SuperSite Blog

Windows 7 Secrets is Currently 47 Percent Off at Amazon.com

pthurrott — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 14:25:05 GMT

Amazon.com is having a Crazy Eddie promotion for "Windows 7 Secrets" and select other Windows 7 books right now, so if you haven't grabbed a copy, now is the time. The book is just $26.49 for a limited time at the online retailer.

As someone who has purchased Windows books from Amazon.com, you might be interested in savings of up to 47% on Windows 7 Secrets and other featured Windows 7 guides. In addition, browse the book pages for bonus content, chapter excerpts, and videos.

Product Description

Tips, tricks, treats, and secrets revealed on the latest operating system from Microsoft: Windows 7

You already know the ups and downs of Windows Vista-now it's time to learn the ins and outs of Windows 7! Internationally recognized Windows experts, Microsoft insiders, and authors Paul Thurrott and Rafael Rivera cut through the hype to pull away the curtain and reveal useful information not found anywhere else. Regardless of your level of knowledge, you'll discover little-known facts on how things work, what's new and different, and how you can modify Windows 7 to meet your own specific needs.

A witty, conversational tone tells you what you need to know to go from Windows user to Windows expert and doesn't waste time with basic computer topics while point-by-point comparisons demonstrate the difference between Windows 7 features and functionality to those in Windows XP and Vista.

Windows 7 is the exciting update to Microsoft's operating system

Authors are internationally known Windows experts and Microsoft insiders

Exposes tips, tricks, and secrets on the new features and functionality of Windows 7

Reveals best practices for customizing the system to work for you

Investigates the differences between Windows 7 and previous versions of Windows

No need to whisper! Window 7 Secrets is the ultimate insider's guide to Microsoft's most exciting Windows version in years.

I've got more info about the book here.

How Do I Love Thee, Windows Home Server?

pthurrott — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 02:13:38 GMT

How indeed. :) The Windows Home Server guys are having a bit of fun around St. Valentine's Day, so if you'd like to win some fun WHS schwag, head on over to the Windows Home Server Blog and see what's up:

What better way to prepare for Valentine’s Day with our extended Windows Home Server community than to help us help you show the love for WHS! We’ve got a fun Valentine’s Day promo to announce to kick off the celebrating – thru everyone’s favorite…some Windows Home Server Stickers!

2009 has been a great year and we’re sure 2010 will be even better with the incredible combination of Windows Home Server and Windows 7 protecting, connecting and organizing everything in your digital life. Show off your love for Windows Home Server by letting us send you some of our favorite Home Server stickers including the tattoo, “Mommy book” cover, the blue house and the status houses.

So how do you get your stickers? Usually were all about technology and e-mail, but this time we're going OLD SCHOOL with snail mail to avoid keeping any information about you. Just send a self-addressed stamped envelope (SASE) to the address below. We’ll send you all four stickers pictured above and shred your original envelope.

Send me the WHS stickers!

15580 NE 31st St

Redmond, WA 98052

Make sure to include enough postage to return a sticker pack via U.S. mail. It's less than one ounce, so a standard First Class stamp will do if you're in the United States; enclose an envelope with International Reply Coupons (IRC) if you're outside of the U.S. And be sure to send your envelope in soon -- one per person please.

This offer is good for the first 2500 respondents.

Thanks to Scott J. for the tip.

Visual Studio 2010 and .NET Framework 4 RC Available

pthurrott — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 02:02:32 GMT

Microsoft has made the Release Candidate (RC) versions of both Visual Studio 2010 and .NET Framework 4 RC available today to MSDN subscribers, with general (public) availability set for February 10, 2010 (two days from now).

The goal of this RC is to get more feedback from developers and ensure we've addressed the performance issues that were brought to our attention during the Beta period. To do that, we’re asking everyone to download the RC and let us know what they think.

For more information on the Visual Studio 2010 and .NET Framework 4 RC, check out blog posts by S. Somasegar and Jason Zander. For additional information, visit the Visual Studio homepage.

Apple: Do Not, Under Any Circumstances, Buy an iPad

pthurrott — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 17:08:30 GMT

Following news that I was right about Apple's decision to not allow iPad pre-orders would cause many potential buyers to reassess things, comes this unbelievable bit of news directly from Apple itself: The company said that it would aggressively lower prices on the iPad if/when it doesn't take off in the marketplace.

Apple intends to stay "nimble" on pricing of the iPad, possibly lowering prices if the newly unveiled tablet device fails to gain traction among consumers. That was just one of the items in a note out Sunday night from Credit Suisse recounting meetings with Apple executives.

Shope also wrote that despite the seemingly aggressive pricing of the iPad — the lower-than-expected price points range from $499 to $829 — Apple seemed to indicate it would respond with price cuts if demand for the device wasn’t revving up the way it liked. “While it remains to be seen how much traction the iPad gets initially, management noted that it will remain nimble (pricing could change if the company is not attracting as many customers as anticipated),” Shope wrote.

So the message here is clear. If you want an iPad, simply wait. Come on, lemming. You can do it.

Microsoft Expands Search Partnership with Facebook

pthurrott — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 22:53:38 GMT

Microsoft and Facebook announced an expanded search partnership today. As part of this new global agreement, Microsoft and Facebook will soon provide Facebook users with "a more complete search experience by providing full access to Bing’s features, helping customers make faster, smarter decisions." Here's the word:

First, we have deepened our joint work together on web search to provide even more compelling experiences to Facebook users with Bing. As part of this expanded cooperation in search, our two companies will soon provide Facebook users with a more complete search experience by providing full access to great Bing features beyond a set of links, including richer answers combined with tools that help customers make faster, smarter decisions.

Second, we are extending our cooperation outside the US, bringing the Bing-Facebook search integration to the more than 400 million people using Facebook around the world.

Lastly, we made the mutual decision that Facebook would take over responsibility for selling display advertisements on its own site. We have been working together on advertising for a long time, creating the best experience for Facebook users and advertisers. Given the kinds of advertisements that make sense within a product as unique as Facebook, it just made more sense for them to take the lead on this part of their advertising strategy. MS will continue to provide search advertisements to Facebook.

Bing will continue to exclusively power the web search results on Facebook. This change will also enable Microsoft to continue its focus on driving strong performing campaigns across our own social media and communications tools, including Windows Live Messenger and Hotmail, and via rich content environments across MSN and Xbox Live.

You will start to see the fruits of our expanded relationship show up in the Facebook experience over the weeks and months ahead. We are very excited about the work we have done with Facebook, and are really looking forward to the amazing things we can together do for our mutual customers in the months and years ahead.

Fretting the Post-Microsoft Era

pthurrott — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 15:03:05 GMT

Two related items today.

The other day, I saw a post from ex-Microsoftie Don Dodge, who left (i.e. "was fired by") the software giant in November and began blogging. In this latest post, he talks about the ease in which he went non-Microsoft and why this is possible and even desirable. I disagree with a lot of this, but I also agree with a lot of it. I'd just point out that this guy was spurned by Microsoft, so take it with that grain of salt.

The move from Microsoft was complete. From Windows to Mac, from Outlook to Gmail, from Explorer to Google Chrome browser, from Office to Google Apps, from Windows Mobile phone to Android, from Zune to iPod. But this post is all about the move to Mac.

Design is probably the reason that high end buyers choose Mac ... One of the major advantages Apple has is controlling the end to end user experience ... The downside was that Apple products cost more and you could only get software and peripheral devices from limited sources. Microsoft, in contrast, was the Swiss Army Knife of the tech world.

The battery life is significantly better on the Mac. [Compared to what? My netbook gets 10 hours of battery life. The ThinkPad Edge I'm testing gets 7.8 hours. --Paul] ... most of the differences I mentioned are hardware design oriented. But what about the differences in the operating systems? Perhaps the best attribute of an operating system is that it operates silently in the background organizing everything automatically without end user involvement. Ten or twenty years ago users had to deal with the operating system to do anything on a PC. Today most people spend their time in the browser. From my perspective the underlying OS doesn’t matter much. All my applications run in the browser. Web browsing, email, documents, spreadsheets, music, photos,…everything is in the browser.

This mirrors two different discussions we've been having a lot on the Windows Weekly podcast. First, that anything familiar is, by definition, "easy to use." More specifically, Mac OS X is not intuitive or "easy to use" (in fact it's very Spartan and utilitarian, compared to Windows) ... unless you've been using GUIs like Windows for a long time. Moving from Windows to the Mac (or vice versa) isn't that hard. The basics are all the same.

Second, that the future is the cloud. If you put all your data in the cloud, use cloud-based email, calendar, contacts, and so on ... switching from OS X to Windows (or vice versa) or between Macs and PCs is all the easier. (As is, incidentally, upgrading to a new PC). It's one less thing to worry about. Once are apps are in the cloud--something Microsoft played with in Live Mesh, by the way--that will be the final major hurdle. Google's way, of course, is just web apps. But I do agree with Steven Sinofsky's view that the computer will also be necessary too.

Anyway.

And then there's Microsoft’s Creative Destruction, an editorial in the New York Times today by ex-Microsoftie *** Brass. (Very "ex" as it turns out: He was forced out of the company six years ago.) As with Dodge's stuff, I agree with some of it and disagree with some of it. But he does discuss some very specific incidents which I find interesting. Beyond that, we see this kind of silliness:

Some people take joy in Microsoft’s struggles, as the popular view in recent years paints the company as an unrepentant intentional monopolist. Good riddance if it fails. But those of us who worked there know it differently. At worst, you can say it’s a highly repentant, largely accidental monopolist. It employs thousands of the smartest, most capable engineers in the world. More than any other firm, it made using computers both ubiquitous and affordable. Microsoft’s Windows operating system and Office applications suite still utterly rule their markets.

And yet it is failing, even as it reports record earnings. As the fellow who tried (and largely failed) to make tablet PCs and e-books happen at Microsoft a decade ago, I could say this is because the company placed too much faith in people like me. But the decline is so broad and so striking that it would be presumptuous of me to take responsibility for it.

While Apple continues to gain market share in many products [the Mac had 3.82 percent market share in Q4 2009--Paul], Microsoft has lost share in Web browsers [but IE 8 is now the worlds' most often-used web browser--Paul], high-end laptops [which represent a tiny minority of this sub-market--Paul] and smartphones. Despite billions in investment, its Xbox line is still at best an equal contender in the game console business. It first ignored and then stumbled in personal music players until that business was locked up by Apple. [Actually, it worked with device, services, and software partners to create a digital media business before Apple ever entered the market, let alone locked it up--Paul.]

It's very easy to be a Monday Morning Quarterback. But if we're going to apply this after-the-fact wisdom to products, how do we explain failures like the Apple TV? It came years after Windows Media Center, and completely ripped off the Media Center UI. (Well, first they came out with Front Row, which ripped off Media Center. Then they used that UI in Apple TV. Whatever.) Apple TV had/has one big advantage over Media Center, of course: It was in a device (i.e. simple) not a full-fledged computer (i.e. compex). And you know what? It completely failed.

So it's cute to point out places where Apple came in after the fact and did a better job. But Apple doesn't always win or get it right, and the Mac, for all its gains, is still a tiny, tiny fraction of the overall PC market. And while Microsoft is definitely on a downward spiral of sorts, let's not all pretend that everything it did didn't actually make plenty of sense at the time.

And let's not forget the record revenues they just posted. That's not too shabby for a company that's supposedly on the way down. Of course, as we also discuss on Windows Weekly, just because a company is big and successful doesn't mean they are interesting or make interesting products. I couldn't care less about IBM, for example.

But then I wrote about that too.

Anyway, there's a lot to discuss here. So I've asked Mary Jo Foley to join me today on Windows Weekly to discuss it all. We're on live at 2pm ET if you're interested.

Microsoft: IE 8 Is the World's Most-Used Browser

pthurrott — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 21:07:37 GMT

A post at the Windows Experience Blog (and not the IE Blog as one might expect) notes that Microsoft's Internet Explorer 8 is now the world's most-used web browser.

This week, Net Applications released their January browser market share report. Their report shows that Internet Explorer 8 is not only the most popular browser on Windows with 27.9% usage share, but that it now has 25.6% of market share across all OS’s on a worldwide-weighted usage share basis (data provided by Net Applications). We launched just less than a year ago, so it’s both humbling and thrilling to see so many people choose our product so quickly – making it the most popular browser of choice worldwide.

There are many reasons people choose which browser to use. Most people want to know and trust the company behind their browser. And people are looking [for] a browser that protects them – and their privacy online. In an August 13th, 2009 post on the IEBlog, we announced Internet Explorer 8’s SmartScreen Filter had hit over 80 million malware blocks. But that was back in August. As of today, Internet Explorer 8 has done over 350 million malware blocks. You can see Internet Explorer 8’s SmartScreen Filter in action in this blog post. Internet Explorer 8’s SmartScreen Filter blocks malware over 2 million times a day.

Together, Internet Explorer 7 and 8 have blocked a total of over 125 million phishing sites.

Hopefully, there are some non-security reasons to choose IE 8 as well. :)

What's New in Windows Mobile 6.5.3

pthurrott — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 13:31:35 GMT

While the blogosphere has been focused on supposed future Windows Mobile updates like version 6.6 or 6.7, and of course Windows Mobile 7.0, I've been trying to explain--via the Windows Weekly podcast, my article Microsoft's Plan to Save Windows Mobile, and an upcoming article in Windows IT Pro Magazine--that Microsoft has a plan to simply update Windows Mobile 6.5 in various point releases that add support for capacitive touch screens and improve the UI across the board in touch-friendly ways. And I've referred to these updates as Windows Mobile 6.5.x or 6.5.3 because, well, that's what they are.

Well, the first Windows Mobile 6.5.3 phone has apparently shipped. So Mary Jo Foley asked Microsoft a very simple question: What's new in Windows Mobile 6.5.3? Here's what she found out:

Ease of Use features

* Capacitive touchscreen support
* Platform to enable multitouch
* Touch controls throughout system (no need for stylus)
* Consistent Navigation
* Horizontal scroll bar replaces tabs (think settings>system>about
screen)
* Magnifier brings touch support to legacy applications
* Simplified out-of-box experience with fewer steps
* Drag and drop icons on Start Screen

IE Browser Performance

* Page load time decreased
* Memory management improved
* Pan & flick gestures smoothed
* Zoom & rotation speed increased

Quality and Customer Satisfaction features

* Updated runtime tools (.NET CF 3.5, SQL CE 3.1)
* Arabic read/write document support
* Watson (error reporting) improvements and bug fixes

So there you go. :)

A Look at Windows Home Server "Vail" (Build 7360)

pthurrott — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 01:39:12 GMT

Rafael boldly goes where I cannot and provides a behind-the-scenes look at the recently leaked build of Windows Home Server "Vail." It's early yet, but there's already some interesting stuff going on here.

Back in July of 2007, Microsoft released its first iteration of Windows Home Server (WHS). Over the three years that followed, Microsoft has updated the product with three Power Packs, each of which has provided significant functional improvements. And of course, some WHS partners, most notably HP, have also contributed to making WHS more usable and functional via a series of machine-specific enhancements and other add-ons.

Windows Home Server "Vail", the next major version of this product, will be based on the current generation Windows Server platform (Windows Server 2008 R2) and will share a number of features and capabilities with Small Business Server and Essential Business Server. Unfortunately, Microsoft has been tight-lipped about Vail and the quality of information we have today is lacking, to say the least. Fortunately, a recently leaked build of Vail – tagged build 7360 – has shed some light on what the WHS team has been working on.

Others have written quick overviews of this leaked Vail build. But while anyone can find a torrent, download, install and then make a quick YouTube video, I think I can provide something quite a bit more detailed ... and useful. Using some home-baked tools I used for gathering information for "Windows 7 Secrets," I was able to mine Vail for its actual capabilities. Here’s what I have thus far...

Check out Rafael's post for the full details.

Microsoft Looking Into Windows 7 Battery Issues

pthurrott — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 14:28:12 GMT

I just received an email about this battery issue but had never experienced it (... to my knowledge, anyway. On the other hand, I'm not doing a lot of upgrades these days either). Apparently, Microsoft is looking into it:

After installing the Windows 7 upgrade, many customers have seen their machine's battery life dwindle significantly, even when working with a freshly charged battery. They've also been confronted with the Windows 7 warning message: "Consider replacing your battery. There is a problem with your battery, so your computer might shut down suddenly."

Ironically, Windows 7 was supposed to extend battery life on notebooks. During the Windows 7 beta, Microsoft said it has discovered that faulty drivers in Vista notebooks had prevented them from entering a quiet state, and that this caused Vista notebook batteries to drain faster than normal.

Microsoft confirmed the existence of the problem late last week, and the company will provide "information and guidance as it becomes available," a spokesperson said Monday in an e-mail.

It confirmed the existence of this problem? I guess so. Here's the official statement.

"We are investigating this issue in conjunction with our hardware partners. The warning received in Windows 7 uses firmware information to determine if battery replacement is needed. We are working with our partners to determine the root cause and will update with information and guidance as it becomes available."

Ghost Buster: Microsoft’s SideWinder X4 Keyboard

pthurrott — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 14:08:03 GMT

Microsoft this week unveiled a new gaming keyboard with "anti-ghosting" capabilities:

What gamers request most is better control in-game, and today Microsoft Hardware launches the SideWinder X4 Keyboard, a keyboard designed to give gamers more control over their gaming experience with the industry’s most advanced anti-ghosting technology. Developed by the Applied Sciences Group, this new technology ensures gamers' most complex key combinations will be recognized by the computer to keep the game in action. The new keyboard also offers other advanced gaming features such as macro recording, mode and profile switching, and adjustable backlighting.

The Applied Sciences Group developed the anti-ghosting technology with gamers in mind. The advanced technology takes anti-ghosting to the next level by allowing gamers to press up to 26 keys at once. Because each key is scanned independently by the keyboard hardware, each key press is correctly detected regardless of how many other keys are being pressed at the same time. The SideWinder X4 Keyboard excels where other keyboards fail, letting users execute key combinations and taking full advantage of their skill and speed.

Precise Gaming Keyboard With Advanced Features

The SideWinder X4 Keyboard also offers more of the features gamers need to stay at the top of their game. Macro recording lets them string together multiple moves into one press of a button, and the new automatic macro repetition feature lets them repeat the macro over and over as needed with one key. Mode and profile switching also provides easy ways to customize the keyboard for different games and users while adjustable backlighting lets gamers select the lighting level that meets their needs.

Pricing and Availability

The SideWinder X4 Keyboard will be available in March 2010 for the estimated retail price of $59.95 and will be available for pre-sale on Amazon.com later this week. The SideWinder X4 Keyboard is backed by a worldwide three-year limited hardware warranty, and more information about this and other Microsoft Hardware products can be found at http://www.microsoft.com/hardware.

Steve Jobs and Control

pthurrott — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 14:17:13 GMT

When Steve Jobs was demonstrating the iPad last week and the screen suddenly showed one of those broken icons on the New York Times web page, indicating that a Flash animation was unavailable, I realized that the guy wasn't making a rare gaff--i.e. mistakenly showing a poorly-rendered web page--but rather indicating that the NYT had better step it up. Jobs isn't interested in Flash, and not because it's buggy or performance challenge. Instead, Jobs is interested in control. And Flash isn't going to make it on his devices.

Jobs has exerted his control in a related way with publishers, by enforcing a pricing scheme that damages consumers by raising the average price of eBooks from the $9.99 Amazon had been charging to the $12.99 to $14.99 range. This makes publishers happy, of course, as Amazon had been taking a loss on each $9.99 in a bid to get that to become the normal price for eBooks (which it should be) as its Kindle reader became more and more popular.

But wait, there's more. While Apple heavily advertises the 5 gajillion apps that are available on its iTunes Store, the fact remains that the vast majority of users only have a small handful of apps (5 to 10) on their phone and regularly use even less. So this app ecosystem does benefit a small number of developers greatly, but most of them, of course, make nothing. At the top is Apple, which makes the devices that run these apps. Apple still barely breaks even on its entire iTunes/App Store ecosytem, so the point of this endeavor, of course, is to just sell hardware. And if they are just selling new devices to the same customers repeatedly, so be it. A sale is a sale. If sales are down, just invent a "new product category." The lemmings will wait in line.

What emerges here is an interesting picture. Beloved Apple, as it turns out, isn't really so benevolent. I'm curious that we've got another Google/Microsoft in the making here and that no one seems to have an issue with this. Price fixing in collusion with the publishing industry? Creating a closed, central clearing house for selling other company's products? Orchestrating products to shut out competition? Doesn't all this sound kind of familiar?

By the way, each of these topics were covered in the New York Times this morning and yesterday, though the paper of course would never consider reporting on the central issue that binds them all together. (And read 'em while they're free; thanks to the new Apple commercial model, the NYT will soon go paid only.) Coincidental, I'm sure. But indicative of the fact that Apple, no longer the scrappy minority player, really isn't the type of company we want controlling things. Just as expected.

iPad Can’t Play Flash Video, but It May Not Matter

Flash is one of the world’s most ubiquitous applications, appearing on 98 percent of all computers. YouTube videos run on it. It is what animates millions of graphics and advertisements on Web sites around the world. Adobe says the technology supports nearly 75 percent of video on the Web and 70 percent of online gaming sites.

While Flash is present on nearly every Apple desktop and laptop computer, the company decided that Flash would not be used on the iPhone. Apple has argued that the Flash technology is too slow and unduly taxes laptops and netbooks. The company also has concerns over Flash’s vulnerability to viruses and other malware, as well as the way Flash-based content can voraciously consume battery life.

Adobe, unsurprisingly, disagrees — and has its own theory about why Apple remains hostile to Flash. Adrian Ludwig, group manager for the Flash platform product at Adobe, said he believed Apple’s opposition was a way for the company to control its iTunes system. “I think it’s pretty clear that Apple wants to regain control of the content consumers see online and the content Apple offers for their devices,” Mr. Ludwig said.

But concerns over the lack of Flash in the iPad and iPhone may be short-lived. Many online video sites have been experimenting with a new video format, called HTML5 ... the patents surrounding HTML5 are owned by a group of companies; Apple is a part of that group.

At Amazon, Giving in to Demands

Under Macmillan’s new terms, which take effect at the beginning of March, the publisher will set the consumer price of each book and the online retailer will serve as an agent and take a 30 percent commission. E-book editions of most newly released adult general fiction and nonfiction will cost $12.99 to $14.99.

Those terms mirror conditions that five of the six largest publishers — Hachette Book Group, HarperCollins Publishers, Macmillan, Penguin Group and Simon & Schuster — agreed to with Apple last week for e-books sold via the iBookstore for the iPad.

For more than a year, publishers have been fretting about the price of digital books, which Amazon, as the dominant player in the fast-growing market, had effectively been able to set.

Because Amazon has discounted the price of most new and popular e-books on its Kindle e-reader to $9.99, it loses money on most of those sales.

Amazon’s goal has been strategic: it aims to establish a low price for e-books that will have the ancillary benefit of helping it sell more Kindle devices.

When Phones Are Just Too Smart

Since she bought an iPhone nearly a year ago, Ms. Cua has downloaded precisely five programs ... Ms. Cua is not an exception. She is the rule. The average iPhone or iPod Touch owner uses 5 to 10 apps regularly, according to Flurry, a research firm that studies mobile trends. This despite the surfeit of available apps: some 140,000 and counting.

People prefer fewer choices, and that they gravitate consistently toward the same small number of things that they like. Owners of iPhones are no different from cable TV subscribers with hundreds of channels to choose from who end up watching the same half-dozen.

Most users will never see more than 1 percent of the total apps available ... A study last year by Pinch Media found that most people stop using their applications pretty quickly, particularly if those apps are free. And three out of every four applications people download are free

Not a big deal or necessarily related to the topic at hand, but I find it interesting that the New York Times also blogs about the stories that are in its print edition. So the Flash issue is also discussed separately in this blog post and the Amazon eBook pricing battle is re-discussed here.

Windows Home Server "Vail" Leak

pthurrott — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 19:48:58 GMT

I've gotten a lot of email about the leak of Windows Home Server "Vail," i.e. the next major version of Microsoft's home server solution. (Read Mary Jo Foley's write-up.) The side issue here, of course, is that I haven't really mentioned it yet. (Though I did discuss it on yesterday's podcast a bit.) Why is this?

I'm in kind of a tough spot with this one. I was briefed on Vail a long time ago. So long, in fact, that I'm guessing much has changed. My rough understanding of this release, and this is while trying to not step all over an NDA I've agreed to, is that it will be based on Windows Server 2008 (now R2) and will be 64-bit only. It will include some form of Windows Media Center-style TV recording functionality, most likely.

So, yeah. I will install the leaked build. But I need to figure out whether I can even discuss this in any meaningful way. If I can, I will do so.

In the meantime, this thing is in very rough shape so don't expect much if you're looking to install it. For example, it cannot replace the shipping version of the software, it's just not there yet.

Rafael and I are talking about doing an in-depth feature list, like we did for Windows 7. His tools for getting the OS to identify each feature it includes will work for this Windows version as well, so it should be pretty authoritative.

iSteal: Apple's iBooks Copies Interface from Third Party

pthurrott — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 14:47:52 GMT

In yet another example of Apple ripping off user interface, the maker of the popular Delicious Library application notes, accurately, that Apple has stolen his UI:

When Apple was demoing its new iBooks application for the iPad during their keynote address, I just kept thinking to myself: this simply must have been designed byDelicious Monster, the shop behind the brilliant Mac app Delicious Library. I’m not the only one who thought that either. Delicious Monster founder Wil Shipley thought the same thing. The only problem? His shop didn’t make it.

Separated a birth: Apple's iBooks and Delicious Library

In fact, Shipley was quite vocal on Twitter during the keynote today about the situation. “No, Apple didn’t license iBooks from me. They just copied me. Ah well,” he wrote. Later, he added, “I guess it’s not enough Apple has hired every employee who worked on Delicious Library, they also had to copy my product’s look. Flattery?” While Shipley tries to play it off as not that big of a deal, clearly he’s pretty upset about it. And he should be. I mean, the bookshelf view in iBooks is nearly identical to the main bookshelf view used in Delicious Library. Not only that, but it’s not like this is a little-known app that Apple may have missed: it has won the Apple Design Award twice, and been a runner-up one other time. Apple gives out those awards.

“[Delcious Monster co-founder] Mike Matas was a UI designer on the iPad, [former employee] Lucas Newman is an iPhone / iPad engineer, and [former employee] Tim Omernick was an iPhone / iPad engineer but left a while ago to work on games independently.”

“But the thing about iBooks is, it’s a book-reader. So, of course they looked around, found the best interface for displaying books (Delicious Library’s shelves), and said: yup, this is what we’re doing,” he went on to say. “Although Delicious Library was the first to do it, we didn’t try to copyright the idea of wooden shelves, or of showing books photo-realistically. ‘Look and feel’ is kind of an outmoded concept, I think.”

“Now, of course Apple couldn’t contact me ahead of time and say, ‘Hey, we’re taking your idea, thanks.’ Their lawyers would worry they’d open themselves to a huge lawsuit, for one, and they’d also be leaking a secret. Nor could they write me a check. Even a token one would be an admission (in their lawyers’ eyes) that they were copying something. They are a public company — they can’t write someone a check unless they got some value in return. And if they got value, the lawyers would ask, how much was it? How was it determined?,” he continues

“So their official policy has to be, ‘No, of course it’s a crazy coincidence that these shelves look almost entirely like Delicious Library’s shelves.‘,” he concludes.

Now if I know Apple fanatics like I know Apple fanatics, they're going to turn on Shipley immediately and say that a bookshelf is an obvious idea. I mean, what better way is there to display books?

Just ask Amazon, for example.

Oh. Turns out there are other ways. And that mimicking real world interfaces doesn't actually make sense on a digital device all the time. Just a thought.

Thanks to Robert J. for the tip.

iPad: The Morning After

pthurrott — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 13:51:53 GMT

I have to believe that even the most diehard Apple fanatics are feeling a bit disappointed this morning. Indeed, Apple's biggest blunder with the iPad, perhaps, is that the device wasn't available for sale immediately. They could have sold millions on the first day. But now, with customers forced to wait until they can even pre-order the thing, I do believe some semblance of common sense will prevail. That is, many people who would have otherwise just ordered the thing immediately will now likely wait and see what happens.

If you're among that crowd, good for you. Seriously. You've made the right choice.

We are collectively seized by a gadget-of-the-moment mentality right now, both the people in the industry and those who follow along. And as this moment passes, you have to ask yourself: What do I need this thing for? (You also have to ask yourself: Why do I trust people who do nothing more than recommend gadget after gadget to me? Are these expensive devices really useful?)

The answer, of course, is that no one needs the iPad. No one. And that is the problem.

With an iPhone, you can at least make the argument that everyone needs a phone. And it's something you can carry along in your pocket, so it's a no-brainer, assuming you can afford the hefty two-year financial commitment that accompanies any smart phone.

And most people need PCs. No, almost no one needs Macs, but I do get that certain people feel like they're getting a certain level of quality there, absolute. They're nice machines. But regardless of your choice in vendor, PCs are necessary for many.

With the iPad, we're in a weird gray area, that place between smart phones/multi-function portable devices (like the iPod touch) and notebook PCs. And to Apple's discredit, this gray area has been tried before, most successfully (very successfully) with the netbook. But also with a new class of netbook-type machines running smart phone OSes (like Android) called smart books. The iPad is simply Apple's play for this part of the market. They weren't here first, and they don't even appear to offer the most compelling solution.

At least with a netbook, you can make the argument that it's a PC. It doesn't run weird iWork apps, it runs Office. So you could get work done.

There are also tablet-based netbooks. That also run Office. That also run the touch-based Amazon Kindle app, and the New York Times Reader app, which is exactly like The New York Times iPad app that Apple showed off yesterday. Well, there is one difference: It first appeared over three years ago. It's not new.

Hey, these netbooks also run iTunes. So if all you're looking for is a first class way to access Apple's content and you're looking for 10 hours of battery life... yeah, it's already here. And it gets work done too. Win-win, right?

I think there is a weird euphoria that descends over gadget lovers when something like the iPad (or Zune HD, or HTC HD2, or whatever) is announced. But then it fades just as quick.

And while I will get and review an iPad--it's what I do--I just don't feel the same immediacy here that I did with the iPhone. It just isn't a game changer. It's not something I can recommend sight unseen. In fact, I feel curiously uneven about this thing. And suspicious of those who are broadcasting the opposite the loudest. Very suspicious.

What we're left with here is a device that isn't necessary and doesn't really change anything. It's a front-end for Apple's e-commerce engine, and nothing more. And if you were looking for yet another way to spend money on Apple products, well, Steve Jobs has a solution for you. But if you have a bit of common sense, I'd sit back and wait this one out for now. Because there are already better solutions for what this device does. And I'm curious that Apple, for a change, didn't actually raise the bar in any obvious way.