Earlier this year, when Microsoft was announcing layoffs and hunkering down, there was speculation that Redmond would give up and discontinue production of its Zune media player. Earlier versions failed to stop the iPod's march to market share domination.
Fast forward to this week, and the official launch of Zune HD. The third time may indeed be the charm for Microsoft.
The reviews on the blogosphere have been mostly positive. Everybody seems to like the design and the touch-screen. And like the name implies, you can watch 720p high definition video and the FM receiver will bring in HD radio.
Remember the big deal about Zune in the first place? The device's Wi-Fi feature meant you if actually ever did run into another Zune user at your favorite hot spot, you could send each other songs and other media. Microsoft called this practice "squirting."
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But Microsoft got smart and now plays up the ability to wirelessly stream millions of songs and other media like movies to your HD from the Zune marketplace, provided you buy a monthly subscription.
Wireless will also enable downloading of apps like games and forthcoming social media apps for Facebook and Twitter, but some reviewers are wondering why there weren't more apps ready to go at launch. I guess best not to ask too much with a Zune that people might actually want to buy. And they are, at least in the Seattle area. My quick survey of Best Buys, Fry's and other electronics stores in the city and on the eastside turned up sellouts. Granted, this is Microsoft's backyard, but the Best Buy in Tukwila told me it sold 200 in about five hours Wednesday. The Best Buy in Northgate moved its entire inventory through pre-orders. The Best Buy in Bellevue sold out Wednesday afternoon.
A Microsoft spokesman say many of the Zune HD's sold to date were through pre-order, and those have been delivered. Retailers will get restocked as soon as possible.
Rome built in a day
University of Washington researchers are using computer software to build their own digital versions of some of the world's best-known landmarks, and they're using tourist snapshots to do it.
A new algorithm developed at UW took some 150,000 photographs that were uploaded to the photo sharing Web site Flickr by visitors to Rome's famous coliseum and built a 3D flyover model to demonstrate the power of the new software. This took 21 hours to do. An earlier version of the software took days.
They did the same thing with photos of the Trevi Fountain as well as other worldwide landmarks.
The software combines with the use of many computer processors. It uses the same technology that UW called photo-tourism, which it licensed three years ago to Microsoft, which now calls it Photosynth.
You could see this technology showing up soon in better online maps, better and cooler videogames and digital preservation of ancient, historic cities.
Eastside social media seminar
Small businesses and entrepreneurs on the eastside who want to know more about social media and how it might help their businesses can check out an all-day social media 101 seminar sponsored by the group Eastside Entrepreneurs. It's set for Friday, September 25, on the Microsoft campus at Redmond.
Find out if your business needs a blog or a Twitter account. There will also be a workshop on whether social media can help you find your dream job.
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