• Los Angeles Times, APM’s Marketplace, Thursday, October 22, 2009 10:33 AM

Advance reviews for Microsoft's Window 7 operating system have trended positive, Dan Fost reports, and if it sells as well as expected, one big reason may be an effort by Jonathan Wiedemann, the former managing director of a film company that produced groundbreaking MTV videos as well as films such as "Madonna: Truth or Dare."

For the last three years, Wiedemann -- who also once modeled for Richard Avedon and was married to actress Isabella Rossellini -- has been leading a team responsible for efforts to improve the user experience on the new OS after Microsoft's widely publicized failures with Vista. Mike Angiulo, who helped to incorporate computer makers' suggestions into the new product, also gets a mention.

But it was Windows division president Steven Sinofsky who put together the team and made a point of changing the way things are done at the Redmond, Wash., campus.

"Sinofsky's mantra was: "Don't over-promise and under-deliver. Just promise and deliver. Tell us what you're going to do and do it," Wiedemann says. "That was huge. That was new in Windows culture."

Joe Moe, meanwhile, reports on Marketplace that Microsoft's widely mocked "launch party" ads may be hurting more than they are helping. A video of one -- I dare you to watch for more than 30 seconds without grimacing -- accompanies the transcript.

Read the whole story at Los Angeles Times, APM’s Marketplace »