While reading Walter Isaacson’s biography on Steve Jobs, I came across an e-mail excerpt (full version here) sent by former Microsoft CEO Bill Gates the night Apple announced the iTunes Music Store. I have edited for conciseness:

From: Bill Gates
Sent: Wed 4/30/2003 10:46 PM
To: Amir Ma3~dimehr; Dave ~ester
Cc: Will Poole; Christopher Payne; Yusuf Mehdi; David Cole; Hank Vigll
Subject: Apple’s Jobs again.., and time to have a great Windows download service…

[…] I am not saying this strangeness means we messed up - at least if we did so did Real and Pressplay and Musicnet and basically everyone else.

Now that Jobs has done it we need to move fast to get somethlng where the UI and Rights are as good.

I am not sure whether we should do this through one of these JVs or not, I am not sure what the problems are.

However I think we need some plan to prove that even though Jobs has us a bit flat footed again we move quick and both match and do stuff better. […]

This e-mail reminds me of the WWDC 2004 banners proclaiming “Redmond, start your photocopiers.” It’s nice to see Bill realize they missed the boat, and that they need to catch up, but where is the drive to push out a service that beats Apple’s latest offering? Phrases like “we need to move fast to get somethlng where the UI and Rights are as good” only reaffirm that Microsoft—at that time—was still content with mimicking rather than rethinking.

It appears Forrester is bullish on Microsoft Windows 8 tablet prospects:

On tablets, Windows 8 is going to be very late to the party. […] For tablets, though, Windows really isn’t a fast follower. Rather it’s (at best) a fifth-mover after iPad, Android tablets like the Samsung Galaxy Tab, HP’s now-defunct webOS tablet, and the BlackBerry PlayBook tablet. While Windows’ product strategists can learn from these products, other players have come a long way in executing and refining their products — Apple, Samsung, and others have already launched second-generation products and will likely be into their third generation by the time Windows 8 launches.

Does that mean millions of business users won’t give it a shot in tablet form? Probably not, considering many businesses:

• Are usually slow to adopt new versions of Windows
• Stay with Windows for backwards-compatibility and familiarity

What about consumer adoption? What are the chances they will ignore Windows 8 on the tablet because it is late to the party? I don’t believe time is all that important. Take the Kindle Fire for example. Compared to existing tablets—Android based, the BlackBerry PlayBook and HP TouchPad—it was the first to actually garner considerable demand at launch, which was only two-weeks ago. It obviously wasn’t because it was early to the party, but rather because it was desirable, and I believe Windows 8 tablet has the potential to be desirable.

Are you an iPhone or Android phone user that would like to experience the Windows Phone interface without commitment? If so, you are in luck. Microsoft has released a web-based demo, allowing many users the ability of exploring Windows Phone from the comfort of their own smart phone. Not all browsers are supported, so your mileage may vary.

Developers Chris Wade, neuralic and xpvqs have successfully rooted the BlackBerry PlayBook, coining the yet-to-be-released tool DingleBerry. Not only will this tool allow you to gain root access to your PlayBook, you will also be able to enable viewing Hulu in your browser.

Below is a video demo of a rooted PlayBook:

You can find more information at CrackBerry as well as a video demo of Hulu running on the rooted PlayBook.

Are you sick of receiving your electronic communications instantly on your cell phone? Do you miss the days when a message was delayed because you weren’t home to receive it? Have you missed the excitement that comes with purchasing rolls of thermal paper? If so, the Little Printer is here to rescue you. From BERG Cloud:

Little Printer lives in your home, bringing you news, puzzles and gossip from your friends. Use your smartphone to set up subscriptions and Little Printer will gather them together to create a timely, beautiful mini-newspaper.

I keep trying to find ways to remove paper from my life, so this little inkless, thermal printer does not appeal to me. Although I do appreciate how they use the happy face symbolizing that the print is complete.