Windows Marketplace has left and died

That is, on the desktop website. Windows Marketplace was Microsoft’s ideal site where Windows users could find and discover software, applications, and IE add-ons for their Windows computer. I guess they didn’t do such a hot job, so now it directs visitors to the Microsoft Store, the Windows Vista Compatibility Center and Upgrade Advisor, and a host of other e-commerce sites, and partner sites.

Windows Marketplace wasn’t too bad of a site to find neat stuff for Windows, but it was heavily disorganized. I remembered seeing like percentage points displayed like 3,000% and I had no idea what it meant. The site was too busy looking, and the little Vista-like gloss they added didn’t help. They really needed to simplify it more.

It would be nice if Microsoft had one wonderful central store to download/buy and browse from (think the Microsoft Store + Windows Live Gallery + IE Addons + WMPlugins.com + Windows Mobile Catalog + etc.) than so many different and diverse sites. Unfortunately, it probably won’t ever be happening.

There will still be Windows Marketplace for Mobile (Windows Mobile) phones though. Strangely enough.

Windows Mobile 6.5 – What you need to know

Microsoft dished out some details about Windows Mobile 6.5 at the Mobile World Congress on February 16, 2009. Here’s a bulleted list of quick information:

• Expected to be released to Q4 2009 (late 2009)
• Mostly a minor update – A more jazzed up UI, some new services, and maybe a handful of new features. 6.1 to 6.5 isn’t a big leap after all…
• “Windows Phone” – Microsoft is working with handset makers to make some more ‘signature’ type phones that will be labeled as ‘Windows Phones’. These phones will have a dedicated Windows logo button on it (not sure what it does yet).
• Windows Mobile 6.5 ONLY available for Windows Phones – Seems Microsoft doesn’t want 6.1 users to upgrade. I don’t think that will stop XDA though…

So yeah, there is some new stuff, but not anything overexciting. Now about Windows Mobile 6.5 (as of now):

1. Updated home screen and application launcher – Actually, I think the new home screen really is the application launcher. Not entirely sure though. The icons are now arranged in hexagons, probably to help with touch screen support. (note: images might be pixelated)

2. New Lock Screen – Now displays information such as missed calls, voicemail, text, and whatnot.

3. New Phone Dialer:

4. Internet Explorer Mobile updated – Now renders in IE6 Desktop mode (IE6 on 6, get it?), actual zoom bar, choice of either rendering the plain “mobile” version or desktop version, and includes support for Adobe Flash.

 

There’s also two new services announced: My Phone (formerly Skybox) and Windows Marketplace for Mobile (formerly SkyMart):

1. My Phone – Skybox service allows you to back-up your phone’s data on the web. You can back-up Contacts, Calendar, Tasks, Text Messages, Photos, Videos, Music, and Document via your Windows Live ID account. I still think it should be called SkyDrive Mobile, but at least it beats Apple’s pathetic $99 MobileMe. It should work with 6.1 from what I’ve heard.

2. Windows Marketplace for Mobile – “a rich and integrated marketplace for searching, browsing and purchasing mobile applications from Windows® phones or from a PC by simply using a Windows Live ID”. It ONLY works on Windows Mobile 6.5 devices. Hopefully there will tons of great applications, and I hope it won’t get too much of a bureaucracy like the App Store for Apple is. Users can add applications, with a “simple security and compatibility check” to make sure it works. Now I really, really hope the applications are really great quality, and it’s not just a bunch of similar rubbish with nothing cool or unique about them. No screenshots.

Microsoft has also something new called Recite. With Recite, you can take voice notes, and if you’re looking for a particular voice note, you can just simply say the exact words you remembered saying, and Recite will be able to find the most likely matches. It can be quite useful, compared to having to hunt around through each voice note to remember which one it was.

You can download it right now.

So that’s really pretty much all that’s new with Windows Mobile. Most people seem to have responded with disappointment, and I would too if I was a Windows Mobile user. There’s really not much beyond a few UI changes, a service, a store and an updated IE. Most people were hoping some more bigger changes within the OS, but not with 6.5.

Hopefully by the time Windows Mobile 7 gets out, it really will be something worth looking forwards too, and won’t be too far behind in compelling users to like it.

Here’s a video of Microsoft’s WMC Keynote:

<iframe src="http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/silverlightApps/videoplayer2/standalone.aspx?contentId=MobileWorldCongres_pressconference&src=/presspass/events/MobileWorldCongress/pageResources/playlist.xml&WT.cg_n=MobileWorldCongress&WT.z_convert=embed" width="400" height="334" frameborder="0" scrolling="no"></iframe>

Below are some worthwhile links:

http://www.neowin.net/news/main/09/02/16/microsoft-previews-windows-mobile-65#

http://www.microsoft.com/Presspass/press/2009/feb09/02-16MWCPR.mspx

http://mobile.microsoft.com/myphone/en-us/default.mspx

http://www.neowin.net/news/main/09/02/17/microsoft-my-phone-first-impressions

Snuggies has a Windows Vista themed site

Ever seen that Snuggies ad? Well I looked up Snuggies on Live Search, and the first result led me to the site.

I think they did a pretty good job of mimicking the Windows Vista look. Just thought that was interesting to post.

Want to work at Microsoft? Check out the Microsoft JobsBlog

I discovered this site by accident, but the Microsoft JobsBlog is a pretty useful site if you want some tips and help in getting hired at Microsoft.

So if you’re looking for a job at Microsoft, here’s a good site to help you out. I like this blog’s style, more than most typical Microsoft team blogs.

Is Skybox now My Phone?

Rumors of three new services to debut with Windows Mobile 6.5 are about codename SkyBox, SkyLine, and SkyMarket. A basic rundown of each:

• SkyBox – automatic backup and restore services, cloud syncing with your contacts, calendars, pictures and the like
• SkyLine – like SkyBox but is targeted at small businesses. Mobile phone users will be able to set up their smartphones with Microsoft Exchange hosting under their own domain names. Employees who travel will be able to sync their mobile devices directly under their company domain name instead of using a third-party service
• SkyMarket (now SkyMart) – mobile application store for just Windows Mobile

Someone has found out about My Phone, which seems very similar to what SkyBox is about:

Back up and restore your phone’s information to a password-protected web site

Access and update your contacts and appointments through your web account

Share photos on your phone with family and friends

Backing up data? Syncing and sharing data? Doesn’t that sound a whole lot like Microsoft’s own SkyDrive/Mesh/Sync? Why not just call it SkyDrive/Mesh/Sync Mobile instead of the uncreative name My Phone?

Someone on Microsoft’s branding/marketing team is still having a hard time grasping the notion that people may be turned off by something as simple as a name.

Well I just really hope this service is simple to use, and actually works very well, compared to the likes of MobileMe.

Live Search homepage lets you see photo backgrounds in the past?

I don’t know if anyone else has spotted this, but the Live Search homepage allows you to view daily backgrounds from the past.

If I click on the left arrow, I get the other day’s background:

Clicking on the right arrow will bring me to the next recent day’s page, which happens to be today’s page.

The copyright icon tells you the source of the image.

Anyone else notice this new feature?

Where’s “Update Feeds” in Windows Live Mail?

I use Windows Live Mail as my RSS feeder. An RSS feeder, if you don’t know, allows you to see new (or old) posts from your favorite blog or website that come updated every time you check.

Windows Live Mail used to have this feature that allowed me to click “Update Feeds” so I could refresh ALL feeds when I needed to, but I don’t see this button ever since the last version. I’m a bit upset, because I don’t know how to update feeds, without it. Sure, Windows Live Mail automatically looks up for the latest feeds, but it hasn’t done so 2 days in a row, and I’m suspicious it isn’t working. I can’t even update it if I wanted to, since I can’t find the darn button.

As far as I can tell, I can’t update any of my feeds. I could in IE7, but I’d have to do it manually one by one, and I like the way of viewing feeds in Windows Live Mail instead. I don’t know why they removed that button – there’s plenty of space on the toolbar. So I’m left trying to figure this out. Does anyone have any ideas on how to check for new feeds? Is there any other feature of Windows Live Mail that you miss?

Windows Live Tags: clubhouse, Windows Live, Windows Live Mail, RSS, feeds, issue

“Report abuse” is very unhelpful on Windows Live

I was hoping that report abuse would get an update beyond the new look, but it’s just a new look, and the same old problems.

For example:

This woman, Lady Melissa Williams sent me a message about how her husband, a Greek shipping tycoon, has died, and left a sum of 

“20.000.000.00
(20 Million Great Britain Pounds Sterling”. She’s going to die soon, or so her doctor says, and the couple planned on leaving it to the poor, and I can get a cut if I contact her lawyer at some address. Here’s a copy of the letter:

From: Lady Melissa Williams
18-20 N.Nikodimou street,Athens,Greece
I am Lady Melissa Williams suffering from cancerous ailment.
I am married to Lord Thomas Williams,a Greek shipping tycoon notable
for his great wealth,influential extended family,and charitable
activities all his life before his death.Our life together as man
and wife lasted for three decades without child. My husband died
after a protracted illness in April 17,2006.My husband and I made
a vow to uplift the down-trodden and the less-privileged individuals
as he had passion for persons who can not help themselves due to
physical disability or financial predicament.I can adduce this to
the fact that he needed a Child from this relationship, which never
came.
When my late husband was alive he deposited the sum of 20.000.000.00
(20 Million Great Britain Pounds Sterling which were derived from his
vast estates and investment in capital market with his bank in United
Kingdom and named me as the beneficiary of this trust fund.
Presently,this money is still with the Bank.
Recently, my Doctor told me that I have limited days to live due to
the cancerous problems I am suffering from. Though what bothers me
most is the stroke that I have in addition to the cancer.
With this hard reality that has befallen my family,and me I have
decided to donate this fund to you and want you to use this gift
which comes from my husbands effort to fund the upkeep of widows,
widowers,orphans,destitute, the down- trodden, physically challenged
children,barren-women and persons who prove to be genuinely
handicapped financially.
It is often said that blessed is the hand that giveth. I took this
decision because I do not have any child that will inherit this
money and my husband relatives are bourgeois and very wealthy
persons and I do not want my husband’s hard earned money to be
misused or invested into ill perceived ventures. I do not want a
situation where this money will be used in a worldly manner, hence
the reason for taking this bold decision. I am not afraid of death
hence I know where I am going. I do not need any telephone
communication in this regard due to my deteriorating health and
because of the presence of my husbands relatives around me as
i am currently bed ridden in the Family house here in 18-20 n.
Nicodemus street, Athens,Greece.
Street, England. and do not receive any visitors unless
approved by David Williams who is the immediate younger brother
to my late husband. I do not want them to know about this
development in order to safeguard this bequest. I will also
authorise my Private Attorney in the UK whom i communicate
with via emails all the time, to issue a Letter of Authority
that will empower you as the new beneficiary of this fund,
he would also endorse my WILL where i will name you as the
beneficiary of the 20.000.000.00GBP (Twenty Million Great
British Pounds). You can contact my personal Lawyer through his
email address:
Barrister Pedro Jones
Email: jonespedro01@lawyer.com
Tell him that I have WILLED the said sum to you and the reason for
doing this is best known to me. My happiness is that I lived a life
worthy of emulation. Please always be kindhearted all through your
life. Please assure me that you will act just as I have stated herein.

Yours Truely
Lady Melissa Williams

Now tell me that’s not a scam. It’s pretty obvious it is. So what’s the logical thing to do? Well I would report it, but the system on Windows Live is very flawed.  So I click report abuse on the toolbar:

So then there are boxes I have to fill out (name, e-mail, and primary e-mail are already automatically filled out), but one of them has me puzzled. It says I have to give the URL of this person’s Windows Live Space.

The question is: Why? Isn’t it obvious the person I’m reporting? I’d think she’d have to make a Windows Live ID in order for her to send me the message, right? So Windows Live should automatically know who it is I’m reporting, and there’s no point in me finding her Spaces URL.

But then it gets even dumber. I go to Lady Melissa Williams profile, to see if I can find her Space. Problem is, is that she doesn’t have a Space.

It’s usually listed on the left of a person’s profile, if a person has one, but this person doesn’t. So what am I supposed to do? This makes no sense. So I decided to do the next best thing, and take her Profile URL.

So I enter that in, and when I have to identify what type of abuse it is, I get almost every choice BUT spam. Spam is the most common form of abuse on Live Spaces (at least from what I’ve dealt with), and I can’t believe that isn’t an option. So I go with ‘Other’ instead.

As if Windows Live wasn’t acting being dumb enough, it asks for the place where this person did the abusing. Is it not obvious that it was from private messaging? Windows Live should automatically assess the situation: From who did it, to the location I reported it. That’s something basic Windows Live needs to be smart enough to actually figure out.

Then I type my complaint in the itsy-bitsy box Windows Live has provided me:

How hard is it to make the box more bigger to type in? So after that, I enter the CAPTCHA code, and that’s it. They give me a support ticket number I can use to communicate with someone from support: 1092364832

I highly doubt I’ll be communicating, but whatever…

As you can see, it’s more of a hassle to report someone, then just deleting the darn thing. I just wished that Windows Live Spaces Abuse (note it’s still deemed ‘Spaces’) would:

• Instantly recognize WHO it is that’s abusing (from their Windows Live ID) and WHERE the abuse took place (where I clicked report abuse from)
• Add ‘Spam’ as one of the forms of abuse
• Make the complaint/detail box bigger to type in

Then it would be much easier to get the bad guys off of Windows Live than ever. I don’t know about you, but I get tons of requests from people I don’t know on Windows Live, than any other site. It’s annoying!

Windows Live Tags: clubhouse, Windows Live, Spaces Abuse, spam, scam