I love the new Max, but… (& speaking to BlogCamp in India)
I LOVE the new Microsoft Max that just came out. I’ve been waiting for this for some time. The downside? It is slow on my Tablet PC. I bet it runs great on a faster desktop machine. I LOVE LOVE LOVE the news display in this thing. More later, I’m giving a talk to BlogCamp in India via Skype. Read more about that on Kiruba’s blog.
This is a fun way to give a talk to a conference. I’d rather be there, though, but I can see the audience in a Flickr tag feed for “BlogCamp” and a video feed (which I’m trying to get access to right now).
Yes, it’s midnight here, but what the heck?
UPDATE: bummer, the audio isn’t working great. Problem on their end. What’s funny is I can read blogs from the audience almost as fast as they are posted.
UPDATE 2: since my speech has been delayed a few minutes I am playing more with Max and reading other blog posts about it.
This is NOT a Web based aggregator. It’s built on top of the Windows Presentation Foundation which includes better fonts, better page layout capabilities, and more. It’s awesome, but needs more testing…
I agree with Ryan Stewart that it’s stunning, though. Shows what you can do if you have a new framework underneath you. Yeah, there are some problems (I’m trying to figure out how to import and export an OPML file, for instance), but, boy is this thing beautiful.
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September 10th, 2006 at 12:21 am
no support for opml or the feed store that is built into ie7. resource hug. why does ms like using some much all the time. i do like the layout. i think if we give a good amount of feed back they could get on the right track. being that they are under the windows live branding then photo bloging or what every you would like to call it would be great. and since i am on such a tangent when is live going to feel like a web platform services isn’t that what web 2.0 is. it feels spread out maybe that why its slow. ajax platform with broken links. that sums it up.
September 10th, 2006 at 12:25 am
Yeah, you’re seeing that Microsoft doesn’t run lock in step with other teams, even ones that do pretty strategic stuff. I’ve been playing more with it while waiting for my speech to start and it’s pretty cool, though.
September 10th, 2006 at 1:01 am
And for some reason they disabled installation on Vista RC1 and Windows Server 2003. Will Microsoft ever let me think and be cautious by myself? I am a software developers, I use Windows Server 2003 as my primary operating system for convenience. On my second machine I have Vista RC1, to learn it and try some development with new toys. I had to install Max in virtual machine, even though it could easily run on my primary box.
September 10th, 2006 at 1:28 am
[...] Update : Scobleized for the first time! Yippeee ) Technorati tags : BlogCamp, BlogCamp.in [...]
September 10th, 2006 at 1:35 am
Michal: that’s part of this team’s philosophy. Reduce the number of variables to ship faster and with more consistent quality.
Unfortunately very few computer users are as astute as you are, so if they let something go out there and it blew up machines it’d cause negative PR.
It also demands a bigger test team than this particular team has access to. Even Microsoft doesn’t have infinite resources.
September 10th, 2006 at 1:46 am
I have not used Max yet, but I had a similar experience with OneNote. I use to use a Wiki for all of my note taking, but after a single day with OneNote I completely stopped using the Wiki. The speed and GUI of the local application was just so much better.
Microsoft has been pushing the SmartClient architecture for a while now and I am beginning to think that they are right.
By the way if you are still interested in doing a product launch video for PodTech with A7, just let me know.
September 10th, 2006 at 1:54 am
Bryan: I certainly am, thanks!
September 10th, 2006 at 2:31 am
[...] Scoble blogged about Max, Ryan Stewart blogged about Max, David Brunelle blogged about Max, so I’m not blogging about Max’s features and flaws…of course there’s a lot of work to do to consider it a complete product. Interesting post @ freitasm too. [...]
September 10th, 2006 at 2:31 am
A photo viewing/sharing application now includes an RSS reader? Why? Make it a separate application. It’s already a 54MB download!
September 10th, 2006 at 2:34 am
Diego: because it’s not just a photo viewing/sharing app. And the 54MB download is because of the underlying Windows Presentation Foundation, not really because of the News Reader (the News Reader part only is probably a meg or so).
September 10th, 2006 at 5:15 am
Robert: Fair point. But besides the WPF, the photo stuff with a news reader just doesn’t make sense to me. They should be separate apps.
September 10th, 2006 at 6:33 am
I love the layout, but I really don’t see the connection between photos and news here.
The other thing is that while it may display things really nicely, it doesn’t do anything particularly interesting. It doesn’t even let me view fulltext content when it’s clearly downloaded it. No OPML/anything else import, and it’s slow. The only reason it gets the tag “cool” is because it looks nice — which is fair enough, but it’s not really anything special.
September 10th, 2006 at 7:33 am
I am one of the attender of your session today at BlogCamp, India … your speech was really amazing… I just love it…. thanks for taking your precious time to give us the great experience… thanks :)
September 10th, 2006 at 8:01 am
Not-so-mighty Max
Back when Microsoft appeared to be clueless about RSS, I called on the software giant to come up with a desktop feed-reading client that was as easy to use as Outlook Express, its e-mail software. Microsoft eventually got the RSS…
September 10th, 2006 at 12:34 pm
[...] I bought a registration for FlickrExport a few weeks go and I realised today that it’s a bit silly to have paid for FlickrExport and yet be using a free Flickr account. So I’ve finally paid for a pro one today, however I didn’t upgrade the account I have been using because it isn’t included in public searches and tag pools, I occasionally upload screenshots to it and these are considered copyrighted material, if they notice they flag your account to not be made public. So, i’ve setup a new account, a pro one for photo’s and I’ll use the free one for screenshots and dodgy things I guess. The Scobe or whatever he’s affectionately known has been praising some beta software by Microsoft, Codename Max (sounds way to much like Mac’s), I can’t for the life of me figure out what it is so I was intrigued to try it out. It has a flashy interface which requires a good 3D card I think, so I have to boot into bootcamp for that. So I booted into Vista to download Max and install it, and do you know what? The Installer told me I need XP! OMG! In fact, even better it told me to “upgrade” to XP. [...]
September 10th, 2006 at 12:57 pm
It’s a Preview Alphaish Microsoft typical bloatware…and the irony of it not working with Vista RC1 is just so so rich. But how come you didn’t mention INK works with Max? Odd that even the rabid Tablet users, never make must use of it’s features. But really isn’t this just a Vistaish WinFXy demo app?
And explain to me why I need a buggy-overhanded RSS Reader in a photo-sharing mixed-metaphor type of application, clinking in at 55 meg? And then with all the Frameworky glitches. Screw pretty, I want functional usability. I gave it another whirl, the beta lemming I am, but shrug…seems more an experiment or demo, over a real application. Photo tools, gawd, the industry is full of them, and far more time-tested, now if Microsoft clinks in iView Media Pro tech in here, ok. Why all these byzantine network of teams, that don’t work together well, and reinvent wheels constantly? Where’s the corporate guidance and goverance? You see that strategy handiwork ALL over Vista RC1. Microsoft will really have to be broken up to do more than tread water, I predict.
This is just some small team R&D’ing up some jazzy concept, flexing geeky muscles. But if this is any example or indicator of a larger trend, Microsoft should stick to growth by acquisition, the in-house projects are all geek-toys delights without much real use elsewhere.
In a word: Bleech. Real tech like iView Media Pro goes unnoticed, and slop like this brings out the blogger goose-bumps.
PS - How come no one is talking up OneNote 2? OneNote was the one app (limited market sure) but one that had some real juice behind it…so the new marketing thrust? Ignore the real stuff, play up the beta Web 2.0ish blogger-pimples to high-heaven?
September 10th, 2006 at 1:45 pm
The interface is quite stunning, beautiful even. But as a RSS reader, Max leaves much to be desired. No import of OMPL files and the inability to read whole posts. I would also like just a couple of options as to how to read the downloaded posts (2 or 3 pane, for instance). I would say that it’s beauty is only skin deep, but with the hude download file (and I realize much of it is the underlying framework), even this is not true. As eye candy, Max is stunning, as a functional RSS reader it ultimately leaves a bad taste in the mouth.
September 10th, 2006 at 2:02 pm
Blogcamp India “Live” blogging
September 10th, 2006 at 4:20 pm
[...] Microsoft just added news-reader functioniality to their technology-preview Microsoft Max. Max basically is a photo-browser & RSS-reader based on the Windows Presentation Foundation. while others are amazed by the admittedly cool user-interface and the newspaper-styled post-summary (see screenshot below), I was disappointed that the development-team didn’t spend more time on the core features of the news-reader. subscribed feeds can’t be organized/sorted in any way, clicking a teaser opens the original post in the external browser, posts aren’t marked as read, some feeds (f.e. Scripting News) aren’t processed at all etc. [...]
September 10th, 2006 at 5:05 pm
Max is a weird app from a functional standpoint (photo organization/sharing plus RSS reader) but it’s main purpose is to show some stuff that can be done with WinFX (aka .NET 3.0). Max doesn’t run on Vista yet and doesn’t use Vista’s RSS Common Feed (I guess because the Common Feed is available on Vista and XP/IE7, but not XP w/o IE7), but that it runs on XP shows that MS was right to backport WinFX to XP.
MS was criticized (and indeed, mocked by slashdotters and the like) for that because it was felt that backporting WinFX to XP would lesson incentive to upgrade to Vista. But I don’t see it that way; by backporting WinFX to XP, devs can use WinFX while still catering to those that run XP rather than Vista. It’s to MS’s advantage to get devs to make WinFX apps because they can be quite beautiful, which would make MS’s OSes and frameworks look good compared with competing OSes (which also have pretty apps).
September 10th, 2006 at 11:18 pm
Hey Scoble
i was there on webcam as well. We should get together and comp[are flat-world-notes at some point.
September 11th, 2006 at 12:29 am
BlogCamp India - Dead Blogging
September 11th, 2006 at 4:50 am
I, too, don’t “get” why one would want to read RSS in a photo-management app.
It looks like a lightweight version of Picasa mixed up with a frothy, but not very functional, feed reader.
The best suggestion I’ve seen so far is that it’s just a technology demonstration vehicle, rather than an app with an actual, er, application!
September 11th, 2006 at 4:52 am
[...] Max is kind of neat…. but I’m not sure I like it yet. Niall pointed everyone over to it but doesn’t have much of a review… neither does Robert Scoble… Mike Arrington and Ryan Stewart do have some interesting details, here are a few interesting points that I have from playing with it today…. [...]
September 11th, 2006 at 11:32 am
[...] 2) Microsoft MAX - a desktop feed reader has been launched yesterday. Am too busy right now with Post BlogCamp organizers meet. How ever I notice people are raving about it. Will soon post about it. Hack the Bot: unconference, blogcamp, barcampTechnorati Tags: BlogCamp, BarCamp, Unconference [...]
September 13th, 2006 at 8:06 am
Robert - re: Max being slow.
Your video drivers might be older on your laptop (i.e. pre Nov 2004). If this is the case WPF will render in software.
You can grab a copy of Perforator.exe to check on what WPF is doing.
September 16th, 2006 at 9:23 am
[...] Being an avid .NET developer and a born again Microsoft Evangelist, I get very excited when a new product produces a tingling sensation all down my back. I did see the website a while ago but was recently reminded by Robert Scoble, thanks Robert! [...]
September 18th, 2006 at 1:37 pm
[...] At BlogCamp India in Chennai this past weekend, Robert Scoble spoke to a spirited crowd of Indian bloggers, who came from all over India to converge upon a weekend-long hub of activity, ideas and passionate people. [...]