I am a Microsoft Developer and I am a PC.  But that little company Apple Computer has managed to press a lot of hot buttons.  The complete frustrations Apple identifies and exaggerates in their Apples Versus PC ads are often bogus inane things that Microsoft allows in their operating systems.  But every now and then, it seems that Microsoft goes out of their way to make things easy for the Apple sharpshooters.  When that happens, I would like Microsoft to honestly take the bullet and get their act together, instead of putting it to the customer so badly that it makes Apple’s marketing easy.

A recent hot button is Apple’s marketing around their photo management software.  Their Apple actor talks about face recognition while the PC actor searches through piles of unorganized pictures.  “It’s built in to Apple software and it’s free!”, the Apple actor proclaims.  “I don’t have that”, the sad-sack PC complains.

The trouble with this scenario: I know I’ve seen something about face recognition with Microsoft Live Photo Gallery.  So I search in the application and on the Internet and there’s nothing about face recognition for Photo Gallery or Windows.  Nothing, nada.  I have Windows Live Photo Gallery, so I actually run the application.  There is photo tagging, but that’s it.  Then I poke around for another half hour and discover that Photo Gallery help says you can do “people tagging”.  It seems very easy and direct, so I try to follow the steps with my computer.  Wouldn’t it be great if Photo Gallery had face recognition and the marketing wonks just insisted on calling it something else!  But the feature just doesn’t exist!  People tagging just is not there.

At this point, I have a lot of time invested in proving that the Apple ad is wrong, despite a certain knowledge that the Microsoft lawyers would be all over them for truth in advertising if Apple is lying.  I am trusting Microsoft Help more than advertising regulations, and we all know that Microsoft Help is always 100% accurate if you can ever manage to find the information you need.

Obviously, I don’t have a current version of Microsoft Live Photo Gallery.  Trick is, there is no version number information to be had for this application.  Microsoft apparently changed its rules for including version numbers in their products.  I try to download the latest version from the Web, and it refuses to download.  Hmmm, I must have the latest version.  Why doesn’t it work as described in online Help?

At this point I have spent way too much time trying to prove that Apple advertising is a pack of lies.  Maybe if I just had an Apple instead of a PC, I would be sitting here smugly nodding my head in agreement instead of finding all kinds of wrongness in Microsoft products.  Perhaps the Apple tax is simply that, pay a bit more money for your computer and get a substantial peace of mind, eliminating all kinds of unwanted, unneeded, customer-unfriendly frustration.

As always, good comments are welcome.  Especially those explaining what the hell is up with Photo Gallery.

-- Walter Lounsbery, 5-3-2009

What’s not to like about the cable networks run by Scripps Networks Interactive?  Whether renovating your home, upgrading your lifestyle, or loving good food, their networks are informative and entertaining.  The company also pursues cutting-edge media with social network Websites such as food2.com, which features bloggers, a companion facebook site, and other ways for foodies to interact outside the TV network experience.  I’m not biased at all because these networks are based in Knoxville, Tennessee, where I live.  Or that they have a random drawing on Friday’s for people that blog about their Website…

Seriously, if you like food, check it out.

-- Walter Lounsbery, 5-1-2009