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A look inside the Microsoft Home

Today, MSN Tech takes you on a tour of the Microsoft Home.


“A shining steel, geodesic structure where food appears upon command, robots handle all manual chores and families in unisex jumpsuits gather around the hologram station before tucking themselves into their sterile sleeping pods for the night. Does this fit your general vision of the home of the future? Blame that on Hollywood. What might the average American home look like in the next few years? This big question floats around the Microsoft Home, situated within a building on the company’s main corporate campus in Redmond, Wash. The home’s mission: To explore ways technology could improve our daily lives in the near future.”


Per the web page on our corp site, “Located on Microsoft Corp.’s Redmond, Wash. campus, the Microsoft® Home is a concept facility that models technology that might enhance life at home five to 10 years from now. Microsoft uses the facility to research and test future consumer technology concepts and explore how people use technology in the home. The Microsoft Home is housed within Microsoft’s Executive Briefing Center. Although it’s not a stand-alone house, the Microsoft Home simulates a domestic environment including a front door, entry/foyer, kitchen, family room, dining room, entertainment room and bedroom.”


More information:



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Microsoft to offer Vista upgrade coupons starting Oct. 26

Express Upgrade to Windows VistaAP reported yesterday that “people who buy certain Windows personal computers this holiday season will be offered free or heavily discounted coupons to upgrade to Microsoft Corp.’s new operating system, Windows Vista, under a program designed to spur sales despite Vista’s delay.”


Companies including HP, Compaq and Dell are quoted with more details on the upgrade offers for purchases starting Thursday, October 26th. (“Price, terms, and conditions may vary. Additional shipping, handling, and other fees may apply. See your PC manufacturer for availability and applicable offer details.”)


From the Microsoft Windows Vista web site: details on Express Upgrades to Windows Vista…



“If you’re in the market for a new computer this holiday season, be sure to ask your retailer about the Express Upgrade to Windows Vista, being offered by participating PC manufacturers. When you buy a qualifying Windows Vista Capable PC between October 26, 2006 and March 15, 2007, you may be eligible for an Express Upgrade to Windows Vista.


“Don’t wait to enjoy the benefits of owning a new PC. Buying a Premium Ready Windows Vista Capable PC means you can buy a great Windows XP computer today, with the confidence that it will easily upgrade to the Windows Vista edition of your choice. Express Upgrade to Windows Vista offers from participating PC manufacturers will ensure you can easily enjoy Windows XP today and Windows Vista when it’s available.”


More details on the program are on the Express Upgrade site.


As noted on AP’s web site, “the coupon program begins Thursday and runs through mid-March. Particulars of the deal will vary depending on the computer maker and retailer.”


PC manufacturers mentioned in the article include Hewlett-Packard (for certain HP Pavilion, Compaq Presario and HP Digital Entertainment Center computers equipped with Windows XP), Gateway (“free upgrades for people who buy Vista-capable computers directly from the company) and Dell (for “Vista-capable Dell computers running Windows XP Home Edition” will be able to upgrade to Windows Vista Home Basic; Dell’s rep said that “buyers of computers running Windows XP Media Center or Windows XP Professional will only have to pay shipping and handling to get a comparable Vista version.”)


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FC’s “Talk to Our Customers? Are You Crazy?”

In Fast Company, there is a good article (quick read) from the July issue, Talk to Our Customers? Are You Crazy? by Ian Wylie. The author looks at how Credit Suisse is working to “think different” about its customers.



“Stephan Kubler spends each and every working day spying on Credit Suisse customers. He’s part of a small team led by customer-experience renegade David McQuillen, a 36-year-old American who’s challenging the top executives at the blue-chip Swiss bank to get out of their Zurich offices and–gulp!–meet some customers.


…says McQuillen: “You need to go out and talk to customers to find out what they want.”


“You can do this stuff in two or three days–you don’t have to spend half a million dollars on research. Just go and observe.” 


I completely agree.


I was asked recently how much I interact with customers. I’ll argue not enough, but as I’ve noted previously, we run surveys, focus groups and lots of meetings to talk about customers. I meet with people across the company and hear what their customers — our customers — are telling them, asking from us, lamenting about and (in some cases) giving us praise. I get more out of visiting with customers in retail shops, on the road, in formal gatherings (sometimes in our Executive Briefing Center – here’s one example), via phone and email. And I share this with the people I work with across the company: some people are better at getting the word out than I am, but I work at being an advocate every day for our customers and partners…


And our execs hear the word on the street, too: this from Fortune Magazine:



“[Steve] Ballmer asked [Kevin] Johnson to work closely with [Ray] Ozzie and run organizational interference for him. Before this new platforms job, Johnson had spent 2 1/2 years running Microsoft’s sales, where he talked to customers every day. He shares Ozzie’s user-first obsession more than any other top executive, and the two bonded immediately.”


And this from Kevin Turner in the Mercury News:



“I travel around the world. It’s a global job talking to customers and partners and our people. Here I’m meeting with an all hands. I’m meeting with customers and partners and having the same spirited discussion and take it a back to our people.”

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Dr. Who & Exchange: CDO fix for time adjustment

Apparently Dr. Who isn’t the only one capable of controlling time.


As noted in support article 910268 this week, there’s a code defect when you use “Collaborative Data Objects (CDO) to create meetings programmatically in Microsoft Exchange Server 2003: meetings are unexpectedly moved one hour ahead in the last week of October with Microsoft Exchange Server. CDO causes the daylight saving time adjustment to happen at the wrong time. This impacts Outlook, which as The Register in the UK reports “will turn the clocks back a week early, plunging Britain’s Blackberry-weilding suits into a thundering whirlpool of temporal bedlam.” 


For more on the hotfix, here’s a link to the KB article.


Come to think of it, a TARDIS has been reported outside Dave Thompson’s office on occassion.

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Of interest: Slam 1.0 Release

As noted on their new Slam blog site, the team annouced the first release of Slam… as covered on Gizmodo and Tom’s HW Guide…


“Slam is your Windows Mobile social software client and service. Slam allows users to make and manage social groups right from their phone for group-based messaging and photo sharing.


“You can also use Slam through the SMS and/or web interfaces. See screenshots and learn more about Slam on the about Slam webpage, and get started your self by downloading the installer or having a link sent to your phone.”


 


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