They've done this dance for a while, and with both seeing slowing subscriber rates, it's really no surprise.  I wonder what all the XM fanboys are going to say now?  I'm just happy I don't have to pay double for  my wife's "gift" of XM in her Honda,  and my Sirius subscription  in my car.   Pending shareholder approval, both companies expect the merger to be completed by end of this year.   Glad to see it- this is a situation where the consumer clearly wins.  More details at Orbitcast.

Still catching up on blogworthy items. As is customary with the release of any new OS, a lot of attention is being given to the new, native features of Windows Vista, the compatibility of devices as well as existing applications.  But what about new applications?  Vista doesn't rest on the laurels of traditional, flat, 2D applications. Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF) is a feature of Windows Vista that enables rich, textured, 3D applications to be built that take interactivity to a whole new level. 

One such application was developed by famed design firm, Metaliq. Their Snowboarding application incorporates two of my loves - snow sports and GPS.  Marrying 3D rotatable maps of Aspen Ski Resort with GPS data, it seamlessly integrates  live data, video clips and a playback reel give you the perspective of your runs as you head down. 

I'm a sucker for this kind of app I always take my GPS with me when I go skiing- just "Set it and forget it" while I'm riding.  When I get home, Pictures I take on the mountain are geotagged (I like RoboGeo), and I like to review representations of my runs on satellite maps with ExpertGPS or Google Earth.  This is admittedly geeky today, but imagine being able to sit down after a vacation with the family, and review your photos, ultimate runs, and home videos and navigate it visually.  It's clear we're just getting started.

It's the weekend, and a perfect time to go through Tim Sneath's blog list of amazing WPF applications.  C9 has a great list here as well.

Here's a list of some of my favorite english-language applications (German, French and others on  Tim's site as well):

1. NY Times Newsreader
2. Nostalgia Flickr Browser
3. British Library's Turning the Pages
4. Electric Rain's Standout 
5. Notescraps
6. Denounce (RSS/Podcast browser)
7. Cine.view (NetFlix browser)
8. Yahoo! Messenger for Windows Vista
9. Calendar Printing for Office 2007
10. Wikipedia Explorer
11. iBloks 3D Movie Creator

Let me know if you find more ;)

I'm having an issue that is driving me crazy.  For some reason, my Samsung Blackjack is unable to sync w/ Windows Mobile Device Center for Vista.  I have five machines that are all recognizing the phone as:

SAMSUNG USB Composite Device
SAMSUNG CDMA Modem
SAMSUNG CDMA Modem Diagnostic Serial
Port (WDM) (COM#)

They should be recognizing it as an RNDIS Network Adapter which will enable WMDC to connect.

I've checked the Settings|USB Settings and even the underlying registry, hard-wiped the phone (hold up arrow and power up) and nothing is working.  After spending two hours on the phone with Cingular and Samsung Level 2 technicians, they told me (nicely) that they'll have to get me to Level 3 which is open Mon-Fri 9am-5pm when I'm working.  Has anyone else run into this issue?  Bueller?  Anyone?

My favorite digital audio receiver just added support for Zune Marketplace, Napster, Urge, Wal-Mart, etc. and enhancements for iTunes though they still won't play Apple's own DRM'd music (something Jobs left out he won't license).  Finally, my little white Sonos boxes aren't sitting in a Zuneless island.  Every time I think I'm done with DRM'd music services, they bring me back in.  I have to say though, I'm increasingly impressed by Rhapsody's integration with the Sonos.  It makes me wonder, why shouldn't all music services offer a network connected version, similar to what Napster is doing today?

Also note to music services - not everyone listening to your service is a twentysomething head-banging, ultramegalophile monster mashup music culture listener.  Take some cues from  XM's "Flight 26".   I like my hard-core, but not when the kiddies are around.  Families want to listen too.  That's a note to Sirius as well.

My father pointed out that Flickr appears to be having some problems with its preview image system.  A bunch of random pictures (not ours) are showing up as previews.  Click through, and sometimes  you'll  get the correct picture.  For me, it's happening on about one out of seven pictures.  We have pro accounts.  Suddenly I'm very nervous about the state of my photos on the site.  Anyone else seeing this?

All I can say is this is the kind of geek "Wow" a certain team was looking for - the evangelism team scored a coup with the hiring of reknowned analyst, Michael Gartenberg, formerly VP of Jupiter Research and prior to that, at Gartner.  While details are still unfolding about his new job, it's possible that in his role as Enthusiast Evangelist, Michael will have an indelible impact in a number of areas ranging from customer interaction to user-centric product design. 

Our team brought in Michael to provide feedback on some challenges we were having last year with digital media integration across the OS.  The engineers found his feedback to be incredibly insightful and focused on the end-user while taking into account technical capabilities of the OS.  A lot of changes for the good were made based on his comments.

As for the news around the blogosphere, Jeremy Toeman has a good summary here.  As do Jeff Sandquist and Thomas Hawk. I for one look forward to working with Michael again.

Welcome Michael!

Recently, I've been playing with a free Gadget for Vista Sidebar called, Visual Voicemail from CallWave and color me impressed.  Stevie J is right - audio management of voicemail is a pain.  CallWave on Cingular and other carriers can replace your existing voicemail system so that incoming calls are automatically routed to their service offering email notification, SMS notification with call details, and the Gadget, which provides a management feature for viewing, listening to, and deleting messages.  Nicely done.  It's free for a basic voicemail box with the gadget, or you can pay $9.95 for call routing etc.  My only complaints are the lack of a way to turn off SMS (it costs me $$) and lack of a Windows Mobile client for my Blackberry (er Blackjack) ;).

It's distressing to many in the community to learn of Jim Gray's disappearance.  A fixture in the industry and reknowned scientist, teams have been searching for over 4 days for him now.  Amazon's Werner Vogels is asking internet users to pore through recent imagery from Nasa plan flyovers to try and locate his missing ship.  You can help by clicking here and just reviewing a sampling of images.  This is community in action- distributed human computing.  Please take five minutes and help look for signs of Jim.

Disclaimer: I don't speak for Microsoft nor work for any group involved in HD-DVD in my below comments.  There's purely my own for right or wrong.

ArsTechnica has an interesting take on the new Nielsen VideoScan data that shows Blu-ray is starting to close the gap.  What's not covered here is the intellectual savvy of many consumers to NOT BUY EITHER DISC and rather rent from Blockbuster or NetFlix, both of which support both formats.

Nielsen VideoScan is the go-to source for the consumer electronics industry when it comes to tracking video sales. The metrics firm tracks sales in nearly every distribution channel from the Internet to big-box retailers and specialty stores. Although hardware sales figures have been easy to come by, the movie studios and distributors have kept actual movie sales figures under wraps, so this is one of the first clear glimpses of what's going on with next-gen disc sales.

I thought this was a new tracker for Nielsen?  They're the only source as far as I know.  At least Ars points out all these numbers should be taken with a grain of salt. 

The units sold #s are highly circumspect.  HD-DVD units for Xbox are bought for HD-DVD viewing, HD-DVD players are bought for HD-DVD viewing.  I'd be interested to see what percentage of PS3 owners are actually using their PS3 for viewing Blu-Ray discs. Just because PS3 ships with a Blu-Ray disc player does not mean the consumer has a) an HDTV or b) a desire to view Blu-ray discs.

I wrote more about the cost/benefit of HD-DVD late last year and recommendations that consumer do not buy discs in either format.  Where are the NetFlix and Blockbuster #'s on rentals of both formats?  Let's see the full picture.

It's propping to the servers.  If you're a developer and actually read my blog.  Here you go:

http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb188266.aspx

Last night, we posted a February update to the "WPF/E" Community Technology Preview for Windows and Mac.  Ryan Stewart at ZDNet picked up the new and talks about the update here.  The Channel9 guys already updated the C9 "WPF/E" playground to support the new release.  The SDK should be available shortly - team is putting some finishing touches on it and the webpages at the DevCenter. 

New features for developers include:

• Keyboard Input (KeyUp/KeyDown)
• MP3 Support
• Mouse cursor support
• Async downloader
• Simple text metrics
• Full screen mode
• Lots of performance work
• Improved JavaScript APIs

The team is making good progress and a sincere thank you goes out to all the customers providing feedback.  We're getting lots of requests for briefings, details, and the general buzz is palpable.  It's hard to handle all of them.  In fact, I'm hiring- more details on that later.

(For those who have asked, I still have the flu but getting better.  Thanks for the well wishes- heading back to bed.)

For those of you waiting for Nikon's official RAW image file reader (.nef) to show up and integrate with Windows Photo Gallery, it's now available.  Canon's RAW codec (.cr2)is still AWOL as is Adobe's Digital NeGative format (.dng).  Here's to hoping they show up soon.

While consumers work through the dizzying array of new features in Windows Vista, Ryan Stewart cuts through the hype and brings it back to what really matters - User Experience.  He notes, "We're all better off when experience wins and Vista is a huge step forward."  I couldn't agree more. But what about after the hype, the roar of marketing moves into sustain?  I'm expecting to see big pops of innovation as new Vista-enabled applications start to emerge.

An example of this is WPF - Windows Presentation Foundation, which is going to enable the next-generation of desktop applications that are 3D accelerated, and designer-developer collaboraration with Expression Studio and  Visual Studio.  I agree with Ryan, and look forward to seeing Tim Sneath write about these new applications.  Yes, they'll run on many XP PCs as well, but will truly sing on Vista.

Another will be "WPF/Everywhere" or "WPF/E" (Codename), which will take rich media experiences traditionally targeted at the desktop, and bring those to the Web with the flexibility of standards-based programming, and the power of XAML for presentation.  I've seen how important XAML is first-hand- when I worked in Windows as a program manager on Windows Vista Sidebar, the tension was palpable between the User Experiece designers creating the UI, and the developers who were unable to fully realize the vision pixel for pixel.  With Expression Studio + WPF, what you can envision, becomes programmable, pixel for pixel.  That is a powerful thing, and soon we're bringing that to the web as well.

Try WPF for yourself with my favorite "essential" application - the NY Times News Reader (beta). 

(I have the flu so I'm heading back to bed. :( )

While visiting a friend yesterday in the OEM Group at Microsoft, I spied an interesting sub-notebook on his desk.  It appeared to have a Windows Vista logo jeweled into the case and backlit in color.  My trusty camera in tow, I snapped a few pictures for your enjoyment.

The PC was a special edition created exclusively for a select number of partners (read: executives).  Microsoft partnered with ASUS to custom-build these little gems to demonstrate how laptops can take advantage of the latest technology in Windows Vista.  It's a widescreen Tablet PC, a Media Center, runs Vista Ultimate with Aero Glass, and even has a fingerprint scanner and smart card reader for login.  It also sports the latest Intel Centrino and Core2Duo technology.  Battery life is impressive as well.

Unfortunately you won't find these PCs at retail with the Vista logo, but it's a nice example of what PC OEMs can do when motivated.  Even the materials are premium, not plastic in texture.  Reportedly there are a few of these running around with leather finish!

As for the Tablet features? It's the first tablet my friend ever really liked.  With Vista, he's gone so far as to say he enjoys the tablet feature.  Of course I'm drooling over the PC and would love to see what I could do with Microsoft Expression Studio on it.

More pics here.

Here's to hoping PC manufacturers are willing to take even bolder risks in design.  To that end, IDSA and Microsoft partnered again this year on the Next-Gen PC Design Competition.  Entries are closed, and the winners will be announced in April.  I'm hoping to see some phenomenal new prototypes later this year.

 Fox Sports, Microsoft  and major retailers are doing launch events across the country next week for the Windows Vista launch.  This is pretty cool as major sports stars will be on-hand to get your picture taken (I'm planning to get my picture taken in Bellevue, WA with Shaun Alexander).  There will be some great prizes and giveaways and possibly some amazing deals on PCs etc.  The events start at 10pm at retailers including BestBuy, CompUSA, and more. Learn more about what events are happening in your area here.

Now this is cool.  Between tomorrow and April 30th,  Microsoft and T-Mobile will be offering free public WiFi to Vista users.  That's at places including Starbucks, Borders, FedEx Kinko's etc.  If you're a business traveler, this is a great deal.  More details at www.skysurprise.com.   

Teaser site here. It will be built on the Flight Simulator X engine.  My son doesn't know it yet, but this is destined to be his favorite game, provided Thomas and Friends can roll the tracks in some mod. ;)

It may also give my father a reason to upgrade his computer (purchased at Windows XP launch).

I love my BlackJack and you can't have it back Steve. For those who enjoy frankenphones with unusual ringtones, you can have your very own iPhone ringtone courtesy of Gizmodo.com. 

Next time you start up Media Center, the Online Media strip should automatically refresh with the new content (it may take a few minutes). Additional partners will be filtering in shortly.  Looks like things are getting prepped for the Vista launch at the end of the month.

While on the show floor, I got permission from a friend to video behind the scenes at the Games for Windows Booth.  Unbeknownst to many, they were enjoying Halo 2 for Windows on DirectX 10-enabled NVidia cards, in some of the fastest PCs yet.  You'll notice a sneak peek of the Live for Windows integration announced, which will for the first time enable you to play on Windows against others.

Video: Vista Halo 2 with Live integration from CES 2007

No details on whether you'll be able to play Halo 2 on PC against users on Xbox 360, however I did notice a few maps I didn't recognize while playing, evaluating the platform.  Long Zheng has more on Live for Windows here.

I recently got my hands on the original source of the PC manufacturer's video shown in Bill Gates' keynote.  The first person to correctly identify all PCs models shown in the video (in order) will win a cheap tacky prize.  Submit via comments :).

Video: Windows Vista New PCs - CES 2007

I also have it in WMV-HD and will post later this weekend.  Perhaps we should do a mash-up contest for the best remix of the spot?  I'll pose it to some friends who could make that happen.

While at CES, I ran into the unusual problem of bleeding out not one, but two Samsung Blackjack batteries while at the Hard Rock Hotel sending/receiving SMS messages from pals trying to meet.  I was annoyed, but went back to my room and plugged the phone in to sync via USB, shunning travel with an AC power "Wall Wart" to keep my lifestyle streamlined.

When I woke up, I went from annoyed to cranky in realizing my phone batteries still wouldn't charge.  So, I grabbed a cab and went to a Cingular store to pick up a battery. Kept the meter running, it was only going to be a few minutes. 

Wrong.  They had the car charger, no batteries or AC charger.  Told me the corporate store would have one.  Interrupt my taxi driver's lunch and we're off to the "corporate store".  There I was being "helped" by a customer service rep who seemed to have his heart in the right place, but it was beating so slowly he couldn't risk moving very fast or he might pass out.  Batteries?  Nope.  AC charger? Nope?  Even a backup for a demo unit? None.  Call around other stores?  Radio Shack would have them.  Asked him to call. What about other stores?  (By now nearly 40 minutes have gone by and I'm still on the clock for the cab).  This is no joke- the closest store out of 12 that had said AC adapter was over 30 minutes away in the Vegas area.  My cab driver was getting ready to time out.  So I spent a mint on cab fare and had nothing to show for it.  I was more than cranky now.

So what did I do?  I went back to CES at the LVCC, straight to the Samsung booth and asked for the product manager for the Blackjack.  I talked to the PR folks and explained the situation, and was directed to the Product Manager, a nice, Korean gentleman who get this - swapped out his own, fully charged Blackjack battery with me, and then offered to let me use the demo bar to jumpstart my phone!  I was in shock.  The booth was packed, and he was bending over backwards, from his own personal backpack he pulled the battery.  He said he would have offered me a charger but it was back at his hotel.

Now that is customer service.  He could have said, "No, sorry, we don't have one" and moved on.  This is why my current TV was a Samsung (which I got the main logic board updated a few years back for only $200 as a special offer for early adopters wanting better controls).

So, a battery translated into a future purchase of ~$2500 for Samsung.  Sometimes it pays to pay it forward. 

As for Cingular, it's been a rocky road with them the second time I've tried switching to them in three years.  First I was overcharged over 2x for the first month, then they didn't give me the full employee discount.  I miss T-Mobile's service.  If only they had cooler phones and 3G, things would be different...

I'm somewhat ashamed to say that every new car I've ever owned has been a Japanese car.  Let's see- Mitsubishi Starion, Nissan 300ZX (80's), Honda Prelude, Nissan 300ZX (90's), Nissan Xterra, Honda S2000, and Toyota Prius.  I've been ashamed because in my experience, US cars have so lagged behind in quality, creature comforts, and digital technology that

Then, Ford announced the Sync platform with Microsoft, bringing digital nirvana to a broad range of cars, causing gaps from the audience when Ford's VP told BillG it will support iPod and Zune (of  course it will and should!). My father used to work for Ford, many many years ago.  I wonder how he took this news (or if he noticed- he still uses cassettes to listen to Pink Floyd in his car - sorry Dad).

Now, over at the "other" show in Detroit, beleagured GM unveiled the Chevy Volt concept car.  Zero to sixty in a respectable 8 seconds, top speed of 120mph, and most importantly, 40 miles on zero gallons (it's pluggable), and 60mpg on a small gas generator that powers not the wheels, but the on-board Li-ion batteries.

Apparently this technology will work it's way into mainstream cars over the next five years.  It's clear to me for the second time, Japan has jolted Detroit out of hibernation (no pun intended).  I'm looking forward to a test drive- you listening Detroit? :)

As an early adopter of NetFlix, I've written many times here about how good the service is was.  Over the holidays however, that all went horribly, horribly wrong.  My wife and I use NetFlix in spurts- some months we're busy doing something else and don't watch any, then when the TV season goes into hiatus, we catch up on movies.

I've done my part to help their ratings system- my wife and I have collectively rated nearly 400 movies over the years. 

So what did NetFlix do to cause me to switch to Blockbuster's Total Access? 

It started with two out of five discs rented in the last month being cracked.  We're not talking a little crack, we're talking a full 1mm from the edge. I reported both, and noticed it took a longer time than usual to get a replacement of one (the other I didn't request a replacement).  It's embarassing when you have to explain to your in-laws why at a key point in the plot of a movie, you can't watch the rest, nor get another disc during the remainder of their trip because NetFlix is too slow.

Prior to sending the movies back, I moved three movies to the top of my queue.  All were available and I had always received movies listed at the top.  What did I get in return?  Movies from the bottom of my queue.  We're talking over a dozen movies down.  There's no possible way all of the  movies above it were checked out, and I checked!  Like the lint that congregates under your bed, these movies had collected at the bottom of our queue and we had forgotten about them.

David Pogue wrote about NetFlix's great customer service last year.  It's true, I've had nothing but good experiences when reporting a lost disc (and returned later to be credited).  Then Michael Arrington wrote about how NetFlix's complicated algorithms punish frequent users of the service.  I rented more movies during the holidays (vacation?) after literally multiple months of not renting any. 

Somehow, like Arrington, I got "NetFlixed":

Netflixed  /netflicksed/  –adjective

1. punished due to regular usage of services paid-for

2. twisted; awry, as in the condition of discs when received

3. Slang. extracting highest possible profit out of customer by artificially adjusting service offerings to penalize usage.

It looks like the algorithm uses a 30-60 day usage window to enable throttling and doesn't take into account months of pure profit they reaped from me when I wasn't using the service.  Perhaps I'm being punished for reporting two out of three shipped discs being cracked.  How is that my fault?

I tried contacting NetFlix  and have yet to get a response other than, "Sorry, we get a lot of mail".  No problem.  Unsubscribed.

So I've dropped NetFlix as of today, and moved to Blockbuster's Total Access where I also get a free movie on the spot when I return a DVD in-store instead of via mail (we have one by our gym).  They also have a great selection of HD-DVDs and Blu-Ray titles.  Now I just need a Media Center-enabled UI for Blockbuster's service (as I have for NetFlix via the community) and my world is complete.

Congratuations NetFlix- by mis-managing customer expectations you've replaced my prior disdain for Blockbuster's glassy-eyed checkout clerk and late fees with a new disdain for your business practices.