Windows Media Center: Possibly the cleanest Microsoft UI

Microsoft hasn’t always been wedded to the idea of menus that either drop down or scroll up. Back in 2005 they released Windows Media Center, an application that ran on top of Windows XP. WMC was intended for use as a home entertainment hub, with an iTunes style music interface and video capture amongst it’s features. The original release never really caught on in the UK, with capability being replaced by either the Sky or Virgin Media set top boxes, or by videogame consoles like the XBox.

The interface itself was specifically designed for use on a large widescreen TV and would be controlled by a remote. Options were bright and bold, with information sliding into view. In terms of control, it worked as an opposite to regular version of Windows: slick, clean and uncluttered. It still exists today, available in both Windows Vista and as an improved and cleaner version in Windows 7.

Zune HD: Notice something familiar?

It’s clear that Microsoft have taken cues from Media Center and incorporated them into other products. The Zune HD, a portable media player only available in the US, has all the hallmarks of a device styled by the same team. Despite being the same size as an iPod Touch, the unique style and interface make it unique and desirable. Unfortunately the device is unlikely to hit European shores, as the content the supports many of the functions isn’t available outside of North America. That said, it does seem to indicate that Microsoft is willing to develop embedded operating systems that feel completely different to the standard Windows Mobile interface we’ve been used to.

With both these things in place, you can’t help but feel it wouldn’t be too much of a stretch for Microsoft to develop a superb touch-based tablet interface, either by expanding on the Zune HD or the Media Center technology they already have. There are even hints on the direction they’ll move in, with Seesmic Look being a strong example of what an MS tablet based app would feel like. Add to that the rumours that Microsoft will be announcing a Zune Phone later this month and it begins to feel like potential is building up.

My concern out of all of this is the sporadic nature with which development has happened. It’s taken five years to go from a large screen interface to a personal media player. Will it take the same time again to produce a high quality interface, leaving Apple to clean up in the tablet market? Will Microsoft surprise us with a restyled interface to sit inside the HP Slate? Will the stylus finally make it to the dustbin of history? Chanses are, 2010 will hold all the answers.

I’ve described below my 5 ideas for 2010. Some are almost certainties, while some are aspirational concepts that may never appear. Either way, I hope that they at least provide food for thought.

New Sky Player

I’ve mentioned this before, but I’d really like an easier way of buying and watching what Sky have to offer. I can’t have a dish due to stringent building controls and don’t really want Virgin Media due to the heavy push they have behind their telephone and broadband offerings, neither of which I want. Sky have recently put together packages for both the iPhone and XBox Live which sound tempting, but once I dug the surface a little deeper I discovered that it just wasn’t what I was after.

So what I’d like to do is give Sky sat £20 a month. This will then allow me to download TV shows from their platform, and keep them for say two weeks after I first watch them. If I download a show, it charges me a quid or so. If I buy a series, it charges me a batch price. If I watch one show, it might offer me a deal to pick up the rest. Operate it on a prepay basis, where I pay for things in advance, then spend money and chip away at the built up credit.

The key thing here is to offer everything – all the channels that Sky broadcast on general release. Not just the Sky branded channels, but other things as well. Build a recommendation engine around it – “If you like this show, why not try this other one”. Get to know what your customer watches on a much more intimate level and make unique targeted promotions around it. Also, let me take it anywhere – make it work with portable handsets. Expand your iPhone client so that it works with this, and so that if I’m halfway through watching something on one machine that it remembers where I am when it starts to play it elsewhere.

More integration

How many times have you seen a new service launch that seems to be an island, stuck in isolation from everything else? I’d really like to see service start to become more integrated and actively seek other tools that they could link to. I’d also like to see developers start asking for APIs and SDKs to be available as a matter of course, not as a special additional feature. As a mirror to that, I’d really like to see the online security problem solved by third parties wanting their authentication mechanism to become standard.

As these new services start springing up, I’d like to see more work going into cataloguing and organising them in order for developers to have a one-stop shop for information and advice. Places like Programmable Web have started to do this, but I’d like to see more focus on it as a meaningful endeavour. I’d also like to see groups recognised for producing useful APIs as much as the teams that go on to produce something innovative off the back of them.

Alternative Crowdsourcing

The phrases “There’s a book in everyone” or “Everyone has their fifteen minutes of fame” are almost commonplace. Less common but no less valid is “Everyone has an idea”. It seems these days that everyone has an idea or concept that they’re desperate to share, but have no clue how to see it evolve or get it to the right people. Some people rightly want to safeguard their idea and nurture it in order to see it to fruition, while others tend to throw ideas out into the open just to see what others think of them and if they’re viable.

Currently crowdsourcing efforts are generally limited to companies looking for a solution to a particular problem – large innovation websites post grand rewards for the individuals or teams that come up with solutions that meet the clients requirements. While this is quite valid, I’d also like to see a way that ideas can be proposed with no client in mind, just to expose them and gain feedback. If the idea gets picked up and becomes an innovation as a result then we all benefit from new technology becoming available.

Charity Innovation

There’s a feel these days that people meet up, share ideas and network with the goal of developing a service to offer. I can’t help but feel though that the various charitable institutions tend to miss out on the innovative ideas that people have to offer. Sometimes I think that while we might donate money to good causes, or hand down our unwanted clothing to charity shops, that the cycle doesn’t change.

But why do we have to donate money? Couldn’t we donate our time, our ideas or our ingenuity in being able to help charities with being able to do whatever it is that they do in a better way? If we could come up with ways for them to generate more funding, or for the funding that they receive to stretch further, surely that would be worth more than a few coins in their bucket as we pass by?

I’d love for charity-focused innovation events to start happening, and I reckon that there are some pretty smart people out there who would love to be able to help them just through doing what they normally do.

Taking the Tablet

I think that 2010 will be the year of the tablet, either from Google using a modified variant of Andriod, or by Apple and a hybrid OSX-iPhone OS. While netbooks have been the surprising runaway device for 2008/09, the smaller form factor of a portable device seems to have an allure of it’s own.

We’ve already seen a couple of shots fired in the form of the Fusion Garage Joojoo, but I don’t think that a pure Internet device is what the market is crying out for. Both Conde Nast and Time Inc are working on a universial standard for placing magazine content on a tablet form factor. Website managers are already starting to provide views of their content tailored for iPhone browsers. Publications like The Guardian and Huffington Post are releasing applications specifically designed to deliver their content to popular devices.

While I’m expecting a number of flat touch-screen devices to emerge next year, I think that the ones that survuve will be those that offer a unique or compelling experience beyond simple web browsing. Anything else will probably be discarded as an irrelevant gadget that fails to attract more than a core of early adopters.