No, Microsoft isn’t on a hiring freeze (that I know of).  They also didn’t call HP in search of a business plan that DOESN’T involve computers.

Steve Ballmer at recent press conference dissed Google lovers by saying “You don’t have to be a computer scientist to use a Windows Phone, but you do to use an Android phone.”  Endearing himself to me once again as he did in his famous “DEVELOPERS!” rant.

Perhaps Steve (not Jobs) is only known for being the crazy man running Microsoft after the other partners (Bill Gates and Paul Allen) decided they had more fun things to do.  But in my opinion Ballmer hit the nail on the head.

The thing I find ironic… anyone who used versions of Windows Mobile before 7, was likely saying the same thing.  Of course that’s probably where Steve came up with the quote.  Scouring his own message boards from three years ago and came across a disgruntled poster.  What ever the reason, I applaud this high profile tech CEO for calling android what it really is… a challenge to learn.

Microsoft, the king of the workplace.  Its tough to find a boring old cube farm not running some version of Microsoft’s ubiquitous Windows operating system.

Outside the office (pun intended) Microsoft has lost its luster.  More and more hipster homes are running OS X.  Outside buildings, its hard to find a device running a Microsoft product in a world dominated by iOS and android OS.

If you are an androider you are likely still paying Microsoft for the pleasure anyway.  Redmond’s finest has reached deals with many android hardware manufacturers including HTC, Samsung and most recently Quanta, the maker of the new Amazon Kindle Fire.

Many have speculated one of the reasons for Google’s merger with Motorola Mobility is to boost their patent portfolio in what seems like an inevitable battle between the two giants.

While Windows 7 has been better than expected, and Windows 8 looks very promising, Microsoft has yet to effectively break in to the mobile world, but its lawyers are doing a good job making money off it anyway!

For those not following along after two years of webOS glory (and more than 10 with Palm OS) I made the sad sad jump to the “Operating System of the Future”, android.

I have written at length about the shortcomings of android (http://www.styrofoamsoup.com/tech/droid-for-a-day-aka-linux-mobile/ , http://www.styrofoamsoup.com/tech/android-no-multitasking-but-an-awesome-back-button/, and probably some articles I forgot to crosslink)

Now I want my webOS back.  From June 2009 to October 2011 I was using a venerable Palm Pre (Sprint) running the webOS 1.X series.  There are things webOS does effortlessly that android OS doesn’t have a clue about.  The “Big Two” are useful notifications and actual multitasking.

I now propose something new, a Petition to Palm (HP) to bring back the spirit of Palm on a 21st century device.  Anyone who has spent some time with the webOS is likely to realize why it is superior to android and iOS.  I want my Palm back.

What I am doing is simple, sending a letter to the CEO (of the week) stating how the lack of direction of HP’s webOS and personal computers divisions is concerning and likely to leave HP the Tandy of 2011.

I hope you will join me, contact page here: http://www.hp.com/hpinfo/execteam/email/ceo/index.html

Android is the new champion of the mobile operating system fight.  It is a feature packed operating system that brings some openess and customization to the previously iOS dominated space.

Both iOS and android are missing something desktop computer users have come accustomed to: multitasking.  Sure both OSes say they have updated to include multitasking, but as a former webOS user I am used to “real” multitasking (http://www.styrofoamsoup.com/tech/droid-for-a-day-aka-linux-mobile/)

In my opinion, while more than one application can run at the same time on android, its really not a multitasker, it has a really awesome back button.

With the exception of some apps that can load from the notification bar, there’s really no way to go from one app to another and then “resume” the first one.  If I am typing an email and need to reference a web page I have to reopen the browser, then close it then go back to the email draft.  Its really just a fancy back button like on a browser.  The easiest example of this is, say you’re typing an email, or reading a website and a phone call comes in.  Answer that call, talk for let’s say an hour, close the call.  Forget completely what you were doing, two days later open email, notice an unfinished draft… oops… you never knew because android closed that door when you answered the phone.

I hate sounding like a webOS cheerleader all the time, but anyone has used it for a fair amount of time can surely see some features we hope android will add in the future.