Mon, Sep 28, 2009 10:04 EDT

Tech Babble Roundup: "Less Good" Edition

Topic: Applications

Current Rating: Comments: 0

Computerworld.com reported that during a Windows 7 web conference on Tuesday, Charles Songhurst, GM of Microsoft’s corporate strategy, described the Vista operating system as a “less good” product.

“Less good”?

Either that's genius doublespeak, or a disturbingly chipper view of the world. We suspect it’s the former.

Doublespeak is everywhere (although it’s hardly a new concept), and it’s not just Microsoft that’s doling it out. Here are two more examples that warrant mention:

1. “Doing More with Less”: This is a phrase that has been used in business almost daily for the past year (I know I’m guilty of having thrown it around a bit). Its cousin, “Getting Back to Basics,” deserves a mention as well. Is this a softer way of saying you must work harder for the same pay, or just a way of fooling workers into thinking they are contributing to some greater purpose?

2. The latest iPhone update and its enterprise implications: A handful of industry mags wrote about a security flaw in iPhone software that was revealed when the 3.1 release came out last week. It’s been reported that Apple knew of the issue, but tried to quietly slip the fix into the update, which broke Microsoft Exchange e-mail access for some first-generation iPhone and iPhone 3G users.

The glitch is described in CIO.com as a “disabling.” CIO also suggests that some users will be “displeased, to say the least.” A little soft, in my opinion. The reality is that corporate iPhone users will be stymied, and help desks will be pelted with support calls.

InfoWorld’s Galen Gruman earns a mention here for telling it like it is. The editor writes about the mess in a Sept. 15, 2009, article titled “Apple betrays the iPhone's business hopes.” Betray works. Gruman throws in a terse subhead – “The lie the iPhone has been telling” – and finishes the piece by saying that Apple may have set back its enterprise cause a few years. Hooray for straight-talk.

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