The Ben'enator » Microsoft

The Zune 120GB

Benjamin — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 15:15:23 +0000

I recently picked up a 120GB Zune on a blowout sale for just over $200 making it one of the cheapest/GB players around. I owned an 80GB iPod Classic and a 16GB iPod Touch at this point and was able to sell off my 80GB Classic for 75% of the cost of the new Zune. My experience with the Zune has been a little frustrating in Canada and I will be posting up a bit of a guide in the future.

I can’t blame Microsoft or Zune though as I didn’t check to see if I could actually buy music or sign up for the Zune pass in Canada. It seems that our Canadian CRTC has decided to block the Zune stuff at this moment. It will be available this fall however, but if you’re impatient, make sure you stay tuned for full details. In the meantime, check out the 120GB Zune wonder and the software below.

I really like the software interface and functionality over iTunes. The only downside is that you need Microsoft (think XBOX Live) points in order to buy music. That being said, purchased music is DRM free and that is a huge bonus.

More pics in my Flickr Photostream.

New Microsoft Ads

Benjamin — Sat, 20 Sep 2008 22:11:18 +0000

Microsoft has allotted 300 Million for their latest advertising campaign that tries to undo the damage that has been done by the “Mac vs. PC” ads done by Apple. The first couple of ads featured casual banter between Bill Gates and Jerry Seinfeld and mostly felt like Seinfeld mini-episodes that were so far left field that most people didn’t know what they were about until the commercial was over.

Some say that these first two commercials were a waste of time, money and airplay by they paved the way for the latest three commercials and got us all thinking about Microsoft – and in a positive way to boot. They have a lot of work to do, and although Windows 7 has had some attention recently, I’m still not holding my breath that it will be “the best OS ever”.

In the meantime, take a look at all three of the latest ads below.

Technet – Sweet

Benjamin — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 14:17:52 +0000

I was at Microsoft HQ in Redmond, WA earlier this week and got to see some interesting stuff on their campus. I got to meet with a few interesting people and managed to score a great deal on a Technet subscription. This subscription enables tech enthusiasts to play with the latest beta software and have full access to Microsofts (almost) entire line of software.

Did you know that there is officially a Vista Enterprise and an Office 2007 Enterprise? It’s good stuff let me tell you.