American Amazon customers, rejoice – AutoRip is here to deliver an amazing new digital music service that makes buying music CDs convenient – and in “many cases”, cheaper than you’d pay for the same album at iTunes.

Non-US Amazon customers, weep – AutoRip is not available for you, despite Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos’ liberal use of the term “all our customers” from the “past, present and future” in Amazon’s press release.

iTWire colleague Stephen Withers discovered and reported on this outrageous situation this morning in his article entitled “Amazon AutoRip: the devil’s in the detail”, which he notes is only disclosed in the "terms and conditions", along with the startling discovery that despite claims of 50,000 CDs in the AutoRip collection, only 37,500 were actually listed, making Amazon’s claims somewhat elastic.

Amazon’s official press release can be read here, where Mr Bezos asks: “What would you say if you bought music CDs from a company 15 years ago, and then 15 years later that company licensed the rights from the record companies to give you the MP3 versions of those CDs… and then to top it off, did that for you automatically and for free?”.

{loadposition alex08}Mr Bezos then states that: “Well, starting today, it's available to all of our customers – past, present, and future – at no cost. We love these opportunities to do something unexpected for our customers.” (Note, emphasis mine).

What would I say, Mr Bezos? I'd say that this statement was inaccurate, a statement seen through the prism of the US only, a statement that ignores the other 6.7 billion people on Planet Earth. I'd say that was "something unexpected" when you're making such blanket statements.

I’m sure the usual global music licensing issues are causing the problem, but with Amazon selling most things worldwide, being an inaccurate bozo by insulting non-US customers is, well… disappointing.

Stephen Withers’ Amazon AutoRip article has the rest of the details worth reading about the otherwise stunningly excellent and genuinely surprising new AutoRip service that US customers are sure to love, and love using - especially if the savings compared to iTunes are real.

It’s just a shame that blanket statements like “all of our customers” have, sadly, turned out to be inaccurate, with the name of "AutoRip" turning out to have a second, darker meaning that is a most appropriate way to describe the likely feelings of most non-US Amazon customers. 

Hopefully, despite the fact Amazon AutoRip is a US-only service, Amazon will find a way to make it more broadly available on a global basis, something that will eventually see Mr Bezos' statement, in the long run, end up being true.

It's just that, as Keynes said, "in the long run we're all dead".

Let's hope Amazon AutoRip arrives in Australia and elsewhere well before that happens.

Twitter has become one of the world’s newest and most popular communications mediums, letting anyone post short updates about whatever it is they’re wanting to share with the wider world, without charge, with the latest news being that Twitter’s little blue bird is about to land Sydney-side down under.

However, with the good of social media, of which Twitter is most definitely a part, there’s also the bad: cyber bullying and other forms of online abuse are conducted through Twitter, just as they are via Facebook and other “socmed” (a shortened form of the term “social media”) sites.

Australian authorities would find it easier to deal with a local Twitter office than one in a different time zone and country when issues occur, and have reportedly been agitating for Twitter to make such a move for some time, seeing as it has opened offices in other countries beyond the US.

NineMSN quotes an AAP report in which Ms Bishop is quoted saying “That's what they told us today - they'd be opening an office in Sydney. Facebook has a presence in Australia and it's clear Twitter is about to establish one."

{loadposition alex08}Google has also had an Australian office for some time, too.

Ms Bishop stated in a tweet that she was: “At Twitter HQ in San Francisco as part of USA\Aust Leadership Dialogue” and shared the tidbit that “There are 400 million tweets\day with most tweets posted in Jakarta!"

In another tweet, Ms Bishop was retweeting some praise she had received, and in part said: "Great to meet you looking forward to@twitter office in Sydney".

So, the little blue bird is coming soon - I just they watch out for Australia's feral cats who like to eat little blue birds for breakfast!

Apple’s worldwide VP of marketing, Phil Schiller, has sought to pour cold water on claims that Apple would be creating a “cheap” iPhone, but is this yet another example of Apple’s famous misdirection?

We covered the rumour in our previous article entitled “iPhone: lower-end model at lower-end price on way?”, which looked at a report suggesting that a “more affordable” iPhone was reportedly in the works.

However, The Next Web has confirmed that an official interview with a Chinese publication, conducted in China, saw Mr Schiller stating that cheap will “never be the future of Apple’s products”.

Noting that Apple uses the best materials and technologies available, Mr Schiller is also quoted stating that: “At first, non-smartphones were popular in the Chinese market, now cheap smartphones are more popular and non-smartphones are out. Despite the popularity of cheap smartphones, this will never be the future of Apple’s products. In fact, although Apple’s market share of smartphones is just about 20%, we own the 75% of the profit.”

{loadposition alex08}We have to remember that Apple dismissed the idea of video on small screens, dismissed the idea of tablets and dismissed the idea of a 7-inch sized tablet, yet Apple offers all these things today.

Thus, I am highly suspicious of Mr Schiller’s comments, seeing as it seeks to convey the impression that Apple will never create a “cheaper” iPhone, something that is ridiculous in the face of the US $329 iPad mini.

The fact is that Apple does have cheaper iPhones, they are the flagship models of previous years – Apple simply hasn’t designed an iPhone as yet specifically designed to be priced at a lower price point.

However, if we look at Apple’s range of iPods, they span everything and every price point from the most basic of iPod shuffles through to Apple’s now high-end 4-inch screen sized iPod Touch models, so Apple certainly does know how to make products across the pricing spectrum – while still ensuring Apple makes healthy profits.

This same strategy is most likely at play yet again, with a “more affordable” rather than a plastic “cheap” iPhone to come.

After all, Apple’s supply chain, logistics, distribution and sales expertise means it has the widest range of parts, suppliers and manufacturers to choose from, along with the widest range of retail partners and its own retail outlets on the planet, so if anyone could make a quality product at a lower price while still making a great profit, it’s Apple.

On a side note, iTWire colleague David Heath wondered about the legalities of Phil Schiller’s statements in a Skype conversation we were having.

David stated: “Just a thought... if a senior exec of a company denies a specific product is in the works (I'm thinking about Schiller's "no cheap iPhone" comment here, but it's a much broader question), and the company subsequently releases just such a product, could that person be accused of ‘misleading the market’ in the specific sense that the stock exchange would use the term?”.

David’s thought process continues, adding that; “Because such a statement would certainly fall into the "forward looking statements" category so beloved by the US regulator… you see it at the bottom of any financial material... ‘this release contains forward looking statements’...”.

That said, Apple are a crunchy bunch of clever people, and it seems unlikely that any Apple executive would ever say something that could legally be seen as “misleading the market”.

It’s more likely a case of completely legal misdirection – putting competitors off-balance, while dissuading consumers from delaying current iPhone purchases until this mythical new “cheaper”, or rather “more affordable” new iPhone appears.

Late 2013 and a zillion rumours between now and then will see the story unfold to its natural conclusion, and while Apple will never, as it suggests, make a “cheap” product of the “cheap and nasty” variety, a future iPhone at a lower outright cost – alongside a super-premium high-end flagship model – is not just a realistic possibility, my guess is that it’s a very realistic probability – no matter what Phil Schiller says in interviews!

Round kicks. They’re the province of Jean-Claude Van Damme, and they remind me of the swivel-screen convertible Tablet PCs of old.

However, instead of a swivelling screen, Asus decided to be clever, almost too clever: putting TWO screens on its Taichi-branded ultrabook, one where you’d expect, and the other on the “outer lid” of the computer.

Open it up and it looks like a notebook, close it and it looks like a tablet.

The problem is, this half and half solution seems, at least to me, to be too clever by half.

{loadposition alex08}You see, in my opinion, this presents some issues, especially in the way Asus has done things.

The first thing is that the internal screen is not a touch screen, yet the external screen IS a touch screen.

So, when in laptop/notebook/ultrabook mode, you can’t touch the screen and have it do anything.

If you DO want to touch the screen, you have to close the computer first, which is hardly what you’d call the height of productive behaviour.

Obviously, two touch screens would have made the Asus Taichi too expensive, but only one touch screen means you cannot enjoy the touch capabilities the Taichi offers when you’re in notebook mode.

The other issue is one of weight. I’m not saying the Asus Taichi is heavy, indeed, it weighs 1.25kg, which isn’t bad for a notebook.

But we all know that Apple managed to craft the world’s lightest smartphone with the iPhone 5 in part by eliminating the second sheet of glass that was on the back of the iPhone 4 and 4S.

Just as Apple was doing this, Asus was slapping a second sheet of glass onto the back, or when closed, the “top” of its ultrabook.

My colleague Stephen Withers has written up his thoughts on the Asus Taichi earlier today here, where he also lists the specs, prices and the fact it's due next week. 

Look, a lot of people seem to be impressed by the Asus Taichi, primarily because of its twin-screen arrangement.

I’ve held the Taichi in my hands and had a quick play with it, and it does look impressive, but then when you realise the internal screen is not touch, and that a second screen and sheet of glass on the top can only detrimentally add to the weight, I’m no longer so impressed.

Taichi as most know it today is a soft and gentle art for exercise, but in a world of cut-throat iCompetition, Asus should probably have ditched Taichi and created the Asus UFC, instead.

Sales figures will tell the true story of just how popular (or otherwise) the Asus Taichi ends up being, but if I really wanted something gentle, yet snazzy and powerful, striking a pose with the Lenovo Yoga seems just so much more appealing.

If you haven’t gotten the message yet that Microsoft is set to kill its Messenger service on March 15, this is not quite your final wake up call, but you can’t press snooze forever.

iTWire looked at this news back in November 2012, when Microsoft first announced that its Messenger software, which has had many names from MSN Messenger to Windows Live Messenger and more, would soon breath its last.

Now reports are coming in that Microsoft is more actively announcing to its Messenger customers that the end for Messenger is nigh, although thankfully there are no reports of this being due to Vogon constructor fleets.

The Next Web has reported that it has received one of these email messages from Microsoft, which gives the exact kill date as being March the 15, 2013, a date that likely means Australian and some other southern hemisphere Messenger users will be able to say they squeezed in an extra day – March 16 – thanks to international time zone differences.

{loadposition alex08}Microsoft is also directing those wishing to download Windows Live Messenger to download Skype instead, as you can see here.

The only exception to the end of Messenger’s road is in China, which will see Messenger’s servers continue operating, with The Next Web saying this is “mainly because Skype is operated there by a local provider called TOM” – presumably ye olde tom.com.

TNW also quoted Microsoft’s email message which states, in part, that: “On 15th March 2013 we are retiring the existing Messenger service globally (except for mainland China where Messenger will continue to be available) and bringing the great features of Messenger and Skype together. Update to Skype and sign in using a Microsoft Account (same as your Messenger ID) and all your Messenger contacts will be at your fingertips. You’ll be able to instant message and video chat with them just like before, and also discover new ways of staying in touch with Skype on your mobile and tablet.”

TNW has more details, but the short version is that if you try to log in to Messenger in all affected countries besides China after the 15th of March, you’ll be directed to download Skype instead.

So… unless you’re Chinese, Messenger’s last message will soon be sent, after which you’ll have to just have to get Microsoft’s new message: Skype.

When you look at the world of Android smartphones, you see everything from sub-$99 pre-paid models through to the highest-end quad-core big-screen models that command premium pricing, in hundreds if not thousands of variations.

iPhones, on the other hand, come in set models, with the “cheaper” iPhones to date having been previous flagship models from earlier years, helping Apple to avoid creating specific new designs, while keeping much higher profit margins than race-to-the-bottom Android cheapies.

Although rumours of an iPhone mini have been around for years, especially in the light of the Android invasion and its ever-more stunning aggregate market share, 2013 may well be the year the rumours finally turn to reality.

The source of all this renewed iPhone mini excitement is the Wall Street Journal, which quotes naturally anonymous “people briefed on the matter”, although whether these people were wearing briefs, boxers or something else wasn’t disclosed.

{loadposition alex08}WSJ’s report reveals some very interesting and obviously completely unofficial information, including the news that this new model is theoretically due “later this year”, that it might be built with a “polycarbonate plastic” shell rather than chamfered aluminium and glass, or some other inexpensive body design and materials.

There’s also the suggestion that many of the parts “could remain the same” as used in existing iPhones, although this is hardly a surprise given any iPhone mini or at least cheaper iPhone would have to be able to run all of today’s App Store apps, and run them without issues.

Among a stack of other market share and smartphone stats worth reading, the WSJ report also suggests that Apple’s plans for a cheaper iPhone stretch back to 2009, with designs for inexpensive iPhones made in 2010 and the iPhone 4.

However, we then learn that, while some executives were for the idea, others were against it, with the compromise being the much cheaper and faster route of simply converting superseded flagship models into cheaper iPhones.

Unfortunately, although Apple markets the iPhone 5 from US $199 in the US on a two-year contract, the iPhone 4S for $99 on a two-year contract and an iPhone 4 “free” on a two year contract, actual pricing for iPhones outright still costs several hundred dollars, at prices far higher than the sub $99 to say $300 price-point for lower-end Androids.

There’s obviously a massive opportunity for Apple to sell an iPhone mini at sub $300 pre-paid prices, which while still more expensive than $99 and up Androids, give people a reason to stretch for the more consistent iPhone experience and grander iOS App Store library.

Clearly, an iPhone mini at that price would still be out of the reach or interest of some, but it could, if launched instead of scrapped, re-ignite iPhone sales in countries like China alongside “emerging” markets where iPhones are simply too expensive.

So… WSJ’s report, if true, signals a big shake-up for Apple in 2013, with a lower-end iPhone, and an iPhone with a larger screen than the 4-inches seen on the iPhone 5 today, while presumably continuing to sell the 4-inch iPhone 5 model at a lower price than it does today.

A newspaper or online report isn’t a guarantee of anything, but it’s very interesting timing coming at it does during the madness of CES, shining a big spotlight on Apple right when every other company is paying big bucks to be at CES.

We’ll obviously see in a few months whether this report was right or wrong, but the time seems more right than ever for a more affordable iPhone to arrive, whether dubbed the iPhone mini or something else, but this mini rumour could well turn into a story and reality of maximal proportions.

Next up? Look out for curiously smaller-looking iPhones, especially unattended in Californian bars – unless a fuzzy image purporting to be a secret iPhone mini photo leaks out to the Internet first!

Apple’s iPhone 5 is but a few months old, but already the rumours are flying thick and fast over what we might expect to see with Apple’s next new iPhone.

Already we’ve seen reports (as reported here at iTWire) of iPhone 6 and iOS 7 in supposed testing, but server logs aren’t able to tell you what colour the device in question is sporting.

Now, however, come new reports of coloured iPhones to come this year, along with an ever larger screen size than was delivered with the iPhone 5, which could see iPhones delivered in the three screen sizes 3.5-inches, 4-inches and something obviously larger – 4.5-inches or your best guess as to what Apple will do to avoid massive fragmentation and massive developer reprogramming issues.

The latest report comes via Business Insider quoting Topeka Capital analyst Brian White, who says: “We believe this is about to change with the next iPhone offering different screen sizes that we believe will allow Apple to better bifurcate the market and expand its reach”.

{loadposition alex08}This multi-pronged strategy has obviously worked for companies like Samsung, which have ten trillion versions of different Android phones, which is something Android makers had to do initially to fight back against the single-sized pre-iPhone 5 models.

The man with a colourful name, Mr White, also thinks that Apple’s days of offering iPhones in either black or white only might soon come to an end.

There’s no mention of it in Business Insider’s report or that from Mr White, but given Michael Jackson’s refrain that “it don’t matter if you’re black or white”, it may well be the right time for coloured iPhones and even iPads to come – especially given the range of colours that various iPods have arrived in over the years.

Then there’s Mr White’s claim that we should see this mysteriously colourful and enlarged new iPhone sometime between May and June of this year, which if true, would actually put the next iPhone on a release timeframe similar to when we originally expected new iPhones to appear.

May or June even allows six months to pass to get us to October or November for 2013’s second predicted new iPhone to appear – if this twice-a-year new iPhone release rumour has any validity to it, something few truly expected to happen with 2012’s two new iPad launches (not including the iPad mini).

The same timeframe makes us also wonder whether the iPad mini 2 and iPad 5 might appear at the same timeframe, let alone any 6th-gen iPod Touch models, giving Apple a full sweep of new iDevices to sell from mid-year onwards.

As Business Insider states, however, there’s a risk for Apple – that of too many screen sizes for developers to cope with, not that developers have truly had any issues in adjusting to the larger screen size of the iPhone 5.

So… if you’re still looking to buy a new iPhone 5 to replace your older iModel, now’s the best time to buy it, giving you five or six months before the iPhone 5 becomes the iPhone old, sweeping away the iPhone 4 and leaving only the iPhone 4S, 5 and 5S/6 as the range on sale.

Otherwise just hold on tight, because the next iPhone – whatever its number, size or colour – is getting that much closer, and whether the next iPhone’s a phablet or not, chances are high that it’ll be fab, however it ends up looking!

I’ve recently ported one of my phone numbers to Kogan Mobile, but have had to seek the carrier unlocking of my iPhone before the Kogan Mobile SIM would work, which is taking a few days.

In the meantime, I’ve dug up an HTC HD7 – an original Windows Phone 7 that has been upgraded to Windows Phone 7.5, because it was unlocked, and until my carrier unlock comes through, I’ve been looking at the world through Windows Phone eyes, upon which Kogan's Telstra-powered SIM has been working exceptionally nicely, better than I could have hoped for from a wholesaled 3G network.

However, one thing I noticed right away when browsing the web and using Gmail, is that Gmail looks like it did several years ago on my Nokia N95 browser - disgustingly awful and basic, like Google just isn’t even trying to deliver a nice experience – not even half-heartedly.

I did find some Gmail addresses that would give Gmail the look from iPhone Gmail from about 3 years ago, although the “inbox” button to take you back to the folder list doesn’t work.

{loadposition alex08}When I saw all of this, I was disgusted at Google making so little effort for Windows Phone, simply because it has its own Android system, and even though Microsoft has surely done all kinds of similar things throughout its lifetime to screw with other companies.

Two wrongs don’t make a right, of course, and neither does the fact that Windows Phone users typing “maps.google.com” into their browsers find themselves shunted off to Google’s hopelessly outdated looking Google.com home page on Windows Phone devices.

Now, as I’ve primarily been an iPhone and Android user for some time now, having left Windows Mobile and Windows Phones to their devices, this hasn’t really concerned me until recently, now that I’m using a Windows Phone device.

But it also shows just how badly Windows Phone users have had it from companies like Google thus far, and it’s interesting to see that a global outcry has forced Google to actually do something about it.

The Verge posted an article in the past couple of days entitled “Windows Phone 8 users unable to access Google Maps”, which complained about Google Maps not being available for Windows Phone, and listed Gizmodo's quote from Google stating that: “The mobile web version of Google Maps is optimized for WebKit browsers such as Chrome and Safari. However, since Internet Explorer is not a WebKit browser, Windows Phone devices are not able to access Google Maps for the mobile web.”

Gizmodo posted an updated from Microsoft stating: “Internet Explorer in Windows Phone 8 and Windows 8 use the same rendering engine."

What’s even more interesting is that people have discovered that Google has been blocking access to Google Maps based on the Windows Phone 8 browser identifying itself as such, with developers able to change the browser identification to something else, whereupon Google Maps worked – even if imperfectly.

The Verge then posted a follow up article entitled “Google brings maps back to Windows Phone", and quoted Google saying that following: “We periodically test Google Maps compatibility with mobile browsers to make sure we deliver the best experience for those users.

“In our last test, IE mobile still did not offer a good maps experience with no ability to pan or zoom and perform basic map functionality. As a result, we chose to continue to redirect IE mobile users to Google.com where they could at least make local searches.

“The Firefox mobile browser did offer a somewhat better user experience and that’s why there is no redirect for those users.

“Recent improvements to IE mobile and Google Maps now deliver a better experience and we are currently working to remove the redirect. We will continue to test Google Maps compatibility with other mobile browsers to ensure the best possible experience for users."

Of course, given Microsoft’s statement that Windows Phone IE 8 and desktop IE 8 have the same rendering engine, you have to ask which “recent improvements” to IE that Google’s talking about.

Presumably they are imaginary improvements that Google’s anti-competitive division decided were improved enough to start supporting.

It has to be said that Microsoft has Bing Maps which competes with Google Maps, but if Google is making money from advertising – which pollutes even Google Maps these days – then it shouldn’t matter which platform Google Maps is viewed on.

There’s also concerns that Google won’t give Microsoft proper access to YouTube. It also makes you wonder how many other Google services just aren’t working properly on Windows Phones, webkit browsers or no.

Perhaps Google could offer its Chrome browser on the Windows Phone store – if Microsoft isn’t, of course, blocking Google from doing so, just as Microsoft is blocking Google and Mozilla from offering browsers that run on the Windows RT operating system.

Yes – all of these companies are screwing the other – and we, the users, in various ways, and it’s good to see that some good, old fashioned media spotlighting and end-user outrage can get even monoliths like Google to support monoliths like Microsoft.

It’s time to finish this article with Kamahl’s unanswerable question: why can’t we all just get along?

The tech world is aflutter with reports that a tech blog has seen stats for heretofore unknown new versions of the iPhone and iOS – namely, the iPhone 6 and iOS 7.

The news comes from tech site The Next Web, which quotes developers noting that they’ve seen a couple of interesting identifiers – “iPhone6,1”, which continues the naming scheme used to denote different versions and models of the iPhone, and iOS 7.

Having a look through iTWire’s own stats, we too were able to see a single instance of “iOS 7” browsing the site amongst a broad swathe of other iOS versions, let alone Windows, Android and all the other platforms and devices, although as The Next Web cautions, it is possible for these info strings to be faked.

We’re also reminded that the current iPhone 5 has two identifiers – “iPhone5,1” and “iPhone 5,2”, depending on the 4G LTE bands deployed within different iPhone 5 models.

{loadposition alex08}Adding to the intrigue is the claim that the IP addresses these devices purported to come from are IP addresses used by Apple at its Cupertino headquarters, which helps to add weight to the claims.

Apple testing new iPhone and iOS prototypes is something that gets reported on every year, especially as it happens months before the release of the next versions of those devices, stoking the rumour mill even further while, as always, keeping Apple in the news.

The company obviously also wants to ensure its new devices and updated operating systems are fully compatible with the existing iOS library.

Speculation over new iPhone and iPad models is even more heightened than usual this time around due to the rumours and now expectations that Apple is switching from a yearly product cycle to one that is but 6 months long.

The explanations given for this radical shift in new iProduct availability come down to the torrent of new Android models that seem to appear every five seconds (ok that’s an exaggeration, maybe every 10 seconds is more realistic), and the threat these new models pose to Apple’s latest and greatest looking like they’re the latest and greatest months down the track after launch.

The faster model releases are also supposedly meant to counter the “dip” in iPhone sales 9 to 11 months after an iPhone has been released, with people savvier than ever about wanting to get the very latest iDevice – not one that’s months old and set to be superseded “next week” – or whenever it is that Apple decides to release its latest devices.

So… for whatever it’s worth, and despite the potential for agent string fakery, it looks like Apple really is testing the next iPhone and the next version of iOS, but especially in light of the faster product cycle rumours, why would anyone expect anything less?

The ban on the Gates children using Apple technology is old news, which the UK’s Mail Online reported back on the 4th of March, 2009.

Then, on the 25th of October 2010, the Huffinton Post posted an article quoting Mrs Gates stating that, when it comes to Apple, “nothing crosses the threshold of our doorstep”.

iTWire colleague David Heath has his own sarcastic take on the situation in his article published yesterday (and now last year seeing as it is the 1st of January as I type) entitled “The Gates children can’t have an iPod”.

The Telegraph quoted Mrs Gates sharing that her three children has asked for iPods, to which she replied “of course”, adding “but they get Windows technology. The wealth from our family came from Microsoft so why would we invest in a competitor?”.

{loadposition alex08}Elsewhere in the article, Mrs Gates is quoted stating to Vogue magazine: “Every now and then I look at my friends and say 'Ooh, I wouldn't mind having that iPhone’.”

There’s also the report by the Daily Mail in the UK on the 30th of December, 2011, that one of Bill and Melinda’s daughters, Jennifer, was photographed using what appeared to be an iPhone 4 on a trip to Australia, with two photos to help you make your own mind up. 

The thing I wonder about this is whether it's too clever by half.

As a philanthropist and world health campaigner, married to one of the world’s most influential people, one of its richest and most wildly successful billionaires, now dedicated to medical causes and human health, Melinda Gates is a very smart and intelligent woman.

Likewise, Bill Gates is the co-founder of Microsoft and one of the world’s richest men, a man whose Windows operating system still runs in various versions on the majority of the world’s desktop PCs and notebooks and who remains the company’s chairman.

You’d have to imagine their children would be very smart kids, blessed with the potential for boundless opportunity from birth.

Isn’t learning about competition and business a great thing to be teaching your children about?

I wonder how Windows 8, the Zune, Windows Phone 7, 7.5, 8 etc might have been dramatically improved had the Gates children been encouraged to play with Apple’s obviously winning iOS and iDevices while using them with their Windows-powered equivalents.

I’ll bet pure pester power alone would have seen their father move a lot faster into getting the necessary improvements into Windows a lot sooner. Maybe that’s why such a strict sounding ban was necessary – to nip any feature-envy pester power in the bud as much as possible!

Perhaps Mr and Mrs Gates didn’t want their or their family’s private information stored in Apple’s databases either.

It is possible to see their point of view, of course. Bill Gates is Microsoft still to this day, even though his official title is chairman. Bill Gates is to Microsoft as Steve Jobs is to Apple – and it’s well within his and Melinda’s rights to insist that their children use Microsoft powered products.

Unfortunately, however, we’ll never know what the kids really thought of it all.

Or at least we won’t until one of the kids writes a book about being the child of one of the world’s most influential men some time in the distant future, perhaps by then delivered through a hyper visual 3D holographic stimulo-cortex wireless televisualiser content delivery system instead of a paper-based book.

Perhaps when each child turns 18 they will finally be free to choose their own operating systems and computing devices, or perhaps the ban will be enforced by other means thereafter, but it’s a shame Bill Gates didn’t expose his children to the same Apple technologies he himself liberally copied from in his time.

Through his own children, and the insights of his wife, he might have learned a lot more about the human side of technology, and the world might have been spared the inanity of Blue Screens of Death, Windows crashes, unfriendly inbuilt backup software, the malware virus loving frenzy that has been Windows insecurity over the decades and more.

Instead, Windows has delivered a lot of hassle and pain to people over the years, and despite this, has grown to become the world’s most popular operating system.

Well, as the iPad, Android tablets and even Android smartphones such as the Galaxy SIII and the Galaxy Note II ably show, it is possible to use them as desktop computers, as seen in these two videos. (Story concludes below both videos - please read on).





It shows both the SIII and Note II being used quite effectively as desktop computers, with big screen HDMI conneted display, and with wired or wireless keyboard and mouse, running a whole range of apps, multitasking easily, copying and pasting, browsing and plenty more.

Presumably, however, given Android is also a competitor to Microsoft, the kids haven’t seen what the SIII or Note II can do, either.

When what can be transformed into a desktop really can fit into your pocket while being equally useful in handheld mode, let alone the popularity of tablets, claims of a post PC world - despite Microsoft's attempts to embrace and extend tablets into its own hybrid touch/desktop UI interface - become ever more true with every passing day.

Not even Bill and Melinda Gates can shield their children from that!