SuperSite Blog

September 2007 - Posts

• Windows Vista swag

  When I come to Seattle, I stay with friends, one of whom works for Microsoft. Predictably, he's got a nice collection of Windows Vista swag, which I thought some would enjoy. Here's some of it: Vista milestone DVDs  Windows Vista Commemorative Edition  Vista soda Posted Sep 29 2007, 11:27 PM by pthurrott with 92 comment(s)

• Windows Live Contacts

  I've been writing (and, on the podcast, talking) about my ongoing move to Web-based services a lot lately, but one thing I've had trouble settling on is an online contacts management system. (As noted in What I Use, I've had to temporarily use a local Outlook-based contacts list.) Despite my use of Gmail for email and Google Calendar for scheduling, Google's contacts management functionality (part of Gmail) is horrible and cannot be used as master contacts storage management. The problem is that Gmail doesn't allow you to disable the automatic addition contacts to your Contacts list (!!!!) So every time someone sends me an email--and yeah, I do get over 100 emails a day--they're added to my contacts list. Bzzt. Game over. I have this nagging feeling that I'm going to be moving to Live.com/Hotmail at some point. Part of the reason I went to Gmail/Google in the first place is that Microsoft wasn't ready to make Live.com email addresses public back in the Spring. (This should be happening soon.) As you may know, however, I spent the last couple of days in various meetings at Microsoft, and a few of them were with the Windows Live group. This rekindled a desire to examine how Windows Live handles contacts and, sure enough, it's quite good. Good enough, in fact, that I've already moved my master contacts list there and will continue to maintain it solely on Windows Live. Here's the short version on how this works. While you can access Windows Live Contacts via http://contacts.live.com/ as expected, that URL actually resolves to the Contacts component of Windows Live Hotmail. You can add contacts to this database directly from Hotmail's Web interface, or through Windows Live Mail, Windows Live Messenger, Windows Live Mobile (on Windows Mobile or certain Nokia smartphones), or Microsoft Outlook via the free Outlook Connector. This is actually quite an amazing list of choices, and each of these applications is really just accessing the same cloud-based contacts database: If you make a change at any of these entry points, it will reflect in the others. (With one possible exception, see below.) Nice. Getting the contacts into my Windows Live Contacts database was simple enough, too: Web Hotmail lets you import contacts from various CSV formats, sure, but I found it easier to simply install Windows Live Mail on my laptop and import directly from Outlook. I also used Windows Live Mail to funnel my contacts into various contacts groups (Personal, Work, and so on). Good stuff, and as expected, everything was pushed right to the Web. Here's a tip, too. If you are making the switch to Windows Live Hotmail from another service, there's a free Windows Live TrueSwitch service that can semi-automate the process of getting your email history and address book copied over. It will even auto-notifiy contacts of your new address. Overall, I really like what Microsoft is doing with the Windows Live stuff. And with an expected calendar update coming soon, my email and scheduling data might have a new home in the coming month too.  Oh, I almost forgot: The one part of Windows Live Contacts I can't get to work is the user picture. Every contact can have an associated picture, but I can't figure out a way to add a picture in Web Hotmail or Windows Live Mail. I can add a picture in Outlook, but it doesn't appear to replicate back to the cloud. Anyone? Posted Sep 28 2007, 05:43 PM by pthurrott with 24 comment(s) Filed under: Internet, Google, Windows Live, Alt. Windows, Mobile

• Palm Unveils Low-Cost Smartphone

  This looks kind of neat. God help me, but I'm attracted to gadgets like a bug to a light even when they don't necessarily make much sense for me. The Wall Street Journal: After being bruised in the heavily competitive smart-phone market, Palm Inc. unveiled a new device that the company hopes will appeal to a broader base of cellphone buyers. At a media gathering in New York City the Sunnyvale, Calif.-based company lifted the wraps on a device dubbed the Centro. The launch was not a complete surprise, as leaked photos of the device have been circulating for weeks on the Internet. Nevertheless, the news seemed to excite investors, who bid Palm shares up more than 5% following news of the launch. Designed as a small smartphone comparable to the popular BlackBerry Pearl, the Centro was more notable for its price tag. At $99, the company is hoping the device will attract user shopping for regular cellphones who may be put off by the $200-$300 price tags carried by most smartphone devices or the expensive iPhone -- the cheapest of which costs $400. The Centro will launch in mid-October with Sprint Nextel as the exclusive carrier for 90 days, though Mr. Colligan would not comment on whether the device would be eventually made available to other carriers. And awww but isn't it cute?     Posted Sep 28 2007, 08:05 AM by pthurrott with 1 comment(s) Filed under: Smartphone, Mobile

• Windows Home Server Code2Fame Challenge Winners Announced!

  From the Windows Home Server blog: Yesterday here on campus we hosted a fun event to select the Code2Fame Challenge winners. The three finalists presented their Add-In wares to a panel of esteemed judges, who in turn determined the first, second and third prizes…each with an associated award of cold, hard cash. Without further ado, the winners are (drumroll, please): First prize: Andrew Grant for Whiist. Whiist is a very cool (and free) Add-In that allows users to easily host multiple web pages and photo albums on Windows Home Server. Second prize: David Wright for Jungle Disk. Jungle Disk provides inexpensive online backup and storage of Home Server content, using Amazon’s S3 infrastructure. Third prize: Prakash Gautam for Community Feeds for Windows Home Server. This free Add-In pulls text, audio or video down to Home Server via RSS, so it’s viewable from an Xbox or any Windows Media Connect device. Thanks as well to our esteemed judges (back row in picture below, left to right): longtime tech journalist Paul Thurrott, analyst/industry pundit Rob Enderle, Steve VanRoekel, director of product management for Windows Server Solutions, Home Server engineering GM Charlie Kindel, and author and blogger Ed Bott.  Prakash, Andrew and David are pictured in front, left to right.   Posted Sep 27 2007, 09:52 PM by pthurrott with 15 comment(s) Filed under: Windows Home Server, Personal

• iPhone 1.1.1 is out

  I'm busy in Microsoft meetings all day, but I see that Apple has released the long-awaited iPhone 1.1.1 patch that adds iTunes Wi-Fi Music Store compatibility and other functionality to Apple's smart phone. Sync with iTunes to get the update.  Posted Sep 27 2007, 03:07 PM by pthurrott with 1 comment(s) Filed under: iPhone

• Is Halo 3 Really Off to Record Start?

  In today's WinInfo, I'm surprised that no one else has asked this question: Microsoft on Wednesday announced that its latest blockbuster video game, Halo 3, is off to a torrid start, earning an estimated $170 million in sales in its first 24 hours. That figure beats the previous one-day video game sales record, $125 million, which was set by Halo 2 in 2004. It's also significantly higher than the one-day tally of any entertainment product in history, including movies, DVDs, and other electronics products. (This year's best-selling movie, "Spider-Man 3," generated $59 million in its first day, by comparison.) Long story short, Halo 3 is a huge success. Or is it? The question, of course, is whether Halo 3 is really setting any meaningful records. Video game titles were less expensive in 2004 than they are today, and Halo 3 is available in three different versions that cost $60, $70, and $130 each, respectively. So it's likely that many first day buyers--the rabid Halo fans who have waited years for this release--ponied up for the more expensive versions. So it's not unreasonable to believe that Microsoft actually sold fewer copies of Halo 3 this year than they did with Halo 2 three years ago. (As for Spider-Man 3, that movie will generate far more profits and revenues in the long run than any video game could ever hope for.) Microsoft has sold only 11 million Xbox 360 consoles in two years, and Halo 3 is expected to generate just an additional 100,000 to 200,000 console sales in the next 30 days. For Halo 3 to outsell its processor, Microsoft will have to sell nearly one copy of the game to each person that already owns an Xbox 360. Posted Sep 27 2007, 08:53 AM by pthurrott with no comments Filed under: Xbox 360, Video games

• Microsoft Unveils Internet TV Beta for Vista Media Center

  Some interesting news from a Microsoft press release: On the morning of Sept. 28, 2007, U.S. users of Windows Vista Home Premium edition and Windows Vista Ultimate edition will find a new feature inside Media Center: the beta release of Internet TV. This new feature will allow people to enjoy a range of television and video content on their PCs and TV sets without a TV tuner in their PC. This streaming video content will be supported by an advertising platform provided by YuMe and will be available to viewers for free.* The content available in Internet TV comes from MSN Video, with more than 100 hours available at the start of the beta period, including the following: Full episodes of TV shows such as the critically acclaimed “Arrested Development” Full-length music concerts by artists such as Chris Cornell, Snoop Dogg, Elton John, Pink, John Mayer and the Pussycat Dolls High-quality movie trailers from major movie studios The latest news segments from MSNBC Sports clips from FOX Sports Internet TV has been designed for both the TV and PC screen, and features high-quality video optimized for broadband streaming. Viewers can enjoy these high-quality videos on Extenders for Windows Media Center, including Xbox 360 consoles, as well as PCs running Windows Media Center in Windows Vista (available in Windows Vista Home Premium and Ultimate). Neat. We'll have to see how annoying the ads are, of course.  Posted Sep 27 2007, 08:09 AM by pthurrott with 4 comment(s) Filed under: Digital media, Media Center

• Seattle trip

  I'm in Seattle this week to help judge a Windows Home Server contest and then have two days of meetings with various groups at Microsoft. The WHS event was today, but I was asked not to discuss the the results until Microsoft makes the official announcement tomorrow. No problem... In the meantime, here are some photos from today, including such unexciting things as the foggy Seattle-area morning, some crazy WHS swag, and a few shots from the event that don't give anything away. Oh, and when I logged on to the Xbox 360 today to start up Halo 3 in Heroic mode, I had 14 friends online, and every single one of them was playing Halo 3. Classic. Posted Sep 26 2007, 10:50 PM by pthurrott with 2 comment(s) Filed under: Xbox 360, Windows Home Server, Personal, Travel and events

• More details emerge about Vista-compatible Extenders

  The Associated Press has a story about the coming generation of Vista-compatible Media Center Extenders that reveals a few interesting details: These TV set-top boxes will connect wirelessly to computers running the Home Premium or Ultimate flavors of Windows Vista and enable users to use their TV sets to watch movies, TV shows and Internet video that is stored on their computers. Microsoft planned to announce the prices and more details about the extenders Thursday at the DigitalLife trade show in New York. The cheapest extender, from Cisco Systems Inc.'s Linksys division, will cost $300. Linksys will have another model with a built-in DVD player for $350, a price matched by D-Link's model, which lacks a DVD player but includes a USB port for viewing photos and other content stored on flash drives or hard drives. Another extender is from Niveus and is aimed at home theater enthusiasts. No price was announced yet, but Microsoft product planner Hakan Olsson said it would be substantially higher than the other models. Here's what this tells us. First, Microsoft's partners have learned their lesson, somewhat, from first generation Extenders: Some will include DVD players, and the market can sort out whether that makes sense. Good. Second, they're still WAY too expensive. You can get an Xbox 360 for less than $300. It plays DVDs, not to mention the world's best collection of video games, and you can access a growing library of movies and TV shows via Xbox Live (though you'll need a hard drive as well). Bad. Oh, we also learn... Somewhat surprisingly, the HP and D-Link extenders will be able to play video in the DivX and Xvid formats, which are competitors to Microsoft's own Windows Media format and are often used to encode movies that are shared illegally online. ... that the AP can't read press releases. This isn't surprising at all, given that Microsoft announced support for these formats in Vista-based Extenders last month.  Duh. UPDATE: There's now a second press release available discussing this topic that provides more info about the new Extenders. Posted Sep 26 2007, 10:42 PM by pthurrott with no comments Filed under: Xbox 360, Digital media, Media Center

• Windows Live Photo Gallery looking good

  Now that I'm on the road, I've had a chance to install Windows Live Photo Gallery beta and some other Windows Live suite tools on some different machines. And I have to say, the reliability issues I was having on my main desktop aren't happening at all, so I've been able to find some new features I missed the first time around. Most notable--and really, this is huge, given how much I complained about its omission in Vista/Windows Photo Gallery--is that you can now select which photos you'd like to import. (Woo!) Here's a shot:   Posted Sep 26 2007, 06:13 PM by pthurrott with 1 comment(s) Filed under: Digital media

• Google Launches 'The Google' For Older Adults

  A bit of humor from the good folks at The Onion: The popular search engine Google announced plans Friday to launch a new site, TheGoogle.com, to appeal to older adults not able to navigate the original website's single text field and two clearly marked buttons. "The Google will have all the same information currently found on regular Google, but with the added features of not stealing your credit-card numbers or giving your computer all kinds of viruses," said Rick Tillich, The Google project director. "All you have to do to turn the website on is put the little blinking line thing in the cyberspace window at the top of the screen, type 'thegoogle.com,' and press 'return'—although it will also recognize http.wwwthegoogle.com, google.aol, and 'THEGOOGLE' typed into a Word document." Tillich added that he hopes the site will soon replace Yahoo Internet Website.com as the most popular search engine for users over 55.   Posted Sep 26 2007, 05:30 PM by pthurrott with no comments Filed under: Internet, Humor

• Halo 3 first day sales total $170 million

  Microsoft announced today that first day sales of Halo 3 hit $170 million, beating the previous record of $125 million, for Halo 2, which was released in 2004. Not surprisingly, when I logged on to Xbox Live today, I had 14 friends online at the time, and every single one of them was playing Halo 2. That's a first, and even Gears of War never came close to that kind of coverage online. Posted Sep 26 2007, 05:20 PM by pthurrott with no comments Filed under: Xbox 360, Video games

• Halo 3 ... finished

  So it's about 12:30 am here in Redmond, WA, or 3:30 for you folks back home. I got in, fired up Halo 3 on Joe's Xbox, picked it up at the beginning of Mission 9, and finished the game in about half an hour. The ending is very reminiscent of the end of the first Halo game, which was sort of nice. A bit easy, but that was appreciated after the insanity of Mission 8. I'll try to get a review up in the next week or so, though I intend to go through the single player campaign at least once more before really moving into multiplayer. All in all, the single player stuff is decent. It's a bit short. More in the review... I wrote about 1900 words of it at the airport waiting to leave for Seattle.   Posted Sep 26 2007, 01:26 AM by pthurrott with 17 comment(s) Filed under: Xbox 360, Video games

• Halo 3: Where I'm at

  So I'm stuck in mission 8. It's quite a bit harder than the rest of the game for some reason, and quite unbalanced given the rest of the experience. It's pretty curious. In fact, for a while there I was positive I'd actually finish the single player campaign. But now that I've gotten bogged down here, that won't happen. Given this, I'm still happy to report that I've mellowed somewhat on Halo 3. As the game progresses, there are some good moments and the graphics do perk up here and there. (The cut-scenes, however, are so obviously nicer looking than the game itself that it's distracting.) I have come to the conclusion that Microsoft dumbed down the graphics purposefully in order to facilitate Internet-based co-op mode, and if that's the case, I have absolutely no problem with that. The company had said previously, however, after users complained that the Halo 3 Multiplayer Beta wasn't all that graphically impressive, that the graphics in the single player campaign would be much better. They're not. But again, I think they made the right trade-off. Also, I finally heard some new music in mission 7. That was the first new music in the whole game, from what I could tell. And for the record, Hornets rock. Anyway, I hope to finish Halo 3 this week in Seattle. It's clearly not going to happen before I leave. The clock is ticking... Oh, and... While you can always check out my Gamertag for updates on my progress in Halo 3 and otherwise, there's also this (lame) auto-generated blog that charts each day's play. Interesting idea. I wish it didn't try to be so cute however.   Posted Sep 25 2007, 12:16 PM by pthurrott with 1 comment(s) Filed under: Xbox 360, Video games

• Apple says unlocking software can damage iPhone

  And they say all the FUD comes from the Microsoft side of the fence: Apple Inc said on Monday that programs available on the Internet that allow the iPhone to be used with other service providers besides AT&T's Cingular network can irreparably damage the device. Apple, which also makes the Mac computer, the iPod digital music player and runs the iTunes online store, said once an Apple-supplied software update is installed on the iPhone, it "will likely result in the modified iPhone becoming permanently inoperable." Since the iPhone's introduction at the end of June, Apple has said it expects to sell 1 million units by the end of this month. In the first two days it was on sale, Apple said it sold 270,000 of the gadgets.   "We are not doing anything proactively to disable iPhones that have been hacked or unlocked," Phil Schiller, Apple's head of worldwide product marking told Reuters. There is one bit of good news in all this: Apple revealed as part of this threat that the iPhone version of the iTunes Wi-Fi Music Store would go live this week.    Posted Sep 25 2007, 12:14 PM by pthurrott with no comments Filed under: iPhone, Apple, Alt. Windows