Running Mate for Windows Phone 7 now available

Running Mate is a workout tracking app which lets you track and analyse your workouts. I have created this app based on my requirements as a casual runner. I don't need to create account or sign up to a service. I just put on my gear, press run button and start running. On fiinish I press stop and that's it. Whenever I am free I can go back to my run to see my route and stats including splits per kilometer. Some of the features include:

STANDALONE OPERATION

No account or signup required, do everything from your phone.

ACTIVE TRACKING

Shows your position on map and live stats during run.

CUSTOMIZATION

Allows you to set GPS sensitivity and Speed threshold to reduce GPS noise in areas with weak GPS signals.

FREE TRIAL

Lets you use full functionality for 5 workouts.

LOW PRICE

Only £0.79 ($0.99)

Download now from the marketplace. http://social.zune.net/redirect?type=phoneApp&id=eb3ce75c-21fb-df11-9264-00237de2db9e

Smash Attack now available for download

Smash Attack for Windows Phone 7 is now available in the marketplace. Download it using either Zune PC software or direct from your Windows Phone.

Description:
Smash Attack is 50 levels of brick smashing fun. Your aim is to smash bricks using a ball which bounce of a small paddle you control using your fingers. The game is designed to be played with one hand so you can play it wherever and whenever you want. Some of the features include:

• 50 levels of varying difficulty. 
• 10 playable levels in trial mode. 
• Long playability and excellent value for money. 
• Collect gems, paddle powers and extra lives hidden in special bricks. 
• Earn special points achievements when breaking bricks in a streak.
• Windows Phone exclusivity.

Smash Attack for Windows Phone 7 (Pre-release)

Just uploaded my first Windows Phone 7 Game Demo on YouTube. Excuse the choppy frame rate due to my lousy screen capture software. The game is nearly feature complete, only part left is testing on the device itself which I can't buy till October.

Check it out!

Zune, Xbox and HD Videos

I couldn't cover anything regarding the Zune Video Marketplace in the last post due to it not being free. Microsoft asked to stress test their servers last weekend and that involved renting out a movie. I decided to use this opportunity to test out the feature. What do I think?

There is this uncertainty about the future of Xbox 360 as a media centre due to the lack of Blu-ray drive. After watching "State of Play" last night I am convinced that Xbox does not need a Blu-ray drive. It can survive and thrive without it. In fact I prefer the console without a noisy and expensive Blu-ray drive.

Now, how it went? I paid 340 Microsoft Points (about 3 pounds) to rent out the movie. It gave me two options: Download or Stream. The option to stream video will provide you the best experience (up to 1080p) depending on your connection speed. I opted for the download option to experience the best quality. It started downloading (9.3GB) of content and I switched to TV to watch X Factor. I checked the console during breaks and I reckon by the time it downloaded 18% of the movie it gave me the option to play. So you don’t have to wait for the whole film to download before you can start watching it. I assume the software is smart enough to work out how much it needs to download before letting you play to avoid buffering.

After I finished watching X Factor I switched to the console. More than half of the content was downloaded and I started watching it. The rest of the movie was downloaded as I watched it. I didn't experience any buffering or any other issue. The content was in Full HD quality (1920x1080) with Dolby Digital 5.1 Audio. The only downside to this experience was the lack of uncompressed HD audio (Dolby TrueHD). I guess we will have to live with this since Xbox 360 is not capable of sending HD audio over HDMI yet. I don't think that as a major issue as there is very little market for HD audio and very few people have the compatible hardware.

Watching a movie on 1080p was a totally different experience. This is the first time I have used my equipment to watch a Full HD movie as I don't have a Blu-ray drive. After last night I am totally sold on the idea of downloading and watching movies and to sum up,

I like:

1. Full HD videos, ready to be downloaded whenever you like.
2. Xbox remain quiet since there is no DVD spinning inside your console.
3. Ability to rent once and play on Xbox, PC and Zune. (US only)

I don’t like:

1. Limited video library.
2. Expensive. I want to see a subscription based unlimited rental.
3. Lack of HD audio formats like Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD.

Xbox 360 Update Preview - October 09

I have been playing around with the latest update preview for about a week now and I am in a position to provide my impressions. For those who are disconnected to the world; this update includes:

• Twitter
• Facebook
• Zune Marketplace
• Last.fm

Each feature (except Twitter) is a standalone application within Xbox 360 dashboard which means you have to leave dashboard and enter a separate application. The applications are based on the same NXE like interface except Twitter. Twitter has a flat 2D scrolling list type interface, as shown in the capture below.

This interface works very well for Twitter and to be honest there was nothing that could be achieved using the NXE like interface anyway. So thumbs-up to the team for keeping it simple.

Overall, a well integrated nice little addition to the console and I am sure it will make a lot of people, myself included, very happy.

Things are not so great on the Facebook side. Where Twitter feels lite, simple and well integrated Facebook feels heavy and busy. This is not an issue for me as long as you get full functionaltiy. If I have to stop playing a game, go back to the dashboard and load a full fledge Facebook application I expect a lot. I expect the functionality that I get from the Facebook iPhone app or at least Facebook Windows Mobile app.

Before I mention things you can do I would like to point out that Facebook on Xbox will let you navigate your friends' profile, albums, etc only if they have allowed full access to third party applications on Facebook. Like many of us, I have this disabled and so have my friends. I couldn't see my friends' profile, albums or anything. I posted this to Microsoft and they confirmed that my friends will need to allow access to third party applications in their Facebook privacy settings. A real bummer?

Another major let down is not being able to view friends' walls. In fact there is very limited that you can do, you can view their status, albums and profile information. That's it! Seriously! This is like having a jam donut with no jam in it. Other than that, you can't view videos which is a shame because the best part of Facebook on Xbox is Albums and the slide show. Overall, this release of Facebook on Xbox is somewhat undercooked. I assume next version will achieve much more. As this is a "nice to have" feature, most of the users will not be complaining about it.

Zune Marketplace is exactly as I expected. The interface is clean and perfectly logical. Other than Featured list, you can also browse and search. However, content in the marketplace is not that great, I would love to see Microsoft partnering with Lovefilm or Blockbuster to provide access to a huge library as well as a fixed price subscription based service (similar to Netflix in the US). This is a great move on Microsoft side and it makes perfect sense to have something like that on a gaming console. A valuable addition to the console.

Lastly, I want to talk about Last.fm. Like Zune Marketplace, this is a great feature but unlike Zune Marketplace it has great content too. Well, that was the whole point of having Last.fm. I have already spent hours listening and discovering music on Last.fm even though I don't use it on PC. The same NXE like interface works brilliantly and provide another way of killing time when you are not playing games but still using the dashboard or as I call it, "dashboarding". (And you thought it's only you who did that?). The pan-and-zoom photo slideshow as you listen to music makes it more fun and I love it! Another great feature.

Overall, a nice selection of features that are coming our way. Since it is not breaking any existing features, it will be welcomed by the Xbox community. It will also make Xbox 360 vs PS3 debate more interesting and the decision to choose much easier. Beat that Sony!

I am also pleased to see the importance Xbox 360 is receiving at Microsoft and it gives me a very nice feeling about the upcoming additions to the Xbox 360 console.

Windows 7 RC now available on MSDN!!!

The Release Candidate for Windows 7 is now available for download!

After visiting MSDN download page for nearly a million times since this morning I just saw the RC builds on the page. Downloading now, more updates later!

Live Mesh: you are invited!

Anyone following current trends in the computing industry would be familiar with the recent efforts by Microsoft to prevent Google taking over the world of online services. Under its "Live" brand Microsoft launched a range of services including search, maps and various collaboration tools. Most of the current Live services were already available in the market by either Google or someone else. Nothing much is innovative but everyone knows the history and everyone knows the way Microsoft work. They may not invent a lot of stuff but they are very good at taking an existing product and making the best of it. Live Mesh is one of these products. I know Sun has been working on something like this for a while now. And so are Google and Amazon!

Live Mesh is a new platform from Microsoft which utilises the Cloud Computing model. It differs from other platforms like Windows because it is web-based and very limited in functionality. Currently, it offers an online desktop where you can keep your files and folders. See the screen capture below:

It looks simple but there is no reason why it cannot have other stuff that you see on your typical desktop. Maybe in the future there will be a Start menu with Word, Excel and PowerPoint on it. There is no word on it officially but this is definitely a possibility.

Now, moving away from what may come and going back to what we currently have. Consider a common problem faced by everyone who owns more than one computer and uses them quite frequently. For example, I work on my work laptop and home desktop quite regularly. Often I start something on one PC and finish on another. My current methods of keeping files in sync include emails, USB sticks and most recently SkyDrive. You all know what a nightmare this can become when you have to find the latest version of a file. Online storage like SkyDrive is good but that requires too much effort uploading and downloading files and also there is a big “visible gap” between your local storage and online storage. When I say“visible gap” I meant to make it clear that this gap will stay there for years to come but it can appear to shrink by using something that keeps those two storages in sync with each other. Live Mesh does just that. In Live Mesh, there are devices and then there is your Live Desktop. Devices are Windows XP and Vista machines (phones and Macs in the future release). Live Desktop is the online desktop as shown in the screenshot above. Live Mesh can keep files synchronised with folders on your devices and also on your Live Desktop. You have control over how you want to synchronise your files. Personally, I like to keep files synchronised at all three places, my home desktop, work laptop and my Live Desktop. By keeping files on Live Desktop I have the option to access that file from any PC without the Live Mesh software. All I need is a PC with a compatible browser.

This is how I went about installing Live Mesh for my testing. I went to the Live Mesh website and added my work laptop in devices. This installed the Live Mesh software on the laptop. I did the same at my home desktop. See the interface below:

Then I created a folder called "Data" on my work laptop. I right clicked on it and selected “Add folder to your Live Mesh...”. Anything that I work on stays in that folder till I finish with it. When I finish work and go home. I turn on my desktop at home and Live Mesh synchronises my “Data” folder for me. This means I have the same “Data” folder with same contents on both my desktop and laptop. The important thing is that they stay synchronised and even more importantly this happens silently without any user intervention. Pretty cool!

Live Mesh is not a single user tool. It takes the same concept further by enabling you to share your data with other Live users. Microsoft already offers this with SkyDrive. However, Live Mesh enables you to have a set of files synchronised among a number of people on a number of PCs. In other words, it automates the effort required to upload a file by one user and then downloading the same file by someone else. All this happens automatically which makes it a very useful product. This makes life so much easier. I can't believe something that useful came this late in the main stream.

I must mention that Live Mesh is not just about folder sharing and synchronising them. It gives you the ability to access your devices (Vista and XP machines so far) from another device securely. It offers same level of Remote access functionality as offered by Live Messenger. I have played around with it and quite frankly the performance is poor which makes this feature unusable at this stage. I would definitely like to see improvements here.

As a closing note I think Microsoft is hitting the right spot with this product. It’s new, it’s needed and it’s definitely looking good. I would be keeping a close eye on the new features to come.