Ask Dave (A Microsoft Employee)

[DaveMac-MS]

Originally Posted by musichound

Thanks Dave, but you quoted SwiftJudgement instead of me when you replied.

Whoa - not sure what happened there. Sorry about that!

Originally Posted by quintets_man

Would it be possible for Zune Originals to allow people to engrave any image, not just the ones under pattern

That would be great - but there are all kinds of licensing and legal reasons why that isn't feasible. Imagine if you uploaded a competitor's logo, an unlicensed sport's team logo, instructions on how to make a bomb, etc... All of a sudden Microsoft is manufacturing products with someone else's logo on it - or worse.

You might have requests for artwork - that's fair - but we can't allow folks to upload whatever they want unfortunately...

Cheers, Dave.

[CrowdAds]

[quintets_man]

Dave,

Could I get this image in post#28 of the abi logo engraved on a Zune HD?

Or would that fall under the MS manufacturing products with other logos is bad part?

btw Just for clarification we can request artwork but it has to be acceptable, or are we stuck with the images under pattern?(I'm guessing more towards the we're stuck with pattern answer)

[SwiftJudgement]

I believe for you to have any kind of feasible success...it would have to be an image that would apply to a large group. Like the tattoos, the sports logos, etc. More than just one person would have to want it for MS to consider adding it to ZO.

EDIT: However, I actually wanted this feature too, I might try to come up with something tonight and post it.

[mr.zune]

Dave, can you please tell me why M$ don't want to bring 3rd party developers? Bringing 3rd party developers would be the biggest thing they could do for the apps section of Zune.

Day 9 - How many apps do we have now? NONE

I'm gonna wait by the end of the year to see what "Zune Team" provide, if they doesn't provide enough apps like Apple I'm gonna sell my ZuneHD..

[DaveMac-MS]

Originally Posted by quintets_man

Could I get this image in post#28 of the abi logo engraved on a Zune HD?

btw Just for clarification we can request artwork but it has to be acceptable, or are we stuck with the images under pattern?(I'm guessing more towards the we're stuck with pattern answer)

Unfortunately, there's no way to "request" artwork other than a generic "I'd like to see college logos", or "I'd like to see NFL team logos" - which if we get enough of, we could investigate.

We definitely can't do one-offs such as you've asked, sorry. The setup and preparation is non-trivial.

Originally Posted by mr.zune

Dave, can you please tell me why M$ don't want to bring 3rd party developers? Bringing 3rd party developers would be the biggest thing they could do for the apps section of Zune.

Day 9 - How many apps do we have now? NONE

I'm gonna wait by the end of the year to see what "Zune Team" provide, if they doesn't provide enough apps like Apple I'm gonna sell my ZuneHD..

Actually Mr. Zune - I'm working with 3rd party developers right now on apps & games. To be even more explicit, Microsoft has no intention to be the sole developer of content for Zune HD. Having said that, we don't want to open the Marketplace up to publicly submitted content at this time. This is a portable entertainment device, and we want to make sure we invest as many of our resources in making the portable entertainment features as rich and solid as possible.

While we're doing that, we'll work with 3rd party development houses on high quality app/game content which we'll bring into the Marketplace.

We've been very clear that this is not a device for which you should expect there to be 15 flatulence apps or 25 "flashlight" apps.

You guys are making requests, I'm taking note of what people are asking for, and we'll keep pushing forward. But note that our focus here is media consumption, secondarily followed by apps/games. I think that's been pretty clear in our launch marketing and promotions.

Cheers, Dave.

[Curiouss]

BTW, Dave, Im sure you've seen the thread in the Zune HD forums about how some guy converted a Ipod Touch App for the Zune HD in 12 hours. But how did that guy upload the app/game onto the Zune HD, did he upload it onto the Marketplace????

[NomNom]

I'm OK with the slow rollout of apps if they are high quality and well selected, and I have no problem with paying for apps if and when ones worthy of paying for are available. I am glad MS doesn't want thousands of superflous apps. Finding anything useful on my iPhone is a pain.

If I were a betting man, I'd say a reason that Dave can't talk about as to why there is no SDK is because I'd bet ZuneHD's OS probably has a lot of what will become Windows Mobile 7 in it, and at this stage it isn't ready for third party devs (that is, official APIs not locked down and documented). This is based on nothing more than speculation, so don't go thinking I know more about this than any other person at a keyboard; and I know Dave can't comment on this. But it makes sense time-wise to me, at least, as it jibes with the way about a year ago MS started making very public strategy annoucements that showed they are working to rationalize strategies (biz speak for making disparate efforts either integrated or cancelled). ZuneHD is one of the earlier consumer product examples to hit retail.

NomNom

[mr.zune]

Dave, Thank you so much for answer my question I'm very happy now :-)

One more thing. Please I definitely want to see an email clients, notepad and poker live like the itouch have it's pretty cool.

[DaveMac-MS]

Originally Posted by Curiouss

BTW, Dave, Im sure you've seen the thread in the Zune HD forums about how some guy converted a Ipod Touch App for the Zune HD in 12 hours. But how did that guy upload the app/game onto the Zune HD, did he upload it onto the Marketplace????

So he developed that app using the SDK we've pushed for Zune HD - the XNA v3.1 development kit. When using that kit inside of Visual Studio, you can go upload (we call it "sideloading") your own apps or games all you like to your own device - you just can't "publish" it to the Marketplace. So no, he didn't publish it, just sideloaded it to his own personal device.

Originally Posted by NomNom

If I were a betting man, I'd say a reason that Dave can't talk about as to why there is no SDK is because I'd bet ZuneHD's OS probably has a lot of what will become Windows Mobile 7 in it, and at this stage it isn't ready for third party devs (that is, official APIs not locked down and documented).
<snip>
...about a year ago MS started making very public strategy annoucements that showed they are working to rationalize strategies (biz speak for making disparate efforts either integrated or cancelled).

So again - there is an SDK (XNA v3.1 with Zune HD support) - but there is no public submissions process for applications.

As for rationalizing strategies - we've actually been pretty open about that. Here's what Brian Seitz (Zune PR) had to say on the topic:

Why no open application marketplace for the Zune? Seitz noted that the Windows Mobile group is already working on a mobile application marketplace. Even though Zune isn't currently taking advantage of that fact, he said, the company wants to avoid an overlap between the two development teams.

"We're trying to get out of the business of building similar things in the company that don't work together, and the Windows Mobile team is tackling the challenge of a mobile apps marketplace right now," Seitz said. "We don't necessarily line up perfectly with that, to take advantage of whatever ends up coming out of that from the Zune HD standpoint, but down the line if there's a way that we can plug into what they're doing, I'm sure we'll look into whether that makes sense for the business."

Until they reach that point, the Zune team "didn't want to basically just say, 'We got nothin' " in terms of apps, Seitz explained. That's why it's planning to offer the limited selection of apps, which will be available for free. Games will include versions of "Project Gotham Racing," "Audiosurf Tilt," and others.

(see: http://techflash.com/seattle/2009/09...ually_use.html)

Originally Posted by mr.zune

One more thing. Please I definitely want to see an email clients, notepad and poker live like the itouch have it's pretty cool.

Me too. Note that we have a Texas Hold'em poker app available already...

Cheers, Dave.

[robjrock]

Hey y'all.

I was just thinking about the ZHD - DaveMac (has anyone yet pointed out the slight irony in your name?) I think the ZHD is a great device and has a lot going for it. But to be honest the one thing thats been holding me back, more than the whole MTP eco-system no mac support lack of ogg/flac thing is actually the video support.

I know in another thread you said you were looking into Xvid / Divx support, and thats great, I know, as you said, you aren't paying the fans here lipservice. Which is very cool. But anyway, lets face it, there are reasons why certain codecs haven't made it onto the device at launch and its probably unlikely they will make it into future FW releases: thats cool, MS have their reasons, we can't lways have our cake and eat it too.

Anyway, I do have a point. So assuming that wider video support is probably not going to happen, I suggest an alternative. You see, there are big problems with video conversion. One is that its very slow. Two is that often errors occur in audio synching and screen size (image appears stretched for EG) Three when transcoding from a lossy codec (ie DivX) there is nearly always a loss in quality, no matter what settings you choose.

However, there is a fourth problem overlooked by many.

A 32gb zune, realistically, isn't that big. Many people couldn't fit there entire music collection on there. And peoples music collection is constantly growing. Especially with the integrated Zune pass stuff, I could imagine 32gb getting filled quite quick, especially if you choose 256kbit - 320kbit mp3s. So the thing that appeals to me about, say, a 32gb Samsung P3, is that I can just keep a couple of gig spare for videos, drag n drop them on, and away I go. Its fast, painless, looks great and works 97% of the time. 32gb, IMO, is not enough to store a video collection on. Its enough to keep a little pocket to throw your vids on when you need them.

On the iPhone / iTouch there is an app called ORB - which basically allows you to sling media, music and video, from your home PC to your Apple device. It transcodes on the fly, so if you have a DivX movie it transcodes it to H.264 or whatever. Anywhere you have WiFi, you have access to your video collection. I think you see my point. If the ZHD had such an app, it would basically solve the video problem for all of us nerds that hate hate hate transcoding video. Hell, make it compatible with windows media centre if you want! I think there are other companies that offer similar services. I don't think TVersity works like that (it doesn't upload via the internet, just spreads it around a home network) I think it would be a really fantastic way to enhance the ZHD experience.

Thanks. Sorry for the long post. Pithiness is not my strength.

[kindarandomz]

hey dave, please pass this on to the people working on apps

a clock app with an alarm clock

[mr.zune]

Dave, I have a cool idea that ZHD definitely should have.

Like a feature that allows us to add up to 2-3 apps to the main menu so we don't have to go to the apps section every time to check the weather, emails, facebook, msn etc.

That would be a neat feature.

[musichound]

Originally Posted by mr.zune

Dave, I have a cool idea that ZHD definitely should have.

Like a feature that allows us to add up to 2-3 apps to the main menu so we don't have to go to the apps section every time to check the weather, emails, facebook, msn etc.

That would be a neat feature.

Or better yet, the ability to add shortcuts to the certain applications that are needed to access.

Now Dave, Microsoft should be able to provide this because they are very good at Windows shortcuts, eh?

[mr.zune]

Originally Posted by musichound

Or better yet, the ability to add shortcuts to the certain applications that are needed to access.

Now Dave, Microsoft should be able to provide this because they are very good at Windows shortcuts, eh?

Even better...the ability to add shortcuts that would be awesome.

[kindarandomz]

you can always pin it

[mr.zune]

Originally Posted by kindarandomz

you can always pin it

Yeah, I know but having it on the main menu it would be better much better.

Dave, The web browser is nice but it needs a tremendous amount of work, tabbed browsing, maybe better keyboard?, faster load time (Definitely) as well as flash possibly, java support, Home page etc.

Also, Please make apps launch faster. The calculator & weather takes like 10-20 seconds just to pop up.

(I think I'm asking too much)

[Curiouss]

does tabbed browsing = multi page browsing? isnt it already available on the Zune HD?

[Re-Vision]

Hey Dave,thank you for being such an active voice for zune brand, your like a celebrity here on abi forum
ok 11 days back when i first got my zune hd my reaction was to congrat you and the zune team for making this powerful device possible, however today i feel angry and outraged after coming cross screen flickring issues on my zune hd.I had Been reading about it on engadget and seeing some videos on youtube, hoping that it wouldnt happen to me and thinking its just a few defective units, unfortunatly it hasnt been the case.I hope zune team is already looking into the problem.

You've said numerous times that zune hd is media centric and yet you offer very few codecs, and saying apps dont have a priority, i think you contradict your own words, if im not mistaken,you've mentioned that the zune is going after a different target demographics not just the small 1% geek market,so how do you think your gonna convince the so called non-geek buyers to buy a device which does not have all the basic apps that ipod touch users have become so accustomed to, hell i cant even convince my lil brother to buy a zune hd even by letting myself pay for the device in full, he wants me to just give him the money so he can waste it on the new ipod touch even though he already owns an ipod touch 1gen.

I just have one question why were you hyping so much about launch day surprises, i dont seem to be suprised at all, by the lack of flash support,pdf doc file support, and lack of any real social app hint hint twitter and facebook, and no burnout/PGR game for launch day?

Hope to see more apps and games soon...soon i hope

[JoshRead]

Dave, a few things about apps.

You say the device is about media first, and apps/games second. However, there are some apps that ARE media centric. For instance, I know a lot of people, myself included, would love to see a Netflix Instant Watch app on there since Microsoft has a deal going with Netflix. I don't even know if the Zune HD is powerful enough to do it, but I know a lot of people would love to see it.

Second, can you give us a timeframe that you guys are looking to release more apps or games? You've said you don't want to give away any secrets so competition doesn't get a hold of it, which makes sense, but I'm not looking for the names of any apps you're working on. I just want to know if you guys plan on releasing more apps before November when the Twitter/Facebook stuff comes out. It wouldn't matter if Apple sees that you are because their app store are already coming out with dozens of apps everyday anyway . It just seems silly to have an App section on the marketplace that wouldn't get updated for two months!

I do want to say thanks for even answering what you can around here. It's nice to feel like we are heard even a little bit in such a large company.

[Olley]

@Dave: I picked up an XBox yesterday since I had a discount card and a spare shelf in my component tower. It's done a few updates already for the new "experience", and overall I'm very impressed. There is nothing in it that I can find that refers to the Zune marketplace ... yet. Do you have any idea when the XBox and other pieces of the Zune ecosystem are scheduled to be in place? When my ZO finally shows up I'd love the pieces to be in place. I've ordered the HD dock and plan to park it right next to the XBox. Is there any Zune~XBox interplay/interaction yet?

Thanks,
Olley