Tag Archives: Microsoft

Windows and Nook Sitting in a Tree

Via Washington Post:

Microsoft will make a $300 million investment in the subsidiary for an approximately 17.6 percent stake. Barnes & Noble will own about 82.4 percent of the subsidiary, which has yet to be named. The companies say the subsidiary will help to speed the transition to e-reading. Barnes & Noble sells the Nook e-reader. The Nook app will make Barnes & Noble’s catalog of e-books, magazines and newspapers available to Windows customers.

Guess the Microsoft – Barnes & Noble lawsuits are history?

Microsoft Retail Stores

I had blogged previously about the Microsoft Retail Experience. It appears that Microsoft has decided that David Porter will join the company as corporate vice president of Retail Stores. He will lead Microsoft’s efforts to create a better PC and Microsoft retail purchase experience for consumers worldwide through the development and opening of the company’s own retail stores.

Google Apps Contact syncing with BlackBerry devices

If you own a Blackberry, Google has introduced one more reason to switch to Gmail by way of their Google Sync tool. In addition to Google Sync’s ability to keep your mobile devices in sync with Google Calendar, a new feature now available is the ability to synchronize contacts between the BlackBerry and Google contacts. This improvement offers automatic, two-way synchronization between your BlackBerry’s built-in address book and your Google Apps contacts. From Google Maps to Google Contacts, it truly is helpful to have a central repository of contact information and this is making it harder for someone who has switched to Gmail to consider moving back to another service provider.

So, even though Microsoft has shared contacts with Hotmail, Xbox and the  Zune, there’s still places like the Blackberry or Windows Live Maps where access to Windows Live contact information would be very helpful, and the lack of such a service from Microsoft makes it harder to continue justify using their services.