So Microsoft releases seadragon for iphone -- its the infinite zoom stuff which balances client side and server side processing.

Nice, neat, useful. But not the real deal in terms of building those 3D photoscapes.

Amusingly enough, there is no Windows Mobile version of seadragon. Why? Cos the graphics on Windows Mobile devices sucks giraffes through a straw. And the iPhone has killer 3D and 2D graphics -- just look at the 3D apps like Molecules or XPlane

Tags: microsoft phone
Current Location: lab
Current Mood: perplexed
Current Music: rickie lee jones -- the magazine

So everyone was apparantly waiting for Ballmer to launch something called Zune Phones at CES.

And he didnt.

Ah well. Windows Smartphones are things I have a love/hate relationship with. Mostly hate, it has to be said:

Likes:

I like the straightforward and mostly complete OS
The dev tools are excellent
Remote management is excellent from Exchange Server

Dislikes

The OS sucks. Yes, I know this clashes with the first in the list above. But I dont need a Start button on a phone. The phone UI suffers from "if we shrink Windows it will be just fine" and it isnt.

The physical keyboards are just horrible
The touchscreen soft keyboard with toothpick is even nastier

And now the two Really Nasty things:

I usually cannot upgrade a device to the new OS. This is simple unacceptable. Buy a Windows phone today, and it might well be out of date and not updatable in 6 months time. Sorry, but thats a complete killer.

There is no unified store from which to buy apps. And I cannot buy and install over the air, at least I couldnt last time I tried.

I was interviewed recently for Swiss TV and they asked me about the pros and cons of the Apple iPhone AppStore versus the MS route:

Advantages of Appstore:
One place to look -- windows apps are spread across the internet with no catalogue -- a huge mistake by Microsoft
One place to update -- see above -- a huge mistake by Microsoft
Cheap dev tools --  a draw for MS
No review process by end users of store vendor, and then rating process by end users -- a huge mistake by Microsoft
Seed-corn VC finance for startups funded by Apple to tune of 100 million dollars

Advantages of the MS approach
No store lock-in. But no QC either

Errr, ummm, err, thats about it.

Microsoft has tried to do its usual waffly "build a community" arm waving. And has singularly failed. Along comes Apple, and does the opposite to ms in just about every area. And is hugely successful, with many one-bedroom developers having made hundreds of thousands of dollars already.

How could Microsoft have gotten it so wrong?

Tags: microsoft phone
Current Location: lab
Current Mood: perplexed
Current Music: robyn -- with every heartbeat