NetFlix Streaming Coming to Canada!
The best news for media in Canada that I've heard all year: NetFlix is officially bringing their streaming video service to Canada this fall.
Details are still sparse regarding device support, and they aren't giving an exact date, but finally we'll have a decent Internet-delivered content option around these parts. Of course, expect Canada's ridiculous content rules to be applied.
Read more at the Financial Post, and sign-up to be informed when the service goes live.
Windows Phone 7 Developer Training
If you're looking to get up to speed on Silverlight for Windows Phone 7 -- so you could, say, ride the wave of App Store goodness and make some extra cash -- you might want to register yourself for some Microsoft developed, instructor-led online training!
Personally, I can hardly wait to get my own WP7 device. My iPhone is starting to look a little weak by comparison...
Windows Mobile 6.5′s new life
According to VDC Research Group's report on Windows Mobile, the 6.5 OS stack is not going away.
Although Microsoft is poised to release Windows Phone 7 -- essentially a clean break from their legacy smart phone line-up, based on new technology, such as Silverlight and XNA -- the Windows Mobile 6.5 OS shares lineage with Windows Embedded CE, the OS at the core of many hand-held devices such as those used in POS scanners, or by, say, courier services.
It is time for Microsoft to re-think their smart phone offering to better compete with iPhone and Android, but they practically own the market on embedded devices, and neither need to, nor should, step away from it, or even re-think it drastically. Fortunately, Windows Mobile 6.5 has a new life as Windows Embedded Handheld.
Windows Embedded itself has been re-aligned significantly as well, and it should be noted that much of the product line is now, essentially, the full Windows -- customized for a compartmentalized install: Windows Embedded Standard is really just Windows 7, while Windows Embedded Server is really Windows Server 2008.
Windows Embedded Handheld, however, remains based on the CE core, and traditional Windows CE and Windows Mobile apps can live on, and continue development, on this technology. Meanwhile new technology layers, including Silverlight, are being added to Windows Embedded Handheld to keep the platform evolving -- much as Windows Phone 7 evolves the core with new technologies.
If this is all confusing, don't be concerned -- its taken awhile for the roadmap to resolve itself. Microsoft, however, is finally in a position to execute on each of its competencies in multiple categories of portable and embedded devices -- from simple scanners, through next-gen smart phones, to multi-touch Slates. Here's a quick chart to clarify:
| MS Offering | OS its based on/derived from | Compatible Code |
| Windows Embedded Handheld | Windows Mobile 6.5 | CE/Windows Phone 6.5 apps, Silverlight + Native Code |
| Windows Phone 7 | New Offering (CE kernel) | Silverlight 3/XNA + Managed Code |
| Windows Embedded Standard | Windows 7 | Almost anything that runs on Windows 7 (as long as dependencies are in the image) |
| Windows Embedded Standard | Windows Server 2008 R2 | Almost anything that runs on Windows Server 2008 R2 (as long as dependencies are in the image) |
Windows 7 Media Center + Extender vs. Mac OS X + AppleTV = not a fair fight.
I am a long-time Apple TV user, stubbornly making Apple's "hobby" useful in my home theater with an array of hacks and community developments -- despite their efforts to keep it locked up. I found that, once hacked, it was the most flexible and elegant thing out there for getting my media from my computer to my TV. With Windows 7, and my unabashed enthusiasm for it, I decided to give Windows Media Center another try. What I discovered puts my hard-hacked Apple TV solution to shame...
OS X + AppleTV
To start with, the Apple TV is a good iTunes Store device. If you're happy consuming only the content Apple offers through their store, and want a way to get it on your TV, its a good solution.
No one gets all their content through iTunes, though, so enter the Patchstick. With it you can unlock Apple TV's OS X potential, allowing SMB or AFS file sharing with your computer, run an app called Sapphire to put a pretty face on your media library, and even install Boxee to get access to a number of additional Internet-delivered content providers.
Hacked, the Apple TV is a very useful device, and as long as you don't mind trailing Apple's updates by a couple weeks to a couple months, using it along-side a Mac and an iPhone/iPod touch its a elegant and cohesive solution -- most of the time. Add an Airport Express or two in some other rooms, and you have a whole-home music and video set-up.
The biggest complaint I had is that the FrontRow experience pales compared to the Apple TV. In our set-up the computer doubled as the bedroom media center, and while it was nice that both the home theater and our bedroom could share the same media, the experience lost cohesiveness at the computer...
On the Mac -- the more powerful device -- we'd frequently be switching between FrontRow, the Finder and iTunes to manage content. I couldn't imagine using a Mac as a home-theater-only device; you constantly need to pick up the keyboard and mouse. The Mac itself was essentially unaware of the AppleTV, save for syncing content. And FrontRow is essentially unaware of the iTunes Store. Its like Apple isn't really sure where an actual computer fits into the scenario.
I used a Rube-Goldberg device of RSS > Google Reader > Google Reader Notifier > Transmission BitTorrent client to get my subscription-delivered content -- a fragile chain that broke not infrequently -- and an AppleScript scheduled via iCal to keep the file system clear of stale content.
Updates on the Apple TV became a management nightmare -- the device is under-powered to begin with, so every couple months it would need a wipe and restore. When that happens, expect to carve out a couple hours to get the hacks back into place. On top of that, the stinking device doesn't have an On/Off switch, so I had to co-ordinate timers and CRON jobs to keep it healthy and prevent it from sucking through my power bill.
Don't get me wrong. Its workable. Its lightyears ahead of what your cable company offers. And it is pretty slick when its all working - no one can accuse Apple of making ugly UIs. It looks good. If you already have a Mac, you can pick up an AppleTV for pretty cheap, and get started at a reasonably low cost. But since you can't do much without hacking, this isn't a solution I'd expect my parents to use.
WMC 7 + XBox Media Center Extender
The reason I've stayed away from Windows Media Center, and its Extenders, in the past, is that I'd constantly hit a brick wall trying to use content not natively supported. It felt cludgy, and its use of what was essentially Remote Desktop Protocol just seemed like a half-hearted attempt.
A lot has changed in Windows 7. It natively supports MP4, and DivX AVIs, so right out of the box it plays almost anything you throw at it -- no hacking needed. Its still pretty much RDP under the hood, but that technology has matured to the point where you don't even notice it any more. In fact, because it ensures a consistent experience between the Extender and the PC, its actually a good thing.
The approach is different than the Apple TV -- the Extender is a function of the computer. While the AppleTV can do things that FrontRow can't do, in the Microsoft scenario, the Extender is somewhat dumb. Turns out, this is fine. I expect my PC to be more powerful than my TV. But there's not a whole lot of compromise. Some of the Extras don't appear on my TV, and a few menu options are left out when shown on the Extender. Otherwise, the experience is the same.
The two most important things about Windows Media Center are that it's consistent across devices, and it's extensible across devices:
- It's so consistent that I can pause a movie downstairs on the big TV, go upstairs and resume the show where I left off from the bedroom.
- It's so extensible that I don't have to hack it to add plug-ins, or new functionality -- I just run an installer on my PC, and both it, and my Extender device are instantly upgraded.
A low-end XBox costs less than an Apple TV, is way more powerful and responsive, has an Off switch, and oh ya... it plays great games too. Everything "just works" together: you plug it in, follow a pairing process no more complicated than the Apple TV requires, and within seconds all your content -- regardless of source -- is available. There are dozens of online content providers built right into Windows Media Center, and others can be added on simply by even a novice computer user.
I use a uTorrent on the PC with the RSS functionality built-in for my subscribed content, which shows up in the "Pictures + Videos" section of WMC instantly. And best of all, I put the keyboard and mouse away, because I can do pretty much all common media management tasks on the PC right from my remote.
Not a Fair Fight
Apple really only has their toes in the water here, and Microsoft has been working up to Windows 7 for quite awhile. But while Apple has the iTunes Store and the devices, Microsoft's only real asset in this arena is the XBox. Apple could, if they chose, offer a cohesive PC/TV/Mobile media acquisition and consumption strategy, but I think they're genuinely unsure of where the computer should fit into the picture -- they prefer a locked-down environment, but a full computer gives the user more control than they're comfortable with -- so they've moved timidly into the living room.
Microsoft has chosen a more open path, with any number of Extender devices, (you don't have to buy an XBox -- other devices will do the same job) a broader array of native media types, and extensibility offered to other content providers besides their own store. Windows 7 is really good, and Windows 7 Media Center trumps everything else out there, hands down.
Full Disclosure
Despite being a Microsoft employee, my job has nothing to do with Windows Media Center or XBox. Aside from employee pricing in the company store, there's no perk for me to use the Microsoft offering over anyone elses, and no job expectation that I will do so. I choose freely what technology goes into my home, and I have a very heterogenerous network, with Macs, PCs and other devices playing happily on my WiFi -- check out my tag cloud: I like Apple stuff!
For a long time I stuck with the Apple TV because, once hacked, it was the best solution out there -- regardless of who I work for. That is no longer the case. Windows Media Center 7 with an Extender is a better, more elegant, more flexible and more cohesive solution. Don't believe me? Try it out -- I think you'll see, as I did, that in this round, Windows is the clear winner.
Apple’s Pippin Game System booting to Marathon
One of Apple's dazzling failures, the Pippin @World or Atmark, produced by Bandai (the Power Rangers people) and briefly by Katz Media, was to be a TV set-top box/game system with Internet connectivity. It was a barely disguised PowerPC-based Mac, with modified (ruggedized) ADB ports, and flash memory in place of a hard drive. It ran a modified version of Mac OS 7.5.2 which was contained, in its entirety, on each game CD.
Here's a Pippin booting to the classic Bungie game, Marathon...
Apple’s Prototype Copland OS Booting
This was intended to be Mac OS 8, a microkernel (called NuKernel) based OS that would finally modernize Apple's aging technology stack. It failed, although several of its user-oriented components made their way into later versions of the OS (both Classic and OS X).
This is booting off a PowerMac 7600/66 AV, but connected to a Dell LCD monitor so you don't have to see the refresh. It boots to the "Z Theme" which was a little silly. During start-up you can see a very unique splash animation, and various hardware being identified and initialized.
Copland was to contain a "blue box" emulation layer for classic Mac apps -- a concept that would later be re-used as "Classic" in Mac OS X -- while next-generation apps would be optimized for the PowerPC CPU.
Installing Rhapsody DR2 on VMWare
Between the acquisition of NeXT by Apple in the late 90s, and the release of OS X, Apple tried and abandoned a path to merge the two company's technologies into a new, modern OS. Ultimately, a similar but different path was chosen, where much of the proprietary technology that made OpenStep expensive (specifically Adobe-licensed PostScript) were re-created, and better compatibility (introducing Carbon into the Classic OS to give developers an easier migration path than the hard and fast change to Yellowbox) with existing Mac applications was provided for.
Nonetheless, what amounts to an experiment: Rhapsody, essentially the NeXTStep/OpenStep OS with Mac interface elements bolted onto it (sometimes), was incredibly interesting. Yellowbox was to represent the new app platform (with built-in multi-architecture support) while the Bluebox, for compatibility with Classic Mac apps was to be added before release.
Shortly I will outline instructions here for getting Rhapsody DR2 (x86) up and running in VMWare. OK, it turns out this process is exactly the same as for installing NextStep. In case it wasn't obvious, these two OSes are very closely related.
One-to-Many
Here's a couple cool toys from Microsoft that allow you to use one computer with multiple users. I imagine this would be great in the classroom, but I'll be there are some other cool uses too...
The Multipoint Mouse SDK allows you to use multiple pointing devices on one desktop. This would be a great way to develop for multitouch environments, without having to invest in multitouch development workstations.
And Microsoft's new Multipoint Server allows a single Windows Server to function as a complete desktop for multiple users.
PC Museum Makes History (Re-post)
To celebrate its fifth year in business, the Personal Computer Museum has created a new program that allows the breakthrough, under $300 personal computer of the 1980’s – the Commodore VIC-20 to access Twitter, one of the world’s foremost online communities. CKPC FM 92.1 personality Ed McMahon (Mayor of the Morning) will create computer history with the first VIC-20 Tweet and afterwards museum visitors can tweet too. The first “tweet” will happen on Saturday February 20th at 11am EST. Find the museum on Twitter or Facebook at http://www.pcmuseum.ca/twitter.asp
“Many have asked ‘Why are you doing this? There’s not much demand for new VIC-20 software.’ It was the challenge of creating a bridge between the past and present. It’s amazing how far technology has progressed in the past 30 years. The software runs from a cassette tape on an unexpanded VIC-20 with only 5 KB of RAM and a processor that runs at 1 MHz,” commented Syd Bolton, Curator of the Personal Computer Museum.
To put this in perspective, an average PC today runs at 3000 MHz and contains 2,097,152 KB. That means the average computer today has 419,430 times the memory power and 3000 times the speed of a personal computer from the 80’s.
The museum created a software platform for many vintage computers to be able to "tweet" (called "TweetVER" which is short for Tweeting from a Vintage ComputER). For those who would like a copy of the software program, visit the museum’s website http://www.pcmuseum.ca for information.