Inside Microsoft has exclusive details on the next major release of Windows Mobile. As expected, Microsoft has taken notes from Apple and Windows Mobile 7 will feature touch controls and motion sensing technology. Reading the notes from the document raises a bunch of issues regarding Microsoft's take on this-gen (for the iPhone) and next-gen (for everyone else) phone OSes:
- It seems to be meshing too many interaction paradigms - in addition to the new touch/motion controls (flicking to scroll, tiliting and shaking, etc), they're also leaving in button controls (the old Windows Mobile menus everyone loves to hate) and finally "[a] stylus will be required on devices meeting certain screen size, orientation, DPI and resolution marks." Three interaction paradigms makes for a steep learning curve and a lot of energy wasted by users when they have to remember to switch input methods because an action can't be performed in the current interaction mode.
- Shaking to wake up your phone? Definitely not as classy as sliding to unlock.
- The phones will use the camera as the motion sensor. I can't see how well this will work in a dark room or when the camera is obscured, such as when you're holding it in your hand.
- It's coming in 2009. This should be out mid-2008 at the latest if Microsoft has any hope of stopping the iPhone juggernaut. By 2009, Apple will have had a two year lead. Competing with the 2007 iPhone in 2009 makes Microsoft look foolish and reactive; similar to how they looked when Vista was released to match features with an Apple OS that came out two years prior.
So while it's nice to see that Microsoft is actually doing things to advance it's mobile offering (unlike Palm), again, my criticism of Microsoft's efforts boil down to too late and too complex. This report makes it seem as though they're making Windows Mobile 6+1 by bolting on iPhone features to a broken UI instead of doing what they should be doing: starting from scratch and developing a consistent and enjoyable user experience.
Technorati Tags: Microsoft, mobile, Windows Mobile, user interface, Apple, iPhone, Palm
I can't believe I missed this: Google Gears is available for WebKit. This was announced three weeks ago, but I just found out about it on this TUAW post regarding future Google/Apple iPhone-related announcements.
News of this makes me feel better about AJAX/HTML based apps on the iPhone, easing my concern over offline access to these apps. I also haven't seen many developers complaining about the lack of a "real" SDK on the iPhone, which makes me believe that offline access and home screen placement was discussed at NDA-covered WWDC sessions.
A big question I have is that amongst all this Google/Apple collaboration, Apple decided to go with Yahoo for the iPhone's bundled email solution and widgets (you'll note that the Stocks and Weather widgets now sport Y! icons). Could Apple be playing both sides? If Google and Yahoo were desperate to get placement on the iPhone, then perhaps they didn't want to (or couldn't get) exclusivity. Google and Yahoo are currently tied on home screen icon placement at two a piece (Yahoo is slightly ahead overall because of the mail tie-in, however).
The biggest loser in all of this is of course is Microsoft. The one-two punch: iPhone is going to take away customers from the Windows Mobile platform (RIM sure isn't helping them out either). Thanks to the Google/Yahoo integration, iPhone users will have an investment in Google and Yahoo's online services, driving usage away from MSN/Windows Live/whatever it's called now. After the iPhone, Microsoft will be facing increased competition from both the mobile space and the internet space.
There is a bright side to all of this for Microsoft. From any way you look at it, Microsoft is seen as the biggest competition to Google and Yahoo: Either Google and Yahoo compromised to "share" the iPhone, in which case they don't think they can handle Microsoft alone, or Apple didn't want only Google or only Yahoo on the iPhone, in which case Apple thinks that Google and/or Yahoo are vulnerable to Microsoft.
Technorati Tags: Google, Apple, Microsoft, Yahoo, SDK, iPhone, WebKit, Google Gears, widgets
Two very important people are leaving Microsoft. First is Bryan Lee, former VP in the entertainment and device division, who oversaw the Zune launch. Second is Jim Allchin, former Co-President of the platform and services division. The latter had an excellent blog post on a day in his post-Microsoft life. Neither are going to competitors, however, instead both are going to "pursue personal interests," as the Reuters article linked above puts it.
In other Microsoft news, a so-called "vulnerability" has been found in Vista. The vulnerability involves having voice commands from a third-party being played over speakers and doing nasty things to a PC. I don't really see this is as a new problem, as it could have been done on any other OS that had voice recognition (e.g., XP or OS X). The easy solution is to disable voice commands (who really uses them anyway?), but a more long-term solution for people who do want voice commands is to have it require a passcode to be said before the OS runs a command.
Technorati Tags: Microsoft, Vista, Jim Allchin, Bryan Lee, Zune, Windows, vulnerability, voice recognition, voice commands, sound, voice
I've been ridiculously busy with OCR (on-campus recruiting), aka trying to find a job for after graduation, so I haven't had much time to blog, let alone read half the links I open up from my RSS feeds. Here's just a few of them I opened up today and yesterday:
Get free Digital Life tickets. It looks like a cool little conference taking place in NYC in a few weeks. Tickets are cheap enough that I might have gone anyway, but this really seals it. If anyone else is going or wants to go, let me know to meet up.
Woz will be on the Colbert Report this Thursday, promoting his new book. Woz is a big prankster so expect some good laughs.
The Treo 750v will be the face of Windows Mobile in Europe. The latest Business Week has the Cingular 8125 (by HTC) in a bunch of ads, so maybe they're just trying to please their two big licensees (BTW, does anyone else besides Palm and HTC make Windows Mobile phones anymore?).
Harvard Econ professor Gregory Mankiw talks about getting rid of the penny (again). I hate pennies and try to use my debit card most of the time to avoid them. We're already rounding gasoline to the nearest penny, why not round everything else to nearest nickel?
Technorati Tags: Digital Life, free, tickets, conference, Woz, Steve Wozniak, Colbert Report, Steven Colbert, economics, penny
Apple has updated Boot Camp, their software application that enables Windows to boot on Intel-based Macs, to beta version 1.1.
The update is recommended for all previous and new Boot Camp installations. The new beta includes:
* Support for the latest Intel-based Macintosh computers
* Easier partitioning using presets for popular sizes
* Ability to install Windows XP on any internal disk
* iSight camera support
* Support for built-in microphones
* Right-click when pressing the right-hand Apple key on Apple keyboards
* Improved Apple keyboard support including Delete, PrintScreen, NumLock, and ScrollLock keys
We get an iSight driver update, so no more Blue Screen when opening it up in My Computer. We also get a keyboard driver update that adds support for several keys and the ability to right-click with the right Apple key, though it's hard to tell whether this is just duplicating the contextual menu key available on most Windows keyboards or if this simulates control-click in OS X.
Technorati Tags: Apple, Intel, Core Duo, Boot Camp, Windows, beta, Mac OS X
The first tidbit belongs to Joel Martinez of Community MX, who has posted Part 1 of his Deconstructing MySpace series on what goes on behind the scenes at MySpace (albeit from an outsider's perspective) and how to build your own social networking app. This first part focuses on setting up the database that will drive the application and future installments will focus on other details of implementation.
The second piece comes from Luke Wrobleski's notes on a SxSW 2006 panel entitled, "Behind the Scenes: Developing OS X and Longhorn". What struck me most about the two operating systems was that Windows development appears to be more democratic in the sense that multiple people decide what goes in and what doesn't. At Apple, it was Steve's way or the highway. I suppose that may have to do with Apple being a smaller company, but with every decision going through Steve, it would seem like OS X would turn out to be a lot smaller than Windows, but it feels on par with it (in the most general sense).
Technorati Tags: MySpace, social networking, tutorial, development, database, SWSW, SXSW 2006, OS X, Longhorn, Windows, Vista, Apple, Microsoft, operating systems
A day after Apple releases Boot Camp, Parallels releases a beta of their virtualization software for ICBMs (Intel Core-based Macs). This software has similar functionality to Microsoft's VirtualPC, except that no processor emulation is necessary so apps should run at near full-speed (barring the overhead of having run two operating systems at once).
This looks like a good solution for those wanting to limit the time they spend in Windows, either for malware concerns or religious reasons.
It should also be noted that both this solution and Apple's Boot Camp allow other operating systems, not just Windows to be run on ICBMs. As OS X is already based on Unix, being able to run Windows is perhaps the biggest concern for most users.
[via Engadget]
Technorati Tags: XP on Mac, Boot Camp, virtualization, Apple, Mac, OS X, MacIntel, Intel, Microsoft, Windows, Windows XP, emulation
Apple BootCamp showed up on the Mac OS X site today. It does practically the same thing as the hack released a few weeks ago, but in a much nicer fashion.
BootCamp is an OS X application that lets you non-destructively partition a drive for Windows use. It will also create a drivers CD for use with Windows. At reboot, you select the partition to use (like the previous hack) and you're set.
I'm curious as to why Apple waited to announce this after the third-party hack was made available. I can't imagine them using any of the code provided by the project, since this seems much more elegant. With access to OS X and EFI's deepest layers, Apple probably had an easier time developing this than the third-party hackers did.
I can't wait to see some test drives of this software and how it compares to the previously-mentioned hack. This appears to be more elgant but I wonder if the hack is more flexible.
Did Apple have this in mind all along? If they have, then those hackers cashed in right on time.
Technorati Tags: Apple, Mac OS X, Microsoft, Windows XP, XP on Mac, BootCamp, dual boot, operating systems
Vista has been delayed again. This time, the consumer editions have been pushed back until January 2007.
Dear Microsoft,
It's "underpromise and overdeliver", not "overpromise and underdeliver". As Counselor Kevin 'Ug' Lee said during the opening credits of the early-90s Nickelodeon show, Salute Your Shorts, "Get it right or pay the price."
Regards,
Martin
Technorati Tags: Microsoft, Vista, Windows Vista, Windows, delayed, Nickelodeon, Salute Your Shorts, software, operating systems
The challenge to get WinXP to boot on a Mac is finally over. The solution was confirmed and posted today, days after the winner of the challenge posted a video of his iMac booting up Windows which many thought was a hoax.
This means good things for Apple, which will probably see an increase in sales from people holding off their purchases until it was actually possible to dual-boot. Although the purchases may be held off until the Rev. B machines come out, probably with good reason.
Technorati Tags: Apple, iMac, MacBook Pro, dual boot, Windows, Windows XP, Intel, MacIntel, Microsoft, melting, power adaptor, MagSafe
