Hasta La Gadget!

For this week’s installment of the Engadget Podcast, we present the audio stream from our recent Engadget Show, featuring a one-on-one with Microsoft CEO, Steve Ballmer! We encourage you to go and check out the actual show if you haven’t seen it, but for those of you on the move who can’t be looking at a screen, here’s the next best thing. Of course, Josh, Paul, and Nilay still tear through the week in news (and what a week!), and as a bonus, you get to hear some tunes from the ever so talented Bit Shifter. So what are you waiting for? Sit back, crank the PMP, and prepare to enter nerd heaven.

Hosts: Joshua Topolsky, Paul Miller, Nilay Patel
Special guest: Steve Ballmer
Produced by: Chad Mumm
Directed by: Michael Slavens
Music by: Bit Shifter

Hear the podcast

00:01:22 – Steve Ballmer hasn’t seen the Courier video, promises Zune integration in next WinMo release
00:38:40 – Bit Shifter
00:41:37 – Windows 7 Launches
00:46:45 – Apple’s Magic Mouse: one button, multitouch gestures, Bluetooth, four-month battery life
00:47:50 – Unibody MacBook (late 2009) review
00:52:50 – iMac line updated with 16:9 displays, quad-core Core i5 / i7 model
00:52:48 – Barnes & Noble Nook dual-screen reader officially announced… for real
00:59:00 – Spring Design Alex: dual-screen Android-based e-reader (Update: not for Barnes & Noble)
01:00:05 – Motorola Droid

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Download the podcast

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Contact the podcast

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Twitter: @joshuatopolsky @futurepaul @reckless @engadget

Filed under: Podcasts

Engadget Podcast 168 – 10.25.2009: The Engadget Show 002 with Steve Ballmer originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 25 Oct 2009 20:58:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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As you know, I sat down with Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer to chat about all of his projects this year. Windows 7 was obviously the biggie, so we talked about it and its less beloved predecessor.

But unlike Bill Gates, who seemed like he wanted to admit Vista sucked, Ballmer sticks to his guns, calling it “very popular.” He says:

It’s much discussed but much used. Hundreds of millions of people are using Windows Vista…[Vista] has improved between service packs, compatibility upgrades that application vendors have done. Actually, the market environment for Vista is not anything like it was when it launched.

He contends that (poor) PC sales are “far more a function of the economy, right now” than any product, and uses that to express his continued caution about being too bullish on the Windows 7 launch.

Try as I might—and you can probably tell I was trying pretty hard—I could not get Ballmer to say or even hint that Vista sucked. It’s cool, though. To his point, although Windows 7 smokes it, Vista did get better. We are currently running Vista on a pair of totally stripped, brand-new Acer Timelines, and they’re actually doing fine (knock on wood). That had certainly not been the case when I interviewed Bill.

Stay tuned, because tomorrow we plan to run the full uncut interview video for your journalistically voyeuristic pleasure. Video by Mike Short

Steve Ballmer Exclusive Interview Series:
Part 1: Ballmer Talks Natal, Says Blu-ray Add-On for Xbox Coming
Part 2: Ballmer on the Smartphone Race: “It Doesn’t Matter What the Critics Say”
Part 3: Ballmer on Zune: Sometimes You Get It Right The Third Time?
Part 4: Ballmer on Those Crazy Ballmer YouTube Videos

Keep your eyes tuned to this post — because at around 2:30PM ET (give or take), we’ll be starting The Engadget Show live, with Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer as our guest! You don’t want to miss it!

Update: And that’s a wrap! Thanks to everyone who watched the stream, we’ll have the full recording available tomorrow.

Continue reading The Engadget Show, live with Steve Ballmer!

Filed under: Announcements

The Engadget Show, live with Steve Ballmer! originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 22 Oct 2009 15:21:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Microsoft boss Steve Ballmer defended notorious products like Windows Vista and Windows Mobile throughout our interview, but when it came to Zune, he did seem to admit that Zune HD nailed what previous Zunes simply couldn’t.

When I asked if he gave an order to make Zune better, he replied:

Sometimes you get it the first time you cook the soup, sometimes it takes till the second time you cook the soup…You get better every time.

Maybe it’s not the same as saying the first Zunes sucked, but however you interpret that, it’s the closest Ballmer comes to conceding that product improvement was needed, that it wasn’t just revision for the sake of the sales cycle.

Stay tuned for more exciting Ballmer moments (and facial expressions) over the next day, and then the full uncut interview video on Friday. Video by Mike Short

Steve Ballmer Exclusive Interview Series:
Part 1: Ballmer Talks Natal, Says Blu-ray Add-On for Xbox Coming
Part 2: Ballmer on the Smartphone Race: “It Doesn’t Matter What the Critics Say”

In this segment of my exclusive interview series with Microsoft boss Steve Ballmer, I brought up the sore subject of Windows Mobile 6.5. After defending it, he cited another product that did well but suffers mounting criticism: Nokia smartphones.

As you can see in the video, Ballmer acknowledges that Windows Mobile 6.5 is receiving negative reviews, but I never get him to actually admit that the platform still needs work. He says, “reviews aside,” he’s happy with what Windows Phones (running 6.5) can do now.

And faced with competition of iPhone, BlackBerry and others, he contends it’s currently “kind of a horse race.” The only clear leader, market-share wise, is Nokia, and they’re losing ground. When I said that Nokia was another developer currently lambasted by reviewers, Ballmer replied:

At the end of the day, it doesn’t really matter what the critics say, it matters what the customers say.

Perhaps given the power of advertising (still mighty, even if it’s on the decline), there may still be a way for a product to get positive sales despite negative reviews. But the internet has changed that landscape, and the lines between critic and customer blur more every day. We all share knowledge in order to make better choices. So who, in the end, is this customer, who is so different from the critic? Not anyone who reads Gizmodo, that’s for sure.

Stay tuned for more exciting Ballmer moments (and facial expressions) over the next day, and then the full uncut interview video on Friday. Video by Mike Short

Steve Ballmer Exclusive Interview Series:
Part 1: Ballmer Talks Natal, Says Blu-ray Add-On for Xbox Coming
Part 2: Ballmer on the Smartphone Race: “It Doesn’t Matter What the Critics Say”
Part 3: Ballmer on Zune: Sometimes You Get It Right The Third Time?