Welcome to Monday and a new week! Here are a few news items that popped up over the weekend.
Acer Continues Complaints About Windows 8 – Acer President, Jim Wong, continues his pokes at Microsoft concerning their (Acer’s) interpretation of Windows 8 success. In an article on Bloomberg published yesterday the company president said:
“Windows 8 itself is still not successful,” said Wong, whose company posted a 28 percent drop in fourth-quarter shipments from a year earlier. “The whole market didn’t come back to growth after the Windows 8 launch, that’s a simple way to judge if it is successful or not.”
You know the article points out that Acer has had two consecutive annual loses. If Windows 8 was just released last October then what was the reason for the loss the year before? Things that make you go hmmmm.
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Nokia Music+ – One of the nice things about owning a Nokia handset is the extensive collection of exclusive apps for the device. One of them, Nokia Music, is now going a step further and offering a subscription based streaming music service. The monthly cost would be $3.99 here in the US and would include unlimited skips, unlimited downloads, higher quality downloads, lyrics and desktop access as well.
That last bit is very interesting because it puts Nokia Music+ in direct competition with Xbox Music which costs $9.99 a month. The Xbox Music app has taken its share of grief since its release for a wide range of issues so this offering from Nokia might just pull in a few disgruntled Xbox Music users.
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Apparently that Windows Media Center Pack Serial Key Must be Activated NLT 01 February 2013 – I wrote about this on Friday after receiving an email from Microsoft with a dire warning/reminder to use the key and activate my free Windows Media Center Pack before 01 February 2013. Over the weekend Ed Bott was able to confirm more details from Microsoft about the keys use, expiration and re-use:
Update: A Microsoft spokesperson contacted me with additional information on this issue. Yes, you must activate those copies of the Media Center Pack by January 31. It’s possible (even likely) that the activation servers will continue to honor those keys for some period of time after January 31, but at some point in the near future an unactivated Media Center Pack key that was issued as part of this promotion will not be honored. (They will be usable for reinstallations, however.) Keys that are paid for, either before or after the deadline, will not expire.
Have a great week everyone!
