Computer Support Blog

As technology has improved and advanced, advertisers have worked very hard to find new ways to exploit it.  Especially with new forms of communication technology, advertisers try to integrate product placement and utilize the new mediums to reach tech users.  For those who lived through the meteoric rise of the Internet, the days of slow modems also meant a time when you could go online and not be bombarded by advertisements all over your screen.  The video game market has been one that is much tougher for advertisers to crack into.  Advertisers want to reach the demographic, as video game players spend several hours at a time focused on gameplay, when they are not interacting with any other medium upon which they could encounter advertisements.  Xbox Live is now trying to get users to “play through” advertisements from big businesses. Read more »

Protecting intellectual property rights is an essential part of providing art, products, and services all around the world.  In the tech sector, intellectual property rights are protected through the use of patents, most of which are actually held by business entities, instead of human inventors.  Because businesses control patents, they frequently buy and sell them as part of larger negotiations.  Recently, Google acquired the mobile phone manufacturer, Motorola.  With the acquisition of the company and its patents, Google has inherited a legal battle with Microsoft. Read more »

In the tech sector, every major company that has a Board of Directors uses different criteria to choose who will serve on the Board.  Even so, there are some similarities in how the various Boards are assembled.  The Boards of Directors of the most successful companies in the tech sector tend to feature Directors who might not be intimately tied to the tech sector.  Successful companies like Microsoft utilize a wide range of knowledge and experience on their Board of Directors.  Maria M. Klawe is one of the diverse voices that helps to guide Microsoft’s Board of Directors. Read more »

It seems like every few months, there is a new smartphone that hits the market to offer a new feature, service or style that makes consumers rethink the smartphone they already have.  Early on in the race to make better smartphones, the addition of cameras or video technology made for a compelling smartphone release.  Now, it is all about speed and versatility.  If the smartphone is not a 4G smartphone or on an LTE network, it barely registers with consumers.  Nokia’s new Lumia 900 not only registers, it is already thrilling consumers! Read more »

No matter how effecting the marketing departments for navigation apps for smartphones are, using your smartphone while driving is just dangerous.  No matter how reliable wireless providers insist their networks are, they are not infallible. There is little worse than being lost because you have driven out of your network coverage area and lose your navigation tool!  For those who plan ahead or travel with a laptop computer and can pull over for get directions from your computer while driving, there is no more reliable a navigation tool than Microsoft MapPoint 2011! Read more »

In the previous blog in this series, we discussed that although the concept of tablets had existed for decades, self-contained portable computers were never possible until advances in technology caught up to the idea. Manufacturers tried their best to give consumers what they wanted, but the technology and the market were simply not ready yet. In the early 2000s, however, the market began to see an upsurge in tablets.

This upsurge was driven by Microsoft’s rededication to the tablet concept. The computer giant released a set of guidelines for manufacturers to build tablets using a tablet-specific version of Windows called Windows XP Tablet PC Edition. These newer tablets more closely resembled the tablets currently on the market than the previous generation of tablets.

These devices featured touch screens, video playing capabilities, Internet connectivity, and lighter designs. With the new technology came more complete mobile computer support as well. They were not quite up to the abilities tablets would have in only a few years, but it was a great start.

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In big technology companies like Microsoft, it is a rare thing for an executive in the Customer Service branch to make the mainstream news.  In fact, it is hard to make a splash in customer service such that you get noticed within the industry at all.  Customer service defines the old adage of “no news is good news;” if a customer service department is doing their job efficiently then you seldom hear about them.  But in 2010, one corporate officer in the technology sector’s customer service division stood out.  That person was Barbara Gordon and she boldly challenged Google to rise to the level of customer service Microsoft delivers!

Barbara Gordon serves as the Corporate Vice President for Customer Service and Support for the Microsoft Corporation.  In 2010, she wrote a blog that became famous in the technology industry.  The article, Microsoft’s Support Sets Us Apart, garnered mainstream media attention by boldly calling out Google for its lack of customer service options.  While some in the industry characterized the gambit as brazen, Gordon used the media attention to constructively criticize Google while touting the strong customer service department at Microsoft.  When Google floundered in its response – even now it offers easy access only to Internet customer service support – Gordon’s risky public statement paid off for Microsoft.

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There are very few companies in the technology sector that invest heavily in research and development anymore.  Ironically, for an industry that has seen the greatest growth come from spontaneous invention, the computer and consumer electronics markets have stopped investing as much time, money, and resources on pure discovery.  While most big businesses in the technology sector work to refine already-existing technologies, Intel continues to innovate.  Leading the software development efforts of Intel is Renee J. James.

Renee J. James serves Intel as one of the company’s Senior Vice Presidents.  James acts as the General Manager of the Software and Services Group, which is a key division of Intel.  Intel, which develops advanced computer hardware, relies upon the Software and Services Group to ensure that the hardware they create in the laboratories functions with the dominant software platforms on the market.  In some ways, Renee J. James works as a corporate ambassador between Intel and every major OS and software provider in the world!

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Windows 8 is just around the corner. Microsoft released its new operating system for the developer’s pre-beta testing phase in September and a beta version will come out in February. The reviews so far from the pre-beta phase are extremely encouraging about Windows 8.

According to developers who are already using the pre-beta version, Windows 8 is a very different operating system from its predecessors. The entire operating system is a rethought and redesigned product to fulfill the needs of users better on all platforms.

That is right, all platforms. Instead of using a different operating system for smartphones and tablets than they use for computers, Windows 8 will be available for all devices. It will to work the same on every device, as well as be able to synchronize your trusted devices so that you can pull up the same programs when moving from one device to another. This should simplify computer support for any of your devices.

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A few years back, Microsoft had some legal troubles.  The U.S. government decided to aggressively pursue the Microsoft Corporation for antitrust violations.  This resulted in a restructuring of much of the way Microsoft does business and as Microsoft progresses past that dark chapter in its corporate history, it is once more growing steadily.  The results of the government probes and prosecution would have been much worse, had it not been for Mary E. Snapp.

Mary E. Snapp is the Corporate Vice President and Deputy General Counsel in the Law and Corporate Affairs branch of Microsoft.  She specializes in providing legal advice for the Products and Services Division of Microsoft.  As Corporate Vice President and Deputy General Counsel of the vital Products and Services division, Snapp oversees 150 lawyers working to protect Microsoft’s legal claims for some of the most widely-used Microsoft products.

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