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BetaNews.Com (7 non lus)

Microsoft continues to look beyond the glass screen with new touch experiments

Publié: octobre 17, 2011, 9:34pm CEST par Tim Conneally

At the ACM Symposium on User Interface Software and Technology (UIST) in Santa Barbara, California this week, Microsoft Researchers are showing off some experimental touch interaction projects that look beyond the flat glass touchscreen and move into different areas where touch-sensitivity could be employed.

OmniTouch, one of the projects making a major appearance this week, uses a pico projector and a Kinect-like depth-sensing camera to project "clickable" images onto any surface. It's actually quite similar to the device we first saw from the MIT Fluid interfaces group three years ago, which utilized a pico projector, smartphone, and camera to put an interface layer over the real world. The critical difference between the two is OmniTouch's use of a three dimensional camera that detects the difference between a click and a hover and allows for a much more sensitive interface.

PocketTouch is another one of the projects on display this week, and its name illustrates very clearly what it does. Using capacitive sensors and an interface that is designed to work "eyes free," PocketTouch lets users interact with a touchscreen device while it's still in their pocket, through the fabric of their clothing.

What's more, though, is that the UI can be oriented however the user needs it, without the need for a gyroscope, and the interface's touch sensitivity adjusts to the thickness of the fabric and the amount of "background noise" it creates.

Access Overlays, a third technology debuting this week, is a set of three touchscreen add-ons for visually impaired users which make touchscreen navigation more useful. The add-ons, called Edge Projection, Neighborhood Browsing, and Touch-and-Speak, each approach touchscreen usage in a different way.

The edge projection overlay turns a 2D touch interface into an X-Y coordinate map. That places a frame around the outside of the screen with "edge proxies" that correspond with the on-screen targets' X-Y coordinates. Touching the edge proxy highlights the corresponding onscreen target and reads its name. Neighborhood browsing changes touch targets into bigger generalized areas outlined by white noise audio feedback which is filtered at different frequencies to differentiate touch "neighborhoods," and Touch-and-Speak is a marriage of touch gestures and spoken voice commands to manipulate an interface.

Another interface augmenting touchscreens with multiple cameras that will be shown at UIST is called Portico. This system lets users both touch the screen as they normally would or use the space around the outside of their tablet. It even lets them use external objects on top of, or near the screen to interact with running applications.

Portico: Tangible Interaction on and around a Tablet from Daniel Avrahami on Vimeo.

Some other new technologies Microsoft's researchers are showing off at UIST this week include Pause-and-Play, a way to link screencast tutorials with the applications they're displaying; KinectFusion, a 3D object scanner based on a moving Kinect camera; and Vermeer, an interaction model for a 360 degree "Viewable 3D" display.
It's a great time to be a Microsoft family

Publié: octobre 17, 2011, 9:25pm CEST par Joe Wilcox
Two days before Christmas last year I posted "Talking about Microsoft Store", which contrasted the differences between people shopping there and the Apple shop a few doors down in Fashion Valley Mall, San Diego. Apple Store was busier, and the crowd younger, with lots of individuals and couples. I observed about the other shop: "Microsoft Store is where families meet".

So it is with great intrigue and curiosity that I watch Microsoft's new "It's a great time to be a family" marketing campaign unfold. I'm loving it. The first commercials clearly show the benefits of using Microsoft stuff and put them in context of what matters most to the majority: Family. Core family values also are central to the Microsoft lifestyle. And when I express "core family values" the meaning simply is "one another" -- not some moral conservative or liberal moral agenda.

The Apple lifestyle is quite different. Apple culture is much more about individualism, friendship and creativity. That can so clearly be seen by who shops the stores and what they're there for and by comparing Apple marketing campaigns to Microsoft's. Even the products reveal something. For example, Apple chose to integrate Twitter, rather than Facebook, into iOS 5. Twitter is a much more individualistic service -- people broadcast, others follow them and they all react within 140-character exchanges. Contrast that to Facebook, which is about friends and relationships. Microsoft has long touted Facebook integration/support with its products, with Windows Phone being one obvious example.

Pulling Heart Strings

Microsoft's sales pitch isn't complex: "Whatever your family’s into, there’s a Microsoft® product that's right for them. It all starts with a Windows 7 PC. See how well our family fits in with yours". But the focus is broader: Windows Phone, Xbox 360 and Windows 7 as anchors, which, unsurprisingly fit into the company's focus on three screens: PC, phone and television.

Microsoft's pitch is aspirational, and I'll watch to see how well it works. Good marketing effectively:
- Presents a product or brand in a way that makes you remember them
- Demonstrates benefits that will make your life better, or make you believe it will be
- Makes you feel good, creating an emotional hook attached to the product or brand
What has more loaded emotions -- and hopefully good ones -- than family? My daughter is a senior in high school, and the first two commercials make me feel jealous for an earlier time in our family life. She sadly is our only child and will be gone to college soon.

In Microsoft TV commercial "Epic Share", a dad moves to Dance Central 2 for Xbox 360, while the daughter videos him using Windows Phone. She sends it to a PC, from which her brother uses Windows Live Movie Maker to edit and post online (for family to see). It's all family fun, while showing five Microsoft products: Windows Live Movie Maker, Windows Phone, Windows 7, Xbox 360 and Kinect. The commercial also shows off the 11.6-inch Samsung Series 9 notebook, which competes with Apple's MacBook Air.

TV commercial "Dog.PPT" captures this family value lifestyle well, too. A youngster uses PowerPoint to make the case for getting a family dog. Who can't relate to a boy and a dog, or to some parents' reaction to his wanting one? The advert shows PowerPoint in a different context -- kid and parents, rather than the workplace.

The Value of Value

One of Microsoft's longstanding core values is, well, value -- making computing affordable for everyone. That's something I'd like to see more from future Microsoft family marketing. It's something I see inside Microsoft today -- well, yesterday.

I often go inside my local Microsoft Store to check out the deals. Yesterday I spotted a Sony VAIO SA laptop, which offers tremendous value compared to the Mac laptops for sale four stores away. Basic config: 2.3GHz Intel Core i5 2410M processor, 13.3-inch display with 1600 x 900 resolution, 4GB DDR 3 RAM; 1GB AMD Radeon HD 6300M graphics, 500GB 5400-RPM hard drive and Windows 7 Professional. The kicker: Free Sony sheet battery that attaches to the laptop's bottom. Sony claims up to 7.5 hours battery life standard or up to 15 hours with the extra one. Price: $999, and buyers spending $500 or more are eligible for free Windows Phone, too.

To get as good or better screen resolution, Mac laptop buyers must spend $1,949; to get 1GB of graphics memory, $2,199; and they can't get 15-hour battery for any price from Apple.

Value is often a priority for many families. Kids cost money. Microsoft has played up value before with the "I'm a PC" marketing campaign. It should resonate as well or better as part of family marketing.
Which is more likely to survive a bad drop, iPhone 4S or Samsung Galaxy S II?

Publié: octobre 17, 2011, 7:30pm CEST par Joe Wilcox

Apple offers a pretty good protection plan for iPhone 4S. AppleCare+ adds a second year of standard warranty coverage and phone replacement for $49 -- all for $99 at point of purchase. Do you need it? For that matter, if you like me chose Galaxy S II instead, do you need AT&T's $9.99/month insurance, which offers phone replacement for $125? Or if on another carrier, the insurance they offer? I've wondered. Haven't you?

Warranty/insurance provider SquareTrade offers some real insight in video: "iPhone 4S vs. Samsung Galaxy S II Drop Test". It's amazing how much tension watching someone nonchalantly drop a cell phone creates. Perhaps it's that sickening feeling this could happen to you or the anticipation that your phone will do better than the other.

You'll have to watch the video to see which, if either, survives or in what condition. Please offer your reaction in comments. This is one of those rare occasions where I encourage you to be bit of a fanboy. :)

Oh, confession: I spotted this video at TechCrunch.
No more bill shock: wireless carriers to alert on overages

Publié: octobre 17, 2011, 6:59pm CEST par Ed Oswald

The nation's wireless providers have announced a deal with consumer groups and the Federal Communications Commission that will set up a system to alert customers to overage fees. The FCC had been set to announce new rules to combat so-called "bill shock", which it introduced last year.

Under the terms of the deal, the wireless carriers agreed to set up a system to alert customers to voice, data, text, and roaming overages. Two of those four must be in place within a year, and the entire system ready within 18 months.

In return, the FCC would suspend its own efforts to pass new regulations. Both groups believe that the system will be implemented well before the deadline.

"These alerts will give consumers the information they need to save money on their monthly wireless bills", FCC chairman Julius Genachowski says in prepared remarks. "Consistent with the FCC's ongoing efforts, these actions harness technology to empower consumers, and ensure consumers get a fair shake, not bill shock".

While the FCC is allowing the industry to self-regulate, it would keep its own efforts open in case carriers fail to act. CTIA president and CEO Steve Largent said the process of getting the system set up would not be easy, and would take some time to implement.

Many carriers already offer overage alerts, but only on an opt-in basis. The deal would require that the system become opt-out.

President Barack Obama applauded Monday's move. "Our phones shouldn’t cost us more than the monthly rent or mortgage" he says. "So I appreciate the mobile phone companies' willingness to work with my Administration and join us in our overall and ongoing efforts to protect American consumers by making sure financial transactions are fair, honest and transparent".

Photo Credit: CREATISTA/Shutterstock
There are 20M iCloud and 25M iOS 5 users

Publié: octobre 17, 2011, 6:42pm CEST par Joe Wilcox

Apple's rocky iCloud and iOS 5 launches haven't deterred determined upgraders. Today Apple revealed that over the first five days 20 million people had signed up for iCloud and 25 million upgraded to iOS 5. Considering that Apple claims a market of 250 million iOS devices, the numbers are either good or not depending on your view of 10 percent (or less) adoption. It's a fair guess the numbers could have been higher if not for the complexity of this upgrade or data center problems that delayed or thwarted many would-be updaters.

iCloud, Apple's data center-powered synchronization service demands, much during setup. To fully utilize the service, Mac users have to upgrade to iOS 5, iTunes 10.5 and Mac OS X 10.7.2. MobileMe subscribers also must migrate to iCloud, but only after getting the other upgrades. Many Betanews readers report difficulty getting all the updates and iCloud rightly working, particularly with desktop mail clients.

Christopher Sacra explains some of his problems:

I updated my 5 devices with several bumps along the way (took lots of retries). My biggest heartburn is iCloud. I migrated my Mobile Me account, but then, when you are installing the iCloud account on the devices, it's not clear whether to use Apple ID or Mobile Me login, as both can be used on the website. My devices could not retrieve [me.com] email, saying the username and/or password were incorrect. My MacBook Pro told my I couldn't sync because I wasn't using my "Primary iCloud account." Primary iCloud account? Come one - there should be one account to set up and sync. I shouldn't have to decide where Apple wants my iTunes Apple ID and my Mobile Me/iCloud login - can it be any more complicated?

lvthunder observes there is a "lack of documentation. Apple is great at the marketing, but I don't know what all the options are".

Some users also report changes (which I haven't confirmed firsthand). Apple Address Book in Mac OS X 10.6 lets users sync to MobileMe and Google or Yahoo. "If I want to synchronize my address book to iCloud, I need to turn off Google Contacts sync", José Tierno writes. "[It] will not let me sync to both. That just will not work for me. Bummer".

By contrast, Gé Weijers: "Upgrading was pretty uneventful for me. Getting rid of iTunes for backups and security updates is the best feature. The rest is not that important to me".

Many people found iOS 5 challenging, too. For example: "The installation process was difficult, with several failed attempts before IOS 5 installed on both my iPhone and iPad, but now I'm up and running" Charles Bond writes. "But I'm puzzled and can't find an answer to the question: When does a device sync to iCloud -- and then vice versa. It's clearly not in real time, or even close to it. Right at this moment I have an entry to my Calendar that has not been synched to my my iPhone in over an hour, although the phone is on, locked and connected to power via a USB connection to my MacBook Pro. So am I missing something, which might well be the case? When does the magic happen?"

I don't know Bond's setup, but isn't the point that iCloud syncs cable-free?
Microsoft begins rollout of Windows Intune 2.0 cloud IT management suite

Publié: octobre 17, 2011, 5:46pm CEST par Tim Conneally

Microsoft on Monday rolled out the stable release of Windows Intune 2.0, the latest version of the company's new browser-based remote PC management suite that has been in beta for the last three months.

This version of Windows Intune enhances the UI from the first version and adds a handful of user-requested features, most notably the improved ability to deploy software to remote PCs from a cloud storage account.

"Our vision for Windows Intune is big – we want to take the best of the capabilities delivered through our on-premises solutions (like System Center Configuration Manager with Forefront Endpoint Protection, System Center Essentials, Microsoft Desktop Optimization Pack, and Windows Enterprise management and security features) and enable them through the cloud. Eventually, Windows Intune will deliver more management capabilities than the on-premises solutions but with less cost and higher productivity," Eric Main said today in the Windows Team blog.

For current Intune subscribers, Microsoft says it will begin updating accounts with the new features "in the following weeks," and a complete rollout in all 40 countries will be ready by the end of the year. No action is required on the subscriber's part. Two weeks prior to the update, admins will be warned on the Windows Intune administration console, which will give an exact date and time when the subscription will be updated.

Beta testing shuts down on November 17, so testers should remove the client software and restore their computers to a pre-beta state.
iPhone 4S launch sales top 4 million

Publié: octobre 17, 2011, 5:23pm CEST par Joe Wilcox
That's right, Apple and its carrier and retail partners sold 4 million iPhones during the launch. My question: How many are still in inventory? For the first Apple product launch I can ever remember, iPhone 4S breezed through the weekend without selling out everywhere. Is that better logistics under CEO Tim Cook's leadership or less-than-expected demand? But, hey, 4 million is no small achievement.

Apple is touting that big four number over three days. That's not right. Apple and its partners started taking preorders on October 7, racking up 1 million sales in the first 24 hours. What? People stopped preordering after the first day? I don't think so. Under the most generous accounting, 3 million iPhone 4Ses sold over the launch weekend and the total 4 million is over 9 days, not three.

I'm not trying to diminish the achievement -- this is by far the best iPhone launch based on early numbers -- but to report accurately. Pretty much everyone will quote the mouth of Apple today: 4 million in 3 days, which simply isn't right. In fairness and for perspective: Based on Gartner and IDC data on phone shipments, Samsung is Apple's biggest rival selling smartphones. Samsung Galaxy S II took 55 days to reach 3 million sales -- granted without China or the United States. Clearly, iPhone 4S did better, in just 9 days.

"iPhone 4S is off to a great start with more than four million sold in its first weekend -- the most ever for a phone and more than double the iPhone 4 launch during its first three days", Phil Schiller, Apple’s global marketing chief, says in a statement. "iPhone 4S is a hit with customers around the world, and together with iOS 5 and iCloud, is the best iPhone ever". The 4 million in the "first weekend" isn't accurate, as I've explained, and "hit with customers around the world" is either disingenuous or exaggeration. The phone is available in 7 countries: Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Japan, United Kingdom and United States. Apple's smartphone launches in 22 more countries on October 28.

They are: Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Mexico, Netherlands, Norway, Singapore, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland.

The 4 million number doesn't surprise me. I'm more surprised it's not higher and raises questions of how this big achievement is foreshadowing iPhone 4S ultimate success. What's different now:
- iPhone 4 launched in fewer countries and only from one US carrier, AT&T
- iPhone 4S adds Sprint, for which there obviously is pent-up demand for any Apple smartphone
- Verizon got iPhone 4 in February, and surely many customers waited for its successor. (I know a few, don't you?)
- Sixteen months passed between iPhone 4 and 4S launches. That means many more people are eligible for subsidized phone upgrade, and there was greater pent-up demand than for iPhone 4 (based on time between new handsets).
So, yeah, 4 million is reasonable, but not exceptional -- for Apple. Apple to Apple is the only comparison that matters here.

Please read Ed Oswald's iPhone 4S review

I jaunted down to my local Apple Store several times over the weekend, even buying my daughter an iPhone 4S early Friday afternoon. I waited 15 minutes -- not long at all. On Friday, there was plenty of stock, except for Sprint. Little had changed yesterday. "We have a lot, lot, lot of them in stock. Everything AT&T, Verizon -- nothing Sprint", an Apple Store Fashion Valley employee told me.

Lines at Apple Store for iPhone 4S Launch one hour after opening on Oct. 14, 2011 -- Orlando Millennia Mall, Florida

Is that a sign of improved distribution efficiency, Apple overstocking stores, less-than-expected demand -- or a combination of them? I don't have an answer, but I chuckled at the photo directly above, which @markbyrn tweeted on Friday (and I only saw yesterday) and wondered.