windows live

Microsoft, Windows Media Player, URGE, and Live Services

Earlier in August, MTV announced they would be merging with RealNetworks to form Rhapsody America, thus ditching URGE and Microsoft. For those of you who aren’t aware, URGE is essentially a competitor to iTunes but also allows you to have a music subscription where you can download and listen to any songs you want provided you keep paying the monthly fee.

URGE hasn’t been extremely popular, though the users who use it have reported that it is overall a very good experience and excellent service to have. MTV ditching URGE for Rhapsody is a huge blow to Microsoft. It was also a stupid move on the part of MTV, in my opinion. For the last 10 years, Real Network’s desktop software has been, to be blunt, crap. It’s been bulky, slow, unstable, and one of the worst UI experiences I’ve ever seen in Windows software. Whether MTV and Rhapsody will succeed in this is anyone’s guess.

However, I see this as a massive opportunity for Microsoft to gain some ground in in online music store and subscription industry. Microsoft has already invented PlayForSure which was one of the most ingenious ideas in the history of MP3 players. If only Apple would accept that standard, we could all be happy. However, Microsoft’s biggest mistake in all of this was their refusal to add PlayForSure support into the Zune. To be honest, I think this is one of the main reasons MTV left Microsoft. URGE has long supported PlayForSure, but when Microsoft has said URGE can’t connect with the Zune (which were announced hand-in-hand), it just screws up everything.

Live services by Microsoft is also another example of joining everything together into one standard platform. If Microsoft wants to take advantage of this situation, they need to firstly, ditch the Zune software. It’s a horrible piece of software as it is. They need to just stick to Windows Media Player. Secondly, they need to add PlayForSure support into the Zune. Why in the world they ever decided to not add a Microsoft technology to a Microsfot MP3 player is beyond me. Thirdly, they need to create their own version of URGE entirely from scratch and integrate it into the Live services so you can manage your account from anywhere using the Live account you already have.

I don’t like Microsoft for a lot of things they do, namely screwing up Vista’s release. However, Microsoft has a ton of incredibly awesome ideas rattling around up in their heads. They know how to create a good product and what users are asking for. They know how to wow people. They just need to successfully do it. Microsoft Research is a prime example of this. Why exactly Microsoft Research isn’t at the forefront of everything that comes out of Microsoft I’ll never know…

Microsoft … if you’re reading this, don’t screw this opportunity up. You had a good thing going with URGE. You screwed it up. Learn from this experience, take the bull by the horns, and create something much better and something which the end user will want to experience on a regular basis. I beg you … don’t screw this up.

The Email Client

For the past two weeks, I’ve been using Windows Live Mail exclusively for my email client. I was giving it a try to see if it was a viable (and productive) option to move permanently to it, away from my regular usage of Mozilla Tunderbir

While I was using it, I found a good number of things I liked about it: how it was so simple and straightforward, yet got the job done brilliantly. On the other hand, I did find a few annoyances as well.

However, in the end, it seems the good significantly outweighs the bad. Windows Live Mail is a solid product. It has a clean and sleek design, and its features offer everything I need for desktop email and more

Congratulations Windows Live Mail, you’ve won this geek over.

Top 10 Annoyances in Windows Live Mail

For those who may not have read my previous blog posts, over the past 12 days I have been using Windows Live Mail exclusively for my desktop email client needs. I normally use Mozilla Thunderbird. So far, the experience has been pleasant, but it isn’t without its annoyances. I’ve already posted my Top 10 Annoyances in Mozilla Thudnerbird. Here is my top 10 for Live Mail:

1. UI inconsistency - When I go into Options or open a dialog/properties box, I’m expecting it to have the same clean look the regular interface has. But for some reason it reminds me of Windows 95. And when I add a new contact, why does the color scheme suddenly change?
2. For the love of God, don’t make me have to go into the message properties just to view the full headers. And when I get there, I don’t want to have to use the horizontal scrollbar in order to read it. Can I please just Right Click -> View Sorce?
3. As a part of the Windows Live services, Microsoft also offers Windows Live Writer, which allows you to post content to Wordpress, Movable Type, Live Spaces, Blogger, etc, all in one desktop client. But in their Windows Live Mail, why does the “Blog” option only allow you to use Live Spaces? That’s hypocritical–change it.
4. Why isn’t there a “Print” label next to the button? Even though it’s obvious, it’s inconsistent.
5. The searching options, while simple, aren’t customizable enough. I can’t search just in subjects or just in the body.
6. I really don’t get the point of the “Storage folders” section being present by default. If I want to store something other than in the standard drafts, I’ll create my own folder for that purpose.
7. When I right click the title bar, the standard menu bar shows up. But when I click off of the secondary click dropdown, the menu bar disappears. Is this a bug, or is it a feature that’s not working properly? I’d prefer it not to show up at all…
8. I doubt there’s legal issues involved, so why can’t I import email/settings from a Thunderbird profile? Here I am thinking about switching, and I wouldn’t even have the option to import.
9. There’s a big difference between email security, and junk email. Just because an advertisement comes in, it doesn’t mean it’s a fraud or trying to send you a virus. Please give Junk Email it’s own option in the Tools menu.

In a few days, I’ll make my final decision as to whether I’ll be staying with Windows Live Mail or going back to Thunderbird. I’m still kind of torn between the two.

As always, if you have any suggestions or comments, please leave a comment, or Ask Me!

Update: It seems in posting this the code got screwed up and I lost one of my points. What’s odd is I can’t remember what it was, so sorry for there only being 9 … but there were originally 10, I promise.

Windows Live Mail - The Exclusive Trial

For the past few years, mid 2003 or so, I have used Mozilla Thunderbird for my desktop email needs. At the time I had various @hotmail.com and @msn.com email addresses, so I used the webbased client for these. So you could say I used Thunderbird almost exclusively for my email ever since version 0.1. Previously, the only viable basic desktop email option previous to Thunderbird was Microsoft’s Outlook Express, or the full Outlook if you had Microsoft Office. However, I didn’t need the address books. I didn’t need the calendar. All I needed was a desktop application to control my mail. So ever since I Windows 98, I ran Outlook Express.

Very recently, along with the release of Windows Vista, Microsoft announced that Hotmail and MSN email would be incorporated with their Windows Live services. In May of 2007, Windows Live Hotmail went live, sporting a brand new AJAX interface and new options.

Now, Microsoft in currently in development for the replacement for Outlook Express (for XP) and Windows Mail (for Vista), which is simply called Windows Live Mail. I was introduced to it a few weeks ago and thought I’d download and try it out. So far, I’m impressed with it’s performance and simplicity, and also the UI is massively improved from either Windows Mail or Outlook Express.

I have decided to give Windows Live Mail a two week exclusive trial. I wanted something that’s simple and effective, but that had a nice UI. Unfortunately, Thunderbird covered the simple and effective part, but the UI is in desperate need of improvement. I won’t even open Thunderbird once to check my email during this period. No matter what frustrations I encounter, I’ll only use Windows Live Mail.

What do you think? Do you have any suggestions for email clients for Windows?

As always, if you have a question, be sure to Ask Me.