The Engineer Behind Microsoft's TV Strategy 292
Carl Bialik from the WSJ writes "A high-energy engineer named Joe Belfiore, age 37, has led Microsoft's Media Center team for four years. The effort has gained momentum in the past year, the Wall Street Journal reports, bolstering Microsoft's defense against a challenge from Apple's Front Row for control of home-entertainment software. 'The Apple threat seems menacing, in part because of recent history: Its iPod was a late entry in an established field of digital music players but soon stole the lion's share of the market,' the WSJ writes. At Microsoft, Front Row is already causing ripples: [Bill] Gates in an email to Mr. Belfiore asked why Apple's remote control had just six buttons. The standard Media Center remote from Microsoft has 39 buttons. (Mr. Belfiore's explanation: Front Row computers don't have TV or digital video recorder functions and thus don't need as many buttons.) At stake is more than just another piece of software for home computers. Both companies, and others, are trying to build the foundational technology for all home digital entertainment.'"
Not too bright, are they? (Score:5, Insightful)
Front Row does NOT have TV/DV record (Score:2, Redundant)
Front Row does NOT have TV or Digital Video recorder functions. Whereas Media Center does.
-everphilski-
Re:Front Row does NOT have TV/DV record ... yet (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Front Row does NOT have TV/DV record ... yet (Score:2)
Re:Front Row does NOT have TV/DV record ... yet (Score:3)
You've got 10 buttons for a direct access pad, channel up/down, volume up/down, a dpad (5 buttons), and a power button. You probably need a guide button too, that's 21 buttons.
If you decide you don't want to force the user to use the guide, you can get back 10 buttons (to 11), and it's possible to use the dpad for the volume/channel up/down buttons (dpad up/down becomes volume up/down, dpad left/right become cha
Re:Front Row does NOT have TV/DV record ... yet (Score:2)
If you decide you don't want to force the user to use the guide
Should be:
If you decide you don't want to let the user directly address channels and instead force them to use the guide
Re:Front Row does NOT have TV/DV record ... yet (Score:3)
You select the DVD Player and the Front Row Interface maps to the remote to play/rewind/stepthrough, etc.
You select the DVR and the Front Row Interface maps to the same remote to do specific UI features. The Operating System manages the MVC relationship and dynamically calls the appropriate method with Cocoa's frameworks to do t
Re:Front Row does NOT have TV/DV record ... yet (Score:2, Interesting)
Microsoft has a lot of reason to worry.
Re:Front Row does NOT have TV/DV record ... yet (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Front Row does NOT have TV/DV record ... yet (Score:2)
Re:Front Row does NOT have TV/DV record (Score:2)
The fact that the MSFT solution has more buttons does not surprise me at all. A lot of their software is filled with unnecessary buttons and toolbars that do basically the same thing for a different context. With a lot of OS X
Not too bright, are they? (Score:2)
If neither Mr. Gates nor Mr. Belfiore can figure out how Front Row could have TV and digital video recorder functions without adding buttons to Apple's remote, Microsoft is in sorry shape.
it COULD have tv functions w/out adding buttons, but it wouldn't be nearly as useful. entering channels, for example, is much easier w/ direct access buttons.
Re:Not too bright, are they? (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:Not too bright, are they? (Score:5, Insightful)
I think you're about 90 degrees away from the real reason. Gates and Company never design something like the Front Row remote the first time they set out to design an "easy-=to-use" product.
At Apple, products are not designed to look stylish, although they often end up stylish because of how they are designed. The aesthetic at Apple is clean but complex, a bit like the plastic engine covers that became popular with the German automakers in the early 1990s. The covers had little functional value beyond cosmetics and making the vital bits (dipstick, coolant level, washer fill) stick out more clearly. To a degree, the plastic engine covers made the car user's job easier and cleaned up what had for many years been a confusing wasteland of hoses, belts and wires by eliminating those items from sight.
Microsoft applies conventional controls to existing problems; Apple more often applies aesthetic improvements that also benefit the user by eliminating the surface complexity of a product.
One example on the iMac's remote control is the forward/back/up/down button.
Functionally and aesthetically, there's no good reason to have four separate buttons when a centered round four cornered button will serve just as well. Apple places a fifth "action" button inside the round button because it's a short jump when navigating by thumb - the natural digit for this work.
By placing the round button in the center of the remote control, it falls to hand easily for both right and left-handed folks, and provides equal-reach thumb/finger control of each function under the single button.
This isn't a matter of how Steve Jobs or Bill Gates thinks, or what they scored on their SATs, but a true measure of how each company approaches problems.
After a thoughtful look at Media Center PCs and a few days of using a 20" iMac, it's clear the Microsoft designs controls for feature sets while Apple feature sets include pleasing product design.
Apple's ability to create functional designs is not something Microsoft, Creative, or anyone else is going to be able to "figure out" easily. It's not a math problem or a supply chain issue that can be reasoned out in the Silicon-Valley meeting room culture.
While seasoned designers can create stunning enclosures or cases, they have not shown the kind of human-centered thoughtfulness Apple has always been good at. And it's not just the physical product design or OS "theme". Everything at Apple, down to the styrofoam in the box is _designed from the get-go, rather than being grafted to a marketing requirements document.
Apple writes their own rules (and succeeds in a style-sensitive market) because they've got their own language.
but they *never* achieve simplicity (Score:2, Interesting)
I can easily picture an interface for front row that can be add dvr functionality without adding buttons to
Re:Not too bright, are they? (Score:2)
buttons buttons BUTTONS. (Score:3, Insightful)
Personally, I suspect the Apple remote control would still have six buttons even with TV and DVR. But I imagine Gates still bought that explanation.
Re:buttons buttons BUTTONS. (Score:2)
It would be a piss poor remote then.
Power. Play/Pause. Fast forward. Rewind. Control/Menu. Channel up.
There, that's six buttons. What are you missing?
Channel down, volume up/down, quick replay, skip 30/skip-to-end, menu navigation (that's 5 right there -- up, down, left, right, select). That's pretty much a minimum for a useful remote with DVR capabilities.
Other buttons you may want easily accessible include number buttons (
Re:buttons buttons BUTTONS. (Score:2)
Left, Right, Up, Down, Select, Cancel
The "any" key brings up the on-screen menu if you are not already in it. I'm sure there are other combinations that will work too.
Re:buttons buttons BUTTONS. (Score:2)
And you've entered UI nightmare.
How do you change channels/volume? Left/right for one, up/down for the other? What about fast-forward/rewind/play(which could double as pause)/record? The same?
So, uh, how are you supposed to change volume and be able to do trick play? Oops. Or do the same while being able to change channels in live tv?
And note that you're still missing quick rewind/skip capability. And any page up/page down ability in me
Re:buttons buttons BUTTONS. (Score:2)
I did not suggest it would be ideal - just that it is not impossible ("there is no way you can"), as the original post claimed. All of the actions you describe would be possible with a six button remote by having the actions take place via a menu - even one involving a small set of icons at the bottom/top/left/right of the screen. Ever used a Playstation 2 for watching DVDs without buying the separate remote? It has a scheme very much like this (us
Re:buttons buttons BUTTONS. (Score:2, Interesting)
Menu Navigation: 1) Up, 2) Down, 3) Left, 4) Right, 5) Select, 6) ?
Live TV: 1) Volume Up, 2) Volume Down, 3) Channel Down, 4) Channel Up, 5)?, 6) Menu
Recorded Videos: 1) Skip Ahead, 2) Skip Back, 3) Rewind, 4) Fast Forward, 5) Play/Pause, 6) Menu
It's the overloaded buttons you're talking about, but it can be done very intuitively. I don't know how they do it on the iMac, but I think it could work farily well for DVR purposes, too. The iPod uses its w
Knobs vs. Buttons (Score:3, Insightful)
You see, it's a matter of continuous UI (knobs) vs. discrete UI (buttons). Sometimes continuous UIs are *just* better for certain things. Most of us are used to discrete UI for TVs and such -- but that doesn't mean a continuous UI is unworkable. It just needs to be designed properly, and the best company to design such a UI is probably Apple.
I'll tell you where a discr
Re:buttons buttons BUTTONS. (Score:2)
Re:buttons buttons BUTTONS. (Score:2)
Now if it were possible to have something like an Exposé for TV channels.... that'll make channel surfing much easier.
Just a tiled mosaic of all the stuff that's playing and whip to the channel you want with a scroll wheel.
Re:buttons buttons BUTTONS. (Score:2)
Re:buttons buttons BUTTONS. (Score:2)
There is a re
Re:buttons buttons BUTTONS. (Score:2)
Six buttons vs. 39 buttons (Score:2, Funny)
Re:Six buttons vs. 39 buttons (Score:3, Interesting)
Well, as a good Linux user I see several buttons: left, right, middle, "thumb 1", "thumb 2", "roll forward", and "roll backward". I suppose you could get rid of one of the thumb buttons, but then how would you reload your weapon without the keyboard?
Re:Six buttons vs. 39 buttons (Score:2)
I now have a 5 button mouse and the obligatory scroll wheel. You'd have shoot me to go back to 2 buttons now. If programmed correctly those extra buttons will easily help in the long run. From running apps, browsers, and many games
Anyone get the idea . . . (Score:2, Insightful)
All was quiet for a while and now it seems like a BS tsunami.
the unspoken battle (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:the unspoken battle (Score:2)
Re:the unspoken battle (Score:2)
It's really becoming more and more apparent what Apple's strategy in this area is, they just haven't admitted as much.
Mac Mini + Front Row (Score:4, Insightful)
Until next week that's true, but one of the main predictions for MacWorld is a Mac Mini with a TV Tuner and Front Row software.
It's amazing to me how the iPod came into its market, took over and completely dominates. Electronics manufacturers are building entire product lines from low-end to very high-end accessories, specifically to capitalize on the iPod's success. Most major high-end distributed audio systems now support directly connecting to the iPod to allow it as a source for whole-house audio.
The Mac Mini has been used as a cheap but solid music server by many custom electronics installers. Apple is not only winning with general consumers, but for very high-end applcations (read: rich people's houses and very nice commercial installations).
It's funny to me that Microsoft has been pitching the Media Center for a few years now, and it's starting to come around for expensive custom installs now, too, but I think it's too much. Too much complexity trying to give people stuff they didn't know they want, and not allowing the real control people need.
At work I see a lot of hype about Windows Media Center, and although the menu animations look smooth and almost fancy, and it would be nice to have full Tivo-like capabilities from my PC, I think it's too bulky, trying to be the great all-purpose PC, and give you Tivo functionality, too. I think Microsoft misunderstands a lot of the higher-end market they're trying to get into, because of their arrogance and assumptions that they can just enter any market they want. At the same time, Win MCE isn't really for alot of middle class people either, because those people mostly just want to check their e-mail and browse the internet.
I won't be surprised at all to see Apple provide an inexpensive Mac Mini-based solution that consumers from low-middle class to the very rich will be excited to own and use. I think Microsoft, even though they've been in the game for a relatively long time already, should be getting ready to have their lunch handed to them. I've never owned a Mac or an iPod, but I think I might be holding my own 6-button remote soon.
Re:Mac Mini + Front Row (Score:3, Informative)
Can I take this opportunity to point at MythTV [mythtv.org]. I've been using it for several years and it's still better than the systems the sat and cable operators are providing here in the UK. I was stuck using my parent's NTL Digital system at Christmas and realised just how much functionality I take for granted in Myth which just isn't there in the NTL system. Similarly I hear friends commenting about features they wished Sky+ had and they're alwa
Re:the unspoken battle (Score:2)
The Xbox360 has some of the same faults (particularly the hard drive and the inability to record), so it too would need a hefty server
Re:the unspoken battle (Score:2)
I think that the footprint of the mini is designed for conservation of desk space, which is perhaps more constrained than the space on top of the mammoth AV receivers that people have these days! :)
Re:the unspoken battle (Score:3, Interesting)
Agreed. It's certainly in need of an update, although I suspect they're holding off for the Intel CPU line (as with many of their other badly needed updates).
Thing is, if you cram all of that in one box you'll completely blow the price ceiling -- you'd be looking at closer to $1000 instead of $500, and that will appeal to a much smaller community of users. It would definitely be a serious competitor to MS based HTPCs though.
It's a lot to cram into that small of a
Re:the unspoken battle (Score:3, Informative)
Re:the unspoken battle (Score:5, Informative)
The DVI output on the mac mini is a high quality output which is found on a wide variety of modern TVs [google.com]. If your TV doesn't have that, Apple sells a DVI->Svideo adapter [apple.com] for the mac mini. Apple's competing on this front, they're just weirdly silent about it.
Re:the unspoken battle (Score:3, Informative)
Is $35 too expensive? [beststuff.co.uk]
Seriously, I'm no Apple fan, but everything they're doing with respect to the mini just *screams* home media device. And from their strategy with the ipod, you can bet that they'll slowly integrate the most-requested features into the actual product, and leave the less-requested features available as addons from third parties.
Re:the unspoken battle (Score:2)
Baby steps... (Score:5, Insightful)
The line from Pirates of Silicon Valley where Bill says (paraphrasing) "You have to make people need you" is perfectly descriptive of Microsoft's philosophy. You create a dependency over time... something that seems fringe or even silly in 1995 but in 2005 everyone can't live without it. It's a long process, but it works. You might not like it, either. But it makes money. It's a sound business practice.
Except... (Score:5, Interesting)
The Mac mini is a baby step; cost effective, profitable, yet tentative. The iPod with video is a baby step; heck, even the original iPod was a baby step.
Apple has undertaken several baby steps to get themselves into the living room:
iPod
Mac mini
iMac with Front Row
Airport Express
iTunes Music Store
iTunes Video Store
Each one works on the experiences of the others and feeds off the successes of each other. Apple watches how Creative (mis)handles MP3 players and comes out with the iPod, watches how Sony and Creative and Real create jukeboxes and creates a correspondingly better one itself, watches how poor music stores are written and creates a nice one, etc.
Microsoft, in comparison hasn't taken any baby steps. It debuts the Media Center PC without any segue devices into the home, then years later introduces the XBox sans media center functionality, then introduce the XBox 360, again sans Media Center functionality.
If Microsoft were doing baby steps, why not release the XBox with build in Media Center functionality? It had the harddrive already, the DVD drive, the CPU! Why not use the XBox to refine the media center functionality, instead of a gaming PC? Why not introduce the XBox mini, who's sole purpose is to lower the price point for the XBox to $99, act as a DVR, and a digital hub? Of course they can't do it because Intel sees no reason to, but that is why you parter with AMD! Create a purpose built CPU, integrate the GPU and other hardware, for a system on a chip so that they can release an entire console with only three components and four devices!
Instead they end of life the XBox the same day the XBox 360 is released; unlike how Sony has successfully kept the PSOne and PS2 alive these past years, and likely will continue to support PS2 for years after the PS3 is out.
Re:Except... (Score:2)
While the 360 doesn't record TV (nor would you expect it to), it does function as a high-definition media-center extender that allows you to veiw and control your Media Center PC.
Re:Except... (Score:2)
The iPod is a self contained "music center PC", while the XBox, and now the XBox 360", are not Media Center PCs despite having all the necessary hardware to be so, if Microsoft so chose. Why they didn't, I do not know.
Re:Except... (Score:2)
It is most certainly a challenge to get the average consumer interested in setting up a client/server environment in their house but, whether or not you believe it, MCE is well on i
And even if... (Score:5, Insightful)
Tivo Series 1 has 33 if you count the four way hat as four.
For me it's not so much how many buttons, but whether they layout is useful.
Tactile UI design (Score:3, Insightful)
Exactly--and more importantly, whether the common functions (volume, channel, play/pause) are sensible and can be discerned by feel. Nothing worse than having to look away from the display down at the remote in your hand to twiddle the volume, something I tend to do almost constantly.
My zd8000 MCE laptop remote control is about as bad as it gets, so it's just collecting dust.
Re:Tactile UI design (Score:2)
Case in point: I was at my new girlfriend's house, where her father has set up a wonderful entertainment center (CD/DVD, VCR, Big Ass HDTV, receiver, satellite tuner, PVR, etc.). There is an equally massive collection of remotes to go with this bunch. The GF knows how to operate most of it, because she lives there and h
Re:And even if... (Score:2)
AND how many other remotes it replaces! I was delighted to find that my TiVo remote can be configured to behave like my shitty Toshiba remote so I could ditch that remote forever! After all, I only ever used the on/off, volume, and video input buttons.
If I can just have one remote, and the layout is useful and not confusing, I care less about the number of buttons.
Re:And even if... (Score:2)
That's like saying, "for me, it's not what color the car is, but whether it looks nice". In other words, the number of buttons is very intimately related to the usability (and therefore, usefulness) of the layout.
Each button you add adds complexity and clutter to the UI.
Gates was right to ask his team about the number of buttons. If he's even half as smart as his legend claims, he won't buy their lame response.
Re:And even if... (Score:2)
Re:And even if... (Score:2)
I still think you could get away with about 10 buttons since I dont usually use the 12 for the channels.
The thing I would really like though is the ability to page-down page-up in the guide, skipping 5 or 6 at a time would be ideal. Maybe there is that functionality already, but I don't have it set up.
Re:Let's count them (Score:3, Insightful)
Please, do us all a favor and don't ever design a user interface, form, or procedure that anyone will ever use.
Screw Apple *and* Microsoft (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Screw Apple *and* Microsoft (Score:2)
Re:Screw Apple *and* Microsoft (Score:3)
Apple's design proves the idea that perfection is obtained not when there's nothing more to add, but when there's nothing else to take away.
if everyone else in the world aspired only to levels such as using a 104 key keyboard just to change channel, then computers would still take up an entire room.
Re:Screw Apple *and* Microsoft (Score:2)
TV remote's numeric buttons (Score:2, Interesting)
Still, the 6-button approach is better in general over 39-button one IF the buttons are assigned in a clever way. It's obvious that most of those 39 buttons only get pre
Re:TV remote's numeric buttons (Score:2)
but has anyone noticed how appalling modern (UK) cable boxes are? all the ones I've seen have had a second or two lag whenever you change channel, and my dad's nokia freeview box frequently crashes.
could you imagine expose-style simultaneous viewing of all your favourite channels and then select what you want like you do with pictures on the iPod. not likely any time soon though.
Re:TV remote's numeric buttons (Score:2)
Re:TV remote's numeric buttons (Score:2)
The real features for a successful DVR are having enough encoders to record at least three channels at once if not four. And to have enough disk space to keep at least 150 to 200 hours of recordings on line. If they short change either of these they will reduce the usefulness of th
One button? (Score:5, Funny)
Re:One button? (Score:2)
No. For the last time, THAT'S THE GARAGE DOOR OPENER.
Pointing it at your Mac will *not* run the TV, it will just open and close the garage door, so stop trying. It's annoying the neighbors.
As N approaches 76,800 buttons... (Score:2)
Sure, and if Microsoft had its way, it would turn each of the 76,800 pixels on your 320x240 touchscreen into a button.
Think of all the wonderful functionality this could open up! And the marketing opportunities! Oh, joy!
the real answer (Score:5, Funny)
Buttons? (Score:5, Insightful)
Number of buttons (Score:3, Insightful)
The number of buttons on the average remote is absolutely ridiculous. Take the one that controls my set top box, for example. There's a blue button (actually, two blue buttons), 'OK', 'TV', 'Guide', and 'i', that all do the same thing in various situations. Other situations make you hit the red button for favourites - even though there's a 'Favourites' button that doesn't work in that situation, and so on.
The actual on-screen interface it controls is dire too. I don't know about anybody else, but it seems to me that the current generation of TV interfaces were designed and implemented by computer people, where the previous generation was designed and implemented by telecom people. You can tell the difference in professionalism in a heartbeat - ten years ago, the idea of something like a TV crashing would be laughable. Now, when I switch on my set top box, I'm greeted with a video explaining how to reboot it! Seriously!
PS: don't take this as a flame, I' m a computer person as well. But let's face it, our industry is full of cowboys, and it's been that way for so long, we've progressed past the point of "I can't believe those jokers get away with things like that", and we're now at the point of "this is normal, it's pie-in-the-sky nonsense to expect things not to break randomly". How pathetic of us.
PVR is a distraction (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:PVR is a distraction (Score:2)
Trying to support PVR features is the Media Center's Achilles Heel. I simply cannot believe Microsoft does not have a video store of its own by now, also selling TV shows. When ITMS started to take off that was absolutely the right time to trump Apple and get ahead of them.
I think you hit the nail on the head. Apple probably won't even be considering adding recording capabilities, and will simply give customers the option of acquiring what they wanted to record through the iTMS instead. The problem wou
Home entertainment versus computing (Score:3, Interesting)
While Microsoft's good choices at picking and promoting a standardized user interface are certainly not to be overlooked, I wonder if it means that they are taking the actual guts of the system less seriously than they should.
After Linux first showed signs of becoming popular, Microsoft quickly upgraded Windows NT into a passably professional server product (Windows XP). But if Bill Gates' big speech to the CES was about a home entertainment computer, I wonder if the company is going to actually think about making their server product more secure at all.
To me, this is like someone going in to buy a utility truck for work...and having the salesman spend all of his time explaining how the car stereo system works.
Re:Home entertainment versus computing (Score:2)
NT4, back in 1996, was the first "passably professional server product" when it started displacing Netware in significant amounts. That would be ca. Red Hat Linux 2.0.
But if Bill Gates' big speech to the CES was about a home entertainment computer, I wonder if the company is going to actually think about making their server product more secure at all.
When pr
Re:Home entertainment versus computing (Score:2)
Oh, and XP is not a server product.
Re:Home entertainment versus computing (Score:2)
So do I average out?
Simple, Easy is NIH at Microsoft. (Score:3, Insightful)
I see it didn't occur to either one that the Apple remote has fewer buttons becuase the interface is simply not as complicated as theirs. Another company falling for the dillusion that "more buttons = better".
Buttons (Score:5, Insightful)
Typical Microsoft. I wonder when they'll realize that Windows XP is not appliance-ready? AFAIK, Media Center is just XP Pro with an extra app (the main Media Center app) installed. I've personally worked with XP Embedded (a componentized version of XP Professional) and it's a total BITCH. You have to hack it to make it "embedded" by setting registry settings, and installing things that click "OK" to modal dialogue boxes and so on. If I can't get XP Embedded working like an embedded appliance, what makes MS think that they can make a standard XP Pro installation work for the average consumer?
Media Center is great for people like me, and also people on Slashdot that don't foam at the mouth every time MS is mentioned, mumbling "Linux! Linux!!". It's also pretty awesome as a bedroom computerTV or for a dorm, but I just can't see it making significant inroads into the living room. Apple may change things somewhat by simplfying things, and so perhaps will the Xbox360, which is where I'm putting my money (not literally of couse).
why do they bother? (Score:3, Informative)
war of the buttons (Score:5, Funny)
Mac could go with only two buttons ("play" and "order a new battery from apple"), but Microsoft is stuck with at least four ("play", "reboot", "reinstall" and "upgrade").
Only Amazon.com could possibly come with a single button operation... but wait, don't they already have a patent on this?
Why only 6 buttons? Here's why. (Score:5, Insightful)
When Apple designed Front Row, they realised that because they have visual cues all over the screen, each of the six buttons can have several functions depending on the context. They just need enough buttons to navigate a menu system, and everything else is done on the screen.
Leave it to Microsoft to cram in the technology. Leave it to Apple to see the possibilities afforded by that technology.
Dan
Re:Why only 6 buttons? Here's why. (Score:3, Insightful)
Comment removed (Score:5, Insightful)
BRING IT (Score:2)
The more competitors in a marketplace, the better for everyone, the more innovation, creativity and redefinition of the status quo is possible.
What about my Universal Remote ? (Score:2)
What is it with these people? I want my music from ITMS to play on my WinMC
Looking at the iPod video you can see both sides (Score:3, Interesting)
A console has a very restricted interface. Simple but restrictive. A pc has hundreds of buttons. Complex but freeform.
One of the simplest examples is spell/weapon selection in game. On a PC you usually get a list handily labelled with the top row buttons 1-0 or in case of EQ2 1 to =. This allows fast switching/selection.
A console usually requires you to use and forwards/back setup.
Yet is this actually simpler? Depending on the game constantly having to search through a list could be considered a pain. Perhaps that is the reason Halo put grenades under a different button instead of making it a selectable weapon?
The Grenade under G is a nice feature however that also made it to PC land.So perhaps the limited input on the console made the PC with its 101 keys even easier to use? I can easily select my weapons directly AND thanks to consoles now can use grenades with a main weapon equipped.
The iPod is similar. I have had a lot of MP3 players and the iPod is my latest and it is nice. Yet at times I long for my iRiver player (wich died a painfull death) because while it had far more buttons and some odd button overloading once you figured them out it was so much easier. I never accidently changed the volume or skipped because all basic actions had their own function.
Simple example of how fewer buttons can be confusing? Well perhaps it is me and my fat clumsy fingers but I hate those buttons that combine skip and fastforward. The price we pay for saving two buttons is that you cannot instantly fast forward. You got to wait for the timeout and the fastforward to start.
There are other problems with the iPod, it is all to easy to screw up the volume as you try to change other settings. Yes the wheel is very nice usually but sometimes I just want to shuffle the selection (is it me or does iPod not support dynamic shuffling?) or change the equalizer settings without going deaf or losing all sound.
But this is nothing new. You got three kinds of gear control in cars. Full automatic, the american half-breed, and full manual. The fact that all three continue to be sold tells us that perhaps all three serve a segment of the market.
Perhaps it should be up to the consumer to decice what they want. For all the mac fans I do suggest that an awfull lot of people do not like the minimalist approach if it limits them in their speed. Proof? How many mac's are actually used with the original 1 button mouse?
Yes it is simple and the most default upgrade for a mac machine is a "real" mouse.
MS has always been in a sort of middle ground anyway. If you want total control you use a unix. If you want total simplicity you use a mac. The middle market is windows. It served them well. MS has plenty to worry about but their remote having more buttons is not one of them.
Diametrically opposed views of "value of content" (Score:3, Insightful)
Rhapsody customers are communist in that they place no value on the content. Their subscription fees get them nothing but access. The day its over, for whatever reason, they're left with a ringing in their ears, but nothing to listen to.
The analogies can be extended further, but I think I'll do that on my blog and in my podcast.
Re:How to dismantle a remote control bomb (Score:2)
Re:Why 6 bottons? (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Why 6 bottons? (Score:2)
I discovered that the f****** hid the "ring" option with the volume on mine - took me like a half hour to find it.
Re:Why 6 bottons? (Score:2, Insightful)
Or maybe you should RTFM. I don't *want* my mobile dumbed down for people like you.
Re:Why 6 bottons? (Score:2, Insightful)
Are you serious or you are trolling? It's a bloody phone. You are supposed to be able to make phone calls on it. If you want a digital camera, spend a few hundred bucks and get a decent one. If you actually "need" a PDA, get a PDA.
Cell phones are supposed to be made, first and foremost for the average consumer not clueless geeks like you. You seem to completely lack any common sense. Grab a clue and step away from your co
Re:Why 6 bottons? (Score:2)
I am away from the computer, lots, which is why I want camera, mp3 player, etc on my mobile. I have that - it's a tiny nokia, it's cheap (in the UK anyway) and does *exactly* what I want. UK mobiles do very well with the average consumer, thanks very much, and guess what, they all want cameras, etc.
It's only on
Re:Why 6 bottons? (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Why 6 bottons? (Score:3, Interesting)
My TiVo has 37 buttons and it controls only a single device. Of course, IMHO, about a third of them are unnecessary. For most devices, the extra buttons are needed because they naively try to jam universal remote functionality into a device remote, generally resulting in a device that sucks for pretty much every device it controls. I have never in my life found a universal remote that comes with a device to be particularly useful. They invariably lack some critical feature.
I now use a OneForAll Kamele
Re:Why 6 bottons? (Score:5, Insightful)
If there is some benefit to having a numeric keypad on such systems, I have yet to see it. Having an alphanumeric keyboard to make TV show searches faster, however, would be useful for some people. It should not be required, though, since hunting and pecking on a QWERTY keyboard won't actually be faster than picking letters from a grid (TiVo-style) for some customers.
While I do agree that sometimes simplifying interfaces can go too far by removing useful functionality, the reverse is far more often the case---naive interface designers throwing in the kitchen sink when all you needed was a Wet-Nap. The trick is striking the right balance, and while I may not always agree with the point where Apple strikes that balance, they're usually not far off the mark, IMHO.
Re:Building the foundations (Score:3, Insightful)
I don't know about that. I think the Tivo user interface and remote control are excellent and a hell of a lot easier than those crapola VCR programming tools.
Re:Building the foundations (Score:3, Insightful)
The TiVo interface isn't the pinnacle of achievement by any means. It just seems amazing because every manufacturer prior to that deserves a permanent place in the hall of UI shame.
The TiVo lacks power-user features (and at least in the version I have, lacks a lot of basic things like soft padding, too), and there are a number of things that could easily be improved by a good UI designer. The first example tha
Re:57 Channels (And Nothin ON) (Score:2)