Microsoft

Jun 2, 2015 ∞

Microsoft has acquired Wunderlist

Amir Mizroch of The Wall Street Journal reports that Microsoft bought Wunderlist’s parent company 6Wunderkinder for between $100 and $200 million. Microsoft is on a roll, having recently acquired Sunrise calendar and purchased email app Acompli and rebranded it as Outlook for mobile. All three apps are well-regarded, particularly Outlook which was lauded by Vlad Savov at The Verge for its email, contacts, calendar and documents integration. [^1]

Wunderlist is my task manager of choice, so I’ll be keeping an eye on this story. If you haven’t tried it yet I highly recommend having a look.

[1]: Lawyers, however, should think twice before using Outlook for work because it runs everything through Microsoft’s servers to provide its more powerful features. Read more about the concerns at WindowsITPro.

Nov 3, 2013 ∞

Steam has more subscribers than Xbox Live

The Steam gaming network is now the number 2 community for gamers in the world. Sony’s PlayStation Network is on top with 110 million users, followed by Steam with 65 million. Microsoft’s Xbox Live network takes the third spot with 48 million subscribers.

The Steam number is truly impressive because, unlike the other two on the list, Steam has no console on the market yet.

The PC-gaming market and multiplayer software maker expects to launch beta hardware soon, but to take the second position without anything in households yet is quite a feat.

Jan 3, 2013 ∞

Learning by Shipping

Former Windows executive Steven Sinofsky, explaining the name of his new blog:

The title comes from something impressed upon me early in my career, which is that learning as an engineer comes from the process of starting, then finishing, and iterating on products–getting products to market and putting the broad feedback loop to work.

Funny, that’s why I picked this website’s name. Great minds… Although I would have called it “Learn by Shipping.” That -ing after “learn” is bugging me.

Still bugging me.

Nov 20, 2012 ∞

MG Siegler finally gets a Surface, despite Microsoft's best efforts

MG Siegler finally gets a Surface, despite Microsoft’s best efforts

In hindsight, I now see why Microsoft did not want me to review the Surface. That was probably the right call from a PR perspective. It’s simply not a good product.

Mr. Siegler found the Surface very wanting, but this bit from his intro is the most damning part of his review.

Nov 5, 2012 ∞

When 32GB is really 16GB...

When 32GB is really 16GB…

Microsoft is taking heat for claiming more user-available disk space on its new ARM-based Windows 8-powered Surface tablet than is really there.

But I’ve been thinking about this for a long time. Most companies are lying in their commercials, product pages, and press releases when it comes to how much disk space their gadgets offer users. This isn’t as big a deal for the kind of person who reads Alex Wilhelm at The Next Web. But for my parents, looking to buy a tablet, it is a non-trivial deception.

The deception actually works against the companies that use it: I suggest that many people may consider the larger model if the true size of the smaller model were more apparent.

Oct 27, 2012 ∞

Marco Arment goes to a Microsoft store

The link above and what it describes are far more damning than any of Microsoft’s shitty advertising and messaging.

Oct 23, 2012 ∞

Introducing the New Entertainment Experience from Xbox

Yusuf Mehdi, Chief Marketing Officer for Microsoft’s Interactive Entertainment Division:

[…] we will rapidly accelerate the reach of Xbox entertainment from more than 67 million consoles to literally hundreds of millions of devices worldwide. Also this week, we will take our biggest step ever to increase our global reach, extending Xbox entertainment experiences to 222 countries from 35.

Looks good. The only question now is whether it will work as well for me as it did for this well-coiffed engineer. Even if the only thing I get out of this update is the ability to use a phone or tablet keyboard to enter text on my Xbox, it will be the greatest thing that ever happened to the Microsoft console.

Oct 18, 2012 ∞

New $249 Samsung Chromebook

This is certainly interesting. And at half the price of an entry-level Microsoft Surface, it even comes with a keyboard!

Oct 12, 2012 ∞

Microsoft To Make Same Privacy Change Google Was Attacked For; No One Seems To Care

This is a good piece by Danny Sullivan of Marketing Land about the lack of coverage Microsoft’s privacy policy consolidation got this week compared to what Google got on a similar move earlier this year.

Mr. Sullivan’s analysis is thorough and worth a look, but I noticed a broader issue here for Microsoft:

Google matters and Microsoft doesn’t.

I’ll elaborate. Google got hammered by voluminous coverage because, in the minds of the tech press and many consumers, what they do with data matters. Microsoft, on the other hand, is not seen as an important player in the consumer data space. That perception may be inaccurate, particularly with the generally positive reaction to, if not widespread adoption of, SkyDrive and the new Outlook.

But it’s there: when it comes to privacy, Google is search and email and Android. Microsoft is, well, not much. Windows 8 and Surface may change that, but no one is holding their breath. In short, this looks like a case in which Microsoft got let less critical press coverage than they may have wanted: people complain about the things that are important to them. The unimportant things get ignored.

Aug 24, 2012 ∞

Microsoft's Election 2012 hub on Xbox Live heralds the interactive TV future

Microsoft’s Election 2012 hub on Xbox Live heralds the interactive TV future

Samit Sarkar, reporting at The Verge:

The interactive element of the hub is a live polling system. It will gather impressions from Xbox Live users as they watch live broadcasts of the three scheduled presidential debates between Barack Obama and Mitt Romney.

It’s not exactly the cross-examination inspired debate format pushed for by Will McAvoy in The Newsroom, but I think it’s a forward-thinking use of the platform.

Aug 18, 2012 ∞

Pulse Comes To The Web

Frederic Lardinois, writing at TechCrunch:

The web app, says Pulse, is “designed for discovery” and while it’s still a very visual experience, Pulse did away with the row layout it uses in its mobile apps. Instead, your list of sources is now on the left and stories appear in a beautiful dynamic grid layout. The design is responsive, so the layout will automatically adapt itself to the size of your browser windows.

I’ve only tried it out for a few minutes, but it’s beautiful and functional, and it’ll be much easier to manage sources on the web than it is on mobile.

I cut a parenthetical in Lardinois’ headline referring to Microsoft’s part in bringing Pulse to the web. The end result certainly does look great for touchscreen devices generally, and like it fits right into the Windows 8 design aesthetic specifically.

Jul 26, 2012 ∞

Apple TV: The Soon-To-Be #1 Gaming Console?

MG Siegler points out that, despite Apple CEO Tim Cook’s quiet mention of Apple TV, the little box Steve Jobs once called Apple’s hobby has sold more units than the best-selling Xbox 360 gaming console.

Not bad for a hobby.

May 23, 2012 ∞

So.cl: Microsoft's social network, or search experiment, or kind ofboth, sort of

CNET’s Steven Musil:

Users log in to the network with their Facebook or Windows Live accounts.

There are two reasons I can’t help but be cynical about So.cl, Microsoft’s latest social search experiment. I have no “official” user experience training, but both of my reasons might be considered UX critiques:

First, Facebook login suggests an interest in reducing friction, but my experience was anything but smooth. The So.cl page offers to let you sign in, so I tried to sign in with my personal email address but was told that address wasn’t connected to a registered Windows Live account. So I tried to register the same email address with Windows Live. Then, I was told it was already connected to a Windows Live account. I registered a different email address as a new Windows Live account and then got a landing page saying they’d send me an invitation ASAP. So much for signing in.

Facebook has its claws in Microsoft’s little social experiment, and it’s probably profoundly easier to use than Microsoft’s own sign-up/in process. Unfortunately, anyone who doesn’t have a Facebook account must brave Microsoft’s abysmal Windows Live process. No third way. This is a classic case of fail, and Danny Sullivan’s experience, which he wrote about at his Marketing Land website, suggests the problems I had trying to get into the damn thing only continue as you dig deeper.

Second, Microsoft did stuff it didn’t need to waste time doing: creating a stand-alone site and allowing users to: make “rich” posts (read: blog), “riff” on other posts (read: reblog, a la Tumblr), and conduct “video parties” (read: Google Hangouts, but with less features).

As usual, I have some unsolicited advice for a massive technology corporation:

First, let users sign up with an email address. If you want to make that email address automatically a new Windows Live account, fine, but don’t ask for ZIP code and gender while you do it. Don’t use multiple redirects to sign-up stages, either. Make it simple.

Second, just integrate the experiment into Bing.com itself, which looks better every time I visit it. Show users a very prominent one-time explanation and allow interested folks to opt into the experiment. Then, make the So.cl bits a minimal but eye-catching and useful sub-component of each search result or something. Anything but a distinct site. If it feels like a new feature, it’s not as off-putting as a stand-alone site, which can feel like a new hungry content monster users are expected to feed.

Microsoft has impressed many people with their design direction on Bing, as well as Windows 8 and Windows Phone (aside from the unfortunate fact that we’re still calling the last two things “Windows” at all). Simple user experience stuff like this though shows they still have much room for improvement.

For the record, one of my favorite user experience designs is ifttt. Show us what you can help us do and how to do it in the same step. That, to me, is an epic UX win.