Ikanos Consulting is developing a framework which is in beta testing which will, when completed, allow you to run Windows SideShow Gadgets on a Windows Mobile device, finally bringing SideShow to the masses.
SideShow is a wonderful technology in Vista, allowing the display and access of data from a Vista PC on external mini-devices (usually little screens with a few buttons on the outside of a PC case), but the hardware is very specific and very rarely implemented. With support for running SideShow programs (Gadgets, just like the Sidebar kind) on mobile phones, SideShow can be used by any of the millions of Windows Mobile phones.
With SideShow, you can check email on your host PC, select music for the PC to play, see the weather or your Messenger buddy list, or load up any Gadget that’s been created by anyone for the purpose. There aren’t a ton of Gadgets now, but once the hardware gets out there (and by enabling existing devices, it gets out there a lot faster), developers will start creating even more cool functionality.
Ikanos is also working on using SideShow with any wifi device with a web browser, including the iPhone/iPod Touch. Check out this video they uploaded:
I love the way he pronounces “beta”.
(via Engadget)
Apple announced a deal with 20th Century Fox, adding Fox films to the iTunes video store. The movies will be available for download as video rentals, the first time iTunes has offered rentals, showing that low-price rentals are the better deal for users than offering the same DRM-laden low-quality videos at a higher price for permanent sale.
Apple is the Xbox Live Marketplace’s only real competition for digital movie distribution, and them embracing movie rentals (chatter is Fox is only the first studio, with more to come), leaves another wrinkle for Microsoft to deal with. Worse, part of the deal is that Fox DVDs will ship with iPod-formatted copies of the movie on the disk, wrapped in Apple’s FairPlay DRM. Those movies won’t run on anything but an iPod/iPhone, due to the copy protection.
Two years ago, Microsoft could have pushed for similar treatment for its own DRM, but thanks to its abandonment of PlaysForSure and splintering of the WMV-based DRM market, it can’t claim that its DRM serves the entire non-Apple player market. Apple gets a great deal, and Microsoft has no hope of getting something similar for itself.
Microsoft needs to think of some means to even itself out with Apple. One suggestion: It’s time to finally bring the Xbox Live Video Marketplace to the PC. If you have to, require the movies to stream from a 360, but make the connection work.
Bob Familiar has an interview at Channel 9 with Professor Mark Frydenberg of Bentley College of Massachusetts. Professor Frydenberg has created a course that leverages Popfly, using it to teach business majors about software architecture and software development.
Professor Frydenberg’s unique approach allows students to grasp complex distributed computing concepts, build and share sophisticated mashups while working with information (photos, news, music) that is relevant to them.
Check out the video at Channel 9, and while you’re there, beg them to find a way to let people embed Channel 9 videos on their blogs, m’kay?
(via Dave)
Microsoft has decided to be the market-breaker, working on a version of Windows Live Messenger that will be able to communicate with Google Talk, AOL Instant Messenger and ICQ. They’ve already completed the GTalk portion of the integration, and are working on AIM and ICQ. Considering that LiveIM already interoperates with Yahoo Messenger, Microsoft would be the first mainstream free client to connect all the major network protocols. How exciting!
How will the rest of the market react? Considering how long it takes Yahoo Messenger to release anything, and how Google Talk is being mismanaged by Google, Microsoft could be at the top of the heap for many months. I know that the second GTalk interoperation is released, I’ll stop using GTalk, and I suspect I’m not the only one.
UPDATE: Apparently, the article Mashable linked to is based on a LiveSide post from two months ago. I suggest reading the post, which does talk about possible Google Talk/AIM integration, though not as definitively, and several other very interesting things.
Apple held onto the top spot in the University of Michigan’s American Consumer Satisfaction Index, but it did slip almost five percent to drop to 79 out of 100 points. That puts it within three points of second-place HP, which rose, and only four points above the baseline. The baseline is the satisfaction score for the entire PC industry, meaning Apple’s customers are satisfied with it only slightly more than any average other computer company.
The index has only been tracking computer software companies for two years, and the results are incomplete to draw too many conclusions from (Microsoft is the only company actually on the list), but it should still be mentioned that Microsoft’s score fell four points in the one year it has been tracked.
Zumobi, the mobile startup spun off from Microsoft Research, has launched its first beta. The Zumobi software presents a unique way to access content, with a grid of sixteen tiles that you can zoom in and out of, and the tiles acting as widgets that display web-based content.
I tried the beta on my Windows Mobile phone, and besides that it didn’t run all that well on my admittedly slow PDA phone, it was hard to understand the point of using these tiles. Guess this is one widget platform that will have to prove its usefulness over time. At the least, it looks good and the graphics and transitions are real nice, better than anything regular Microsoft normally does.
(via Neowin)
Today, Jackass 2.5, the extended edition of the high class Jackass Number Two film, comes out on DVD. However, for the last week and the next five days, anyone with a web browser could see the movie for free, courtesy of Blockbuster and powered by Microsoft’s Silverlight. This is probably the first major mainstream promotion for Silverlight, a good thing even if if does feature grown men being chased by gorillas while wearing banana suits.
Also using Silverlight is Entertainment Tonight, the celebrity gossip TV show. They’re using Silverlight Streaming video on their Year In Review 2007 site, like on this page (via Harry Mower).
The Microsoft Affiliate Network has added Microsoft AdCenter to its available referral programs. You can earn $35 for every account you refer to sign up with AdCenter, which should be pretty easy, given that AdCenter provides new clients with $50 of free ad clicks. Here’s one of the creatives:
They also have some holiday ad creatives (plus text links):
November software sales data has been released by the NPD, and it shows that in its first year of availability, Office 2007 and promotions for Mac Office pushed Office sales up 50.7%. Total software sales were up 10.3%, with Office accounting for two-thirds of that growth. Black Friday sales were up 65%, and helped by a promotion that gave free Office 2008 to Mac Office 2004 buyers, Mac sales on that Friday were up a staggering 215%.
As NPD’s Chris Swenson says, Microsoft Office is driving the PC software industry at this point. Quoted by Joe Wilcox:
The “magnitude of Office sales relative to the rest of the PC software market” is phenomenal, Swenson said. “It’s the massively huge tail wagging the dog. If the senior execs at Best Buy, Office Depot, etc. don’t buy Jeff Raikes [president of Microsoft’s Business division] a beer the next time he’s in town, something is seriously wrong.”
In certain European countries, Microsoft is marking the launch of their Xbox Live Video stores with a special price for the hit action movie 300. In the United Kingdom, Germany and France, you can rent 300, in high definition, for just 100 Microsoft Points. That’s basically $1.25 in US dollars, or £0.80p. It’ll only be available at that price on Friday, December 28, but normal video rental terms apply.
Logitech has released drivers for its G15 computer gaming keyboard that turns its LCD screen into a Windows SideShow-capable device. That means that if you have Windows Vista, you can set the keyboard to show certain information through Sideshow Gadgets, presumably incoming emails, media player control, and things like that. This is very useful for gamers, who won’t want to exit their game to check if new email has come in, and can instead rely on the keyboard screen for updates.
The G15, with the LCD screen, macros, light-up keys, cord management channels and dedicated media buttons, has a retail price of $100, but Amazon.com will sell it to you for $80. The Z10 speakers, with touch-sensitive sound adjustment controls, an LCD showing track information and now Sideshow, internet radio presets, line input for MP3 players and USB connectivity, can be had for $65.
If you buy your Microsoft Points by entering a credit card right on the Xbox 360, you might find it frustrating that they’re sold in increments of 500 points, as in 500 points for $6.25 and 1000 points for $12.50. The reason it’s frustrating is that most games on Live are $5 or $10, or 400/800 points, leaving you with extra points floating around after every purchase. Gamers have complained about being stuck with the change, but Microsoft doesn’t seem to want to budge.
Luckily, someone realized that Microsoft did have a website selling MS Points normally: Zune.net. Go to this page on live.zune.net (you’ll need to create a Zune account, which is literally just five clicks), and you can purchase points in these increments:
400 Microsoft® Points: Zune™ Price: $5.00
1200 Microsoft® Points: Zune™ Price: $15.00
2000 Microsoft® Points: Zune™ Price: $25.00
4000 Microsoft® Points: Zune™ Price: $50.00
Since Zune and Xbox Live use the same MS Points, the ones you buy on Zune.net will work just as good, and you won’t be stuck holding the change. Rejoice, gamers, as this simple annoyance in your lives is rectified!
(via Digg)
Keep in mind, of course, that you can always buy MS Points in decent increments on pre-paid cards (and usually save some money, thanks to coupons and discounting), like this 1600 Point ($20) card, which can conceivably be had for $18 with free shipping (on a $30 order) on Amazon.
Microsoft has released the source code for its Silverlight-powered Tafiti search and research web application. This means that a lot of very powerful Silverlight code is now available for any developer to download and use in their applications, with Microsoft’s hard work now anyone’s to modify and resell as part of their own web app. Tafiti has been placed with the other Windows Live Quick Apps, and is a great addition to your Silverlight starter kit.
The Zune got a nice update, with the firmware being pushed to version 2.3. There are no new features, just improvements in how the device works, with improved device recognition, and improved stability and reliability on sync. The biggest change is a fix for an issue where devices that were turned off would continue to drain the battery, so anyone suffering from that issue should see a nice boost in battery life.
Njection has created a mashup that shows you on Windows Live Maps where the cops have set up speed traps, so you can know ahead of time when to slow down as they try to balance the budget. Users add the location of known speed traps to the database (including the type of detection used and how often they are there), and you can browse the map and know where to be careful.
Finally, 6000 sqaure miles of 3D textured cities were added, including San Bernandino, Calafornia; Charlotte, North Carolina; Fargo; Cleveland; Hartford, Connecticut; Providence, Rhode Island; Salt Lake City; Green Bay, Wisconsin; Woorcheshessterr*, Massachussets; St. Louis; and Liverpool, U.K.. Also added: 44 new aerial cities, 36 new bird’s eye cities, 26 new European bird’s eye cities, and more.
* - Yeah, I know it’s Worcester, and that it’s pronounced Wooster for some damned reason, but that’s one of the worst place names in the U.S.. Change it.
Microsoft has announced its latest dividend, and yet again it is for 11 cents. Shareholders as of February 21 will receive their dime and a penny on March 13, 2008. With this dividend, Microsoft will have returned $4.61 to shareholders over the last five years.
I did not know this before, but you can go to your Windows Live ID Account Summary and see the exact day you signed up for Hotmail. Thanks to Ian Moulster (seven years), I now know that I first signed up for Hotmail on May 14, 1998, nine years, seven months, six days ago. I’ve been a Hotmail user for 3,297 days. I can’t wait for my ten year anniversary!
So, who has been using Hotmail the longest? If you’re willing to pay shipping, I’ll send a free DVD to whoever claims the oldest account and can prove it. For the record, it should be impossible to beat July 4, 1996.
As Viacom strikes out with a lawsuit against YouTube, Microsoft has signed a half-billion-dollar deal with the company that bolsters its ad divisions and provides some interesting opportunities. Under the terms of the deal, Microsoft licenses Viacom’s content from properties like MTV, Paramount and Comedy Central for use on MSN and Xbox Live, and Viacom starts using Microsoft’s Atlas ad server (from aQuantive) on their websites, giving Microsoft the right to sell Viacom’s extra ad inventory.
In addition, Microsoft agrees to buy advertising on Viacom’s TV stations and websites over the next five years and work with Viacom on promotions and sponsorships. Viacom will work with Microsoft to become a preferred publishing partner on Microsoft’s casual gaming platforms. This is the sort of deal Google should have signed with Viacom to avoid its current legal problems, if Google had any media properties Viacom was actually interested in.
Microsoft winds up with a strong ad partner and more ways to promote its own properties. The deal ties the MTV and Xbox brands closer together, which can’t hurt their image, and improves Microsoft’s relationship with Comedy Central. All in all, a big win for Microsoft.
