Bill Gates -- I helped Steve Jobs create the Mac

Steve Jobs had some very harsh things to say about Bill Gates in the just-published biography of him. In an interview yesterday, Gates responded quite kindly to that criticism, but also took credit for helping Steve Jobs invent the Mac.
In the biography, Jobs called Gates "unimaginative," "fundamentally odd" and "weirdly flawed as a human being." He also said, "He'd be a broader guy if he had dropped acid once or gone off to an ashram when he was younger."
Yesterday, in an interview on ABC's "This Week," Christiane Amanpour asked Gates about that criticism. Gates didn't rise to the bait, saying complimentary things about Jobs and saying that because Apple was in financial trouble in various times, it was no surprise that Jobs would lash out at him.
When Amanpour asked what he felt about the criticism, Gates started off his answer this way:

"Well, Steve and I worked together, creating the Mac. We [Microsoft] had more people on it, did the key software for it."

One can only imagine Jobs' reaction to the claim that the "unimaginative," "fundamentally odd" and "weirdly flawed" Gates was a co-creator of one of Jobs' greatest accomplishments. Needless to say, he would not be pleased.
Gates then expanded on his answer:

"So, over the course of the 30 years we worked together, you know, he said a lot of very nice things about me and he said a lot of tough things. I mean, he faced several times at Apple the fact that their products were so premium priced they literally might not stay in the marketplace. So, the fact that we were succeeding with high-volume products, including a range of prices, because of the way we worked with multiple companies, its tough.
"At various times, he felt beleaguered. He felt like he was the good guy and we were the bad guys. You know, very understandable. I respect Steve, we got to work together. We spurred each other on, even as competitors. None of that bothers me at all."

Gates's demeanor during the interview was his usual public one, bland and mild-mannered. But the fact that he takes partial credit for the creation of the Mac, and that he pointedly notes that Apple was under the threat of going under because of a possibly fundamentally flawed business plan at one point (targeting only the high end), shows that his competitive streak is still there, no matter how bland he may seem.

Harvard Business Review -- Bill Gates, not Steve Jobs, deserves idolization

Since his death, Steve Jobs has received an enormous amount of well-deserved public acclaim. But a piece in the Harvard Business Review argues that Bill Gates, not Steve Jobs, should be the businessperson we most admire, and be the model for our children to emulate.
The piece was written by Maxwell Wessel, who is a researcher at the Harvard Business School's think tank that focuses on innovation, the Forum for Growth and Innovation.
His central argument is that although Steve Jobs was a visionary and likely "our generation's most important leader in the world of business," Bill Gates was a better model for us as complete people. He says:

While Jobs should be who MBAs and industrial designers try to emulate, I'm not sure he's who we should idolize. That respect should be bestowed on someone we talk less and less about, Bill Gates.

His argument is simple: Bill Gates sees his ultimate legacy as helping others and changing the world via philanthropy, while Steve Jobs saw his ultimate legacy as building a great company. He quotes from a note that Gates sent to the Harvard community: "I hope you will reflect on what you’ve done with your talent and energy. I hope you will judge yourselves not on your professional accomplishments alone, but also on how well you work to address the world’s deepest inequities, on how well you treat people a world away who have nothing in common with you but their humanity."
Then Wessel concludes:

As much as I love Apple, Inc, I would happily give up my iPhone to put food on the plates of starving children. Steve Jobs turned his company into a decade long leader in the truly new space of mobile computing. Bill Gates decided to eliminate malaria. Who do you think we should be putting up on a pedestal for our children to emulate?

Not to take anything away from Steve Jobs, but I absolutely concur with Wessel's conclusion.

Google -- Microsoft sues over Android because Windows Phone 7 has failed

The war of words between Google and Microsoft has heated up even further, with Google's patent counsel essentially charging that the only reason Microsoft has been going after Android phone makers for patent infringement is because Microsoft's mobile phone strategy has failed. He also warns that the patent system is broken and may dramatically slow down innovation.
Tim Porter, Google's patent counsel, was interviewed by SFGate. He pulls no punches about Microsoft's motivations for suing Android manufacturers, or threatening them with suits as a way to get them to pay royalties. He says:

This is a tactic that Microsoft has used in the past, with Linux, for example. When their products stop succeeding in the marketplace, when they get marginalized, as is happening now with Android, they use the large patent portfolio they've built up to get revenue from the success of other companies' products.

Porter takes aim not only at Microsoft, but at the entire patent system, and comes close to arguing that software simply shouldn't be patentable. First he says:

You can look at the development of the software industry and see a point when (software wasn't being patented) and it was a period of intense innovation. You didn't see Microsoft's first software patent until 1988. By that time it had come out with Word, not to mention DOS. So there's just no question you can look back and see that innovation happens without patents. It's also true that since there weren't patents, there wasn't software patent litigation.

Then when asked point-blank whether software should be patentable, he hems and haws, not quite calling for an end to software patents:

I think the question is whether the current system makes sense. During the period I talked about, software was protected by copyright and other legal protections. There are certainly arguments those are more appropriate.

Microsoft, of course, takes a very different approach, and says that the infringing Android patents cost the company money, and all it's doing is getting paid fairly for its work.
And Microsoft gets paid very well, indeed, by Android manufacturers who have signed royalty agreements with it. Goldman Sachs estimates that Microsoft will get $444 million from Android royalties for fiscal year 2012. Microsoft Executive Vice President and General Counsel Brad Smith and Corporate Vice President and Deputy General Counsel Horacio Gutierrez write in a recent blog that the Android agreements:

...ensure respect and reasonable compensation for Microsoft's inventions and patent portfolio. Equally important, they enable licensees to make use of our patented innovations on a long-term and stable basis.

Who's right here, Google or Microsoft? In this instance, I can't say that I know. But I do know that in general Google is right that the patent system is broken when it comes to software, and needs to be significantly reformed. Google's Porter points out that

The period of intense patent assertions (against things like the steam engine) resulted in decades-long periods of stagnation. Innovation only took off when the patents expired.

Hands on -- Can the Nokia Lumia 800 save Windows Phone 7?

Microsoft is counting on Nokia to help save the struggling Windows Phone 7, and the recently released Lumia 800 is Nokia's Windows Phone 7 standard bearer. I took a quick look at the Lumia 800, and here's what I found. (A more comprehensive review will follow on Computerworld later.)
Let's start off with the basics: This is a beautiful stylish, phone, made from a single block of polycarbonate with a Gorilla Glass screen and a superb 3.7-inch AMOLED display. It's based on the existing Nokia N9. The specs are solid, but not spectacular: a 1.4 Ghz Qualcomm SnapDragon S2 processor, 16GB of internal memory and 512MB of RAM. It's got a single 8-megapixel camera with Carl Zeiss optics. The phone runs Mango, the latest version of Windows Phone 7.
The software
Under the hood, it runs Windows Phone 7.5, which as I've written in a review, make Windows Phone 7 for the first time give Android and iOS a run for the money. Anyone who buys into the Microsoft ecosystem will be very pleased, and those looking for a task-oriented phone will be pleased as well. If it's apps you're after, there simply aren't as many as for iOS or Android.
Nokia has added some of its own software to the mix, including a music app and a mapping app, which are generally good. I'll have more details about them in my upcoming Computerworld review.
What's good
What's best about the phone is nothing objective -- it's the way the phone looks and feels. The polycarbonate feels soft, and not at all like plastic, and the phone is light and svelte and yet still feels substantial in your hand.
Even though it has only a single-core processor and 512MB of memory, it doesn't feel at all sluggish. The AMOLED display, put quite simply, is beautiful. The camera, with its Carl Zeiss lens, is top-notch. It's not just that it has an 8-megapixel resolution, but that the photos seem more true to life than other 8-megapixel smartphone cameras. A nice touch is that you have your choice of two ways of snapping a photo -- either use a physical camera button, or else tap the area of the screen where you want the camera to focus, and it does the rest.

What's not so good
All that being said, there are some downside to phone. To begin with, it has only one camera, so that you can't use it for video chat or videoconferencing. Given that competitors such as the Samsung Galaxy S II has two cameras, this is a decided drawback.
There's also no notification LCD on the front, so you won't receive any visual clues that you've got waiting messages, texts, or emails, for example. The 16 GB of onboard storage is adequate, but not outstanding. There's no Micro SD slot, so 16 GB is all you'll get.
Can it save Windows Phone 7?
The Lumia 800 is a beautifully designed phone, and with Mango, it runs a top-notch operating system. By itself, though, it's no Windows Phone 7 savior. The iPhone overall is still a slicker, more elegant device. And the Android-based Samsung Galaxy S II is not only beautifully designed, but sports a larger screen and more impressive specs.
The truth is, though, no phone by itself can save Windows Phone 7. But Nokia has shown with the Lumia 800 that it can design phones that stack up reasonably well against the iPhone and high-end Android phones. If Nokia builds other phones to this standard, Windows Phone 7 will have a shot at succeeding.

Windows Phone 7 jailbreak app shows that Microsoft, not Apple, is the friend of openness

Apple has managed through the years to portray itself as the friend of freedom and openness, while depicting Microsoft as the exact opposite. But the recent decision by Microsoft to approve the use of a jailbreak app for Windows Phone 7 shows that Microsoft embraces freedom far more than does Apple.
ChevronWP7 Labs has released a tool to allow people to jailbreak Windows Phone 7 devices, available for $9. It lets anyone install and run apps outside of the official Windows Phone Marketplace. It's good for a single device; to do the same on another device costs another $9.
Microsoft allows the tool in the marketplace. If someone uses the tool, the warranties on their phone will remain, and they'll still be able to get Microsoft support for their phone.
It wasn't always so. A year ago, the same company released a similar tool, and Microsoft had it removed from the marketplace.
This isn't the first time that Microsoft has embraced the hacking of its devices. After initially not allowing hacking the Kinect, Microsoft changed its mind, and encourages Kinect hackers.
Contrast that behavior with Apple, which fiercely controls what can be done with its hardware. In fact, the company has even argued before the U.S. Copyright Office in 2009 that jailbreaking the iPhone is illegal, claiming that:

"Current jailbreak techniques now in widespread use [utilizes] unauthorized modification to the copyrighted bootloader and OS, resulting in infringement of the copyright in those programs."

Apple is also notorious for banning apps from the App Store for unclear reasons. Even worse, it has done the bidding of Chinese censors and will not allow people in China to download apps from the App Store, or content from iTunes, about the Dalai Lama or certain activists.
Earlier this year, the New York Times reported:

Apple's iTunes service still forbids Chinese users from downloading certain applications that refer to the Dalai Lama and the Uighur activist Rebiya Kadeer.

And Macworld found last December that in China Apple censors apps that mention the Dalai Lama.
So while Apple's marketing is clearly superior to Microsoft's in portraying itself as the friend of freedom and openness, the truth is, Microsoft is far more a friend of openness than Apple.

Microsoft released its first tablet 10 years ago. So why did Apple win with the iPad?

Ten years ago Microsoft released its Tablet PC, with Bill Gate saying "within five years I predict it will be the most popular form of PC sold in America." Things didn't work out that way -- the Tablet PC died, and the iPad eventually took the world by storm. What went wrong?
Gates showed off a prototype of Microsoft's Tablet PC at the COMDEX Fall 2001 computer show in Los Vegas. Manufacturers including Acer, Compaq, Fujitsu, and Toshiba said they would release Tablet PCs in the second half of 2002.
Here's how a Microsoft press release described the Tablet PC:

The size of a legal notepad and half the weight of most of today's laptop PCs, the Tablet PC is a full-powered, full-featured PC that runs Windows XP and combines the power of desktop computing with the flexibility and portability of a pen and paper notepad.

It was touted to run Autodesk's CAD software, versions of Microsoft Office, and Groove, collaboration software which Microsoft bought from Ray Ozzie, the creator of Lotus Notes. The press release also noted that in his presentation, Gates:

emphasized that because it runs Windows XP, the Tablet PC is a fully-fledged, secure Microsoft .NET client machine that natively supports the .NET Framework.

All that tells you all you need to know about why the Tablet PC died. Rather than envision what people would really want to do with a tablet and then design the hardware for that, Microsoft instead force-fit Windows XP onto it. Windows XP was a great desktop operating system, but it was bloated overkill for a tablet.
Microsoft also decided that people would want to do the exact same things with a Tablet PC as they would with a desktop or a laptop. Here's what Gates said at the announcement:

"The Tablet takes cutting-edge PC technology and makes it available wherever you want it, which is why I'm already using a Tablet as my everyday computer. It's a PC that is virtually without limits -- and within five years I predict it will be the most popular form of PC sold in America."

Because Microsoft envisioned it as a full-fledged PC and equipped it accordingly, it was expensive --- typically $2,000 or more. Despite that price tag, it couldn't really replace a desktop or laptop. It only found use in niche markets.
There were other problems as well. As TabTimes notes, the heavy use of a stylus was also a mistake.
Steve Jobs recognized that the tablet should be a consumer device and not a replacement for a desktop or laptop PC. He saw that it would require a different operating system, one designed for tablets, not traditional computers.
Will Microsoft learn from its mistakes when it releases tablets based on Windows 8? It's not quite clear yet. The Windows 8 metro interface is well-suited for tablets, although the Windows 8 Desktop isn't. If Windows 8 tablets are essentially hybrid tablet-PCs, it's unlikely they'll succeed.

Steve Jobs on Microsoft: "They just have no taste."

Is there no end to the number of insults that Steve Jobs apparently hurled the way of Microsoft and Bill Gates? In a never-before shown interview with Steve Jobs from 1995 to play in select cities next week, Jobs takes aim at Microsoft, among other targets.
The interview was done with journalist Robert Cringely, and was part of the research that Cringely was doing for the PBS series, Triumph of the Nerds: The Rise of Accidental Empires. Only sections of the interview were shown in television. Cringely thought that the tape for it had been lost, but says that it was recently discovered in the director's garage.
It will be shown in Landmark Theatres in many cities, including New York, Boston, Palo Alto, San Francisco, Denver, Dallas, Chicago, and many others.
The trailer for it shows a youthful and vigorous-looking Jobs throwing this barb Microsoft's way:

"The only problem with Microsoft is they just have no taste."

Through the years, Jobs has zinged Gates and Microsoft many times, such as saying:

"Bill is basically unimaginative and has never invented anything, which is why I think he's more comfortable now in philanthropy than technology. He just shamelessly ripped off other people's ideas."

Gates, for his part, rarely rose to the bait. In once exception, told by Walter Isaacson in his recent bio of Jobs, Jobs invited Gates to Apple's headquarters, and then berated Gates in front of 10 Apple employees for stealing the Mac interface for Windows. "You're ripping us off!' Jobs shouted at Gates. "I trusted you, and now you’re stealing from us!"
Both the Mac interface and Windows were based on work done at XEROX PARC. So Gates responded:

"Well, Steve, I think there's more than one way of looking at it. I think it's more like we both had this rich neighbor named Xerox and I broke into his house to steal the TV set and found out that you had already stolen it."

So it's obvious that Gates, when necessary, could have as acid a tongue as Jobs. He just rarely felt the need to use it publicly.
The amount of criticism and vitriol that Jobs heaped on Gates and Microsoft through the years makes me think there must have been some level of envy there. Under Jobs' tenure, Apple may have made more beautiful products, but Microsoft, until recently, had always been far more successful. That had to eat at a perfectionist like Jobs.

Here's how to opt out of Google's Wi-Fi snooping

Google has long collected information about people's home and business WiFi networks, and included it in a database that it uses for location services. The company now lets you opt out so that you network isn't included, but it could be harder to do than you think. Here's how to do it, in a few easy steps.
Google gathers the information via Android phones, in the same way that Apple gathers the information via the iPhone, and Microsoft does via Windows Phone 7 devices. (It only gathers the information if people have opted in to use  Google location services.) Information about WiFi network locations are sent to Google, which then uses that information as part of its location-based services for mobile devices. It's been a controversial program, notably because at one point Google didn't just map the networks, but actually gathered information transmitted over those networks, including private email.
Since that revelation, Google has faced legal pressure, especially from the European Union, to kill the mapping service, or let people opt out. Back in September, Google announced that it would eventually allow people to opt out of it. At the time, Google also said it wouldn't appeal an edict from the the Dutch Data Protection Authority (CBP) to destroy records of 3.6 million Wi-Fi hot spots.
Yesterday, on its blog Google made it official --- you can now opt out so that your Wi-Fi hot spot won't be included in Google's database. But plenty of people who may want to opt out may have no idea how to do it. Here's how to do it.

You'll need to add the text _nomap to the end of your network's name, what's known as its SSID (service set identifier). So, for example, if your network's name is Mianet, you'll have to change it to Mianet_nomap.
If you're like a lot of people, you may not have even changed the default name of your network, and it may still have the name it had when you bought it, for example, Linksys for a Linksys router.
How you change your network name varies according to your wireless router, but the same general steps apply to all. You log into your router's administration page, head to the wireless section, rename your SSID, then save your changes. Here's how to do it on a Linksys WRT160N; similar steps will apply to your router.
1. Log into your router with a Web browser. You'll need to know your router's IP address on your network in order to log into it. For Linksys, it's typically 192.168.1.1. For Netgear routers, it's usually 192.168.0.1 or 192.168.1.1.
2. Type in your user name and password. You'll come to a page asking that you type in your user name and password, so go ahead and do that. Routers come with these by default, so if you haven't changed yours, check your system documentation for the default. On Linksys, by default, leave the user name blank and use the password admin.

Here's how to opt out of Google's Wi-Fi snooping

3. Go to the wireless administration page. How you do this varies according to your router. On the Linksys WRT160N, click the Wireless tab.
4. Change the SSID and save your settings. Look for the Network Name (SSID) setting. Add the text _nomap to the end of it. Then click Save Settings.

Here's how to opt out of Google's Wi-Fi snooping

5. Reconnect all of your wireless devices. When you make the change, all of your wireless devices will lose their connection to your network. So you'll have to reconnect them all, using the new network name.
Note that many routers can also turn off SSID broadcast --- in other words, it won't broadcast your router's name to the world. Theoretically, this may keep Google from finding it. But if they're already found the SSID once, it may already be in the database, and they might find it again. Theoretically, changing the SSID name and having your router not broadcast the name might keep it out of Google's clutches as well. You usually turn off SSID broadcast on the same page where you change the SSID name.
Google, by the way, has a Help page about its Wi-Fi tracking, including links to various manufacturers that give some help about changing your SSID. Check it out here.
Note: A previous version of this blog incorrectly reported that Google gathers WiFi information via the cars sent out for Street View. That used to be the way Google gathered the information, but it no longer does that. Instead, it uses the information sent from Android devices.

Windows Phone sales drop precipitously, says Gartner

At a time when Android phone sales have nearly tripled from a year ago, iPhone sales continue to climb, and overall smartphone sales jumped 42%, the Windows Phone platform (formerly Windows Mobile) has done the seemingly impossible -- sold fewer phones in this quarter compared to a year ago. And the platform's potential savior, Nokia, has seen a decline in sales as well.
The numbers come from a survey by Gartner, looking at the third quarter of 2011, and comparing it to the same quarter a year ago. Overall, it found that smartphone sales worldwide were up 42% compared to a year ago, which makes the Windows Phone sales decline particularly alarming for Microsoft. Windows Phone sales dropped from 2.2 million a year ago to 1.7 million this quarter. Its market share declined from 2.7% to 1.5%. Android, meanwhile, had 60.5 million in sales for the quarter, up from 20.5 million a year ago. Its market share leaped from 25.3% to 52.5%. The iPhone sold 17.3 million in the quarter, versus 13.5 million a year ago. Its market share was 15%, down from 16.6% a year ago.
As for Nokia, the news was bad as well. It sold 105.4 million phones in the quarter compared to 117.5 million a year previous.

These numbers show just how much Microsoft has riding on new Nokia phones. Just yesterday, a joint Appcelerator/IDC survey found that 38% of developers are "very interested" in developing for Windows Phone 7, a leap of 8% compared to the last quarter. That interest was in large part because of the Nokia deal and because of the quality of Nokia's Lumia 800 Windows Phone 7 device.
Generally, where developers go, consumers follow. But given these new numbers that show how badly Windows Phone is doing, that may not eventually be the case here.
Note: The first version of this blog referred to sales of Windows Phone 7 devices, rather than sales of Windows Phone (and Windows Mobile) devices. 

Four ways the Nook Tablet beats the Kindle Fire

Looking to choose between a Nook Tablet and a Kindle Fire? Each has its own strengths, but in some ways the Nook Tablet is superior. Here are four ways the Nook Tablet beats the Kindle Fire.
More storage
Both the Kindle Fire and the Nook Tablet are WiFi-only devices, which means that if you're out of range of a WiFi network, you'll only be able to read and view books and media on the device itself. That means storage capacity is a big deal. The Nook Tablet has twice the storage capacity of the Kindle Fire, 16GB versus 8GB, although only 1 GB of the Nook's storage can be used for non-Barnes and Noble content. But the Nook also has a microSD card slot which can hold up to 32GB. That'll put you back less than $40. So the Nook is clearly superior if you want more onboard storage.
Better design
The Kindle Fire is a black slab with a single power button, a headphone jack and a power jack. It looks much like the Blackberry Playbook, nobody's idea of great industrial design.
The Nook Tablet is put simply, better designed, more pleasing and elegant-looking. When it comes to look and feel, think of it as the Mac to the Fire's PC. In addition, it's got volume controls, which I believe are superior to software-only controls, as well as a home button, which the Kindle lacks. And under the hood it's got more RAM --- 1GB versus 512MB for the Kindle Fire. People have also reported a superior battery life and faster battery charging.

Brick-and-mortar support
For some people, nothing beats being able to hold something in their hands and test it before buying. The same holds true for technical support --- a person you can speak to in person beats email every time. If you care about trying before buying and getting in-person help, you'll favor the Nook Tablet.
Better kids' books
If you've got a kid and you plan to read to them with a tablet, you'll favor the Nook Tablet. Books read themselves aloud to kids and you can record your voice reading the book to your child.

Will Windows 8 slip until 2013

There's been a lot of speculation that Windows 8 may ship earlier than expected -- as early as the middle of June 2012. But now a well-known Microsoft analyst says that Windows 8 devices may not be ready until 2013, which would put a serious crimp in Microsoft's attempt to make headway in the tablet market.
Both Samsung and Nokia have said they may have Windows 8 tablets by the second half of next year, possibly as early as June. Kyu Ho, head of sales and marketing for Samsung's computer business, told Bloomberg that Samsung expects to start selling a Windows 8 tablet some time in the second half of the year. And Paul Amsellem, the head of Nokia France said "In June 2012 we will have a tablet running Windows 8," in interview with French paper Les Echos.
But well-known analyst Michael Cherry at the research firm Directions on Microsoft says he believes that Windows 8 devices won't ship until 2013. He told Reuters:

"I believe there will be a RTM somewhere in the last quarter of 2012. Traditionally there's been a 90-day gap between RTM and general availability. To me, that means machine availability in 2013."

Here's how he explains why Samsung and Nokia have both said they'll have devices earlier than that:

"How I choose to interpret that is: they'll have a set of hardware requirements from Microsoft at that time, they will build the machines based on the Windows 8 requirements, but they will initially sell them with Windows 7 on them. They may or may not include a coupon that says you get a free Windows 8 if and when it ships."

That makes some sense. Given that Windows 8 is still only a developer preview, it's hard to imagine seeing any shipping devices as early as mid 2012.
As to Cherry's belief that Windows 8 devices won't be ready until early 2013, there's no way right now to know whether it's true. Microsoft would certainly want them to be ready earlier than that, in time for the 2012 holiday buying season, about a year from now.
Releasing Windows 8 in 2013 would make it that much more difficult for Microsoft to make any headway in the tablet market. The iPad, for now, has the traditional tablet market all but sewn up, but in the next year, expect Android tablets to make serious inroads, because of their wide-ranging prices and form factors. And the just-released Kindle Fire and Nook Tablet will make it that much difficult for Microsoft to gain tablet market share. By 2013, both those devices will be at least a generation or possibly two older, and may well add more traditional tablet features to the e-reader basics.
The upshot: If Cherry is right, it'll be that much tougher for Windows 8 tablets to succeed.