Chris Pendleton pointed this one out to me. Fresh Logic Studios took the Virtual Earth map control and MSN Local Search API and created their own interface into mapping business listings. I like this one better than the Local.Live.Com interface.
RUMOR CORRECTION: Microsoft does not block MP3s on Verizon phones
January 10, 2006 By
It took me a while to track this rumor down, but the team just sent me an update/correction. Here’s more from Wayne Hickey, who is doing PR for the Windows Media Team.
“It is absolutely untrue. Microsoft provided the technology for this deal only, and in no way placed restrictions on design or the use of other audio technologies as part of the deal. Verizon intended to support direct MP3 playback at launch, but their primary focus was over the air delivery and one of their other tech providers was unable to do direct MP3 playback by launch. They do support MP3 playback via transcoding to WMA via Windows Media 10 and are working to deliver direct MP3 playback shortly.”
The original story was reported here on Engadget, Techdirt, and ZDNET and was linked here on Memeorandum/Tech.
“Just say no to Microsoft” an interesting read
January 8, 2006 By
Publishers occassionally ask me whether they can send me books so that I can review them. Increasingly I’m turning them down (it makes me feel guilty when I don’t write about them).
But, I met the publisher, William Pollock, of NoStarch Press at BarCamp over the summer and liked him and his books sounded interesting, even if they were mostly about tech topics I wasn’t that interested in.
Anyway, they asked a while back if I’d like some books and I said sure. So, today when I get back from CES I found one waiting for me titled “Just Say No to Microsoft.”
Now, on first reading, you might think I should be offended by such a book. After all, the basic premise of the book is to live life without Microsoft. Switch to a Mac or a Linux machine and all that. The subtitle of the book is “How to Ditch Microsoft And Why It’s Not as Hard As You Think.”
But, I find that I learn more from contrarian approaches than from the “everything is hunky dory” approach and this one hasn’t disappointed yet.
Every Microsoft engineer and product planner should read it.
Why? It’s a great specification for where our products fall short and demonstrates very well how our products and company are being perceived on the street.
If that was the extent of it (to be a bible to people who hate Microsoft, and to be a spec for Microsofties for how to improve our products) then that’d be a fine reason to have this book, but there’s more.
I actually am learning how to do stuff on Microsoft’s products that I didn’t know before. There’s a ton of tips in this book about how to use Microsoft stuff. Which, is sorta funny, given the title and premise for the book.
Oh, and John Dvorak says he isn’t getting paid attention to by Microsoft’s PR folks anymore in the foreward. Oh, John, I thought you were a blogger now and Christopher Coulter keeps telling me not to pay so much attention to bloggers (and particularly to ones that don’t seem to write much about tech)! Just kidding, you know you can just write me an email if you aren’t getting good info from us anymore. I’ll go shoot a video and get all the answers you need.
And, to Tony Bove, you never expected an endorsement for your book from a Microsoft employee, did you?
Microsoft releases WMF update
January 5, 2006 By
Ladies and gentlemen, update your computers!Microsoft announced that it would release a security update to help protect customers from exploitations of a vulnerability in the Windows Meta File (WMF) area of code in the Windows operating system on Tuesday, January 2, 2006, in response to malicious and criminal attacks on computer users that were discovered last week.
Microsoft will release the update today on Thursday, January 5, 2006, earlier than planned.
Update, my brother says “Point? That Microsoft is more responsive than people want to give them credit for.” That was in reaction to Ed Bott’s comparison of Microsoft updates with Firefox updates.
Office 12 floats Paul Thurrott’s boat
January 5, 2006 By
I ran into Paul Thurrott tonight at one of those stick-50-companies-into-a-room-with-beer-and-finger-food-and-pour-press-people-in parties and we got to talking about Office 12. He says Office 12 is both shocking and exciting. And a few other things in his part 1 of “Inside Office 12.”
Bill Gates keynote at CES (that playtable rocks)
January 4, 2006 By
You can watch along. I’m sitting in the Bellagio with a bunch of geeks watching on a video feed. Updates to come. Oh, Engadget did a point-by-point of the keynote too (with pictures!) But, Memeorandum is the best place to go to see all the reaction from around the world.
I heard he won’t use any PowerPoint slides tonight. That’ll be interesting to see.
6:45 p.m. Bill just came out. He’s talking about winning the Time’s person of the year with his wife. Noted that in 1982 the PC won that award.
6:47. Notes that last year Microsoft saw 11% growth in Windows PCs.
6:48. Showing a futuristic home of the future screen that you can touch.
6:49. Shows off a cool holographic office screen. Shows images that wrap around you.
6:50. Demonstrates a Tablet PC that is virtually displayed along with the wrap around screen.
6:52. He’s demonstrating the PlayTable (a prototype table — someone just wrote me and said this isn’t the PlayTable. Oh, oh. Still very cool. And, I’ll definitely follow up with that team). He drops his cell phone onto a surface and images fly out of it. Wild. Oh, cool, now that the Table has been demonstrated I can talk about this. It’s no demo. It really works. It’s unbelieveable technology. How does the Tablet work? It has a projector underneath it, projecting onto holographic glass. Under the glass (you can’t see these) are two cameras that triangulate in on the surface of the glass. How does it know that Bill’s cell phone has been laid on the surface of the glass? A barcode on the bottom of Bill’s cell phone.
6:58. Bill is talking about the industry.
7:00. Windows Vista demos start.
Aaron Woodman is on stage talking about Vista. First, fresh user interface.
Live previews of applications. Switching apps is easier. Flip 3D is being shown (shows various Windows you have open in 3D interface).
Sidebar being demoed showing Gadgets. RSS feed reader in Sidebar. Dave Winer will be happy.
7:04. You can search. From the start menu.
7:05. Tabbed browsing with a twist. MSN Search done, brings up new tabs by clicking on links which opens new tabs. Then shows off quick tabs. Shows thumbnail of different tabs. Very cool.
Built in parental controls. Shows how games rating works for parents.
7:06. Experiences? New Flight Simulator being demoed. Whoa!!! Damn, that’s unbelieveable. You have to see this to believe it. Unbelieveable game experiences are coming.
7:09. Photo experiences. It shows that it always save the original photo. So, if you crop you can go back. If you change color, you can go back.
7:10. Motion video working right next to photos in new Windows media sharing app.
7:11. Windows Media Player. New UI. No long lists anymore. Resizeable icons and info. Very nice.
7:12. Van Toffler, Group President, MTV Networks is onstage. Announcing partnership. 100 CD-quality radiostations. Urge is name. Subscribers will drive the service. He used the word “sucks” on stage. Ahh, customers can tell them it sucks and they’ll listen. Two million tracks available. All you can eat OR download and buy your favorite track.
7:13. Blogging in a music service? Did I just hear that right?
7:18. Justin Timberlake just walked out on stage. Just announced his new album in conjunction with Urge.
7:21. Ttttttttaaaaaaabbbbbbblllllleeeeeeettttttt. Heheh. New Gateway Tablet shown. I’ll take a look at that tomorrow in the booth.
7:22. New passive digitizers talked about. This lets manufacturers build new kinds of devices that don’t require as much expense.
7:23. Windows Mobile. Bill is playing with the new Treo. Verizon is selling it starting tomorrow.
7:26. Messenger buddy list on new Phillips phone. Calls through Internet. Whoa. Through Windows Live Call Services. Gotta learn more about that.
7:27. Talking about TV now. Get ready for HHHHHDDDDDTTTTTTVVVVVV. Heheh. That was a note to Maryam. I wanna buy an HD screen.
7:30. Media Center. 6.5 million sold so far. 130 manufacturers.
7:31. Viiv from Intel is what Bill’s talking about now. Chip level surround sound. Dual core.
Direct TV video on Media Center. Ahh, talking is over, let’s get Joe Belfiore out here. VP of Media Center division. 15 minute tour coming.
7:34. Showing off a cool Media Center screen. You gotta watch this. It’s too hard to describe in ASCII text.
7:36. PC from Averatec. Small and quiet PC that have tuner. For less than $1000 with tuner. $499 without tuner. Sold!
7:37. Showing off new Portable Media Player. New Starz, Vongo service. Lets you buy movies and other media. Subscription!! All movies you want for $9.99 a month.
7:43. Windows Live messenger. Lets you ask for help with TV programming through IM bots. I have to wrap my head around that! “What’s on tonight?” Brings up results in another Window. Very cool.
7:46. Showing off HD-DVD on Windows Vista. Demonstrating interactivity capabilities of HD-DVD. Oh, this is cool! Get to move scenes without leaving movie. Or, get see what actors are on screen in the scenes you’re currently watching. Neat! Patrick just emailed me and said “that looks cool!”
The producer head talking on top of the movie got lots of reactions from audience around me (I’m sitting in a room at the Belagio watching this with about 100 other geeks).
7:50. Digital Cable. Applause!! Yes, we can get digital cable signals straight into Media Center. I’ve been been waiting for this. You can get premium stuff off of digital cable systems now. Will definitely check that out tomorrow.
7:55. XXXXXXXBBBBBBBBBOOOOOOOOOOOXXXXXXXXXXX
7:56. Xbox 360 launch stats. 30 countries. 4.5 to 5.5 will be sold by end of June. 4 games per console attach rate (that means Xbox 360 is selling two more games than any other console per console sold).
7:59. Announced that four million Xbox Live subscribers added.
8:01. More games coming.
8:02. HD disks announced? Yes. Later this year. Xbox 360 external HDDVD drive coming.
8:03. There it is again. HDTV. Maryam, you listening?
8:04. Boxing promoter came out. Oh, geez. Steve Ballmer and Bill Gates are gonna play an Xbox boxing game together on stage. The crowd here is eating this stuff up!
8:08. BillG beat SteveB. The replays are pretty gruesome. Knockout! New EA game, Fight Night Round 3, here’s what they were playing. Wow, Xbox Live is immediately pushing out a demo for people who have Xbox 360s to try out. That’s cool.
8:11. It’s over…
