last100 » Microsoft

Adobe Flash seen running on Palm Pre – Netbooks, MIDs, and other smartphones also set to win (iPhone aside)

Steve O'Hear — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 13:30:12 +0000

Adobe has long talked up its ambition to have Flash running on all manner of screens, not just the humble PC, and today the company got a lot closer to walking the walk not just talking.

Through the Open Screen Project, Adobe was already known to be working with smartphone platforms from Palm (WebOS), Nokia (Symbian) and Microsoft (Windows Mobile), along with a raft of content providers, chip makers and consumer electronics companies. Today, the company added Google and Research In Motion to the list, with relation to Android and Blackberry-powered smartphones respectively, leaving Apple’s iPhone as the odd one out regarding planned support for full Flash (or any Flash support at all).

Historically, Apple has always defended iPhone’s lack of Flash support by arguing that it’s too processor and power intensive, and that the cut down mobile version of Flash (Flash Lite) just isn’t up to the job. With Moore’s Law kicking in (faster smartphone processors) and Adobe working hard to optimize Flash for the latest mobile chips, this argument is holding less and less water. In the video demo below, we can see Flash performing pretty well on Palm’s Pre smartphone, a device that shares much under the hood with the latest iPhone 3GS.

Instead, as I’ve argued previously, Apple has a very different motive for keeping Adobe Flash away from the iPhone.

… as we all should know by now, the real reason why Apple doesn’t want to embrace Adobe’s Flash is that it would offer third-party developers an alternative “runtime” on which to develop and, perhaps more importantly, distribute apps for the iPhone, bypassing Apple’s control (and that of its partner carriers) and the iTunes App Store itself. And we can’t have that, can we?

The other big win for the Open Screen Project are the latest Netbooks and future MIDS (Mobile Internet Devices) or so-called smartbooks, reports Engadget. “Flash 10.1 will take advantage of GPU acceleration on a number of key mobile platforms, including both nVidia’s Tegra and Qualcomm’s Snapdragon alongside ION for smooth (well, theoretically smooth) 720p and 1080p video on the latest generation of netbooks and smartbooks.”

Where all of this leaves Microsoft’s own Flash competitor Silverlight on mobile is anybody’s guess, although probably not in the best of shape. While Nokia is partnering with Redmond to bring Silverlight support to Symbian, Microsoft itself is simultaneously supporting Flash for Windows Mobile, such is the anbundance of exciting Flash-powered content on the Web.

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XBox 360 to support Twitter and Facebook. Who’s the biggest social network on TV now?

Steve O'Hear — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 14:56:12 +0000

Facebook on XBox 360

For a long time now, Microsoft has made the rather lofty claim that the company’s XBox 360 was the biggest social network on TV. For the most part that was in reference to XBox Live – the games console’s online service – and its integration with Windows Live Messenger, Microsoft’s cross platform Instant Messaging service (Windows, Mac and mobile). Yesterday, however, Microsoft announced at E3 that the XBox 360 will soon be adding support for two competing social networks – Twitter and Facebook – making the XBox 360 undoubtedly the most socially networked set-top box, but not necessarily a Microsoft-owned social network the biggest one on the television. I’m not sure how Windows Live Messenger user numbers and Facebook’s compare in terms of cross-over with XBox Live membership but it’s nonetheless significant that Microsoft has chosen to embrace two competitors.

Interestingly, the Facebook integration won’t be one way. Not only will XBox 360 users be able to access a Facebook application providing the usual functionality (status updates, view friends’ news feeds, photos etc), but XBox Live will also incorporate Facebook Connect so that various activities can be posted back to Facebook e.g. in-game screen shots and footage. The User Interface for the Facebook app could do with some improvement, reports Gizmodo, which isn’t surprising considering that the social network’s feature set is fairly extensive and is rooted firmly in the PC, making designing the perfect “ten foot” UI challenging.

In comparison, Twitter’s minimum core functionality looks much better suited to the TV (see screen shot) and, accompanied by the XBox 360 gamepad’s thum-board QWERTY add-on, could work quite well. Both services to be supported through a software update “this fall”.

Twitter on XBox 360

Other XBox 360 announcements yesterday of interest to last100 readers included improved Netflix functionality with full on-screen access to the service’s movie and TV show catolog, support for music streaming service Last.fm, and 1080p High Def content (download and streaming) through XBox Live’s newly branded video store now called “Zune”.

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Rupert Murdoch’s Sky bringing interactive TV to XBox 360

Steve O'Hear — Fri, 29 May 2009 14:08:41 +0000

Image credit: CNet UK

Microsoft has long talked up its Internet TV prowess (they’ve been in the space for a very, very long time), with a combination of its consumer led set-top box a.k.a. the XBox 360 and its telco IPTV solution dubbed Mediaroom.

One of the advantages of the company’s connected vision was supposed to be the advent of interactive television based on what the Internet could bring to the table. Think: live instant messaging through the TV with friends while watching the same channel or accessing additional information pulled in from the web, for example. With yesterday’s announcement that satellite broadcaster BSkyB’s broadband TV service ‘Sky Player’ is coming to XBox 360 users in the UK and Ireland, that vision is now a lot more tangible.

From the press release:

In offering Sky Player, participating Xbox owners in the UK and Ireland will also be able to access a wide variety of pay TV content as well as a range of interactive services uniquely delivered by the Xbox LIVE platform. For Sky Sports, for example, this will mean that live coverage will be supported by range of interactive applications to enhance the viewing experience. As well as fans being able to communicate with one another in real time via their broadband connections, they will also be able to check news and access fixtures, league tables and other on-demand information. Interactive applications will also be developed across other programmes genres.

In addition to live pay TV channels, Sky Player on XBox 360 will offer an “on-demand library of thousands of programmes spanning entertainment, movies, documentaries, kids, culture, news and sport.”

Nate Lanxon over at CNet UK got an early hands-on of the service and is positive about the UI and image quality. “The interface is lush, painted with buckets of blue of various shades, and it navigates exactly like the rest of Xbox Live. And in our demo, image quality of streamed video was excellent considering the service’s largest caveat: all content is in standard definition.”

Sky Player on XBox 360 will be free to existing ‘multi-room’ Sky satellite subscribers or a separate paid-for monthly subscription for others. The service should be available this autumn.

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Microsoft takes on iPod touch with Zune HD

Steve O'Hear — Wed, 27 May 2009 17:03:00 +0000

New Zune HD

Microsoft today announced its latest Zune portable media player designed to go head to head with Apple’s iPod touch. Dubbed the Zune HD, the device features a 3.3″ 16:9 widescreen capacitive OLED with multitouch, WiFi, and a built-in web browser, along with existing Zune media playback features. Talking of which, the “HD” moniker refers to both HD Radio (offering higher quality audio and additional track and station data), along with support for 720p HD video playback. Interestingly, the device itself only offers a screen resolution of 480 x 272, meaning that High Def videos played back on the device are downscaled, which shouldn’t matter all that much on such a small screen. To view content in its full HD glory, the Zune HD features a HDMI-compatible docking station for plugging into a high definition television.

Of course to really take on the iPod touch, not only will the Zune HD’s web browsing experience need to up its game compared to existing Windows Mobile devices, but it would need to foster its own third-party software eco-system. Something that Microsoft hasn’t yet announced and it’s unclear if the company plans to do so, although I’m not ruling it out. Remember Apple doesn’t call the iPod touch a media player, instead referring to the device as the “first mainstream Wi-Fi mobile platform, running all kinds of mobile applications.”

(via Gizmodo)

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Weekly wrapup: Hulu takes on Boxee, Sky and XBox 360, Spotify on Android, Nokia Ovi app store, Zune HD

Microsoft and Netflix bring streaming to Windows Media Center sans Extender support

Steve O'Hear — Wed, 20 May 2009 18:06:22 +0000

Netflix on Microsoft Media Center

It’s not the first time that Netflix functionality has been added to Microsoft’s Media Center software, but today the two companies released an official plug-in for the PC to TV platform.

Through a formal partnership, users of the Vista edition of Microsoft Media Center (not XP) can now access almost all of Netflix’s online features via the software’s TV-friendly “10-foot” User Interface, including browsing Netflix’s DVD library, editing their DVD and Watch Instantly queues, as well as stream movies and TV episodes from the company’s 12,000 strong library.

The resulting user experience is described as “slick” by Missing Remote, and “miles ahead” of existing third-party Netflix plug-ins. One glaring omission, however, is the ability to stream Netflix content to Windows Media Extender set-top boxes, which bridge the gap between the PC and TV via the same local area network to replicate the Windows Media Center experience and its content on a television. Instead, the only way to access Media Center’s Netflix functionality on a TV is to actually plug a PC into the television itself. That might be just fine for the hardcore Home Theatre PC crowd but for anybody whose invested in an official Microsoft-certified ‘Media Extender’. One word: Fail.

The reason could be technical (*cough* DRM) but is likely to be purely commercial. Microsoft and Netflix already provide a solution to enable ‘Watch Instantly’ streaming to a TV via the XBox 360. For the privilege, however, customers not only have to be on the right Netflix tier but need to take out a subscription to XBox Live Gold too.

Missing Remote’s video demo after the jump…

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The numbers say it all: why Netflix went exclusive with XBox 360

Steve O'Hear — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 10:11:33 +0000

In a joint announcement, Microsoft and Netflix have put out some numbers on the success of Netflix’s ‘Watch Instantly’ Internet TV service on Microsoft’s XBox 360 games console. 1.5 billion minutes of Netflix content has been streamed, with a total of one million Xbox Live Gold Members activating Netflix on their accounts. Considering that Netflix on XBox only went live three months or so ago, that’s pretty impressive by anybody’s measure.

To put things into context, however, Streaming Media’s Dan Rayburn has done some interesting back of the envelope math:

Based on Netflix’s own published technical details, Rayburn says that its Content Delivery Network (CDN) partners Limelight Networks and Level 3 combined have delivered nearly 25 million GB of data.
While 1.5 billion minutes of streaming content is “a huge number”, it still pales into insignificance compared to traditional DVD rentals. “If we use the numbers Netflix has on their website, they ship around 730 million DVDs a year. If we use an average of 120 minutes per DVD, Netflix ships roughly 88 billion minutes of video in the mail”, writes Rayburn.
And in terms of 1 million XBox Live Netflix activations, Rayburn offers up a caveat. “Keep in mind that does not mean one million unique consoles since every Xbox Live account can contain multiple profiles or members.”

Nonetheless, these numbers demonstrate that the XBox 360 is by the far the most important set-top box or other Internet-connected device for Netflix’s Internet TV strategy (aside from the humble laptop, perhaps).

“That really comes as no surprise considering that to date, Microsoft has sold nearly 14 million XBOX 360 consoles in the U.S., which is far more than the Roku, TiVo, Blu-ray players and broadband enabled TVs combined”, says Rayburn.

It also explains why ‘Watch Instantly’ on XBox 360 remains a games console exclusive for Microsoft. So don’t expect Netflix to team up with Sony’s PlayStation 3 or Ninendo’s Wii anytime soon.

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What if Apple sued Palm, would Microsoft come to the rescue?

Steve O'Hear — Thu, 22 Jan 2009 17:53:03 +0000

When the iPhone first launched at Macworld in 2007, I distinctly remember Apple CEO Steve Jobs boasting that the company had over 200 patents on this thing. At the time, that boast stuck out like a sore thumb as I couldn’t recall Apple making such a fuss over patents before.

Attempting to ‘protect’ one’s intellectual property through patent applications is something that large tech companies do every day. But the fact that Jobs felt the need to highlight this in relation to the iPhone told its own story: Apple was onto something big and it fully expected others to copy many of the iPhone’s ‘innovations’, such as the device’s multi-touch User Interface and related gestures to manipulate content.

Two years on and although we’ve seen many so-called iPhone “killers” from the likes of Google, Nokia, Samsung, HTC and RIM, none of them have dared to go as far as implementing a multi-touch UI.

Until just over a week ago, that is, when Palm unveiled its new Pre smartphone and accompanying webOS, which includes a capacative multi-touch display and relies heavily on gestures for navigation. None of which has gone unnoticed by Apple.

During yesterday’s earning call, Apple Chief Operating Officer Tim Cook made a thinly veiled warning:

We are watching the landscape. We like competition, as long as they don’t rip off our IP. And if they do, were going to go after anybody that does…

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I don’t want to talk about any specific company. I’m just making a general statement that we think competition is good. It makes us all better. And we are ready to suit up and go against anyone. However, we will not stand for having our IP ripped off, and we’ll use whatever weapons that we have at our disposal. I don’t know that I could be more clear than that.

What if Apple did file a suit against Palm claiming patent infringement based on the Pre’s use of multi-touch and gestures, who would win and how might it change the competitive landscape?

Firstly, it’s far from clear that Apple would actually win any such suit. While they have many, many patents related to elements of the iPhone’s design, if contested, I think there could be plenty of ‘prior art’ to prove that Apple’s innovations aren’t entirely original. Multi-touch User Interfaces have, I’m led to believe, existed in technology research labs for tens of years. Apple, like almost nobody else does, built on existing ideas and turned them into a successful commercial product. Just like with the original Mac and some of its Xerox PARC roots.

However, intellectual property law suits are more than often not about who is right or wrong but who has the deepest pockets. This is where Apple is a Goliath compared to Palm. And in this context, Palm needs a costly and lengthy lawsuit like a hole in the head.

Enter Microsoft.

Remember Surface, Microsoft’s multi-touch tabletop computer? It relies on gestures galore for navigation and manipulating onscreen objects, and if Redmond is to believed, has been brewing in a Microsoft R&D lab for many years. And who knows, maybe they plan to bring Surface-like features to the upcoming Windows Mobile 7 OS. That’s not to say that Microsoft invented multi-touch either but it reinforces that Palm isn’t the only cowboy in town. HP also has its own multi-touch computer.

If Apple were to go up against Palm in the courts, might it be in Microsoft’s and HP’s interests to see Palm successfully dispute Apple’s patent claims. Maybe enough to back them or at least file a counter suit?

Image credit: Engadget (Macworld 2007)

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Who has the most to fear from Palm’s “New-ness”?

Steve O'Hear — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 21:18:23 +0000

Pandora CTO Tom Conrad put it best: “I can’t think of much that’s harder in the world than building a modern, mobile operating system and integrating it with a fantastic piece of hardware”, he tells Palm Info Center.

“We see companies take a swing and miss at this time after time – I really think Palm has hit a home run on this one.”

And Conrad should know.

Not only has his company ported its music streaming and discovery service to over 40 different handsets, “everything from J2ME and Windows Mobile to the iPhone”, but Pandora was also chosen by Palm to get an early hands-on peak at the webOS and Pre and begin bringing their app over to the company’s new platform.

At the same time, Conrad rightfully reminds us that Palm is still very much the underdog. Of course, underdogs should rarely be underestimated.

On that note, who should have the most to fear from Palm’s “New-ness”?

Apple – not

There’s no doubt that Palm have taken many of the iPhone’s best features (finger-friendly UI and capacitive touchscreen) and, at the same time, innovated significantly on top. Here I’m thinking primarily of Palm’s “Synergy” feature, whereby contacts and other user data is pulled in and converged from multiple web sources, along with the webOS approach to multitasking and application alerts.

And yet, there is nothing stopping Apple from doing the same in return by copying Palm’s best innovations and, knowing Cupertino, adding improvements of their own. In the five months until the Pre is likely to hit the streets, I expect Apple to release at least one new device (iPhone nano?), and when the smartphone wars really heat up, Apple has an army strong developer community and marketing budget to match any of its competitors. Not least Palm.

Android – unlikely

Palm says that its aiming for the “fat middle” of the smartphone market, while the Google-led Android mobile OS will likely find its way on all manner of devices. From high end, such as the T-Mobile G1, to cheap entry level smartphones. That’s because Android is open-source and free for handset makers to license. At the same time, it has a heavyweight like Google backing it.

I don’t see Palm, in the short to mid term at least, hurting Android’s chances of success as the Pre will be pitched at a much higher price point than the plethora of Android handsets that should hit the market in 09.

Nokia – possibly

The Finnish giant is just that, a giant (outside of North America anyway). And yet, despite recent improvements, Nokia’s OS is looking a little long in the tooth. That said, the company’s recently announced N97 can’t be matched on hardware specs alone — aside from that old school resistive touchscreen — and it’s in hardware or sheer number of devices where Nokia looks strongest. The company’s strategy has always been to slice up the market and offer a handset or two for each. Palm simply won’t be able to keep up with Nokia’s hardware road map. Not that that stopped the iPhone.

One area where Palm will challenge Nokia is in the two companies’ different approach to web services. Nokia seems determined to build or acquire their own offerings — email, social networking, music and location-based services — while Palm’s Synergy integrates many of the best third-party offerings right into the handset. Admittedly, Nokia’s also doing a bit of this through widgets on the home screen but nowhere near to the level of Palm.

Blackberry – likely

Is Blackberry a one trick pony? It does corporate email brilliantly but is desperate to grab a chunk of the growing consumer smartphone market – just witness its advertising campaign that makes much out of the Blackberry Facebook app. Palm thinks the Pre can dance to the tune of work and social life, especially with its Synergy approach to user data and support for consumer and corporate email. Then there’s that slide out keyboard. Many users moved from a Palm Treo to a Blackberry, might they now return to Palm?

Microsoft – unknown

Microsoft is harder to judge and I’m not sure if they should fear Palm any more than they should fear Apple, Blackberry and, in particular, Android. The company’s strategy with Windows Mobile has always been to support and foster an ecosystem of third-party hardware manufacturers. The question is, as with HTC, will many of those device makers begin to move over to Android since it’s free to license? We also don’t yet know how much Windows Mobile version 7 will addresses the shortcomings of the company’s current mobile OS offering or what impact Microsoft’s purchase of Danger will have. There’s also continued talk of the company building its own device, possibly with a Zune-branded phone.

Who do you think has the most to fear from Palm’s “New-ness”? Let us know in the comments.

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Zune phone anyone? Windows Mobile partners look away

Steve O'Hear — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 16:43:08 +0000

Last February when Microsoft announced it had purchased Danger, makers of T-Mobile’s consumer friendly smartphone the Sidekick, I suggested that rumors of a Zune-branded phone would quickly resurface. Today, CNBC’s Jim Goldman claims that a new device from Microsoft, codenamed ‘pink’, is indeed in the works and that it will combine the company’s Zune with technology from Danger, with an end goal to develop a viable competitor to Apple’s iPhone.

All of which seems perfectly plausible. Both the Zune and Danger teams fall under the company’s Entertainment and Devices Division, which also overseas the XBox 360 — Microsoft’s most successful foray into the consumer electronics space — and is all about what the company calls “connected experiences”. As I wrote at the time, it’s in this context where the Danger acquisition made most sense, with Microsoft citing Danger’s mobile Web browsing, instant messaging, games, multimedia, and social networking applications, which in combination with MSN, Xbox, Zune, Windows Live and Windows Mobile technologies, would help it deliver “industry-leading entertainment and communication experiences”.

And while Danger’s expertise would certainly lend itself to Microsoft developing a consumer-facing smartphone, it would also signal a major change in strategy from Redmond, whose mobile strategy to-date has been to develop an eco-system made up of hardware partners who license the company’s Windows Mobile operating system. It has also been a strategy that has focused on the enterprise rather than consumer market, despite recent efforts by handset makers to put their own consumer lick of paint on the aging Windows Mobile User Interface.

But how would those partners feel if Microsoft released a phone of their own, playing the role of both partner and competitor? It wouldn’t be the first time, of course. After years of trying to compete with the iPod, and failing, through its PlayForSure ecosystem made up of third-party hardware makers, Microsoft decided to go it alone with the Zune, thereby becoming an overnight competitor.

Would Microsoft risk alienating its existing Windows Mobile partners in a similar move? That now looks like a real possibility and will likely depend on which strategy can yield the most profit. On that note, Dan Frommer from Alley Insider has done some back of the envelope math. By his calculation, if Microsoft could sell 1 million Zune-branded phones next year at a $300 wholesale price, it could equal the $300 million in estimated Windows Mobile revenue based on selling 20 million licenses.

“Plus commissions on app sales, a few pennies of search revenue from built-in Live Search, potential Xbox tie-ins, etc. Not the dumbest idea we’ve ever heard”, writes Frommer.

Agreed. Not a dumb idea at all.

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Zune Pass now offering rent to own music subscription model

Steve O'Hear — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 13:08:02 +0000

Do you like to rent your music collection or own it outright? With the updated Zune Pass, Microsoft’s subscription service for its Zune line of portable media players, you can now have the best of both worlds. Sort of.

For a monthly fee of $14.99, Zune Pass subscribers get access to millions of tracks on a rental basis — once the subscription ends, access is shuttered — but with today’s changes they can also keep ten DRM-free tracks on a to-own basis to add permanently to their music collections.

Microsoft also announced that it will soon offer over 90 per cent of its music as DRM-free MP3s, compatible with almost any music player, including PCs and Macs, iPods, cell phones and game consoles. In other words, music downloaded for keeps via Zune Pass isn’t tied to a Microsoft device.

The new hybrid rent to own subscription model is the outcome of agreements signed by Microsoft with major music labels EMI Music, Sony BMG Music Entertainment, Universal Music Group (UMG) and Warner Music Group, as well as independent distributors INgrooves, Independent Online Distribution Alliance and The Orchard.

See also: How to save the Zune

Now call me old skool but I don’t want to keep 10 tracks per month, I want the full album instead, which could be less than 10 tracks or a few more. Otherwise I really like the rent to own concept that gives unlimited access to the complete Zune Marketplace catalog enabling subscribers to discover, sample and enjoy all of the music that’s on offer, and then over time build up their own permanent collection to enjoy on any music device, not just Zunes – forever.

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Not exclusive to XBox, Netflix HD streaming coming to Roku too

Steve O'Hear — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 13:47:22 +0000

Last week Engadget reported that the XBox 360’s support for Netflix streaming would include a limited amount of HD content too – initially around 300 titles – prompting many to ask if High Def content would also make its way onto Roku’s Netflix set-top box.

Dan Rayburn quickly followed up to confirm that, despite the lack of an official company announcement, Roku’s hardware was at least technically capable of streaming Netflix in HD, leading to speculation that Netflix HD streaming could be a Microsoft exclusive, for the time being anyway.

Not so.

Hacking Netflix points to a reply posted in Roku’s official support forum from a company employee confirming that Netflix HD support will arrive on Roku’s set-top box by “end of year”. The posting includes a few additional details:

Roku will be using Advanced Profile encodes which will deliver HD at substantially lower bit-rates than what Xbox is offering
The number of titles is up to Netflix but the library will be the same as or larger than the Xbox library
The UI will be updated to run in 720p and more covers will be visible on the screen at a time
And the release will include another major new feature that you’ll have to wait a bit longer to learn about

What that “major new feature” is, nobody knows for sure. My guess would be support for a second online video service, possibly Hulu, which unlike Netflix doesn’t require a paid-for subscription. Were that to happen then Roku’s set-top box would suddenly be a lot more attractive to consumers, widening its potential market way beyond current or future Netflix subscribers.

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Netflix streaming to Mac courtesy of Microsoft! Could Nokia phones be next?

Steve O'Hear — Mon, 27 Oct 2008 14:29:31 +0000

Oh the irony

Netflix has finally began rolling out a version of its video streaming service for Mac users, and it comes courtesy of Microsoft. Although only available initially to “a small percentage of new Netflix subscribers”, with a full roll-out anticipated by the end of the year, the new PC-based version of the company’s ‘Watch Now’ service is powered by Microsoft’s Flash competitor Silverlight, a technology that crucially includes its own cross-platform ’studio approved’ DRM solution, thus enabling Netflix to support both Windows-based PCs and now those running MacOS (Intel only).

Along with adding Mac support, Netflix says the adoption of Silverlight delivers a number of usability improvements too, including “a faster, easier connection” and “a breakthrough in timeline navigation that vastly improves the use of fast-forwarding and rewinding.” Yes you read that right, fast-forwarding and rewinding. Who said the revolution wouldn’t be televised?

In the future, it’s very possible that Neflix’s use of Silverlight could see its streaming service reach even more devices beyond PCs and set-top boxes currectly supported. In particular I’m thinking of mobile phones and Internet tablets from Nokia. The Finnish handset maker has already announced that it plans to support Silverlight on future handsets, starting with those powered by S60, with S40 and Maemo devices to follow. And from a marketing perspective, a partnership with Netflix would make a lot of sense as it would surely help the company shift more handsets in the US. In this regard, Nokia has previous form too. The company’s flagship smartphone, the N96, is in part being sold in the UK based on its support for the BBC’s iPlayer service.

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