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.

Interested in becoming an MSP?

Hi all,

This is a follow up to my presentation on becoming an MSP. I have received quite a few emails enquiring about the programme. May I suggest that you all visit the official website for details.

I'll try to run another session on the programme in the future but I can't guarantee this. Feel free to send me your queries and I'll try to reply ASAP. Please note that there can be more than one MSP for the university and since we have multiple campuses I would highly recommend that multiple people apply from each campus.

As you all know the deadline for submitting your applications is May 26, 2007, you have plenty of time so just make sure you do it properly. Once again, I am more than happy to help you in becoming a successful MSP so feel free to send me your emails or just catch me in the campus (if you see me). Thanks and good luck to all the applicants!

(MSP) Nabeel Moghal
University of Greenwich

P.S. I can only be your reference if I know you personally. If I don't know you, I am happy to meet you in person and discuss the programme which may lead to me becoming your reference. You can still use your tutors as your reference.

T-Shirts up for grab!

Anyone who attended the launch event (I have your details) can claim one of the few Microsoft t-shirts that I have got left provided they didn't win anything in the draw. I have very limited number of them and I can only give them to the first few of you requesting for it. Cheers!

(MSP) Nabeel Moghal
University of Greenwich

The Winners

Accept my apologies for the delay in this announcement. I was trying to get something for everyone. I couldn't get a prize for every attendant hence I had to select the winners randomly through a draw. I am also trying to get DVDs of Windows Vista Business for all attendants of the event provided they download their individual serial keys from MSDN. I’ll update my blog with more information as soon as possible. Keep watching this space. Following is the list of winners and their prizes:

Microsoft Keyboard 4000
Muhammad Ali

Windows Vista Business and Office 2007 (Full 60 days trial)
Toby Fieldhowe
Heba Sailem
Mohammad Iftequarddin
Nicholas Gibson

Books
Applications = Code + Markup - Microsoft Press
Ryan Thomas

Introducing .NET 3.0 - Microsoft Press
Jyoti Chellani

Shared Source CLI Essentials - O'Reilly
Dr. Diane Gan

Programming .NET - Microsoft Press
Swarajsingh Beehari

Microsoft Exams Vouchers
Victoria Lucy Anstee
N.B. Nsukisa
Suganya Perinpavayaham

Microsoft Office 2007 (Pre-release)
Lydia Thompson
Poonam Apada
Hong Chu
Manoj Menon

Microsoft Expressions
Dale Coley
Tom Delahaye
Kon Stantinos
Saveen L Jayasondara
S. Suveer Yadav
Hitendra Butani
Imran Nabi

TShirts and Mousepad/Fridge Magnets
Hing Choi Wong
Amir Raza

Congratulations to the winners. Please email me as soon as you see this to let me know if you’ll be claiming your prize. You have a month to claim it after that I’ll give your prize to someone else. I'll think about logistics only after receiving confirmation from you. Till then your prize will be safe with me.

I would also like to use this opportunity to thank Heather Baynes, Yaqoob and Ravi for helping me make this a successful launch event. Thank you!

Once again thanks for being part of the event and filling out the survey. Those who haven't filled the survey form yet, can fill it at:
www.communitylaunch.com/survey


(MSP) Nabeel Moghal
University of Greenwich

Thank you for a successful launch event!

I would like to say a big thanks to all of you who attended the launch event of Microsoft Windows Vista at the University of Greenwich. As per promise I'll be announcing the winners of Microsoft goodies soon. Keep watching this space.

(MSP) Nabeel Moghal
University of Greenwich

Windows Vista Campus Launch

Official Campus Launch of Microsoft Windows Vista for the University of Greenwich is scheduled on March 21, 2007. The presentation will be held in KW315 (Maritime Greenwich campus) at 16.30. Be there to get Microsoft freebies and a chance to win Microsoft products.

There is no registration required for this event. If you need more details, feel free to drop me an email: nabeel.moghal@ieee.org

(MSP) Nabeel Moghal
University of Greenwich

Imagine Cup 2007

Round 1 of the Imagine Cup 2007 has officially opened. If you are up for a challenge and a chance to represent UK in the worldwide Imagine Cup finals in Seoul, Korea in 2007 why not try the official Imagine Cup website given below. You are highly encouraged to apply in any of the 9 categories. The school is always happy to support such activities by students. Please feel free to contact me if you need more information.

I will be giving away some Microsoft freebies for the first few teams (Greenwich only) that sign up for any of the available categories.

To sign up or for more information please visit:
http://www.imaginecup.com

Enhancements in Windows Vista RC2 Build 5744

I have been using different versions of Vista beta since PDC 05 release and I must say the way Vista has shaped up is quite astonishing. I loved the RC2 Build 5744 as much as much I hated the PDC 05 build.

Microsoft deserve praise on making Vista’s setup the easiest ever for any release of Windows (or for any operating system). It was simple and easy. It took about 40 minutes to complete the setup process. The system rebooted into new streamlined desktop (Aero was working out of the box) and everything looked nice. The crisis started when Vista failed to recognize my 3Com wireless USB adapter. It also didn’t recognize my Intel modem, Sound blaster Live, nForce integrated audio and MSI webcam but that didn’t bother me as long as I have a working Internet connection. It turned out that a minor upgrade of the driver using my old XP driver could give me a working wireless connection, although Vista did warn me about the driver not being compatible. Having a working Internet connection and having activated my copy of Vista I went to device manager and upgraded the missing drivers. Vista was clever enough to find the drivers itself over the Internet and within minutes I had my sound cards and modem working. Now this is sleek! Only driver Vista couldn’t find was my MSI webcam (I blame MSI, they don’t have that even on their website). To get optimum performance from my video adapter I went to nVidia’s website and downloaded nVidia driver for GeForce series. This gave a noticeable performance improvement on Aero and I could feel window animations and flip3D being more responsive. Apparently nVidia have been preparing for Vista big time.

Up to this point Vista’s intuitiveness to come up with problems and my experience to come up with solutions were on par with each other and we were moving forward. First warning I received from Vista’s security centre was to install an antivirus program. With a click it took me to a webpage offering free trials from few companies including Microsoft Onecare Live. I opted for Onecare Live as I am a current user of Onecare Live on my actual system and I am quite satisfied with the product. Onecare Live installation removed the warning message and Vista was happy to let me do the fun stuff.

There are many improvements in almost all the tools and features offered by Vista in this release including everyone’s beloved Notepad (it could be due to the use of new TextBox control). Windows sidebar is my favourite part in this build. To be honest I could never use sidebar in previous builds because the CPU and memory consumption was too high. My poor test system couldn’t handle the extra load so for testing I always had to turn it off. However, build 5744 has got major improvements in sidebar and sidebar gadgets. I have kept sidebar running with clock, slideshow, weather gadgets and notes since I started using this build. I never felt the need to turn it off. In fact I am getting so used to it that I miss my gadgets on my work system. I think there are going to be very innovative and useful gadgets coming out next year. I can feel the coming of the storm.

The system rating tool for the first time has rated my system 2.5, a 0.5 point improvement over previous builds. The detailed results felt close to reality and the time that tests took gave a satisfactory feeling of the actual work being carried out.

User Account Control (UAC) is still annoying at times but what I liked in this build is that if some application needs higher privilege and if it’s not the active window, the UAC waited till we shift the focus on that window. Window button on the taskbar is highlighted to attract user attention but the good news is you can carry out whatever you were doing and come back to the target window when you have the time. However, this is a potential problem for the old applications not designed for UAC and the extended wait might render the application unusable.

I have been using Vista for over two weeks as my primary operating system and I found it very stable and responsive, perhaps more than RC1. Performance is much better than previous builds and idle CPU consumption has gone down big deal. With tools like Visual Studio 2005 Team Suite, SQL Server 2005 and some other supporting utilities running I still had half of resources to my disposal. The average CPU utilization I had with my sidebar (with 5 gadgets), Word 2003 and Windows Media Player running was 25% which is a big improvement over previous releases. And with same applications running the memory utilization was 500MB on average which is again a great improvement. With almost similar configuration my Windows XP SP2 gives 20% CPU and 480MB of memory utilization. I would discount Vista on that extra resource consumption owing to Aero and the sidebar.

To summarize everything, my experience with Windows Vista RC2 has been very satisfying and I think Microsoft have rightfully declared it code complete. As for my Vista upgrade, Dell says it’s November 28th and I am waiting. It would be interesting to see if it will still give me warnings about SQL Server 2005 not being compatible with Vista and then run fine. :)

Test System Configuration:
CPU: AMD Athlon XP 2100+
RAM: 1GB
Video: nVidia GeForce FX 5200 128MB
Sound: Create SB Live! nVidia Integrated Audio
HDD: Maxtor 200GB 7200 RPM 16MB

(MSP) Nabeel Moghal
The University of Greenwich

Meet your Microsoft Student Partner (MSP)

As I struggle to get access to the university’s email distribution lists I have decided to write my blog on regular basis. Since I have received confirmation from Microsoft about being selected the Microsoft Student Partner (MSP) for the University of Greenwich I am trying to get hold of people to help me out in the first step which is to introduce myself to the university students and staff members. While I get my access sorted out I thought I should waste no more time and introduce myself using other possible ways. This blog is one of them and is going to be the official information source from your MSP.

My name is Nabeel Moghal and I am a final year student of BEng H. Software Engineering at the University of Greenwich. I am based at the Maritime Greenwich Campus and nearly all MSP events will be held there. I am a MCSD (VC++), MCSD.NET (.NET 1.1) and MCTS (MS SQL Server 2005). I spent last year at Intel for my industrial placement where I have been involved heavily with real life software and systems engineering. My technical interests are Virtualisation, Computer Vision and High Performance Computing.

I am delighted to say that this is the first time in the university’s history that someone has been selected MSP. We need to have Greenwich representation at Microsoft Campus and I hope someone is thinking about taking this responsibility next year. Please feel free to drop me an email or catch me in the campus if you need further information about the programme.

As a MSP I would be holding different events and technical talks. I am hoping to invite industry leaders from Microsoft and other major organizations. The first event we are looking to do is Microsoft Windows Vista’s campus launch early next year. I am talking to Microsoft reps in the university and MSPs from nearby universities to help out in this. You’ll be notified about the details once we have more information. Keep watching this space, it’s going to be the first of its kind and it’s going to be a good one.

Thanks

(MSP) Nabeel Moghal

Why did I create this blog?

Frankly, I don't know. Just wanted to reserve my name. Let's see if in the future I reach a state where I can post something useful.