Charlie Owen - Our Loss Is Your Gain

Thursday, July 27, 2006

Well, Matt finally spills the beans in the loss of two Windows Media Center features in Windows Vista: Messenger and Caller ID.

Frankly, I never thought we did each of those features particularly well. Apologies to Matt and the other PMs which made 'em happen originally. I don't really think it was our fault per se they didn't live up to expectations. They were built on top of APIs which were limited (Windows Messenger) or rarely used (modem anyone?).

But our loss is certainly your gain.

Now that caller ID is gone it's a perfect opportunity to do a new thing -- XBox Live gamer online notifications (I just got mine tonight, btw: 'retrosight'. Skype contact notifications. Blog post notifications. I really think we never explored where we could actually take something like Caller ID because, well, we were stuck in the 90s with needing to connect a telephone cable.

And now that our Messenger implementation is gone it's an opportunity for someone to do a *real* messenger client for Windows Media Center. I'm thinking full screen interface overlaying Live TV capabilities here. Also, after using the iMate KJam for a while I'm thoroughly convinced a thumb keyboard remote control should be built which is compatible with Windows Media Center. I believe its size would make a much more attractive option to a full size keyboard (such as the Windows Media Center keyboard or the new Bluetooth keyboard we announced a few weeks (months?) ago.

So, what company will be first to take advantage and deliver experiences which put our originals to shame (using the new Windows media Center Presentation Layer Application model, of course).

Categories: Media Center | Media Center Application Design | Comments [5] |

| Posted on Thursday, July 27, 2006 4:46:44 AM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)

Thursday, July 27, 2006 6:17:40 AM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)

Sorry but dropping CallerID is one in a long, sad history of bad decisions made in the progress called Vista MCE. I've used both MCE 2004 and MCE 2005. We love the CallerID feature A LOT - as in whenever someone calls we decide whether it is worth it or not to disrupt our TV viewing to answer the phone. The vast majority of the time it isn't - damn telemarketers.

It's looking more and more like I won't be upgrading to Vista MCE anytime soon. Although I'm intrigued by the CableCard support I don't really want to have to buy a whole new MCE PC and MCX box to get just that feature. Where's the PIP support? Where's the support for > 2 tuners? Where's the DVD streaming over to MCX support? Where's my CallerID? Vista MCE to me represents a huge lost opportunity to beef up MCE functionality. Instead we get a reworked UI that's whizzy but doesn't seem that much better than the MCE 2005 UI and in some ways is worse IMO. It's a shame really.

Keith Hill

Thursday, July 27, 2006 5:15:31 PM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)

As of now, is our loss is our..... loss. We have not gained anything yet. ;)

Julio

Thursday, July 27, 2006 6:23:39 PM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)

I guess i didn't even consider that people still use landlines anymore :)

What about getting some kind of interface to the major VOIP providers such as Vonage?

B.W. McAdams

Friday, July 28, 2006 12:35:09 AM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)

McAdams, I have been contemplating the move to VOIP, Vonage specifically. Is there some software that can run on any PC on the network to give CallerID from a VOIP call? If so it is probably just a simple matter to plug that into the MCE UI. That would be pretty nice since I wouldn't have to run a phone line to my MCE PC.

Keith Hill

Sunday, August 20, 2006 1:26:36 AM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)

I put modems into all my machines solely for caller ID.

I think it's a mistake to drop caller ID support, a decision that seems to be made on the erroneous assumption that people don't hook their computers up to land lines any more. I stick with a land line mostly because my home alarm uses a land line and is incompatible with VoIP services such as Vonage. Other people have their own reasons for keeping a land line, but the truth is that far more homes have a land line than do not, and many feed their phone line to their computer.

It seems like such a small thing to gripe about, but the truth is that it's one more deterrent to add to the hesitation I already feel about Vista MCE.

Darryl

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