Few things have excited me as much over the last few months than the work that Microsoft has done to create Windows Phone 7 (WP7), and the news that came in last Friday announcing that they have teamed up with Nokia (or Nokia has teamed up with them, or both!) brings me yet more joy. My enthusiasm comes from two points of view: The excellent user interface. Abandoned (finally!) is the attempt to make the phone interface look like a Windows desktop. The WP7 interface is differ

I’ve been alerted to Redmond’s colourful take on 2D barcoding, Microsoft Tag. It’s an advanced barcode creating technology which stores up to to 1000 characters (compared to QR-code’s 4296 character maximum) and adds colourful triangles to its design! The rest of this blog entry is stored in the Microsoft Tag below – I’ll leave you to decode it if you wish (clue: free iPhone and Windows Mobile MS Tag decoding apps available). A free Tesco.com branded coffee mug will be sent t

Forgive me; currently I’m suffering from brain-fade. I’ve just completed an intensive week at the headquarters of Microsoft (Redmond, WA) and Google (Mountain View, CA) learning how they “do” innovation as well as meet with the right people who are helping us build and confirm (or divert!) our future strategies such as in ‘mobile’. Learning how both companies set about creating and implementing new ideas was an exercise in imagination and impulse; not being afraid to fail, an

I’m taking a long weekend out to visit Dublin (it’s my (Irish-born) hubby’s 50th birthday, bless him!) and, as I already have an O2-Ireland SIM card, I’m going to ‘live’ my communications using the Google Nexus One, and I’ll see how I get on with it being my only internet connection whilst I’m away, just as I did with the iPhone when in Berlin a few weeks ago. I’ll let you know how I get on next week. Are you going to Microsoft MIX conference in Las Vegas next month? I’m look