New reading technology from Microsoft
The new reading technology announced on Friday with the New York Times by Microsoft is at the top of Memeorandum.
I saw an early prototype and this stuff is awesome. Comes out of a lot of research and work that teams are doing here about how the human eye works. Vista will have new fonts, and new technology (aka Windows Presentation Foundation) that opens up a lot of new possibilities in how we can present information, particularly for new high resolution screens.
I'll have to do a video on this stuff. The demos are spectacular, by the way. Makes a Tablet PC far more useful too.
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April 30th, 2006 at 1:50 pm
When I first read your headline, I thought you were talking about a new version of Windows Narrator, and I was going to chime in to say Narrator is basically useless, and never will have the power of like JAWS. But then again I work with AT stuff daily…
I don’t really see the specialness of this, just is something with fancier fonts, customizable, and such. The MyTimes thing was announced like a week ago. Other sites, such as WSJ, already have customizable views…
April 30th, 2006 at 2:21 pm
Having read the rather vague article and some other posts I must say I think this is not the way to go.
RSS/whatever feed tech does this fine; it delivers the content ready to be formatted in whatever shape you want. The rest is just window dressing and personal preference.
April 30th, 2006 at 2:39 pm
My first thought on looking at the images was - where is it available for download.
The poster above me has said that RSS feeds, etc. serve the purpose so does Linux in most cases. Aesthetics and layout matter alot for the day to day user.
I just hope that the tabs on the top have drop down menus to browse content. It would make things much easier.
April 30th, 2006 at 3:16 pm
I hope this technology was also made for the users (unlike MS’ usual focus on helping content providers)
April 30th, 2006 at 4:37 pm
There is nothing about Times Reader that Vista can do and 2k (or Linux, for that matter) can’t.
April 30th, 2006 at 4:38 pm
So this is the updated ClearType, WPF’s text flow stuff, and the vector-based scaling? Is there anything else that it does outside being fed by RSS, because I’m not seeing the “WOW!” factor with this announcement?
April 30th, 2006 at 8:48 pm
A key question is: Will other newspapers follow suit and join or will they be competing players? Love to see the video when you post it. Sounds like a great innovation to make newspapers come into the 21st century!
April 30th, 2006 at 9:34 pm
http://www.thosebastards.com/archives/2254/
April 30th, 2006 at 10:37 pm
[...] Online Newspaper Reading looks like its evolving. (via Scobes) [...]
May 1st, 2006 at 5:54 am
Trojan+ransom, Microsoft+NYT (and painting+darts)
Pun-tastic! It’s IT Blogwatch, in which the latest Trojan horses around [geddit?] and Microsoft climbs into in bed with the gray lady [geddit?]. Not to mention discovering the point of painting… [You're fired -Ed.]
May 1st, 2006 at 12:50 pm
FYI: I’m blogging a lot on the experience of working on building this app at http://www.jeffmaurone.com
May 1st, 2006 at 5:06 pm
Networking: Is that bank’s URL legitimate?
CHICAGO, May 1 (UPI) — Computer-security professionals at the weekend were working on what is being described as a just-emerging IT problem — the kind which, if the pros are correct, potentially could imperil all e-commerce across the globe. Hackers have apparently compromised the computer server of a Russian bank and set up a fake subsite to “phish” for credit-card information and other personal financial details, experts tell UPI’s Networking.
This is a new kind of phishing scam, as computer criminals usually set up sites that simply look and feel similar to the site they are attacking. But in this instance, the phishers replicated the Moscow-based KS Bank site itself, http://www.ks-bank.ru, and not just an image of it, and created a page that used its exact URL, a subsite of that URL, http://www.ks-bank.ru/.x/hvfcu. This new tactic raises a horrid specter for online banking consumers — the grinding fear of whether one’s e-commerce site is what it purports to be or is actually a criminal enterprise. By Gene Koprowski
May 2nd, 2006 at 1:17 am
“I just hope that the tabs on the top have drop down menus to browse content. It would make things much easier.”
They do.
May 2nd, 2006 at 3:06 pm
This sounds like a good idea. The article makes a good point about web browsers not being ideal for newspaper viewing. For example, an online article will usually have all of the text of the article, but sandwiched between a menu on the left and various links and advertisements on the right. Also, any images associated with an article usually aren’t inline; you have to click on a thumnail to see it. This new reader seems to preserve the clutter-free and inline imaging of the printed newspaper.
This reader may not be quite so interesting for much of the web generation who just want the facts (not an “experience” complete with unique fonts and inline images) and who are adept at handling the non-linearness of the web. The people that it WILL be really good for are those who like reading printed newspapers, enjoy the “experience” or just prefer the linear “front page->page 1->page 2″ paradigm. If you don’t see the “WOW” factor in this product, then you’re probably in the 1st group. I don’t think that it’s intended to be for everyone.
May 23rd, 2006 at 7:40 pm
[...] New reading technology from MicrosoftThe new reading technology announced on Friday with the New York Times by Microsoft is at the top of Memeorandum. I saw an early prototype and this stuff is awesome. Comes out of a lot of research and work that teams are doing here … [...]