Xbox 360

• Xbox Live: Does anything really need to be said about this? Cross-game chat, invites, picture/text/video messaging, unified friends list, single sign-on account, etc. It is the pinnacle of a complete online gaming experience that is easy to use.
• Xbox Live Arcade and XNA: Microsoft have really created an awesome solution for bringing down the barriers to game development. I love the classics like Street Fighter II and the new originals like Geometry Wars.
• HD Out Of The Box: It is great how the Xbox 360 (with the exception of the arcade model) comes with cables to play HD right out of the box. No dealing with some Best Buy employee trying to sell you on the $2000 Monster HDMI cable for “better digital frequency response modulation support implementation colors”.
• Fast Disc Drive: Every good PS3 game requires an install now, but the 360’s drive is plenty fast to just drop in and play. I don’t prefer having to switch discs (which hasn’t happened on the 360 for me yet) for a game, but I don’t know how that is any worse than having to wait through an install before every act on Metal Gear Solid 4 for the PS3.
• Wireless Controllers: It is easy to take this for granted now that every system has them, but it is really nice not to have to deal with a bunch of wires. Especially when you have four people playing on a console at once.
• Choice: Probably my favorite aspect of Microsoft’s approach to gaming is having options. I could buy an Arcade model and latter add HD cables or a hard drive and have the Pro level experience. I can rent/buy content from various online sources (Amazon Unbox, CinemaNow, and soon Netflix) other than Xbox Live. I can install games if I want too (soon) or I can just drop in the disc and play.
• Multimedia: You can play and control your music (even from an attached iPod) even while you are in a game. It supports a lot of formats (H.264, DivX, Windows Media, MPEG-2, MP3, and AAC). Xbox Live has HD movie and TV content. The Media Center Extender functionality is awesome. I can be watching a TV show and accept an invite to play Halo 3 and it will switch right to the game (Halo 3 is usually in my drive :). It has a built-in IR “eye” for my Harmony too.

Playstation 3

• Quiet: There is no doubt about it, the PS3 is the quietest “next-gen” console out. It is probably quieter than my first PS2 actually. Sony really hit one home on not being a audible nuisance.
• Downloadable games: Sony is really leading the way with full-size game downloads being simultaneously released on disc and online; only Steam does it better. Not only is it convenient to just download a game, but then you don’t need to switch discs to play a different one.
• Multimedia / Blu-ray: Like the 360 it has broad media format support and downloadable movie and TV content, but it also supports Blu-ray HD movies. In fact, it is still really the only Blu-ray player worth buying. Without the PS3 it is likely that Blu-ray would have lost the format war.
• Built-in wired AND wireless networking: It is nice to have both options. The wireless-G is great for most people, but I can still use a wireless-N bridge if I need too (I do on my 360 for HD streaming).
• Uses standard hard drives: It is really nice that you can purchase any 2.5” SATA hard drive to expand the storage of the PS3. Sony realizes that it should make money selling content (games, movies, TV, etc) not proprietary storage to hold it.
• Web Browser: This is something that I found a lot more useful than I was expecting. It is really a pretty good browser that even supports most Flash content and the controller is utilized really well for navigation.
• Wireless Controllers: Now that rumble is back in the form of the Dualshock 3 controller the PS3 has a proper wireless controller. The only thing I’d fix would be to include a bit longer recharging cable, but at least it uses standard USB connectors so I could always buy one.

Wii

• Different Kind Of Controller: While I personally don’t like how the Wii’s controllers work, it obviously appeals to a lot of other people, especially “non-gamers”. I know the Wii is the first console my sister ever wanted. Hopefully this will help break game design out of the repetitive use of the same control schemes we’ve seen for some time.
• Low Launch Price: You can’t under-estimate how much price has played into the success of the Wii. It definitely reaffirmed where the volume is in the market and I’m sure that will play into Microsoft’s and Sony’s future console plans; that is good for gamers.
• Included Game: The Wii is a major throwback to an era where a game was included with every system, and that game was a major driver for sales of the console. Wii Sports is still one of the best games for highlighting the Wii’s strengths while effectively managing its weaknesses. How many launch titles can usually pull that off?
• Wireless Controllers: It had to be mentioned for the Wii too right? Due to the use of Bluetooth for the Wii-mote, it has actually become quite useful for some really cool homebrew hacking of motion sensing software too.
• Mii’s: What a great way to personalize your gaming experience. they aren’t just an icon for your profile but are actually playable in your games. The Mii concept is so great that Microsoft is even copying it now with their avatars.
• Backwards Compatibility: The Wii is the only system that still completely supports the last-gen games. It even supports the old Gamecube controllers.
• Web Browser: The Wii-mote makes a great control device for using the web on a TV. Built-in Flash support is really great too. Although it isn’t included with the console, $5 is a very reasonable price.

Update: I posted a follow-up The Seven Ways Each “Next-Gen” Console Succeeds

Xbox 360

• HD-DVD: It should have come built-in. It would have allowed more room for games, disc-based HD movies, and the format may have actually survived if one of its two biggest backers actually got behind it.
• Better storage options: It should come with a much larger hard drive (especially at launch) and the ability to swap in standard 2.5” SATA drives. It would be really nice if it had the ability to use any standard USB key or SD card for a memory card too. The day of proprietary memory cards really should have ended already.
• Headset: Why aren’t the audio controls built into the controller so that any headset would work? I should be able to mute my wireless headset without taking my hands off the controller.
• Quieter: I know the DVD drive spins fast so that load times are shorter but some sound insulation would be nice. Maybe installing onto the hard drive will help this, but see bullet #2.
• Web Browser: I could understand not having a browser when the console launched, but the time is far overdue for the 360 to get the web. The PS3 and Wii each have it, and it is more useful than I would have guessed.
• D-Pad: For a console with so much classic and arcade content it is ridiculous how bad the D-pad is. I really think that they’d sell more XBLA games if it didn’t feel so wrong to play classics like Street Fighter II with that D-pad. It looks like they may actually fix this soon.

Playstation 3

• Better UI than the XMB: Sony, would it kill you to use some icons with color? After all, it is one of the key ways for people to quickly identify items (see #6). The XMB is about as intuitive a way to tie together hierarchal lists of functions and data as any OS’s file system. Playing music should not use the exact same UI as your friends list.
• Built-in IR “eye”: It may seem petty, but it drives me nuts that every AV device I own is controlled by my slick Harmony universal remote except for the PS3. If it really wants to be the center of my entertainment it needs to work with my existing stuff.
• More memory for textures: The low quality textures so often seen on the PS3 are really the only thing keeping it from surpassing the Xbox 360’s graphics. Low quality textures were the only thing that marred the otherwise amazing graphics of Metal Gear Solid 4 for me.
• Cables: Sony, get with the program and start including component HD and/or HDMI cables in the box. It is so nickel-and-dime to sell a $500 console based on its ability to play HD games without the cables to do it.
• Memory Card Readers: Drop ‘em, they probably cost more than an HDMI cable but almost nobody uses them.
• Real motion sensing: It is either all or nothing for me on this one, so Sony really shouldn’t have even bothered because Sixaxis is thoroughly mediocre. Even PS3 exclusive developers are saying that it is “useless”. It’d probably save Sony some money on making controllers too.

Wii

• Lackluster motion control: FYI, I really don’t enjoy playing the Wii. It isn’t that the concept is bad, I think the concept is great. The motion control is just so terrible though. For proof look no further than the existence of a first-party add-on to fix the motion control.
• Weak GPU and CPU: The graphics and CPU power should have been at least 50% greater than the original Xbox, and it should be able to output video in 720p. I’m not saying it should compete with the PS3/Xbox 360, it just needs to be better than all of the last-gen stuff. Low quality 480p looks pretty bad on those fancy flat-panel TVs. :)
• Friend Codes: Here is a tip Nintendo, look at what Microsoft is doing with Xbox Live and copy it.
• Media support: It is really ridiculous that the Wii doesn’t have legitimate support for playing your pictures, music, and videos. You can do some of it, but it can’t do it over your network so I hope you have a lot of big SD cards. I’m sure that would be a popular feature for their target market.
• Better storage options: It is clear now that the built-in storage on the Wii is lacking and that Nintendo still doesn’t have a fix lined up yet. Why not increase the built-in storage and/or allow memory cards to (actually) expand the console’s usable space.
• Wired Networking: Sometimes you just want the reliability of a wire. The lame duck Wii WiFi also requires a “long preamble” (usually only required for old wireless-B devices) which kills your wireless-G and N performance.

Digg’s “Possible Dupes” for “Five Firefox Extensions That Should Be Built-In”

• Wedding Favor Lip Balm
• Can English Be The Official Language
• How Much You Count On a Free Dating Site?
• 10 Lies You Really Shouldn’t Try On Your Next Resume
• Itches You Shouldn’t Scratch
• iPhone Firmware Update 2.1 Coming Soon
• HOW TO ENABLE COOKIES
• Gateway to Green Living

Honestly, I can’t figure out what kind of “magic” is going on in their algorithms that would connect my post with any of these. “Itches You Shouldn’t Scratch” or “Can English Be The Official Language” really?

The really funny part was that two of the “possible dupes” it suggested were actually submissions of the exact same link, with the exact same title. Apparently their dupe checker didn’t help out on that one. When I checked on submitting some of my older posts that had already been submitted to Digg from a site I used to cross-post at it didn’t suggest a single possible duplicate. Go figure.

This is just reason number 53 for why I don’t really use Digg anymore. Here’s a screen cap of the full dupe checker results if you’d like to see them yourself.

A Lose-Lose Outcome

It is easy to look at the end-users and realize why we’d all be upset. The TV Pack is nothing like it was originally anticipated it would be, and there is no official channel, support, or upgrade path for anyone other than to buy a new PC. Who wants to buy a new PC just to get a software update?

Microsoft’s partners are also losing out on this one. I personally had been waiting for DirecTV support and was ready to switch to satellite as soon as it arrived. It would have been really nice to have a more integrated fully-digital solution, but it looks like I won’t be switching now. All the issues surrounding CableCard will probably be ironed out by the time DirecTV is on Media Center, or Duke Nukem Forever comes out.

You might think that OEMs would appreciate being the only channel to get the new software bits, but how many people are going to trust Microsoft or an OEM with supporting any product they buy? It’s hardly an incentive to buy that new Windows Vista machine you’ve heard about in the ads. In my book Media Center is a complete lame duck now that will never flourish.

It’s Apple’s Move Now

This also further illustrates the commonly held view that people should just wait for Windows 7 because that is exactly what these actions are saying. While we wait for Windows 7 Microsoft is just going to leave the door gaping open for Apple to come in and steal the digital living room. Honestly, even AppleTV’s history hasn’t been as bad as Media Center’s.

Keep in mind, I actually likes Vista and Media Center. Dictating moves like this to your users is straight out of Apple’s playbook. I hate it when they do it, and I hate it when Microsoft does it too. I just can’t believe how many of the usual sources aren’t running with this story.

Overall I find the concept, and to a large extent the execution, of VMC to be awesome. Here are some the strengths of VMC:

• No DVR fees to the cable company (or Tivo)
• Comes built into Vista
• Easily share the DVR through extenders (of which there is already a huge base of Xbox 360s)
• Top notch user interface (most of the time)
• Portable recordings

I especially like that the recordings are just files that I can play on my laptop or stream over the Internet (via Orb) when I travel. You can also easily sync and automatically transcode recordings to WMP-compatible media players, Zunes, and even Windows Mobile devices. I do wish they’d develop/release a softsled (software-based extender) though.

Vista Media Center TV Pack

Microsoft are set to announce the “Vista Media Center TV Pack” formerly codenamed Fiji at next month’s CEDIA Expo. It will bring welcomed features such as proper native QAM support and heterogeneous tuner support; both of which I’ve been waiting for. While many were expecting features such as support for H.264 and DirecTV, and the ability to have widescreen thumbnails, no such features are showing up in tester’s hands. Honestly, overall it is a complete disappointment. Not just because of the software, it is the delivery too.

Epic Fail

It gets ugly when you start to look at how you can get some TV Pack goodness for yourself. First problem, you can’t upgrade to it. Apparently a fresh install is required; just what I want to do with a system that is setup how I like it. Second, it is only available through OEMs! But wait it gets worse. Third, all the OEMs have said they are only planning on supplying the TV Pack with new computers.

Let me get this straight, so because I bought and installed Vista myself, a very common scenario for most current media center users, I don’t get access to a key update to an included component of the OS? And Even if I had bought my HTPC through an OEM, they aren’t going to support the product further? Who is making these decisions and how do they sound right to them? As if I didn’t feel like my copy of Vista Ultimate wasn’t completely lacking anything Ultimate about it already.

It must be awful to be one of the developers working on Media Center at Microsoft. So much work into a great product only to have it destroyed in the marketplace due to bad business decisions. The many VMC users out there are pretty loyal but we will only take so much. It is like we are continually waiting for the next installment to really make it all right (satellite support, good digital cable support, broad codec support, softsled, built-in place shifting, etc). Microsoft is lucky my DVR options are so bad to begin with, but that won’t last forever.

Money Isn’t The Root Of All Evil, It Pays My Mortgage

I don’t know exactly how this all started, but the very thought of paying for any service online is almost unthinkable for most people. Microsoft made a bold, but I think smart, choice when it decided to make the Xbox Live Community Games a marketplace of buyers and sellers; a place where creators can be rewarded for their work and aren’t pressured to work for free. After all what is really so bad about paying someone for something they do?

With the Xbox 360 (or any other console) you have people paying $300-$400 for a console, buying multiple $60 games, extra $40 controllers, and then they are going to balk at paying $45 for 13 months of service? That is only $3.46 per month. Pretty reasonable considering most MMOs cost about three times as much. Do people think that it just goes straight into Steve Balmer’s personal bank account or something?

The money really goes to pay people (regular ones, just like you and I) that work to create the hands-down easiest, most seamless, integrated, and arguably best online gaming experience available. I don’t think it is a coincidence that the only online gaming service you pay for was found to be the best, even amongst PS3 and Wii users, in a recent poll. Obviously this would be a different discussion if the Playstation Network was overwhelming seen as the top platform, but it isn’t.

You Don’t Get What You Don’t Pay For

There is an old adage that says “You get what you pay for.” I use the converse of that statement mostly though, “You don’t get what you don’t pay for.” I’m sorry if this sounds like Econ 101, but in a market driven economy paying is a crucial method of voting (signaling) for what you want so that people will build it. There is essential information inherent in a paying transaction that you approve of what someone did, and that they created value beyond what you are paying them.

If you have a situation like is common on the Internet today, the people who pay are actually the advertisers. So many sites and services are slaves to their advertisers because their users won’t pay a dime. I have asked many people I know who live and die by Facebook how much they would pay for it, and they all said zero. They all spend at least an hour a day on it, but it is apparently worthless to them, and much of what they want is never conveyed in any meaningful transaction.

So Facebook becomes a slave to advertising and pimping out their users’ information for every cent they can get. It isn’t unrealistic to think that if people paid for more services that their personal information wouldn’t be shared quite so freely. The sites don’t work for you though, they work for the advertisers. I’m not saying all online services or sites should shun advertising, but it is ridiculous how much the solution to every Web 2.0 business model is advertising.

In many ways the Internet has been one of the greatest economic tools of all time. Viable marketplaces will have to be developed as more and more things are done online though. Almost everyone shops online for tangible products, but something really needs to be done to make intangibles not a solely advertiser sponsored economy.

BTW, I really didn’t want to post anything pro-Microsoft or anti-Apple today, but this was the news I was dealt. :)

A Palm Refugee

Basically you could say that I am a long time Palm user that is growing increasingly impatient. I like the ease of use and efficiency of the PalmOS UI, but the under-pinnings are really starting to show their age. This has been made very apparent by adding a data plan to my phone recently.

I like having the access a lot more than I would have expected; Opera Mini is a great browser but the Java VM that runs it isn’t so much (it crashes regularly). Add on the lack of native Bluetooth A2DP (which my car’s audio system does support), a so-so email client, and Palm’s tardiness with a new OS and you can see why I’m looking for something better.

Honestly I have to admit that the iPhone is probably the best device right now for what I want (strong multimedia, great web browsing, good email client, decent form factor), although it is far from perfect (the phone part isn’t amazing, no built-in search, short battery life with 3G on, no A2DP, etc). So why am I not buying it?

My Apple Epiphany

I must confess that I generally don’t like Apple, and that I think their products are over-hyped most of the time (“Apple is reinventing the home stereo with the new iPod Hi-Fi” –Steve Jobs) but they generally make some good products. The iPod, Macbook Pro, Macbook Air, or Mac Pro are all legitimate top-of-the-line competitive products that most companies’ products do worse than. I realized what my real issue with Apple is though: their business practices.

This is further exacerbated by the fact that when you go Apple your choices are mostly dictated to you by Apple (aka Steve Jobs). Why will Adobe’s CS4 suite be 64-bit only on Windows? An Apple business decision. Why is the iPhone only available on AT&T? An Apple business decision. Why couldn’t .Mac users wait until MobileMe was stable to switch their e-mail over? Again, an Apple business decision.

The problem is particularly pronounced on the iPhone as it is an insanely closed platform (without jailbreaking it). It is like the iPhone is nothing but a DRM device, because basically it is. Lock down my music, check. Lock down my videos, check. Lock down my service provider, check. Lock down my choice of applications, check. Pretty much anything you can do with it is locked down.

Open Platform != Open Source

Don’t confuse an open platform with open source. Windows, PalmOS, Symbian, and even Mac OS X are all basically open platforms (but clearly not open source). You can run any app designed for the platform whether it is specifically blessed by the developer of the platform or not. If Windows or Mac were closed platforms you couldn’t make a third-party application like Firefox because Microsoft and Apple both already have competing web browsers. Look on the iPhone though and you’ll see that Apple won’t let any developer make a competing media player. See the difference?

I have numerous third-party apps on my Treo 680: Google Maps, Opera Mini, Gmail, Pocket Tunes, Facebook, a dictionary, etc. It may seem funny, but it would really bother me to have Apple deciding what I can and cannot use. Simple things like the program I use to track my gas mileage are switching costs to me if there isn’t a viable alternative on a new platform. After Apple’s trend of pulling Apps from iTunes lately I really can’t say I trust them.

Technically there are Windows Mobile 6 phones that have all of the features I want (A2DP, Opera, 3G, wifi, real multitasking) but I just don’t think I could stomach the stodgy UI. So I guess I’m left waiting to see whether Android materializes into something good, Palm can finally bring out their new OS, or hope that Windows Mobile 7 has a new UI, because those will all happen before Apple truly opens up the iPhone.

What is up with the “blogosphere” on this one? Some of the titles would make you think that Microsoft lied about what the software could do when really the only “lie” they told was what the name of the OS is. So I don’t know how Microsoft lied to make them like it. The people in the videos obviously really liked it.  I personally like Vista, but I was genuinely surprised by how much some of these people just fawned over it. They were that impressed.

My History With Vista

I was really skeptical of Vista at first myself. I had tried out the beta versions and hated every single one. Literally the only reason for why I switched my desktop over to Vista was so I could do Media Center on my Xbox 360. My desktop is basically a file and print server for our laptops so I didn’t really care if it wasn’t that great so long as that stuff worked. However, within about a month of having Vista on my desktop I switched over my laptop, and a couple of months later my wife’s got switched too.

I should mention that I didn’t switch over until Vista had been out for about six months, so I missed out on the launch-day issues, but I never switch over to a new operating system when it comes out. No matter who makes it, new OSes always have some somewhat significant bugs or quirks. I would have probably hated Vista in January of 2007, but Vista in August 2008 is a different story. When I saw ExtremeTech defending Vista I knew the tide was turning for Microsoft.

For more of my ramblings on Windows Vista and XP check out this post.

Just look at their 1.0 product short comings that a subsequent version fixed:

• iPod: firewire only, no iTunes for Windows, no service to replace old batteries, mechanical scroll wheel
• iPhone: no 3G, no GPS, no third-party software, no contacts search, no corporate e-mail/contacts/calendar sync, 4GB model, couldn’t easily use third—party headphones, no music ringtones, etc
• iPod Touch: pretty much the same list as the iPhone but you have to pay for each update even though they are free for the iPhone and new iPod Touches
• AppleTV: couldn’t purchase or download content on the AppleTV, measly 40GB hard drive, no support for Dolby Digital 5.1, had to be connected to a computer to do anything, apparently people are still unhappy with the state of AppleTV
• Mac OS X: launch version had almost zero software, ran very slowly, no DVD playback, no CD burning, no Windows/Samba file-sharing, no built-in search
• MacBook: palm rest discoloration, cracking plastic, low quality 6-bit LCD panels, you could only order it with 512MB of RAM, had draft-N wireless support but you had to pay $5 to use it, excessive heat made Apple label it a notebook instead of a laptop (because it is too hot for your lap apparently)
• And now MobileMe: “1%” of users couldn’t access their mail for weeks (as of this writing I’ve seen reports that some still can’t), Apple’s idea of PUSH technology isn’t actually a PUSH at all, exchange contact and calendars don’t sync, and now they are adding MobileMe software onto non-MobileMe users’ PC via iTunes without asking or even telling them

Basically, within a year or two of each product coming out a new revision/version comes out that fixes the glaring bugs and notably missing features, and sometimes even costs less. If you ask me, it really does seem like 1.0 is more of a paid public beta test for Apple. The thing that amazes me is how they can get their users to forget about all of this. That is some amazing marketing…

autoHideStatusbar: Quite simply AHS hides the status bar unless you hover over a link or move your cursor to the bottom of the browser window. It is great for maximizing vertical space within the browser window. I don’t know about you, but most of the time I don’t need the status bar but sometimes I do.

Image Zoom: This is another simple extension that can be really useful. It adds a context menu item for zooming in and out on an individual image on a page. It makes it a lot easier to see details in smaller images when you can easily enlarge it by 200%. I would like to see a bit more friendly UI for this one however. The context menu approach works, but some sort of hover over pop-up may be more intuitive.

Speed Dial: I’m sure all of the Opera users out there recognize this one; it is a blatant copy of the speed dial built into Opera. Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery right? When you open a new window or tab this extension will populate it with a three-by-three (although you can adjust the row and column count) set of tiles of sites you selected. I have mine set for five columns with three rows so that the most common fifteen sites I visit are easily accessible. I know I could (and do) have them in my bookmarks, but this is really just quicker and easier. The tiles also refresh regularly so for certain sites I can tell if there has been an update just from the tile.

Personal Menu: This is a must have extension for me, but I may just be crazy about maximizing my screen space. This extension will remove the regular menu bar and make it a drop down menu from an icon. That way I can eliminate an additional toolbar and save myself some vertical space. Something like this, or perhaps even the method IE uses of pressing the Alt key to bring up the menu would be a welcome addition.

Update Notifier: This extension is one that I can’t believe wasn’t added to Firefox years ago. When an update for Firefox (it works in Thunderbird too), an extension, or a theme is available the icon will turn blue and pop-up a small notification window listing the available updates. You can then install all of the updates right from the drop down menu.

I first thought up this concept about four years ago, before the term “cloud computing” was en vogue. Basically I was thinking how great it would be to be able to pool and leverage the CPU resources of the three computers (two laptops and a desktop) I had within my house. In particular I wanted to be able to use the desktop’s faster CPU to complete workloads for my laptop in a relatively ad hoc manner.

Some video applications I had used could render their output on more than one machine using their own clustering software, but why should it be limited to niche programs like that? I already share disk space, printers, or even TV tuners (via Orb or Media Center Extender), why not my CPU? You can push your computing out on the Internet cloud all you want but a lot of people have a micro cloud of resources already within their home, or workgroup.

At the time it seemed like something that might be esoteric enough to be implemented in Linux so I tried to find out how feasible it was in some Linux developer forums. In my mind I thought it could be implemented as a virtual CPU that the scheduler would only send jobs to if the physical CPU was at 100% for more than ten seconds or so. It would also have to be aware of the bandwidth and latencies of the connection between machines. Obviously network accessed CPU resources wouldn’t be incredibly efficient but any additional processing cycles gained would help.

As the number of cores continues to increase (particularly on the desktop) and devices like netbooks with limited resources become popular this could have been a huge boon. Unfortunately nobody took me seriously. After all, my kernel-level C programming is severely lacking. :)

If the documents SDTimes has received are accurate it would seem that Midori is all about cloud computing. Or put more accurately, heavily abstracting away hardware from software to enable remote or local resources to be used for any given task. It isn’t just for the CPU either. Imagine being able to easily pool the disk storage available on the various nodes of your network into one huge fault-tolerant distributed storage volume. All I can say is that on paper this all sounds incredible.

Microsoft is obviously pretty quiet on the purpose of Midori. The PR people have admitted its existence but they it is just an incubation project; only time will tell. Hopefully it will see the light of day before I die or Duke Nukem Forever comes out, which ever comes first.

*Update: Must be a pretty big story if even the BBC is running it.

The State Of Updates

Right now almost every program on my computer has its own update mechanism of some sort. They primarily fall into three categories.

• Notify me of an available update
  • Pidgin
  • WinSCP
  • VMware Server
• Udate themselves from within the program
  • Firefox
  • Thunderbird
  • Quicken
  • Opera
  • Photoshop
• Special updating program that runs at startup and constantly uses memory
  • Java
  • Quicktime/iTunes
  • Google Pack (Picasa, Desktop Search, etc)
  • Thinkpad utilities

With every program doing its own thing, keeping your software up-to-date is a bit of a hassle and certainly not something the “average” user does.

Windows/Microsoft Update

Microsoft has their own updating software of course: Windows Update. It can already be extended to update other Microsoft products through Microsoft Update. They also serve up drivers for various WHQL’d hardware through it.

Why not open this up for any program on your system? This could be another feature to help differentiate Windows Vista or Windows 7 from the competition (OS X or Windows XP). This would also address one of the pain-points to “boxed” software that web applications don’t have.

Updates ala YUM, APT, or Xbox Live

I’m not saying that Microsoft should host files and provide bandwidth for every Windows application on the planet. They could create a secure way for third-party applications to be updated from the developer’s site through Windows Update.

YUM or APT on Linux is similar to this concept but it only works reliably if you only install software from repositories. Xbox Live also manages updates for every piece of software that runs on an Xbox 360 and it rectifies one of the main reasons for why I don’t PC game: it is such a pain to keep games up-to-date.

Ultimately Microsoft is a platform company, and this would make the Windows platform more attractive to users and developers. Having a unified method and interface would greatly simplify keeping software up-to-date, particularly for less savvy users. It could also have the effect of improving system security by making it easier for people to have the latest version of programs (Quicktime, Reader, Flash) that have been recently targeted through web browsers by hackers as well.

I would think that developers would appreciate not having to maintain software just to help…maintain software too. It really is kind of silly that everyone has to reinvent-the-wheel each time for updating their applications. Certainly there are some details for Microsoft to work out on how to implement this, but that is their problem. I’m just the idea man. :)

*Before anyone sends me an e-mail about this, yes I do know that there are programs such as RadarSync that claim to keep all of your applications up-to-date. I have yet to try one that is easy to use and actually works however.

Unreasonable Assumption: Regulators Could Fix This

It may be that I just don’t love standards bodies or government interference but I really doubt that they are the solution to inconsistent HD picture quality. Just look at the bang up job ATSC did in defining what HDTV would be in the first place.

They couldn’t even settle on whether HD would be interlaced (1080i) or not (720p), and in my humble opinion interlacing really should have been left behind. It has to be by far the worse form of video “compression” still in use today; it is 1940s era tech after all.

ATSC never foresaw a time (read: about 2006) when almost all HDTVs would be natively progressive scan, and that most would have terrible deinterlacing engines. It quickly became obvious in the television marketplace that 1080i was no good so now we have a plethora of “true HD” 1080p displays with literally zero broadcast programming in that format. They of course made the 1080i/720p compromise for bandwidth reasons, but a more modern codec (any MPEG-4 variant or VC-1) can easily handle 1080p given the same bandwidth as an MPEG-2 1080i stream.

Consumers’ Increasing Choices

Here is the real reason regulators shouldn’t be invovled: consumers have choices for their content delivery. The standards for displays are good enough that without switching your HDTV you can get HD programming via over-the-air, DirecTV, Dish, cable, fiber optic (FiOS), or even DSL (U-verse) now. Sure you probably don’t have all six options in one location but you probably have at least three, maybe four. New IP-based download services (Xbox Live, Amazon, iTunes, etc) are creating even more options too.

When I moved to Indiana my cable provider at the time offered terrible HD service. There were very few HD channels, and many shows that I used to watch in HD were broadcast in letterboxed 480p on the “HD” channel! Guess what? I started looking at what DirecTV and Dish were offering. My cable provider added some HD channels and stopped down converting their HD shows before I pulled the trigger though.

The bottom line is, I could have gone elsewhere. DirecTV is already moving to MPEG-4 AVC (H.264) and they can increase bandwidth by adding additional satellites. Consequently their HD seem to be particularly good, especially compared to certain cable companies. To top it off, almost anyone in North America can get DirecTV. I will probably switch as soon as Media Center’s DirecTV support comes out.

If (and that is a huge “if” for most people) people really care about getting better HD picture quality they will switch. Which will put pressure on the low quality providers to improve. We don’t need regulators telling us what does and doesn’t look acceptable. Leave the hard standards for the displays not the content delivery. We really won’t want to be stuck with only MPEG-2 streams a decade or two from now.

Increase Visibility

One of the biggest problems I believe AmazonMP3 is facing is that even amongst people who buy music online (mostly iTunes users) most haven’t ever heard of it. Anytime I mention AmazonMP3 to a friend of mine they are surprised that such a service even exists; they thought iTunes was the only option.

The value proposition is really strong for Amazon MP3: no DRM, files are compatible with all MP3 players, a large selection of music, a familiar company that most people already do business with, and prices that are generally lower than the competition. All of that doesn’t matter if you don’t know about it though.

Bundle With Other Amazon Products

Amazon should bundle MP3 downloads with every iPod or MP3 player. Three of the top six selling MP3 players aren’t iPods so they don’t have any default store, and seventeen of the top one-hundred selling electronics are MP3 players; it is a great opportunity to cross-sell.

They could vary the number of included tracks based of the price of the product. So the bargain $35 MP3 player might only come with two or three songs while a high end $500 MP3 player could come with an album or two; depending on the margins of course. This would be a differentiating factor versus other online stores for MP3 players, and would introduce most of these users to AmazonMP3 right off the bat. Amazon could even include free songs with other devices that play MP3s but aren’t “MP3 Players” such as cell phones, portable GPS units, game consoles, or even computers.

They should make MP3 purchases count toward free “Super Saver Shipping” and highlight it to certain users too. I know I would buy a few tracks to push my order over $25 instead of hunting down some cheap book or a 24-pack of pens.

Brick And Mortar

I think they need to go after the brick and mortar establishments as well. They could be selling AmazonMP3 gift cards at electronics stores, big box retailers, and supermarkets just like iTunes does. Although the cards would say AmazonMP3 they really should be redeemable for any purchase at Amazon.com. They could also extend the bundling concept to select retailers to include AmazonMP3 tracks with MP3 players. Amazon already has a commercial partnership with Target so why not start there?

What do you think? Would some legal free tunes entice you to buy an MP3 player at a certain store? Do you think you’d actually redeem the free MP3 tracks, and even make a future purchase?

At the end of my last post I was waiting to be contacted by a woman from billing about the problems with my service. She did eventually call me, and I did receive a credit on my account to offset the issues I had been having. They never got my service working properly however.

The local Comcast manager ended up contacting me. It was pretty funny because as I started explaining my issues and mentioned that he was calling me because a blog post I had written got read by some Comcast VP he told me “I know about the post, I have it up on my computer right here.” In case you haven’t read the previous post, it is a bit of a sarcastic rant on Comcast. You know, the kind of rant that you’d rather not have a Comcast employee read while they are talking to you.

He ended up trying to do some tests and was convinced I must have a signal problem. A technician came out to check things out and lo-and-behold my signal was fine. I can’t remember all of the different tests that were run, but eventually I just gave up because I was leaving in two weeks. When this all started I had three months left until I was moving out of Indiana. Apparently that wasn’t enough time for Comcast to deliver the service I paid for.

After my own experiences I can’t say I was surprised at all to see more news coming out about Comcast’s atrocious customer service. I know that fixing my problems had to be a pretty high priority considering that I had a VP at Comcast emailing me about it. That is what makes it so bad, it was a high priority and they couldn’t even fix it. They couldn’t even figure out what the problem was actually. You know that those cheeky DirecTV commercials are aimed right at Comcast.

This isn’t the first time I’ve heard mostly false statements like this, but I expected more from The Economist. This isn’t going to be a post about why you should or should not upgrade to Vista though, it is about the truth surrounding XP’s adoption. The facts after the jump.

Name That Windows Upgrade

If I told you that I had been reading about the “slow, tortoiselike” adoption of a Windows OS, where people were complaining about a slow UI, how some really old peripheral or software wouldn’t work, and where businesses felt the required investment in upgraded hardware “could be cost-prohibitive“, which version would you guess it was? Vista? Well I have news for you, I was reading about Windows XP; Vista’s now (apparently) beloved predecessor.

I have to admit it is a pet peeve of mine when people act like Windows XP was a blockbuster from the get-go because the fact of the matter is it wasn’t. About the news that Intel isn’t switching to Vista yet, guess what? They were really slow to switch to XP too, and it really shouldn’t have been news back then either.

The Speed of Corporate IT

Anyone who has worked in any sort of large scale IT environment knows that businesses do not rush to change the latest version. In 2005 I was working in an IT environment where all 2,000 PCs we had were finally switching over to Windows XP from Windows 2000 after XP had been out for four years. Windows XP’s adoption was a lot like Vista’s is now, primarily people buying new machines, with businesses slowly embracing the upgrade.

When XP launched in 2001 Gartner said that Windows 2000 Pro would “continue to be the leading business version until 2003.” In 2005 AssetMatrix did a study that concluded “that Windows 2000 is installed on 48 percent of all corporate PCs as of the first quarter of this year, only falling four percent since the last quarter of 2003.” In fact, at that time 10% of companies were still running Windows 95 for some reason.

Even once Windows XP had significantly started to penetrate corporate IT, they were really slow on implementing Service Pack 2. In fact E-commerce Times said that “a substantial number of companies have yet to decide whether to accept or embargo Windows XP SP2.” (emphasis added) Seriously people thought about skipping SP2 somehow?

This is how corporate IT works. If it ain’t broke don’t fix it. Nobody wants to lose their job over a hasty upgrade. Windows XP did have a ton of bugs when if first came out. In fact I personally had a lot more issues (hardware, software, compatibility, stability, etc) with the first version of XP than I did with pre-SP1 Vista.

My Two Cents

Honestly, Vista is a better upgrade from XP, than XP was from 2000. I held out on Windows 2000 for quite a few years, but Vista got me to upgrade within 6 months. I am not about to say that Vista doesn’t have its warts, but on decent hardware it runs really well and I can’t imagine going back to XP.

Vista’s Explorer UI is way better (breadcrumb navigation, extra large thumbnails for photos, preview pane, etc), the integrated search is literally the only one I’ve ever liked (and I’ve used F-spot, Beagle, Spotlight, Google Desktop Search, Windows Desktop Search, etc), it is more secure, Media Center is awesome, the network location management is great for laptops, I’m a fan of the application specific audio mixing (ala BeOS), even just simple stuff like how clicking on the time brings up a calendar and multiple clocks is nice.

When XP came out it had very few benefits over Windows 2000. It supported USB better (but that was added into Windows 2000 by a service-pack), it had a slightly different (but not better) UI, it had a worthless broken firewall, and it had fast user switching. It was a lot more stable than Windows 98, but so is a three legged dog, so is that really saying anything?

Ultimately, I think a lot of people don’t like change. People don’t want to learn a new way to do something even if it is way better. It is just really hard to push this much change. By the time Windows 7 comes out everyone will be used to Vista and XP will be long forgotten. My prediction is that Windows 7 will be to Vista what Windows 98 Second Edition was to Windows 98, and it will be very popular.

The Benefits

There are three major potential benefits to installing games onto the hard drive. As it stands now the Xbox will realize two of them: speed and noise reduction. Microsoft has said that their own internal testing showed approximately a 30% improvement in loading times. This does come at the cost of having to install the game at some point. Although Microsoft told reporters than it only takes ten minutes to install Devil May Cry 4, which is half as long as the PS3 version’s install takes. In my book, a 30% improvement in loading times is easily worth a ten minute install.

The noise will be greatly reduced because of the DVD drive. Most users don’t realize this, but most of the noise of the Xbox 360 is caused by the very fast DVD drive, not the fans. With the game on the hard drive, the DVD won’t need to spin. No spinning, no noise.

The Third Benefit

There is a hitch to all this though, and this is where Microsoft misses perfection. The third potential benefit is not needing the disc to switch games, and the Xbox 360 will still require your game to be in the drive. This is of course an anti-piracy measure, and would be understandable for all games that have already been produced.

I’m suggesting that Microsoft should change how their games are sold. Every game should come with a code that, when entered during an install, would allow gamers to play without inserting the disc. These would be one-time use codes similar to the codes you can already buy at brick-and-mortar stores for Xbox Live subscriptions and Xbox Live Arcade games.

To make this user friendly the game would have to still be playable in the drive without ever using the code. Of course that would open up the opportunity to buy the game, install it, and give it to a friend or sell it used.  To combat that they could make it ask for the disc on some regular interval, say somewhere between one to three months, to verify ownership.

This would really make for a seamless experience of getting an invite to join another session in a game you aren’t playing and/or don’t have in the drive. It may be a small thing, but I hate it when I get an invite to Halo 3 only to realize that Guitar Hero 3 is in the drive. :)

Digital Distribution

All of this is of course baby steps toward digital distribution. There really shouldn’t be anything stopping Microsoft from selling me my games via Xbox Live especially with the new 60GB Xbox 360 on the horizon. They already do it for classic Xbox games, and a lot of free demos are well over one gigabyte. Microsoft will also let you re-download anything you have already purchased if you are worried that you may need to delete the game for space too.

What do you think Microsoft? You still have time to include this in the “new Xbox experience”. Using discs was so Xbox 360 1.0.

Microsoft

Microsoft really came out of the gate with some big news that surprised me. The major announcement was that the Xbox 360 is going to receive a completely new dashboard and guide. Honestly, I was surprised that the Xbox guys realized and accepted the fact that the dashboard needed some kind of complete overhaul/replacement like this.
Part of the new dashboard is that there will be avatars (read: Xbox version of Miis) tied to your gamertag as well. Sure, Microsoft totally copied the concept from Nintendo, but it could still be pretty cool. Overall, I thought the concept of the original dashboard blades was good, but the new dash looks like it will be a lot better. Unfortunately we’ll have to wait until fall to see if it actually is.

The next major announcement was that Microsoft and Netflix have partnered up to deliver Netflix’s Instant Viewing to the Xbox 360. Apparently I should have waited a week before I decided to harp on Microsoft and Netflix for not being more aggressive on this. The one thing that kind of surprised me was that the Netflix streaming will require an Xbox Live Gold Membership.

In some ways this is good for Gold members because it actually makes it seem like you get more than just online gaming and the occasional early-release demo for your paid membership. Generally I think it is probably a bad idea however. It definitely adds to an already complicated Xbox offering. I doubt it will make sense to “average” consumers why they need a paid Xbox Live membership and a Netflix membership.

The only other notable announcement for Microsoft was that they landed one Final Fantasy XIII for Xbox 360 in the U.S. and Europe. This is a huge blow for Sony to loose a long time exclusive franchise like this. Oddly enough, I really think that this would have helped Microsoft the most in Japan; the only place where FFXIII will be a PS3 exclusive.

The rest is semi-typical E3 fodder: upcoming games, Lips karaoke, the Pro model will get a 60GB hard drive, and some other stuff that may or may not be worth your time.

Nintendo

I don’t know why I was so surprised, this is after all par for Nintendo’s course lately, but I was dumbfounded when they announced another Wii accessory! The new is this really the best name they could come up with? Wii MotionPlus. (Personally I’m more of a fan of the Wii Motion++)

FYI, I am not the first to feel like this is something the Wii really should have done correctly from the start. I don’t know if I have ever made this clear on here, but my issue with the Wii isn’t the concept, I think the concept is great. My issue is with the implementation, I have always thought the motion sensing was terrible; only good enough to fool my 8-year-old niece.

Instead of creating an add-on, Nintendo should have really looked at what Microsoft did after they released the original Xbox controller. Realize you screwed it up, and release a new one. Seriously, all new Wiimotes should have this tech built-in with the add-on only for existing units. Without it as default technology in the Wii platform the WMP just looks like it will fragment the user base.

Unfortunately, from what I have read only WMP specific games will use the new add-on. It will not improve motion detection in current titles. Too bad Nintendo didn’t tell developers about it any earlier than they told you and I. So it may be some time before anyone but Nintendo uses the WMP.

As it is powered by the Wiimote, it will probably shorten battery life as well. It will also be another thing to remove from the Wiimote when you pop it into a plastic guitar to play some Guitar Hero.

For those of you keeping score at home that pushes the current controller add-on list for the Wii up to half-a-dozen: the nunchuck, Wii MotionPlus, WiiFit, the zapper, the steering wheel, and the classic controller. A basic setup of just a Wiimote ($40), nunchuck ($20), and Wii MotionPlus (probably at least $20) will cost you at least $80.

The cheapest “next-gen” system: $250, bowling at home: complementary, making a mint selling accessories: priceless.

Sony

Last on the list is the big dog from the last-generation: Sony. They have really had some good momentum lately and they needed to have a big E3 to keep it going. Unfortunately for them, I don’t think they did.

They didn’t have any information on when their will it come out before Duke Nukem Forever virtual world software, Playstation Home. They basically showed off some games, and announced that they have gone down to one PS3 SKU (for now) but really nothing worth writing home about.

While I’m on Sony and their SKUs I just have to say it really blows my mind how often Sony changes their product mix.

• First there were two SKUs, 60GB and 20GB (both with hardware backward compatibility
• Then the 20GB got dropped so it was back to one
• They went back to two SKUs when they added an 80GB model (with software backward compatibility) and reduced the price of the 60GB one
• It was really just a firesale on the 60GB model though so it went back to one SKU
• Then the 40GB came out (lacking any backwards compatibility at all)
• It is back to one again though because the 40GB model is apparently history.

This is only the North American SKUs too! Don’t forget that they also switched over to a Dualshock 3 from a SIXAXIS controller somewhere in there and their prices bounced around between $400 and $600 during that time too. It is bad enough that there is an entire Wikipedia article just on the “Timeline of PlayStation 3 SKUs”. We’ll see if they go back to two (I’m betting on it).