Marcus Kwan: tablet category

Wow, time has flown...

Fri, 21 May 2004 06:15:17 GMT

We've been here 6 months now...whoa. There's no way to sum it up here, but it's been busy. Moved into a house in Redmond, great neighborhood. The rain thing is still a myth to me, I'm having to water the lawn and trees quite a bit. We're hosting the neighborhood happy hour tomorrow. Finally got the garage organized enough to get one car in. Kids are very high energy and growing fast. We think the boy said da-da for the first time the other day. Settling into work, lots of great people, I'm helping with the designs for IE, sharing and search. That's a lot of meat. At the end of every day, both Alex and I are exhausted! We miss our family and friends in Austin. We're looking forward to having Alex's sister come in for Memorial Day weekend.

I can finally make the announcement...Hook'em!

Thu, 23 Oct 2003 18:03:28 GMT

It's time for a new adventure. I'll be leaving frog Nov. 7. I was finally able to tell my current client yesterday in person. 5 years at frog, almost to the day. It's been a great opportunity for me and I've learned tons. I'll miss all of the talented people I've worked with there over the years. I'm totally grateful for the opportunity frog gave me and I'll be leaving on good terms.

So where am I headed, you ask?

I'm headed to Redmond. Specifically, the MSX team. Longhorn. Helping design Aero, the next Windows shell, the UI of Longhorn. Feels great to say it! It's a great team and I'm psyched about it! One of my passions is designing products that people use and enjoy, whether it's a t-shirt, a brochure, a website, a UI. What a unique opportunity to design for 93% of the desktop users!

It will be a culture shock, I'm sure. It's a great team, lots of talent, but there will be lot's of things to get used to. My first large corporation, my first experience being on the 'inside' and not a consultant, different process. I'll let you know how it goes.

So add me to the list of Microsoft bloggers!

The family and I will be moving up northwest the first week of December. Its gonna be tough to leave Austin. We love it here and will miss being near our family and friends. Alex, my wife, is incredible. She's totally supportive and excited about the opportunity, but I know it will be tough for her to be farther away from friends and family.

So we're busy trying to manage the swirl of family life, getting stuff ready for the move, continuing to be involved on my last project at frog, and trying to spend time with as many friends and family here in Austin as we can.

More later, I'm at home sick today.

Thu, 16 Oct 2003 04:57:06 GMT

Theme change. Sorry I've been off the blog for a while. Lot's happening. I'll be able to say more in a couple of weeks. I'm having fun on my current project. I've been travelling quite a bit to LA. It's gonna be good...

My good friend JJ has left frog and is working for ascential software. We'll miss you man!

Now that's what I call off the wagon!

Wed, 24 Sep 2003 16:33:35 GMT

I'm not dead and haven't lost the tablet. I've been swamped with work and considering some big changes. There have been some very interesting developments I'm in a fortunate spot considering the climate out there, we'll see how things turn out this week.

Our First Annual XBox Fund Drive a Huge Success!

Fri, 08 Aug 2003 22:19:30 GMT

JJ & I held a Fund drive to buy a refurbished XBox for the office. Jared was able to get an XBox off eBay for $130. With a little working of the phones and IM lines, 15 colleagues pledged $10 each. Beautiful! Now it seems we've inspired the development nature in everyone, people are coming out of the woodwork trying to raise funds for different needs. I hope that doesn't distract those willing to donate to my new tablet!

Radio's best kept secret?

Thu, 07 Aug 2003 00:58:56 GMT

Paolo & Bryan talk about Radio's best kept secret. I think there may be more to the story.

Wed, 06 Aug 2003 00:45:27 GMT

Scratch the need for a phone built into the tablet. Integrating messenger 6 into the media center, you should be able to start a "phone" conversation with anyone, eventually anywhere--quickly! I was just having a conversation about using iChat AV for extended voice conversations and how good the audio quality is, better than a cell phone. The hurdles are availablity of both parties where as with phones you assume you're able to go ahead and call someone and leave a message. Messenger needs to get to that point, no I don't want to send them a mail. just leave them a message.

Dude, seriously, Media Center on the Tablet

Tue, 05 Aug 2003 20:31:23 GMT

I've been submersed in work and family. Kicked off a new project around digital music. Really exciting stuff. I'd be interested in how you use online music services.

I find this especially cool with the tablet. Loren talks about what to do with the tablet when your out and about. If you have full Windows XP with you all the time, all your stuff, jeez, there's tons to do. I think where tablets are lacking now is considering tablet use away from work. It doesn't all have to be work related. The tablet team should be thinking about work as 1/3 of your life. what about the other 2/3? Entertainment! Clock radio for sleeping! The goal should be to think about how the user can use this thing and never have to leave it. You wouldn't need an ipod, you've got all your music right there. On business trips, half the people i see using laptops on the plane are playing solitaire or watching a movie. The tough thing with the tablet there is having to prop it up or hold the tablet at the right angle, vs. a laptop or convertible where you've got a natural stand, whether you're using your lap or seatback tray. Oh yeah, heh, you'd have to have ripped a dvd to your hard drive, since most tablets don't have a dvd drive built in. :)

But I think the big problem is accessibility, namely starting up the functionality you need quickly, with a pen.

Standing up or walking around, you shouldn't have to invoke the start menu. I want simple taps to quickly get to journal, one note, or my media player. Standing up, windows management is even tougher. This is a problem. Instead, you should have the media center/10ft UI as a mode you be in to navigate to the functionality you want and need -- FAST. Media center perfect for interaction with a remote and I think the same goes for using a pen. Easy drill down model, big targets. That is key. But, you know what? I doubt it will happen soon because tablet's are stuck in the business market and media center is stuck in home and entertainment. Rather than thinking from the standpoint of a total user lifestyle in relation to a product, the user's life has been segmented to match a business model.

I'm back.

Thu, 24 Jul 2003 20:41:19 GMT

Can't believe that its been 10 days since I last blogged. I had a great trip to Santa Monica and Seattle. It's frustrating that I can't really talk about the type stuff I was able to experience. Some very cool possibilities.

I was also on vacation last week in Little Rock visiting the inlaws. Had a great time. The kids have been able to spend some good time with their grandparents and great grandparents. Its amazing to have 4 generations of a family all under one roof. Its a real blessing to have family.

Just getting back into the swing of things here at the office. We landed the job I was out in Santa Monica pitching. Trying to wrangle/wrap up 2 projects. Got my teeth cleaned at the dentist today. More later.

Microsoft to grant stock instead of options

Wed, 09 Jul 2003 17:11:58 GMT

NY Times: "Microsoft said this afternoon that it would no longer grant stock options, relying instead on restricted awards of stock to help pay its almost 50,000 employees." [scripting news]

Personal note to Steve Ballmer: the plan is awesome. I did not think I'd ever see a dime from the stock options (little known fact: every time Microsoft's stock goes up a dollar, that means Microsoft's value has gone up about the same amount as what Starbucks is worth in market terms -- translation: my small number of Microsoft stock options wouldn't have paid much back if the share price only doubled.) So, the new plan is a LOT nicer as an enticement for new employees (and for existing ones to stick around).

Speaking of which, there are still lots of Microsoft jobs open over at http://www.microsoft.com/careers -- why don't you apply? [scoble]

Tue, 08 Jul 2003 16:33:19 GMT

To everyone who sent email yesterday offering to help UserLand, thank you, from the bottom of my heart. What an amazing turnout. We're going to try to do something fun, unique, and powerful with UserLand's position in the weblog and content tools market, and we're going to try to include the community in the business, i.e. people will make money. To thos who have asked if I will return as CEO, I can't. I have a job that I love at Berkman, we're doing lovely things, the things I want to do. For me, the technology challenge is behind me, the next challenge is to apply the technology in activities that Harvard does uniquely well, and then bring the results to the constituencies that the university serves. That means there's room for a CEO here, and a management team; it also means it's possible that UserLand will be acquired. But we will only do it if it means continuity and growth for UserLand's customers. One thing hasn't changed, the first two syllables of the company's name. That's been constant through all the changes of the last fifteen years. [scripting news]

Tue, 08 Jul 2003 16:27:28 GMT

We'll see how things unfold.

Some news: John Robb is leaving UserLand. This is part of a bigger transition, one that we're not ready to talk about yet. It should be, net-net, good news for Manila and Radio users, and for the weblog community. We weren't ready to announce, John surprised us by writing about his departure on his weblog. He's a surprising guy. Anyway, part of my reason for being in Calif next week is business. I think UserLand will do fine, although things are still uncertain, but that's life in the big leagues. Thanks John for all your help, and best wishes to you and your family for much continued success. Onward! [scripting news]

Someday I will afford experience design for myself

Thu, 03 Jul 2003 18:17:45 GMT

Got the new laptop in today. Dell 600m. It's ok, but nothing compared to my work ti-book or the tablet. But it will serve its purpose. Having trouble setting it up to see our desktop machine. They don't make it easy.

Finally! Scoble tries FM Radio with enhanced SocialDyanmx

Wed, 02 Jul 2003 16:50:42 GMT

I'm glad you're trying it out. I encourage you to keep trying it out for a bit. There are some aha moments that are immediate, like organized windows management for browsing, posting, and news, some aha-ha's come a bit later: posting photos, saved tabs, etc. SocialDynamx says they are releasing a Manila version next, then Blogger and MT. So I hope more of you will be able to experience this app. It is cool.

Gesture your mouse good-bye

Tue, 24 Jun 2003 20:30:12 GMT

I think Stephen pointed me to this stuff last fall when we began some work for the Tablet group. Wired has an article about it now. Fingerworks is a company with some input devices that let you gesture to control mouse movements and common computer commands.

Apple announcements of Panther, G5 machines, and enhancements

Mon, 23 Jun 2003 21:41:47 GMT

Apple announcements today at WWDC. Panther, the successor to Jaguar, looks like they are rendering windows in the brushed aluminum look. Also, they've got a persistant left hand "Places" column where you can access drives and store favorite locations.

You'll be able to switch views in the primary content area like you can now with list, icon and horizontal tree view. Nice, they've brought back color labels for tagging files.

Exposé helps manage windows by tiling them and giving you a way to cycle through them by rollover, which enlarges them, switch to a mode where you can tab through windows by app, and hide all windows to reveal the desktop. These are handy.

Fast user switching, faster than xp. security enhancements to iDisk, called iVault.

No new powerbooks announced. Fast G5s in August. iSight, cool firewire camera, nice quality video. iChat AV, we'll see how this compares to MSN Msgr 6. Too bad they can't work together yet. And the Safari 1.0 download. Some nice stuff.

Messenger and the power of Groups

Thu, 19 Jun 2003 20:41:36 GMT

It's nice that I can start a conversation with an entire group. That's something i asked the Mac Messenger PM for last November.

One more thing messenger needs. Multiple login. You should be able to log in as 2 separate accounts at one time. Buddy list could just show groups from both, shouldn't matter if they are mixed.

The alternative would be to enable me to have different status according to different groups. So i could appear busy to a certain group, but appear available to another group.

Ink and ink controls need a champion

Thu, 19 Jun 2003 15:55:27 GMT

I know the Tablet group at MS is working on this stuff, just need to rant a bit. I totally agree with splintercell and loren here:

One of the things I hate right now is that ink in one application is not really the same as the "same" ink in another. I want to be able to sketch a form in Journal or SketchBook, then move into, say, the VS designer, and have it be translated into a form. Or take it into OneNote and have it be recognized as text. All ink should be created equal regardless of its origin. I don't particularly care - as a user - how it's stored underneath it all: XML, meta data, bitmaps, ISF files, whatever. But I do care about being able to manipulate, share, move, and copy it just like regular text today.

This applies to the messenger input area. I should be able to have written something in journal and paste it into messenger input pane. For that matter, I should be able to paste other data formats into that input pane as well.

Tablet Envy and Messenger holdouts

Thu, 19 Jun 2003 15:16:38 GMT

Funny, a couple of people in my office say they are going to hold out and won't download messenger 6 to see ink. Fine, you can wait for messenger to start pushing alerts to you to update in a couple of weeks! Ha! Seriously you should try it sooner than later. Have some fun, embrace the future, man! We are a company always talking about the future and future technologies, future interaction concepts, but our own adoption rate is pretty low.

Messenger's built-in webcam support is cool. It changes the way I will interact with people through messenger. This will bring people closer together being able to see each other more easily. This is what I was talking about the other day, integration, aggregation. Need to pick up a webcam for the tablet at the office.

Some might complain that it's feature bloat, but I believe that this helps fullfill what XP promised and people have been wanting and talking about for years. I was trying it out with a couple of people last night, its very cool. Just in the past couple of weeks, i had signed our parents up on Windows messenger because xp logs them in automatically when they sign in and had hopes that webcam support would be better so they could webcam with the kids easier with the kids. Now, voila, it is real.

A couple of people I inked with yesterday want to try FMRadio

Thu, 19 Jun 2003 00:44:58 GMT

Looking forward to hearing what you think.

Also, if you have a Radio weblog already set up, its amazingly fast to get FMRadio up and running. The download is small and the benefits of aggregation and integration are immediate. You don't have to block out a lot of time to give it a try.

Download here.

MSN Messenger 6 is cool

Thu, 19 Jun 2003 00:41:47 GMT

Messenger 6 is nice. It's definitely essential on the slate. All those months of frustration away from the desk trying to tap type or be horribly misunderstood or just plain giving up trying to messenger on the slate are gone! There are still some issues to be worked out.

I can't paste anything into the input panel in ink mode which is frustrating. how am I going to paste text from somewhere else to someone?

With ink, you've pretty much got to go full screen on the tablet to chat, that's fine, i can live with that. The problem is that if the other person is just using text, and they don't have to go full screen, they will miss part of the handwritten message because there's no scaling of the ink or horizontal scrollbar. They'd have to resize their window to see the entire message.

Thanks, Loren, Lora, Lennon, and Scoble for inking with me today!

Wed, 18 Jun 2003 21:17:20 GMT

OK, problem number 1. All the guys i know with tablets are on the west coast so I have to wait for them to get back from lunch to try out the ink capabilities of Messenger6! You 2 guys that read my blog with tablets, ink me at mkwan67@hotmail.com

Messenger 6.0 Released Today

Wed, 18 Jun 2003 20:49:42 GMT

I'm installing this now...

A new MSN Messenger is getting released today. Here's the official press release. This is a BIG deal. I can't wait for you to try it with me. I'm at robertscoble@hotmail.com. I've been using this release for a few weeks and it's freaking freaking freaking awesome. Hey, is that enough freakings? I have an ulterior motive -- if you all upgrade, I can use ink with you and show off some of my tablet's cool features.

[scoble]

Looking for some aggregation, integration and magic

Tue, 17 Jun 2003 18:35:30 GMT

Framing images the Tablet PC way

Bryan's working on a cool Tablet PC tool after all. Wow! After just a couple days of blogging, he realized he wanted a personalized way to share his photos. So he came up with the idea of an app that frames his pictures and gives him room to handwrite a personalized caption. Simple, focused, and useful. Very Tablet PC. I want it.

Here's a hand-drawn mockup I did of some thoughts we came up with while brainstorming about the app as we chatted on Windows Messenger. I drew this mockup in Windows Journal on my Tablet PC and then emailed a screenshot over to Bryan. It was our first pass, so it's missing some obvious pieces. But it's great to be able to sketch out an idea like this on a Tablet PC and then email it to someone else in a matter of minutes.

This engineer never had it so good.

[from loren]

This is cool, Loren. While I agree you don't really need an image editor to do stuff like this, it would be nice to have it integrated into my blogging tool. I'd love for you and Bryan to talk with my friend Alan who's developed FMRadio and see if you could get it working inside that framework. Same with Tabletblogger. While many small utilities may get the job done, putting the right combination of tools together into a common interaction framework is yahtzee.

Thu, 12 Jun 2003 22:34:35 GMT

Via John Porcaro. This is cool. frog's id guys concepted something very similar to this for one of our clients. Seems similar in idea to spot technology. But supports awareness in an ambient way. Very cool.