Killer Vista app demoed

At SXSW I hung out in the hallways. That’s where you always see the coolest stuff. This year was no different. A couple of guys were introduced to me and showed me their new app that uses a variety of Web services. It’s from Thirteen23 and is a design prototype that uses Microsoft’s Windows Presentation Foundation along with Web services from Flickr and Netflix.

You’ll see a ton of apps like this one this year from both Adobe and Microsoft as they try to convince developers to use their new platforms to build Rich Internet Applications. You can try these apps yourself on Thirteen23′s “labs” page. Windows Vista recommended (it works on other OS’s that have .NET 3.0 loaded, but was really designed for the Vista aesthetic and usage model). It’s the first set of apps I’ve seen that made me want to load up .NET 3.0, which is why I call it a “killer Vista app.”

[podtech content=http://media1.podtech.net/media/2007/04/PID_010777/Podtech_ScobleShow_Thirteen23_demo.flv&postURL=http://www.podtech.net/home/technology/2597/thirteen23-demo-with-scoble-at-sxsw&totalTime=341000&breadcrumb=1b092433-c1f0-42b4-8ede-feb93250f821]

Comments

  1. Some Guy says:

    They’d better not try to sell that coverflow knock-off, or use it to promote their business. Apple’s got patents on that.

    BTW, interesting to see that Scoble’s edging away from flogging that “tablet PC” horse now that he’s not working for the chair-tosser.

  2. Some Guy says:

    They’d better not try to sell that coverflow knock-off, or use it to promote their business. Apple’s got patents on that.

    BTW, interesting to see that Scoble’s edging away from flogging that “tablet PC” horse now that he’s not working for the chair-tosser.

  3. Some Guy says:

    Stephane,

    I’m not sure you’re correct that a killer app is never a rehash. Lotus 123 was certainly a killer app, and it was a knock-off of VisiCalc. The iPod was a rehash of music players, except that it was done far better than the ones before it.

    That being said, I agree that the stuff Scoble is gushing over here is entirely mediocre.

  4. Some Guy says:

    Stephane,

    I’m not sure you’re correct that a killer app is never a rehash. Lotus 123 was certainly a killer app, and it was a knock-off of VisiCalc. The iPod was a rehash of music players, except that it was done far better than the ones before it.

    That being said, I agree that the stuff Scoble is gushing over here is entirely mediocre.

  5. Keith says:

    My favorite “killer app” prototype was one I saw on Channel 9 from MSR that organized photos by selecting metadata tags. It would highlight filtered photos and bring them up front (the animation was nice but not over-the-top). I remember at the time thinking this thing should be the basis for an explorer.exe replacement…a much bigger improvement over the old tree paradigm than what Vista was able to come up with (I HATE the way they set up Programs in Vista…they’ve flattened it out a bit and made *typing* the primary input method for using Programs; talk about a misguided search strategy!)

  6. Keith says:

    My favorite “killer app” prototype was one I saw on Channel 9 from MSR that organized photos by selecting metadata tags. It would highlight filtered photos and bring them up front (the animation was nice but not over-the-top). I remember at the time thinking this thing should be the basis for an explorer.exe replacement…a much bigger improvement over the old tree paradigm than what Vista was able to come up with (I HATE the way they set up Programs in Vista…they’ve flattened it out a bit and made *typing* the primary input method for using Programs; talk about a misguided search strategy!)

  7. Christopher Coulter says:

    Presentation layers, without infrastructural foundations, Apple-cloneish rehashing the past 5 years, with some Web 2.0 angel dust. Wheeee. PS – Old old news too. :)

    resolution trumps inkability for me

    Not me, but each to own, got desktop for res. Vista and OneNote 2007 has made Tablets actually functional (plus the Phatware apps rocking). That Windows XP Tablet Edition was a trainwreck mess, and Microsoft knew it too.

    He backs off, I back on, guess a good sign. ;)

  8. Christopher Coulter says:

    Presentation layers, without infrastructural foundations, Apple-cloneish rehashing the past 5 years, with some Web 2.0 angel dust. Wheeee. PS – Old old news too. :)

    resolution trumps inkability for me

    Not me, but each to own, got desktop for res. Vista and OneNote 2007 has made Tablets actually functional (plus the Phatware apps rocking). That Windows XP Tablet Edition was a trainwreck mess, and Microsoft knew it too.

    He backs off, I back on, guess a good sign. ;)

  9. Jim Posner says:

    “Dead simple” I like that. If these guys can squeeze some of the complexity out more power to them. Another positive is that they are from Austin. Nice to see some elegance emerge from central Texas.

  10. Jim Posner says:

    “Dead simple” I like that. If these guys can squeeze some of the complexity out more power to them. Another positive is that they are from Austin. Nice to see some elegance emerge from central Texas.

  11. oldasthehills says:

    Robert, nice as the Thirteen23 app’s are, they’ve relatively old (theres been versions since early ctp’s of WPF) and are more early demo’s than apps. If you’re interested in interesting WPF app’s, Tim Sneath’s blog @ http://blogs.msdn.com/tims/ is a good reference.

  12. oldasthehills says:

    Robert, nice as the Thirteen23 app’s are, they’ve relatively old (theres been versions since early ctp’s of WPF) and are more early demo’s than apps. If you’re interested in interesting WPF app’s, Tim Sneath’s blog @ http://blogs.msdn.com/tims/ is a good reference.

  13. [...] Killer Vista app demoed At SXSW I hung out in the hallways. That’s where you always see the coolest stuff. This year was no different. A […] [...]

  14. [...] Other blogs, Web 2.0. trackback I was going through my feeds and came across the post “Killer Vista app demoed“. The post talks about apps being developed using .NET 3.0 and web services – specifically [...]

  15. Perhaps not a killer WPF app, but one I use every day is NoteScraps: http://www.notescraps.com.

    It’s a simple note-taking app that replaces the bits of paper and sticky notes hanging around the average Joe’s computer.

    Disclosure: I work for the company that created NoteScraps as a sandbox project.

  16. Perhaps not a killer WPF app, but one I use every day is NoteScraps: http://www.notescraps.com.

    It’s a simple note-taking app that replaces the bits of paper and sticky notes hanging around the average Joe’s computer.

    Disclosure: I work for the company that created NoteScraps as a sandbox project.

  17. [...] but was really designed for the Vista aesthetic and usage model). It’s the first set … Source: http://scobleizer.com/2007/04/02/cool-rich-internet-application-demo-using-wpf-and-services/   Share this post: email it! | bookmark it! | digg it! | reddit! | live it! | Dot it! | Seed [...]

  18. Joel says:

    Yahoo needs to buy this!

  19. Joel says:

    Yahoo needs to buy this!

  20. [...] einiger Demos in diesem Video bei Robert Scoble. Man sieht, dass da bei Desktop-Applikationen noch einiges Potential im UX-Bereich [...]