What is “Life without walls?”

re: What is “Life without walls?”

Kevin Remde — Fri, 16 Jan 2009 23:22:06 GMT

Hey KJ! How's it going? Nice to hear from you.

I could agree with you more. :) How people live their digital lives - the tools and gadgets and software.. it's all personal choices and preferences. I'm glad Apple AND Microsoft have a place there for you. Personally, I am not just an employee... I'm a huge fan. (duh!) And the point of the blog post wasn't really to slam people who like using Apple products. They do some good stuff. But as a company who can deliver a total, connected experience, they're not where Microsoft is. I understand your point about smaller company = not boring.. and if Microsoft were less of a platform company and more of a full-blown-product company, we'd be a lot less "boring" to some people too.

Personal Example: I have a Vista machine running as my family Media Center (or HAD, rather.. I upgraded it a couple days ago to Windows 7 beta). It's got TV tuners, and big disks. It's where all the family music, photos and home movies are stored. I have two XBOX 360s on the network acting as game systems as well as Media Center extenders. We watch TV, play music, show our home photos and videos.. all from those boxes. CONNECTED.

I have a Zune. My boys have theirs, too. I have a Zune Pass subscription so that our three Zunes, plus my Media Center, plus the family laptop all can download and play whatever music they want from the Zune Marketplace. And every month we get to pick 10 more songs to permanently add to our collection (stored on the Media Center). CONNECTED.

(Oh.. one of our Zunes is the older 30GB original Zune. Did we need to buy a new one to support the new software and new functionality of the newer Zunes? Nope. Simple firmware upgrade. No need to buy a new one. Can your iPods do that?)

I use the Zune Software to not only choose which music to put on my Zune, but also which TV series.. which Podcast..which playlist gets put there. TV recorded by my Media Center, but watched while I'm sweating at the gym. CONNECTED.

My Zune plugs into the car I bought last month.. a cheap little Ford Focus that has Microsoft Sync. I TELL it to play an artist, track, album, playlist, genre.. and it does it. And when my bluetooth-connected Windows Mobile phone gets a call, it pauses the music, and I talk into some microphone (that I have yet to find) to the caller who is coming through the speakers. Call is over. Music resumes. CONNECTED.

On that mobile phone, I can access a web address that is actually on my Media Center. I can play MY recorded TV on my phone. I can use it to schedule new recordings, too. (I can do that from my PC as well.. wherever I am.) CONNECTED.

And that's just what I'm able to do today. Life will only get better with more and more cloud services (LiveMesh?) and free products (Windows Live Essentials) adding more and more value. (I'm a HUGE fan of the new Windows Live Photogallery)

That's my Life 2.0.

re: What is “Life without walls?”

K to the J — Fri, 16 Jan 2009 22:35:30 GMT

I wish I could disagree with you more, but I can't. Both Microsoft and Apple have their place, in my life I carry a Dell laptop with Vista (blech!) and Windows 7 (Yay!) and Windows 2008 Server (pretty alright) and I get some stuff done with it. When it comes to "life" as I live it (and let's be real, the only life any of us can live is our own) I carry a MacBook Pro and iPhone, I have owned and used other devices both Windows based and proprietary to the device. Nothing fits MY life like Apple and their products. So, Mr. full of I.T. I will let you have your Windows 7 and all and I hope (honestly) that Apple doesn't get too big, because if they do, they will have to do what Microsoft has done and done well and I don't want to see Apple's easy and fun to use products become what Microsoft's products have had to become... Boring. :-)

Okay.. I take all the nasty things I said about Apple back.

Full of I.T. — Fri, 09 Jan 2009 21:16:10 GMT

Yes, a few blog posts ago I had a little bit of a rant on who I thought was the best company to bring

re: What is “Life without walls?”

Kevin Remde — Fri, 09 Jan 2009 01:37:02 GMT

LOL! Very funny, muther-clucker. :)

How 'bout, "Linux: No barriers. No walls. No Windows. No cost. No support. No free lunch." ?

re: What is “Life without walls?”

Anonymous Chicken — Fri, 09 Jan 2009 00:27:37 GMT

Linux: No barriers. No walls. No windows.

Full of I.T. : What is ???Life without walls????

Full of I.T. : What is ???Life without walls???? — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 19:10:04 GMT

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