The Far Side of Tech » Microsoft

Windows Mobile 7 with Zune Integration Coming Soon?

Devindra — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 19:00:16 +0000

Today has seen a swell of news that makes me think that Windows Mobile 7 won’t be a complete bust after all. MobileCrunch is reporting that Microsoft may debut the new mobile operating system, along with new hardware, at the Mobile World Congress on February 15. If not then, AllThingsD predicts that they could be revealed at the CTIA Wireless convention in March.

Regardless of when the details are actually announced, both sites seem to be running with the assumption that the new WinMo 7 phones will be released shortly afterwards. Not only does this mean that we could see the OS far ahead of its previous release timetable (we expected it towards the end of 2010), but both sites are also claiming from different sources that WinMo 7 will see aspects of the Zune HD’s user experience — which lends credence to all of the Project Pink phone rumors.

MobileCrunch’s tipster also laid down some potential details on WinMo 7 and the new hardware:

It’s “essentially a copy of the Zune HD’s kernel”, and the UI is very much like the Zune HD
Microsoft is regimenting screen size and RAM amount, and minimum processor speeds
Expect no background processes, system resource access, and no threaded processes (very iPhone-like)
It won’t run Windows Mobile 6 code
They’re aiming for gaming and multimedia consumers with Xbox Live integration, instead of the business types
There will be an MS app store with a simple approval process

Aside from the potential lack of multi-tasking, WinMo 7 looks to be falling in line with the predictions I made back in October. We haven’t heard much about what will be powering these potential new devices, but Microsoft will surely want to stick with nVidia’s Tegra technology which drives all the UI goodness in the Zune HD.

If MS had continued along with their end of 2010 release for WinMo 7, they likely wouldn’t have stood a chance in the mobile market. Now they could potentially build some buzz and release their new phones before Apple’s next iPhone revision, and be in a good place to compete with the rising Android threat. It’s a shame MS didn’t make these big announcements at CES, because they could have easily ruled that event much like Palm did last year. Most likely they didn’t have much to show at the time, and they’re probably burning the midnight oil to make a big splash at one of these upcoming events.

Windows Mobile 7 with Zune Integration Coming Soon?

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Apple’s New Anti-Windows 7 Ads Hurt My Brain

Devindra — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 16:17:48 +0000

It’s no surprise that Apple has launched a new series of ads to compete with the launch of Windows 7, but the one above in particular really makes me want to smash my head into my desk. It starts with PC saying that Windows 7 is “not going to have any of the problems” Windows Vista had, and then proceeds to repeat that mantra through past versions of Windows (all the way back to Windows 3) while PC’s clothes get further outdated. All the while, Mac remains typically hip.

Now I know that Apple isn’t aiming for realism here–but pretending that the Mac OS didn’t have issues throughout the 90s just like Windows is pretty much rewriting history. I would argue that Windows 98 and 2000 were far better than anything the Mac had to offer until the release of OSX. And let’s not forget that the company wasn’t truly hip until Steve Jobs came back 1996. But then I suppose that doesn’t make for a cute commercial.

You can check out the other ads in the series over at All Things Digital.

Apple’s New Anti-Windows 7 Ads Hurt My Brain

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Bing Adds Twitter and Facebook Posts to Search Results, Should Google Worry?

Devindra — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 19:08:18 +0000

Update: And like a swift judo chop to the groin for Microsoft, Google has announced a Twitter deal as well.

All Things D got the scoop this morning on two upcoming deals Microsoft has made to integrate real time updates from Twitter and Facebook into their Bing search engine. Their post was later confirmed by an official Microsoft announcement. The deal is a coup for Microsoft because it means they’ve successfully beat out Google from integrating real time updates into their search engine. The two have been trying to court Facebook and Twitter for some time now, with rumors of buyouts floating among all the various deals. While Google remains tops in traditional web searching, the value of real time searching is also becoming more apparent every day. For once, Microsoft has access to something Google doesnt.

Not surprisingly, the implementation of both services into Bing will be very different. All Twitter posts will appear automatically (and I assume private Twitter posts won’t), but Facebook users will have to opt in due to the closed nature of that social network. Strangely enough, the implementation of real time search into Bing seems to be directly at odds with their current marketing campaign, which heralds Bing as the cure for search overload. It’ll be some time before we see these services in action, but if Bing’s real time search results end up cluttering their other results, I’m going to have to call shenanigans.

Bing Adds Twitter and Facebook Posts to Search Results, Should Google Worry?

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1080p Xbox Movie Streaming Works as Advertised

Devindra — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 16:52:55 +0000

Zune Video, streaming on Xbox 360 from Ars Technica on Vimeo.

The next Xbox Live update will bring a bevy of new features, including Twitter, Facebook, and Last.fm access. I’m particularly interested to see if Last.fm works as well all the previews say. Another feature that’s getting less press is the ability to stream 1080p films from the renamed Zune Store. As an owner of an original 20GB Xbox 360, the notion of downloading 4GB+ files is becoming more and more of an impossibility, so a good streaming solution is key for MS.

I’ve been wondering if the service is as instant as Microsoft says it is (the fastest streaming we’ve seen on the Xbox thus far is 720p HD Netflix content), and according to the Opposable Thumbs blog at Ars, it definitely works as advertised. Video proof is above, and while it may be blurry, you can clearly get a sense of how fast the streaming works. Let’s just hope this quality keeps up when released to the public.

1080p Xbox Movie Streaming Works as Advertised

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Why Xbox Live Can’t Be Free… Yet

Devindra — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 04:19:36 +0000

In a recent post over at CNet Digital Home, Don Reisinger argues that Microsoft should make Xbox Live free. To an extent, I actually agree with him. Of course, I don’t think the situation is as clear-cut as Reisinger believes. Yes, Xbox Live will eventually be free, but that won’t happen until Microsoft has a legitimate reason to do so. And no, the current multiplayer implementations by Nintendo and Sony in no way compete with XBL.

Wii vs 360

First off, let’s just forget about Nintendo. It’s clear from their ridiculous friend code system that they have no interest in achieving the same sort of seamless multiplayer integration that Microsoft has done with Live. Nintendo is far too steeped in their irrational “family friendly” corporate philosophy–to the point where I don’t believe they want to help gamers connect with one another.

Case in point: Nintendo made a big announcement last year declaring that they were going to simplify Wii online play by using Gamespy’s technology. But for some strange reason, I can’t find any further reference to that partnership besides the initial press release. And even if they did secretly start implementing Gamespy’s technology, it’s still based on friend codes–the biggest part of Nintendo’s multiplayer failure thus far.

PS3 vs 360

So Nintendo is out, but what of Sony? I’ve written recently about their underwhelming E3 showing, and my biggest complaint was that Home was nowhere to be seen. Sure, the latest PS3 updates let you have game-specific friends lists on certain games, but that’s a far cry from Microsoft’s XBL friends implementation. Friend list support needs to be standard, not a developer option, and it needs to be universal. Home has the potential to correct these mistakes for Sony, but given that it’s release is still undetermined somewhere in 2009, it’s evident that PS3 users will be stuck with sub-par multiplayer for some time.

The failure of Home and the PS3’s overall multiplayer strategy is really the biggest argument against making Xbox Live free. After all, why would Microsoft make XBL free when so many 360 users have made it clear that they’re willing to pay $50 a year for the privilege, and there is no real competition to the service?

Breaking it down, Xbox Live costs $4.17 monthly, and that rate is reduced even further if you get a discounted 12-month card online. To most people who want to play online, it’s simply a drop in the bucket. That money also leads to better development and an overall more stable service as well. And of course, it also helps to weed out annoying kids (not that the service is free from jerkwad teens and adults).

When Will Xbox Live Be Free?

Once Sony (or in some bizarro-world, Nintendo) offers a legitimate competitor to Xbox Live, then Microsoft will be able to justify making the service free. Of course, another possibility is that we start to see MS slowly giving benefits to Silver members, while also adding goodies to Gold members. Perhaps Silver members could be restricted to unranked player matches, and actual ranked games for Gold? In my opinion, that would actually be a more than fitting compromise–at least until they were forced to make XBL completely free.

For now though, I’m content with spending money on a service that I can rely on, and one that’s clearly a cut above the rest.

Why Xbox Live Can’t Be Free… Yet

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Gamestop Dropping Zune, What Exactly is Microsoft’s Zune Strategy Now?

Devindra — Wed, 28 May 2008 03:39:35 +0000

photo credit: markhoekstra

How sad it is that the biggest news to come from the Zune front in the past few months is anything but positive: Word is out that Gamestop has stopped selling Zunes.

Honestly, I’m surprised it took this long, not because the Zune 2 is a worthless player (despite what some other news reports seem to love implying), but because it was a dumb idea to sell the Zune 2 in a freaking video game store in the first place. I’m sure some genius marketing drone figured it was a good spot because 1) Gamestop fit the target Zune demographic, 2) they could easily market it as a companion product with the Xbox 360, and 3) they didn’t have any iPod competition. The rest of us saw the futility in that move from the very beginning.

I can only assume that the Gamestop deal wasn’t a large part of Microsoft’s Zune strategy, if only because it would be truly dumb if it was. And let’s not forget the fact that the Zune is still readily available in major stores.

But come to think of it, I haven’t heard much regarding the Zune 2 ever since Microsoft launched Zune Originals program, a service which lets you customize your Zune 2 with artwork by famous hipster types. While it’s certainly cooler than the bland metallic backside of the iPod, it’s certainly not a feature that will convert the iPod faithful or lure away first-time customers to the portable music player scene.

The Zune Store is finally beginning to shape up by adding some television content, but it’s still playing a desperate game of catchup with Apple’s iTunes Store. While MS has always had the $14.99 monthly music subscription model to lord over Apple, it’s simply a matter of time before Steve Jobs decides to implement something similar.

So I suppose the question to ask now is clear: What the heck is Microsoft doing with the Zune?

It’s clear to me that the device still has loads of untapped potential. Microsoft could easily add a rudimentary web portal utilizing the device’s Wi-Fi connection, and it could eventually be used to stream music and video. Honestly, the portal should have been a part of the Zune from the first generation of the device, but they couldn’t even see fit to include Wi-Fi syncing back then.

A Zune portal could easily allow users to stream and purchase music right from the device. Think the Amazon Kindle, but for music. Other devices, such as the MusicGremlin and the Sansa Connect, are already doing just this, so it’s simply inexcusable that Microsoft couldn’t manage the same by now.

The Zune Wi-Fi connection could also be used to update your podcasts directly on the player whenever you come across a friendly Wi-Fi connection. This is something I’ve been waiting for patiently ever since portable music players started adopting Wi-Fi, and it’s yet another feature that makes too much sense for Microsoft to implement.

Despite my many complaints about the product’s handling though, I still want a Zune 2. Being a Windows user and iTunes hater, it’s simply the best choice for me right now. It would also be a logical upgrade from my Toshiba Gigabeat S60, a device which was basically the proto-Zune. The current Zune software is an upgraded version of the Gigabeat software, and it’s honestly one of the best portable player interfaces I’ve ever used.

I’ll willingly buy a Zune 80, but until Microsoft starts to tap into the latent potential of the product, I’ll always consider it yet another half-handed MS attempt at being adequate rather than innovative.

Gamestop Dropping Zune, What Exactly is Microsoft’s Zune Strategy Now?

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Microsoft’s WorldWide Telescope Shows Great Potential, Haters Say Meh

Devindra — Sun, 02 Mar 2008 15:27:01 +0000

photo credit: DRB62

This morning I woke up to a Slashdot posting on Microsoft’s latest software project, the WorldWide Telescope (WWT). This is the rumored world-changing project that made Robert Scoble cry, and it’s something I’ve been waiting eagerly for since Scoble’s teasing posts. I’ve loved astronomy since I was a kid, so when I caught word that this uber-secret project had to do with collecting images from telescopes around the world, it quickly moved up to “must have” status.

In this preview from the most recent TED conference, Roy Gould, a notable science educator, and Curtis Wong, an MS Research employee who works on the WWT, demo the software and cover a few of the ways it would be useful. Most notably, it will significantly change the way astronomy is first taught, and makes a wealth of astronomical pictures and data available to the general public.

Comparisons to Google Sky, Stellarium, Celstia, and a wealth of other space programs are unavoidable, but it seems as if Microsoft is trying to do something very different with this software. All of the above programs offer detailed views of the sky in differing ways, but none of them combine seamless access to a wide variety of telescopes around the world in the way WWT does. In many ways, this seems like an evolution from the Photosynth technology shown a few months ago, although we don’t know much about the specifics of the project yet.

Given everything we see in this demo, I think it’s very likely that WorldWide Telescope will significantly shift the way we all relate to the night sky. Instead of being something distant and untouchable, we could all be amateur astronomers. And with the state of science education in America at such a low point, this can only be good news.

What I find surprising about this announcement has little to do with the content of the demo, and more to do with how the public is reacting to it. Take a quick glance at the comments for the Slashdot posting and TED video, and you’ll see people who instantly dismiss the whole WWT endeavor seemingly only because it’s coming from Microsoft. MS-bashing isn’t new on the Internet, but it is disheartening to see many devalue this project due to petty misconceptions and fanboyism.

The WorldWide Telescope has world-changing potential–but I suppose that isn’t enough for the M haters out there. It really makes me think about what, if anything, MS can do to shift their public perception. They’ve been so ruthless over the years, and Google so benevolent, that it just seems like the natural order of things. While this initial preview still has a fair amount of doubters, I suspect that their number will diminish as we learn more about WWT and actually get to play with the technology. If anything can shift the public perception of MS, it’s this.

Microsoft’s WorldWide Telescope Shows Great Potential, Haters Say Meh

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Changes on the Horizon

Devindra — Tue, 04 Dec 2007 02:29:53 +0000

You may have noticed a lack of updates on this site lately. Fortunately, this time around the dry spell is not due to my laziness. I’ve actually been somewhat productive this past month, it’s just been for another site. For the past month I’ve been freelancing at Daily Bits, a recently launched technology blog by Daniel Scocco of Daily Blog Tips fame.

Since Daily Bits is a technology blog, most of the work that I would have normally published here will be going there. I don’t see the need to abandon this blog entirely yet though. There are still many topics that I’m interested in that don’t quite fit the Daily Bits mold, so you can expect to see those here. Those include topics like the consumer technologies, the Singularity, and video games.

Here’s what I have at Daily Bits so far:

Changes on the Horizon

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Del.icio.us Link Stroll: How Google Gears Could Kill Microsoft, Google Elucidates “Net Neutrality”, Judge Makes Life Difficult for the RIAA

Devindra — Fri, 22 Jun 2007 03:25:06 +0000

Welcome to another leisurely stroll through my recently collected del.icio.us links. As always, feel free to add me (”Tenken” on del.icio.us) to your network if you’d like to share your own links with me. You can also subscribe to this RSS feed of my del.icio.us findings.

How Google Gears Could Foreshadow Death for Microsoft: I’ve recently rediscovered Slate after spending most of my time over at Salon these past few months, and it’s articles like this that make me kick myself for ignoring Slate for so long. Here, Slate’s Harry McCracken argues that Google Gears introduces functionality that will be key to dominating the web application market. Chiefly, with the integration of online content with offline functionality. It’s a really interesting thought that I had never considered until now. Expect this theme to pop up in a future post.
Google Explains Net Neutrality in Simple Terms: Google’s Public Policy Blog is quickly becoming one of the best sources for easy-to-read public policy discussion online. Here they offer a clear definition of what net neutrality proponents are fighting for, and makes the case about what exactly they feel ISP’s have a right to do with their networks. Perhaps if some politicians understood the issue as clearly as this there would be much less support for telco’s and net neutrality opponents in Washington.
Judge Says Students Can Respond to RIAA “John Doe” Lawsuits: A federal judge in New Mexico has declared that RIAA must allow alleged copyright infringers in that state to be notified before receiving settlement letters in the mail. These letters are of the recent breed that the RIAA has been sending out wherein they basically tell the recipient to cough up a settlement fee or face a full-on lawsuit.
They are, in actuality, a way for the RIAA to overstep the legal system altogether since most of the recipients decide to settle. This has been saving the RIAA a tremendous amount in legal fees, but with this new ruling they are going to have a much harder time pulling the same stunt in New Mexico–hopefully others will follow suit.

Del.icio.us Link Stroll: How Google Gears Could Kill Microsoft, Google Elucidates “Net Neutrality”, Judge Makes Life Difficult for the RIAA

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Who is the oFone really making fun of?

Devindra — Wed, 09 May 2007 22:48:30 +0000

My day started off with the dose of hi-larity below. I present to you, the oFone:

Yes folks, Microsoft does indeed have a sense of humor (on occasion). I really wonder how the Zune guys feel about this though. The ludicrous lengths that this mock-PR video follows feel eerily similar to Microsoft’s attempt to combat the iPod. Specifically, it speaks to horrible product design that completely misses what consumers want and the subsequent blindness by its creators.

I’m still waiting for J. Allard to apologize for that abomination. How could a man who did such a great job with making the Xbox a compelling product for Microsoft completely fail with the Zune? What’s worse, how could you get so close to making a compelling product only to gimp its most enticing feature? (Wi-fi, if you haven’t been paying attention)

This video seems to be poking fun at the corporate mentality that leads to a failure like the Zune in the first place. The fact that its Youtube page also links to the “Microsoft Redesigns the iPod Packaging” video is no coincidence in my mind. And it definitely seems to be an in-house project–the link at the end points to this MSDN site for the Windows Mobile Home group.

It’s exceedingly strange to me that they spend much more effort making fun of themselves than at their competitor. Then again, the iPhone has already been spoofed dozens of times by now. This segment from Conan O’Brien is my favorite:

Now it’s well known that despite its borg image, Microsoft is in actuality composed of many different groups. These groups mostly act independantly of one another unless they’re working on a major corporate project. That the Windows Mobile Home guys were smart enough to create such a captivating promo isn’t necessarily telling of a general change of attitude at the corporate level. But if the response to this ad is good, I’m certain it’s going to make some waves in the company.

In the end though, I suppose it doesn’t really matter who Microsoft was making fun of. The fact that it was a hilarious and well-produced PR spot was enough to grab attention, and places it among other great ads like the “Get Perpendicular” video from Hitachi. I’m a fan of quality comedy, so I certainly wouldn’t mind if this becomes more of a trend.

Who is the oFone really making fun of?

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Hard Disk Catastrophe: How to Recover Data from a Formatted Hard Drive

Devindra — Mon, 04 Dec 2006 01:43:13 +0000

You know what’s ironic? I work in desktop support, and I tell people to back up their data every day. Yet just recently I experienced my worst case of data loss ever, which could have been easily avoided had I just backed up my massive collection of music (nearly 50GB by this point) and lesser (but more invaluable) collection of digital photos.

It all started when I decided to do a clean installation of Windows XP. I was having an annoying issue that was preventing me from loading XP without using the “Last known config” option at startup, and multiple repair installations did nothing to solve the issue. Since that installation was nearly three years old, I decided it was worthwhile to just start from scratch. Luckily, I keep my XP installation in a separate 15GB partition just for this sort of occasion. With XP in its own space, I can just format that and leave all of my other data intact–at least that’s how it’s supposed to work.

I was in a heated “Gears of War” multiplayer match while casually stepping through the ugly first portion of the XP installation, and I would later realize this is where things went horribly wrong. While choosing the partition to install Windows on I received an unusual screen that I really should have paid more attention to. I was actually attempting to do a “soft” reinstallation at first, wherein only the C:\Windows directory is overwritten, when I got a message saying that Windows couldn’t be installed on that partition without reformatting. Since I didn’t mind losing the data on that partition anyway, I shrugged off the error and proceeded reformat.

Upon completing the Windows installation, I was shocked to realize that two of my most important partitions were missing. I quickly checked the status of my disks in the Disk Management utility and noted with horror that my Windows disk now only had one partition. I had trouble sleeping that night.

I’ve helped people through file recoveries before using various undelete software, but I’ve never had to restore entire lost partitions, so I considered myself royally screwed. Based on the advice of this ExtremeTech article, I procured a demo of Iolo’s Search and Recover 4. After a few hours of scanning with the software’s partition recovery function it couldn’t find a thing. All hope was lost.

In even further desperation, I came across SoftLogica’s Handy Recovery 3.0. Not expecting much, I let the software scan for the disk partitions for a few hours and tried to put the whole situation out of mind by numbing the pain with even more “Gears of War.” I know it’s partially to blame for this whole thing, but the game is too damned addictive to stay mad at ;) When I got back to my computer, I nearly fell out of my seat. Handy had successfully found all of the partitions I lost, and seemed eager to put my mind at rest. I whipped out my credit card, and the game was on.

The next day I received the serial number at work and quickly plugged it in when I got home. After a few hours of recovery, Handy had successfully restored nearly 60GB of data I previously had thought was lost. There isn’t much more to say about the product, all I know is that it saved me from near catastrophe, and I would recommend it to every PC user. It was only $40, which is actually on the low-end for disk recovery software. The UI is clean, the program is bug free from what I can tell, and it can perform miracles. What better praise can I give it?

Hard Disk Catastrophe: How to Recover Data from a Formatted Hard Drive

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HD On Demand for the Xbox 360

Devindra — Tue, 07 Nov 2006 03:25:19 +0000

OK I know it’s been a while since I last updated, but I think I’ve finally gotten over the fact that A) nobody reads this blog and B) it’s just one of many of the same sort of tech punditry blogs online. My impetus behind this thing was to find my voice in tech writing while discussing interesting topics. I’ll try to keep that in mind and force myself to update consistently.

Anyway, MS just announced that they will be offering HD content on-demand for the 360. Who knew they could keep a secret so well? In a world starving for HD content, this is exactly the sort of spot MS needs to be in. They could very well turn this into the iTunes of HD video–it’s certainly the perfect time to be jumping into this sector.

So of course we can expect an HDD upgrade in the 80GB-100GB range. Pricing will be another issue; I’m not quite sure if I want to shell out for a new HDD as well as an external HD-DVD drive, but I can’t deny that the availability of hundreds of hours of HD content isn’t making me contemplate the move. This is new to everyone and my mind is reeling with possibilities, so more on this later–

Microsoft’s Xbox Live Video: HDTV and HD movie downloads for your 360 – Engadget

HD On Demand for the Xbox 360

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Does Microsoft Care More About You Than Apple?

Devindra — Thu, 09 Mar 2006 16:33:21 +0000

Engadget has a good writeup on the differences between Apple and Windows on how they want to please their users. Basically, the writer says that Microsoft has historically wanted the love of their users. They go out of their way to listen to their users and develop functionality around what their users want. While I don’t find this to be consistently true (I don’t know anyone who wanted those annoying “personalized” menus), I have noticed that MS is much more empathetic to their customers than Apple.

The author goes on to mention that Apple tries to do the same, but is inevitably more authoritarian with their users. This isn’t really surprising, the only true competition Apple has is itself–they simply operate on an entirely different level than Microsoft. Steve Jobs is the ~~dictator~~ mastermind of his own little computer utopia. He simply has a level of control over Macs that Bill Gates will never have over Windows, let alone PC hardware.

This leads me to question why there are no true Windows zealouts as there are Mac zealouts. Taken as a sort of religion, Windows lacks a key icon like Steve Jobs for its fans to worship. While most everyone knows of Bill Gates, he certainly doesn’t carry the charisma that Jobs does. Just look at what Jobs did with the iPod Shuffle: Few could have marketed such a device, a music player without a screen, with the effectiveness of Jobs.

This, coupled with the larger install base of Windows, leads to the general negative opinion of Windows. Thus, I can only really consider myself a Windows apologist. Perhaps in a few years the public will be able to look back and see how much they owe Windows for bringing computers into the mainstream.

Switched On: The contractor and the architect

Does Microsoft Care More About You Than Apple?

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