Microsoft`s Macintosh blunder

A curious Microsoft marketing ploy has been exposed. Earlier this month the company posted a testimonial on its Web site called: "Confessions of a Mac to PC convert." It was a first-person account by a supposed freelance writer who claimed to have fallen in love with Windows XP. The woman in the picture gushed about how easy Windows XP was and how she had turned from Macintosh because of it.

The only problem was that she didn`t exist. A sharp-eyed reader of Slashdot, the ultimate geek hangout site, noticed that the picture was in fact a stock picture from a collection owned by GettyImages.com. Picking up on a posting on the site about the picture, an Associated Press reporter tracked down the original writer of the "confession" which turned out to be a public relations woman hired by Microsoft to write the testimonial.

The company quickly backtracked and with a red face pulled the testimonial, saying only that the "article was mistakenly posted to the Microsoft Web site". [The New York Times]

Microsoft again and this time the company is revisiting the controversial subject of standards compliance in its implementation of C++, according to CBROnline. The company says it is planning greater adherence to ISO/ANSI standards with its upcoming release of Visual Studio.Net. Its goal, says the Redmond giant, is to achieve a "high 90s" compliance with the new release, significantly up from its 60% compliance.

Not only is Microsoft toeing the standards line with C++ but C# and the Common Language Infrastructure have also moved to ISO. Microsoft has a long history of compliance and non-compliance with standards as far as its programming languages go and until now its version of C++ has been the least compliant of all the variations of C++ out there. Old habits die hard, however, and Microsoft will not yield entirely to ISO. It will keep managed extensions away from ISO - at least initially. The company says that managed extensions are "too young" and subject to too much change to justify submission to any standards group. [CBROnline]

Japan`s top wireless operator, NTT DoCoMo, said this week it would offer a new miniature camera-mounted mobile phone to meet a growing consumer appetite for handsets that take photos. The new model, barely bigger than a business-card case, is the smallest among the four photo phone models offered by DoCoMo, which in June scrambled to market its first camera phones after seeing competitors roll-out camera-equipped handsets and gain on its dominant position.

After taking pictures with DoCoMo`s camera phones, users can store the images as well as send them to a server for others to view. The company said its total sales of camera phones exceeded two million units by mid-October. [Reuters]