI cases their keyboards must be generating.

Microsoft blinks

So MSoft can't do everything after all. An article posted by the Website design company, Bluhalo, reports that the giant is giving up on the digitization of books for its version of Google's book search. This could put the Internet Archive in difficulties, since the Archive has been doing the digitization. No confirmation of this from anywhere, as far as I can see, so who knows?

Microsoft makes a bid for Yahoo

After playing footsie for 18 months, Microsoft has come out with an offer of $31 a share for Yahoo in a letter to the Yahoo Board, according to ZDNet.
Clearly, things could get interesting on the search front as a result of this, but I suspect that MSoft is after Yahoo's visibility in the consumer market. If ZDNet is right, then going after Google, in search terms, isn't the primary motive:

Specifically, Microsoft says the combined companies can target the following areas:
* Scale economics driven by audience critical mass and increased value for advertisers;
* Combined engineering talent to accelerate innovation;
* Operational efficiencies through elimination of redundant cost;
* And the ability to innovate in emerging user experiences such as video and mobile.

Note that Blogger doesn't let me use Yahoo's exclamation mark :-)

Bridging the virtual and the real

Under a rather misleading headline (Library of Congress goes virtual) PC World has an article on an agreement between Microsoft and the L of C to enable the online visitor to get directions to exhibits, etc. when visiting the L of C in reality.
I say 'misleading' because, of course, the Library of Congress has had a digital library element for some years now, including, for example, its American Memory section.