Microsoft researcher Bill Buxton speaking at this week's Mix 09 design conference in Las Vegas.
(Credit: Ina Fried/CNET)LAS VEGAS--When Bill Buxton talks about good product design, his favorite example is the Avalanche beacon he takes with him on his ice climbing expeditions.
"It's a technology that I bet my life on," Buxton said. "How many (of those) do we have?"
The product he said is fairly complex to do and yet the market for it is small. "Precisely because of that, there are no frills. You don't add features. There are no gratuitous features."
Buxton, a former Xerox PARC researcher who helped pioneer the technology behind multitouch interfaces, says he will literally throw the device at the first person who tries to cram in an alarm clock or something else. But, he said, he likes to use the beacon when talking about design because it doesn't elicit the kind of emotional reaction that comes from citing some tech industry product, such as the iPhone.
"I like that example because it is one that is removed from most people's experience," he said. "They can approach it at the level of the issues without prejudices."
The beacon, Buxton said, is an example of a device that is meant to be a single-purpose device. At the same time, he said, the real challenge today is actually in integrating all of the technology that is out there. We have access to more devices than we can carry and yet they do a very poor job of talking to one another.
Buxton joined Microsoft's research unit three years ago to help infuse a sense of design into the company, which is not known for its prowess in that area. Much of Buxton's work these days centers on developing theories of how disparate devices and technologies can work together.
"If I look at Microsoft, I think your experience with Microsoft is not going to be determined with what your experience is with any single Microsoft product."
Microsoft tapped Buxton this week to help the company speak to Web designers at the annual Mix event in Las Vegas. As for his broader goal of helping Microsoft become a more design-oriented company, that's still a work in progress.
"We don't get it all the time but we are getting it more," he said.
For more from Buxton, check out the video interview I did below.
Microsoft's Dean Hachamovitch launches the IE 8 browser at the Mix 09 conference in Las Vegas.
(Credit: Ina Fried/CNET)LAS VEGAS--Having finished its latest browser, Microsoft on Thursday kicked off its campaign to get consumers to actually start using it.
After years of losing market share to Firefox and other rivals, Microsoft is hoping to convince people, many of whom use old versions of Internet Explorer, to give the company a new look.
Part of that marketing push is a light-hearted video on the history of the Internet that also shows off some of the new features of Internet Explorer 8, including its private browsing mode and so-called "accelerators" that let users take action without leaving the Web page they are on.
The video was shown prior to the browser's formal introduction at the Mix 09 show. Microsoft also released the final version of the browser for download on its Web site.
"We are releasing it here at Mix because we are excited about what you, the developers, can build with it," IE general manager Dean Hachamovitch said. Hachamovitch then launched into a demo of the new browser, touting its anti-malware features, such as protection from click-jacking attacks.
Speaking to a crowd of Web developers, Hachamovitch also spent a good deal of time talking about the moves Microsoft made to make IE 8 far more standards-compliant than earlier versions.
The biggest ding on IE 8 so far has been its performance. Microsoft has sought to blunt criticism in two ways. First, the company has released a video that it says shows that its browser is faster at loading a number of key sites. Second, the company has tried to downplay the difference in speed to the average user.
"In most cases the difference could literally be measured by a blink of an eye," Microsoft Senior Director Amy Barzdukas said in an interview on Wednesday. "That kind of speed becomes almost a push."
The release of IE 8 comes at a critical time for Microsoft, which faces its steepest competition in years, facing credible rivals not only in Firefox, but also from Apple and Google, among others. The global market share of Internet Explorer, which was more than 90 percent in 2004, ended last year at just above 70 percent, according to Net Applications.
LAS VEGAS--Aiming to better compete against a growing list of rivals, Microsoft on Thursday is launching Internet Explorer 8, the latest version of its Web browser.
IE 8, as the browser is known, was first shown a year ago and has been in testing for months. The new browser adds security improvements, a private browsing option, as well as the ability to save pre-defined "slices" of a Web page for at-a-glance viewing.
But perhaps the biggest change in the browser is one made behind the scenes--the decision to make the browser better adhere to Web standards. That should make life easier for Web developers in the future, but also poses compatibility challenges for sites that are optimized specifically for older versions of IE. In part to address this, Microsoft has a "compatibility" mode that lets Web sites indicate if they would prefer to be run by an engine that is more like older versions of the browser.
As expected, Microsoft is using the Mix 09 conference for Web developers as the launchpad for IE 8.
The release of IE 8 comes as Microsoft has been losing share to leading rival Firefox and also seeing stepped-up competition from Google and Apple, among others. The global market share of Internet Explorer, which was more than 90 percent in 2004, ended last year at just above 70 percent, according to Net Applications.
Both Google and Apple have been touting the performance of their new JavaScript engines, but Microsoft has sought to downplay speed concerns. The company last week released a video it says shows that, in many cases, IE 8 is just as fast as other browsers in loading popular Web sites.
"In most cases the difference could literally be measured by a blink of an eye," said Microsoft Senior Director Amy Barzdukas. "That kind of speed becomes almost a push."
Despite IE's waning share, the European Union has said it is considering sanctioning Microsoft for bundling a Web browser into its operating system in the first place, a move that it says appears to violate its antitrust laws.
As for IE 8, Microsoft will make it available for download beginning at 9 a.m. PDT on Thursday, but will wait a while before it begins to push it to Windows users who have their computers set to get the latest updates automatically.
A version of Internet Explorer 8 will also be built into Windows 7, though it is one of many Windows components that users will be able to turn off if they wish.
As for the future, Microsoft isn't saying much about its browser plans, but corporate vice president Mike Nash did seek to quash speculation that IE 8 will be the end of the road.
"I can't say what it will be called," he said of the next version of the browser. "But we're not done."
Netflix said on Wednesday that the next version of Silverlight shows some promise in helping ease recent issues that some users have had while trying to stream videos on lower-end computers.
"There are test configurations in our lab where we are seeing an improvement," said Kevin McEntee, vice president of Web development for Netflix. McEntee told CNET News that the company went out and bought computers such as an Asus Netbook that users had said were causing problems. In some cases, the low-end machines weren't able to keep up with the video and were dropping frames, McEntee said.
The next version of Silverlight holds promise, McEntee said, by allowing the load to be shared by the graphics and main processors, whereas the current version puts all the strain on the CPU.
"There was a significant improvement using Silverlight 3," McEntee said. "We think we can run on a wide range of lower-end machines that we don't run (well) on today."
However, those experiencing problems will have to wait a bit. Silverlight 3 just entered beta, with a final release not expected until sometime before the end of the year. A Silverlight 3-based Netflix player would come sometime after that, he said.
"I don't anticipate we would do it until Silverlight 3 is released as a final (version)," he said.
McEntee said that Netflix originally planned to use Silverlight only to create a Mac version of its streaming player, but decided to shift entirely to Silverlight because it lets them offer a single player that works on multiple platforms and on multiple browsers.
The biggest downside, he said, is that many people still don't have Silverlight, meaning customers have to download the program before they can watch their first movie.
"We're waiting for Silverlight to have more and more penetration," McEntee said. "We would love to be able to have (customers) push the blue play button and it just plays."
For now, Netflix is focused on offering streaming video for the PC and television rather than actively working on an option that would also get the content onto cell phones and iPods.
"We don't have any imminent plans for phones or iPods or anything with a smaller screen," said company spokesman Steve Swasey. "At some point--and we haven't said when--we would be interested in getting into other devices."
Microsoft has had a mixed track record with big-name customers for Silverlight. NBC used Silverlight to offer on-demand and live video from the Beijing Olympics. On Wednesday, NBC's Perkins Miller announced at Mix that the network would also be using Microsoft's technology for the 2010 winter games in Vancouver.
Major League Baseball, meanwhile, recently said it was dropping Silverlight for its video service and going with Adobe's Flash.
An example of the Microsoft Translator widget, which allows Web developers to offer users a way to translate a site into multiple languages without leaving the page.
(Credit: Microsoft)The company said a tech preview version of the Microsoft Translator widget is available for download, allowing developers to offer users a pull-down menu to translate a Web page in multiple languages.
The main benefit of the widget is it allows users to translate the page without having to leave a site, unlike other approaches which require a user to go to another Web site first.
Microsoft announced the translation widget at the Mix 09 event here.
Microsoft's Scott Guthrie on stage at Mix 09, detailing Silverlight 3.
(Credit: Ina Fried/CNET)LAS VEGAS--After a design-focused beginning, the talk quickly turned techie here at the Mix 09 event once Microsoft corporate VP Scott Guthrie took the stage.
After announcing a few different Web tools (which I'll save for lower down), the discussion shifted to Silverlight and Silverlight 3. Guthrie noted that so far there have been 350 million installations of Silverlight and said Microsoft believes there are now 300,000 developers targeting Silverlight.
Among the new features of Silverlight 3 is the ability to tap a computer's graphics processor to offer hardware acceleration of the video (both PC and Mac). The company is expected to make the beta version of Silverlight 3 available later on Wednesday, with some pieces of the product already having made their way onto the Web. (Update: Microsoft has officially announced the beta of Silverlight 3.)
NBC's Perkins Miller also took the stage to announce that his network will be using Microsoft's Silverlight to offer 720p HD streaming of the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver. The technology will also allow pausing and rewinding of live TV, Miller said.
Before turning to the new version of Silverlight, Guthrie brought out Kevin McEntee vice president of Web Engineering for Netflix. McEntee noted that Netflix started considering Silverlight about a year ago as a way to add support for the Mac and for more browsers.
"Twenty percent of users that wanted to stream Netflix movies couldn't because we weren't on the Macintosh and we weren't on Firefox," McEntee said. In the end, Netflix went all Silverlight for its streaming player because it allowed them to use a single player that can work across multiple browsers and computers.
Another benefit, McEntee said, is the fact that the company doesn't need to do a new installer each time it updates its player. In the past, updates required users to re-install the Netflix application, something that 20 percent of users either could not or would not do. That kept the company from innovating, limiting updates to once a year.
"Every two weeks we are trying something new," McEntee said.
As for the other products, Microsoft announced a new version of its Expression Web tool that includes a "SuperPreview" feature that allows Web designers to see what their page looks like on a variety of browsers--even browsers that are on other platforms, by tapping into a cloud service. Microsoft also made a free standalone version of SuperPreview available to allow users to compare how Web pages render in the three latest versions of Internet Explorer--IE 6, IE 7, and IE 8.
Guthrie also announced a few new details on Windows Azure, reiterating that the final version of the Azure platform is due to launch before the end of 2009. Among the features being added is the inclusion of Fast CGI support, which means Azure will be capable of running PHP applications in addition to those written for Microsoft's .Net.
Update: Guthrie offered a few more details on Silverlight 3. The new version can be used to write programs that run outside the browser on both PCs and Macs. As for timing, Guthrie said the company plans for only a single beta. "We'll ship the final release later this year."
On the Mac front, Microsoft also said that developers will now be able to use Eclipse on Macs to develop Silverlight applications.
Bill Buxton addresses a crowd of Web designers and developers at the Mix 09 conference in Las Vegas.
(Credit: Ina Fried/CNET)LAS VEGAS--To kick off its Mix conference, Microsoft went deep into its bench to find a speaker that could connect with the crowd of Web developers.
Rather than start with a product pitch, Microsoft began the event with a speech from Bill Buxton, a computing pioneer who these days focuses on design for Microsoft research.
Buxton's chat had a very un-Microsoft feel, as he ran back and forth on stage, gesturing wildly and speaking passionately about the need to create better experiences. Buxton encouraged the crowd not to get hung up on programming tools at first, but just sketch their ideas on paper.
"These things are far to important to take seriously," he said. "We need to be able to play."
That's not to say that Buxton wasn't there to tout Microsoft and its products. Indeed, Buxton talked about the growth of design within Microsoft, noting that the company has added user experience staff at twice the rate it is hiring technical people and now has about 800 designers and user experience researchers.
"We're walking the walk," Buxton said.
The product pitch is set to begin shortly, with Scott Guthrie expected to announce the beta of Silverlight 3, pieces of which started showing up on Microsoft's developer site earlier on Wednesday.
LAS VEGAS--Silverlight 3 just couldn't wait to make its appearance here in Vegas.
Microsoft is expected to demonstrate the software later on Wednesday, but pieces of the beta code have already started to make their way on to Microsoft's developer site. As noted by Ars Technica and others, the documentation for Silverlight 3 beta and other supporting bits of code are available on MSDN.
The new version of Microsoft's would-be rival to Adobe's Flash is expected to be a focal point of the first-day keynote here at Microsoft's Mix conference.
I'll be covering the morning keynote speeches from Scott Guthrie and Bill Buxton, and will likely have more to say on Silverlight 3 in just a little bit.
A correction was made to this story. See below for details.
The expected release of Internet Explorer 8 is likely to be the biggest headline out of Microsoft's Mix conference this week, though the company is likely to spend at least as much time talking about Silverlight 3, the next version of its would-be rival to Adobe's Flash.
Microsoft has already released a near-final release candidate version of IE 8 and is widely expected to declare the browser done as it prepares to address a crowd of Web developers in Las Vegas starting on Wednesday. Microsoft used last year's Mix event to offer the first public demo of IE 8.
Among its features, IE 8 includes a private browsing mode, the ability to create "slices" of a Web page that can be viewed on their own as well as greater compliance with Web standards.
The release of IE 8 comes as the market for Web browsers is heating up. Microsoft has seen its share of the browser market slip and has also been on the negative side of lots of speed comparisons from Google and Apple. For its part, Microsoft released a video last week that shows that IE 8 can still be faster overall at loading many Web pages, despite having a slower JavaScript engine.
As for Silverlight, Microsoft continues to add features and announce some high-profile deals, although Adobe's Flash has also won back some customers, such as Major League Baseball, and continues to maintain its ubiquity advantage.
Microsoft is also expected to offer new details on its Windows Azure road map. The cloud operating system suffered its first black eye over the weekend when it suffered a nearly day-long outage.
The software maker announced Windows Azure at its Professional Developer Conference in October. Microsoft has yet to detail what it will charge for the service, although pricing is not expected to be among the details Microsoft clarifies at Mix.
Personally, I'm looking forward to a chat from multitouch pioneer Bill Buxton, who currently works for Microsoft Research. Buxton is expected to talk about the importance of design in technology--a notion he has been trying to advance within Redmond's walls since his arrival at the company.
I had a chance to chat with Buxton at the recent TechFest event at Microsoft. He talked about the challenges that he faced when he joined the company three years ago. At the time, he said there was just one person with a design background that was in the company's senior leadership.
"It's not been part of the DNA," he said. Buxton maintains that Microsoft can do better, though, pointing to the company's Arc Mouse as an example of what it can do when it puts design at the forefront.
It was the lack of a design focus at Microsoft that attracted Buxton. "You go where there is a place you can apply your skills," Buxton told me. He just wanted to make sure he had "a willing patient." Buxton said Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer convinced him that the company did want to improve on the design front.
Buxton said he expects the effort to take some time, though. "It's a big company to change overnight."
Correction 1:34 p.m. PDT: This story was updated with the correct launch date of the Mix conference. It starts this Wednesday.
While Microsoft eventually hopes its Live Mesh effort will be a way for people to share data across all of their devices, the service that launches next week will be limited in several ways, CNET News.com has learned.
Next week, Microsoft will launch a pre-beta "technology preview" open to about 10,000 testers in the U.S., according to a source familiar with the company's plans.
File synchronization is an important component of Mesh, but not its only feature, the source said. Developers will be able to write their own applications for Live Mesh, with the idea that applications written for Mesh can then be accessed by a number of different devices.
Another key aspiration for Live Mesh is that it work with more than just Microsoft products. Out of the gate it will work with "multiple browsers," the source said. Initially it will be limited to XP and Vista PCs as well as Windows Mobile phones, however Microsoft wants to add Mac support as well more types of phones and even other devices, such as MP3 players.
Live Mesh is also not just a space for linking one's own devices and information. Users will be able to invite friends to share parts of their Mesh.
Ray Ozzie first talked about Mesh in a speech at last month's Mix '08 event in Las Vegas.
"Just imagine the possibilities of unified application management across the device mesh, centralized, Web-based deployment of device-based applications," he said. "Imagine an app platform that's cognizant of all of your devices. Now, as it so happens, we've had a team at Microsoft working on this specific scenario for some time, starting with the PC and focused on the question of how we might make life so much easier for individuals if we just brought together all your PCs into a seamless mesh, for users, for developers, using the Web as a hub."
The company will have more to say at Web 2.0 Expo next week, as well as at an April 24 event, both taking place in San Francisco. A Microsoft representative said the company did not have any comment ahead of its events next week.
