Microsoft (MSFT) has been making a lot of noise of late in trying to take on Apple's (AAPL) 4-year lead with the iPod. While Windows Media has had strong success, Microsoft's efforts to promote tablet PCs through its OEM partners or promoting Windows Media Center have been less successful.

The company's software roots have prevented it from competing head on with the iPod, with the Xbox monopolizing Microsoft's hardware efforts, as the company prefers to rely on Gateway (GTW), HP (HPQ), Dell (DELL) and others to promote its products. But following the rise and fall of the Dell DJ (now only the DJ Ditty is offered), Creative's MuVo and Zen lines, and a myriad of flash player iPod wannabes, the iPod continues to have the overwhelming majority of unit sales and revenue, and Microsoft can't be too pleased.

In the last week, leaked images and a video of an upcoming product called "Origami" are making the rounds on the usual sites - including Engadget. A video promoting the product shows users operating the device with a handheld stylus, listening to MP3s, acting as a drawing tablet, and handling digital photography. Significantly larger than the iPod, but smaller than a sub-laptop, Origami is in avocado green, and certainly can't fit into your pocket. Estimates have said the device could debut in the $500 range, but all is clearly speculative at this point.

With the tablet PC market being in the gutter, is the world ready for a Microsoft-led offering, and does it stand a chance at breaking through Apple's iPod/iTunes duopoly?

Related Links:

The Origami Project
Engadget: Microsoft's Origami Project

The second ANtics comic of 2006 was posted to Athletics Nation this morning, highlighting the advances the A's have made on the offensive side, to match up with what's expected to be one of the best pitching staffs in all of baseball. Spring training is under way, and while we're all watching to see how Bradley, Thomas and Loaiza integrate with their new teammates, many fans, reporters and the A's themselves are eager to see if the team's offense will show marked improvement over what was an inconsistent part of the team in 2005. In this edition of the ANtics, we talk with Blanton, Zito and others about whether they will get the run support they need to be successful.


Click to See Larger Comic

ANtics Archive: 2005/06 ANtics | ANtics Extras

Slashdot is the premier site for geek-related news, insight and updates. After all, they bill themselves as "News for Nerds. Stuff that Matters". Slashdot, one of the first and strongest community-focused Weblogs out there, has amassed significant pull and traffic - delivering what's know as the "Slashdot Effect", where a single story's posting can push so much traffic to the original URL that the site's server will slow down or in some cases, keel over.

But as the site grows in popularity, and users spiral upward, the number of stories submitted on a daily basis for editorial review to the site similarly expands, and the likelihood that what you find interesting will get accepted is decreased. That's why I've been intrigued with having seen the last four suggestions I posted be accepted. I don't know what the standard admittance rate is, but I'm sure it's well below 100 percent. But my feeling is the reason the last four I proposed made the site is because they were focused on news that hadn't yet been covered, they were written up concisely, and in a way that would be interesting to their core audience.

This morning, my comments on the proposed acquisition of Disney by Apple were posted to the site. Adding on to two I posted at the end of last year, and one earlier this month, I've got a streak of four going. It's like a little badge of honor, but I won't let it go to my head, will I?

Unfortunately for me, the ANtics don't just up and write themselves... which means every once in a while, one of my half-baked ideas turns out to be just that... half-baked. Usually I catch myself before getting all the way through a strip, but sometimes, they're all written up before I realize its a creative disaster.

This evening, I posted two of the comics that never made to Athletics Nation in a diary on AN - the first being "Zito's Zen Routine", which debuted here earlier this week, and the second, a comic that examined the A's activities during a losing streak. Neither of the two comics were good enough or timely enough to hit the front page of AN, so they've been gathering figurative dust on my hard drive since their creation.

The Athletics Nation diary can be found here. The full archive of ANtics can be found here.