I wonder if Spielberg is claiming royalty from all the technology that was envisioned in his sci-fi film Minority Report . Cause if he is, he probably don’t have to make another movie. Shown off today at the National Retail Federation Convention & Expo, an impressive digital signage proof of concept put together by Intel and Microsoft demonstrates that the futuristic clothing store in the movie is not all that far off. Powered by an Intel Core i7 processor (yes you read that right, this sign has more grunt than most desktop computers), this proof of concept was designed to illustrate some of the new breakthrough technologies supported by the upcoming Windows Embedded Standard 2011 platform that’s based of Windows 7. Noticeably, the advanced multi-touch and high-definition multimedia capabilities have carried through to this small(er)-footprint OS. In combination with a massive 80″ “holographic” display and a large LCD display, the result is nothing short of impressive.
If there’s one company that knows how to build great multi-touch experiences, it has to be Razorfish . Over the course of a year now, these guys have been showing off a bunch of groundbreaking interactive retail experiences built on top of multi-touch technologies, prominently but not limited to the Microsoft Surface . Their latest work, dubbed Razorfone , is a conceptual retail experience for consumers looking to purchase mobile phones, but what makes this stand out from the rest is that it’s actually built on top of Windows 7’s multi-touch support and Windows Presentation Foundation. Although not the first time this combination has been used before but it’s certainly one of the best implementations I’ve seen so far. Those familiar with multi-touch retail experiences might recall some similarities between this and the AT&T Surface application – especially in the side-by-side comparison demo, but before you call their lawyers, that’s because Razorfish was responsible for that too. They ought to get these in the Microsoft Stores , minus the iPhone of course.
As the official Windows 7 launch is set in motion, a bunch of new content is being released online to support the wider public availability. To kick things off, a handful of new first-party theme pack have been released on Windows.com , but with a twist. In addition to a number of new international themes released featuring photographs from different regions of the world, 14 sponsored themes are also available for download with wallpapers sourced from various notable brands. They range from movies to sports cars, video games and even refreshment beverages (from both Coke and Pepsi!). As time goes on, I’d expect more companies to jump on this opportunity as an easy and fun way to promote their products and brand. Music label EMI has already planned a whole site dedicated to branded Windows 7 theme packs
If you don’t already spend countless hours of the day browsing Reddit , it’s never too late to start. What I think sets Reddit apart from other similar communities is the discussion-only sections. More recently, a new section dubbed “IAmA” – short for “I am a…ask me anything” – has taken off by storm by allowing interesting and sometimes notable people (under the cover of anonymity if they wish) to answer random questions from complete strangers. As dubious as this may sound, it actually works quite well and have since brought under the spotlight award-winning musicians , hackers , descendants of Nazis , 9/11 firefighters , lottery millionaires and of course, the most interesting of them all, Microsoft developers. So far, three anonymous Microsofties have already stepped forward to answer several hundred questions in total
If you’ve ever pondered about the future convergence of mobile devices and the web, then you might have envisioned something like the scenarios shown in these three speculative (mock) advertisements for Microsoft Tag , courtesy of a familiar director Marty Martin who also shot the Windows 7 college spots . Produced by “ The Brigade ” in collaboration with Microsoft, these three 60-second spots dubbed “teen” (above), “ mom ” and “ business ” shows how Microsoft Tags could seamlessly bridge the divide between real tangible objects with content and services on the web. Examples shown in the video enabled by MTags include the discover and downloading of new music from an artist’s poster, finding stores who sells a piece of clothing you see in a magazine and streaming a movie trailer to a portable media player all from a movie poster. [See post to watch Flash video] [See post to watch Flash video] What I like about these videos is that they illustrate scenarios that very practical but not currently possible with the ease of clicking just a button. Sure you could bring up a browser on your phone and type away but by the time you’re done you would have probably lost interest.
