We should keep this a secret so Windows Phone 7 keeps its greatest strength to ourselves. You need to question why Apple have suddenly backed down on this. Windows Phone 7 launching soon, or the FCC investigations are starting to hit home?

Zune Software will replace WMP

Media Center needs to be replaced with a simplifyed Apple TV/Google TV solution, Zune TV which allows a zune pass video subscription, streaming or syncing of content, and direct ports for attaching DVR and Set Top Boxes.  Made by many manufacturers, which can be combined with Blu-Ray and DVD players, or just in simple streaming versions, with a plugin/app ecosystem, which can be developed in silverlight/xna.

AndyC said:

mdtauk said:

*snip*

But if they say "we can't answer that at the moment", it probably means "if we told you the exact reason, we'd p*ss off one or other of the suppliers and then the deal the lawyers have spent months working towards will go south rather quickly." Negotiations can often be very sensitive and talking about them openly doesn't necessarily help the process.

Then they can say "we are unable to discuss details with you right now, but we are in negotiations with various people hoping for a resolution in time for Windows Phone 7's launch in Europe"

It says nothing specific, gives us hope for launch, and explains what's happening.

CKurt said:

Bas said:

*snip*

Channel 9 interviews are more about talking about technology and architectures and code. Not so much about 'putting people on the spot'. It would have to be a carefull interview, and the questions would have to be given to this person at forhand.

 

I mean it's more easy to interview people about the new product they are launching then interview them about a failure, without any good news to make you forget the failure. Look at the Rev9 interview, we bashed a lot about the current C9 but there was no video where a person accually admitted he made a mistake untill the Rev9 was released and they could say "We did a bad job at some points in v4 , but look now we have this and this in place to fix those problems"

 

A C9 interview should not be like a conversation with your boss (altough client is king), it should not be a public confession of where you went wrong. That is for internal politics.

 

Don't get me wrong, I would love to hear that person talk about the plans for Europe. But we need to make sure not to be like we are going head to head with this. Spark a conversation, tell us why it is so hard to get products launched in Europe. Tell us where you feel you could have done better.

I would not suggest pressuring anyone.  However I would like to get answers to all the questions.  And if for whatever reason they are not able to answer a specific question, could we at least know why they can not answer it.

If we asked about the full Music selection being available in Europe, and they say "We cannot answer that at this moment".  I think its fair to ask why they can't answer.

The rest of the world has barely heard of Zune, and that's a shame.  Kin was non-existent, and so far, Windows Phone 7 has no presence at all.  Bing gets new features, and it is not reported, or advertised.  There is no one single place in any European cities to go to for Microsoft related products or services.

This is something Microsoft has to address, especially if the cloud is to ever be a success.

Firstly, the video service on Xbox is absolute crud.  The worst selection of films you could ever imagine, no tv shows at all.

Media Centre and Xbox get support for Sky Player, which is a small selection of live channels, catchup and video on demand, which you need to be a sky subscriber to recieve, or pay for an online only subscription.

Media centre does not support Internet TV, but has a service called msn video, which seems never to be updated, and has a selection of video on demand programming.

The BBC is our national broadcaster.  They also have the best online service bar none in the UK.  It is provided only to UK citizens for free without any kind of advertising, because the cost of running it comes from a form of taxation called the License Fee.  If you own a television, radio, or an online device which supports viewing BBC iPlayer.

As part of its policy of providing access to iPlayer content on as many devices as possible, for free to License Fee payers, it has iPhone, Android, apps in development, awaiting permission to launch.  It has also created a unique Wii client, and an Adobe Air powered time-limited download service, as well as the iPlayer website itself.

The BBC have been working with Microsoft for years on the iPlayer features, but when it came to the Xbox version of iPlayer, they could not force people to pay again for an Xbox Live Gold subscription to access it, and Microsoft refused to budge.  There was talk of a Windows Media Centre version of iPlayer, but this has not emerged.  I do not think Microsoft are trying hard enough to support the BBC in this, because it is essentially a non-commercial prospect.

Now onto other Microsoft shortcomings in the UK/Europe.

• Zune HD never released.
• Zune service not yet available.
• Incomprehensible Zune Software restrictions (which I have to bypass for it to be fully functional) I can understand there being no Zune music yet - with deals to be done and windows phones to be released - by why no access to podcasts, and the existing miserable movie selections.
• Microsoft Stores show no signs of ever leaving the US.
• Higher prices to pay for everything.
• Apart from MS Research, and a few game studios, Microsoft have no developers in the UK, and I doubt any outside of Redmond.  The computer was invented here, so why is it so undervalued!?!?
• Bing!  Bing maps were recently updated with a new design, but check the map, the UK is the ONLY location still using the old Map designs.
• No Bing map Street Views either!

I know there is probably many more issues in the rest of europe, but I cant comment on those.  The UK has still got a strong brand loyalty to Microsoft, but we get such a raw deal in the consumer space.  Windows Phone is out soon, the first product since the Xbox 360 in the UK from Microsoft for the consumer.  The UK gets it first in October, but what will the various services look like that are needed to support the phones.  

• Will we get a FULL zune music, video, podcast, social experience?  
• Will zune connect to windows live?  
• Will bing maps be fully featured for all those local and web searches?  
• How much more will UK buyers have to spend for the app marketplace?  
• Will we be able to use Microsoft Points on Windows Phone 7, Zune Marketplace, and Xbox?  
• Will we get British English translations for words like colour and favourites, not even Windows 7 gives us localization in British English?
• Will the UK get a strong marketing campaign for WP7?

So many questions, which we need to ask, because of the way we have experienced Microsoft in the past.  If we can ever get to a point where we can hear a Microsoft announcement, and not have to wonder if we will ever see the product in our country, will be the day Microsoft starts to really establish themselves in the consumer space, and will earn mind-share from their users.

Or you could use fonts which feature on all 3 operating systems.  I know I have experienced this, when wishing to use the Segoe UI font on Windows, and Lucida Grande for Mac OSX, with Lucida Grande being a larger font than Segoe.  This I assume has something to do with Macs using 72 dpi, and Windows 96 dpi.

magicalclick said:

exoteric said:

*snip*

But, couldn't we test the UI as well? I mean, you can't have awsome engine with stupid UI. Well, you can, but, it would suck.

I am sure that this engine will make its way to Windows Phone 7 and possibly XBOX, so each of those and the PC Browsers will need its own UI.  That will mean One Engine (component-ized hopefully) and different UI's for the 3 Screens strategy Microsoft are moving to.

And hopefully more UIs for tablet PCs and others.

longzheng said:

Sven Groot said:

*snip*

Just wanted to follow up on the fonts stuff.

 

In terms of the "fuzzy" text problem, this is actually subject to personal preference and the technical specifications of your monitor. Many people (myself included) actually don't have any problems with the "current" font rendering. I can agree it's sort of blurry, but it's readable (better than earlier WPF font rendering) and I actually enjoy the smoother aesthetics. At the same time, I can see why some people can find a problem with it.

 

In terms of a "solution", it's actually not that straight forward. Scott Hanselman and Pete Brown reached out to me to work on this issue specifically. TextFormattingMode and TextRenderingMode were one of the first things I tried and it really didn't have any positive effect. To cut a long story short, it actually turns out enabling transparency on the application disables ClearType font rendering application-wide.

 

We required transparency because of the custom chrome drop shadow we've implemented so currently we need to solve that issue to solve this fonts issue.

 

Rest assured though, we're looking into this and will seek a solution to satisfy everyone.

Wild idea, and it sounds impossible to me even typing it, but I shall...

What about having two windows/forms open, one transparent for the drop shadow, the other opaque, and tie the position of the two windows/forms to each other, so you get the same kind of effect?

I'll go and hide now...

mawcc said:

longzheng said:

*snip*

The issue with the blurry text seems to boil down to a sub-optimal choice of font and maybe also not using the new text rendering options available in WPF 4.

 

http://10rem.net/blog/2010/06/06/wpf-and-silverlight-choose-your-fonts-and-text-rendering-options-wisely

Segoe WP for Windows Phone works well because the device runs at a high dpi.  For the default 96dpi of Windows, Segoe UI with its hints work better.

Also WPF4 brought in updated font handling, also be sure to snap to device pixels.

But WPF4 will not have as crisp a font rendering that Direct Text or standard GDI+ does.  But WPF works best for scalable DPI, and you could re-factor the code for the MetroTwit Windows Phone app I know you will be planning as I type!

I am wondering when - or if - we are likely to see the release of a "Metro" Human Interface Guideline document/website which could help designers or developers understand more of the intricacies and conventions about how the interface is constructed (in what I presume is Expression Blend and Visual Studios WPF Designer), the recommended font sizes and grid layouts etc.

With the first truly new UI from Microsoft in many years, without any legacy baggage, it would be interesting to see how comprehensive it is, and how coherent the various elements are.

I know this may not interest everyone here, as I am sure Developers outweigh Designers, but it is something that will be helpful for both.