Killer feature for any mobile device (Zune take note)

So, it turns out the rumours from the twitter account were fake – there may not be any new Zune coming in June. However, we won’t know till we know.

Sadder is the news from WSJ that the motion camera for XBOX won’t be shipping for at least another year.  This is unfortunate and makes me wonder what’s in the pipeline, as rumour has it that the device was pretty much fully functional when MS bought the technology.

But back the original topic. There is a new Zune coming, we just don’t know exactly when yet. @Volvoshine has been talking about new features, and one in particular that has other manufacturers stumped.  Question is, could it be instant on?

The most annoying thing  about any mobile device, but especially music players, is the fact that there’s a boot time. This really sucks. It sucks enough that I go back to good old FM quite often. Nice thing about FM, you press the button, you have music, INSTANTLY. If someone can pull that off with a device I’d buy three – or more.

Being able to get music without the annoying 15 sec delay would really be awesome.

But – unfortunately I don’t own a device company, so cannot build one myself and have to wait for someone else to realise this would kick ass…

Zune HD – What would REALLY be better than iPhone….

So – rumours are all around that we’ll soon see a new Zune, and all those tales about the Zune dying or not being given new hardware was fake.

Well, there are some killer apps that the Zune could do with.  It already has software far superior to iTunes, so can they make the hardware and package irresistible?

First up, wireless sound – using Kleer, Bluetooth 3.0 or even audioengine.  It’s probably too late for Bluetooth 3.0, but let’s hope they have some plan.  This should not only be to the bundled headphones, but ideally include an adapter to connect to your stereo.

Just think, sitting on your couch, browsing the Zune marketplace and playing anything directly to your stereo courtesy of your Zune pass without wires.  Now that’s something to dream about!

Oh, and they could throw in a wireless power charger like the palm pre :)

Apple endangers the MIX

Joe Wilcox thinks OS 3.0 will kill Mix09.  But if we get Silverlight on the iPhone, maybe that helps a little?

What if all developers working on Silverlight apps (and WPF .Net apps) can suddenly target both iPhone and Windows phones?  Or even just the iPhone? How’s that for a START?

anything with an SDK 2....

Seems that the folks over at TechRadar have had some further info into Microsoft delivering Silverlight for the iPhone.  Unfortunately, the actual quote:

"will look to build a version of Silverlight that will work on the iPhone, although there is concern about the royalties that Apple would charge."

does not really inspire confidence that this will happen soon.

Perhaps they should ask Miguel's team to do the work if they can't....

Microsoft - if you're listening, we're waiting!!

Silverlight on the iPhone? Time for some speculation....

Let's review what we know:

• Apple is opening up the iPhone (and iPod Touch) to all developers.  To quote Steve Jobs:

"We want native 3rd party apps on the iPhone"

• Microsoft showed a demo of Silverlight running on a Windows Mobile device at last year's Mix in 'Vegas.  Ongoing comments from various developers have shown that there will be a mobile release for Silverlight - but no-one has commented on when or how this will happen.
• I asked Scott Guthrie at Mix in London whether Silverlight would be available on the iPhone, to which he replied that Apple was not allowing 3rd party apps on the phone.  Clearly, that's changed.
• Silverlight is Microsoft's first real attempt to have true cross platform development.  They're even supporting the Moonlight initiative.
• Also demo'd at Mix in London was a Silverlight app that didn't require the browser to run...
• We also know that Apple is willing to work with Microsoft, as we have Silverlight on Safari already

Now - what can we gather from this.  Put aside the Microhoonanigans for a while, in which Microsoft is desperately trying to revive an online strategy and be relevant...

If they could convince Apple to allow them onto the iPhone, it seems they have a much bigger slice of a much bigger pie.

Scoble is already speculating that Google is quite happy to let Microsoft and Yahoo fight it out, as they have their eyes on the real prize - mobile apps.

Generally speaking - the market for mobile applications are still in it's infancy, but you already have a situation where most people have more than one phone - so the potential is huge.

So, can Microsoft pull this off?  More importantly, is anyone in the big house even thinking that this is strategically important?  You would think so - given their recent win with Sony Ericsson.  If not - that's why they're making desperate bids for Flickr...

This will be a great start in effectively countering Google's Android.

Of course - only time will tell, but what if it were true....

I keep thinking I complain too much...

I buy a new laptop roughly every two years.  As we don't get a new OS release every two years, there tends to be only one thing that drives me to do this - PERFORMANCE!

I get fundamentally frustrated when applications and OSses don't behave the way they should.  Having to wait a few several seconds on my blazing fast brand new Dell XPS with 2GB of RAM, seems stupid - what did I spend all that money for?

Obviously, there are a number of key culprits to this - primarily  things like Outlook.  But I'm not convinced I can or should blame Outlook for all my problems.  While Outlook may be a resource hog, it's by no means the only culprit.  And I refuse to take the line blaming Microsoft for all the world's software ills, because

1. I run some EXCELLENT Microsoft software on a daily basis.  I'm typing this using Live Writer, and I can honestly say it's one of the frostiest bit of code I've used recently.
2. Most companies make software that annoy me, with Adobe very high on the list :)  Acrobat Reader is like a crash waiting to happen... 
(see the comments in this scoble post)

I spent last night looking at a bit of demo code from Microsoft, showing developers how to implement a WPF client for RSS feeds.  What I found interesting frustrating is that while the layout is really cool, and the app looks beautiful, the behaviour is just plain BAD!  Using the system is non-intuitive, and doesn't lend itself to a great user experience.

This is disappointing as the goal of the demo starter kit is specifically to show how you can create user experiences using WPF that are incrementally better than those you experience in a browser.

The sample does a great job of showing off the excellent layout and screen reading system in WPF, but at the same time does a horrible job of making it usable.

So the question is:

"Does this happen because Microsoft and developers in general doesn't care about user experiences enough?  Is Apple the only company that focuses on this?"

One of the fantastic things about the iPhone is that amazing responsiveness of the touch interface.  Now, how is it wrong of me to expect a more responsiveness from a computer with at least 10 times the processing power and memory?

How can we force developers to take responsiveness into account when developing apps?  Have they all become so used to a massive amount of available memory and processing power that they assume the hardware should solve there performance issues?

That may have turned into a bit of a rant but it truly annoys me.  I'll call this part 1, and follow up examining performance in more detail in a future post.

iPhone sales fall short of O2 target

According to FT, iPhone sales have fell short of targets for the 1st two months.  Granted, that's only by 10 000, but most people (me included), expected actual sales to be  350K - 400K.  Will this get Apple to cut the UK price?

FT.com / Home UK / UK - iPhone sales fall short of O2 target

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