“Never try to teach a pig to sing; it wastes your time and it annoys the pig.” Robert Heinlein

On the way in to work I was listening to a podcast that was talking about the Zune. The talk was about discontinuing the product. The reason was simple that other companies have done it better like Apple and Sandisk. They had one other point. They said that Microsoft is not cool. Now I know I am a Mac guy so take it for what it’s worth but they are an enterprise software company. Just because something isn’t cool doesn’t mean it isn’t good. They produce some very good work software (pre-2007) but it isn’t sexy and music tends to be. Work stuff is supposed to be functional and efficient and Microsoft can come close to this mark. You may be asking yourself why am I writing about this I mean the Zune is not on anyone’s radar at this point. Well Microsoft has tried again to be cool with a new product. I am sorry to say it has failed, at least the coolness factor. The product is OK (it works). It is called Songsmith. Essentially you sing into the microphone of your computer and Songsmith will record “cool” beats and rhythms behind it. You can adjust tempo and all that other stuff that I frankly don’t understand about music. I personally cannot play a note but I do know I what I like. This product does not make it on my top ten. Now I may be biased so what I would like is others to watch the promo video and tell me what you think. Please leave a comment or email. You can also download and test the software out yourself.

Note: I used a quote from Robert Heinlein. As a geek he is required reading but if you have not ever tried his books you are missing out. Try his book Starship Troopers. It is nothing like the movie meaning it is really good.