Craig's Musings

We had a Science fair yesterday where different folks around our division showed off the cool stuff they had in the labs. I saw lots of cool stuff but all of it super secret. In fact, this blog post will self-destruct in 30 seconds by my merely mentioning that words "secret".

There were a couple of things that were not secret – like Microsoft Surface, which I have to say, is one of the coolest things I’ve seen in a long time. When I first came to Microsoft at the beginning of April, my temporary office happened to be right in the middle of the Surface team while they were assembling the hardware and getting ready for their launch event. I got a chance to play with it furtively late at night and I thought it was cool then even before they had it fully baked. It keeps getting cooler every time I see it – the interface is really a breakthrough idea.

The other not-secret thing was Microsoft Sync. Last time I had something in my car from Microsoft was the AutoPC back in the late 90s, which while a neat idea, was a little ahead of its time. Well it’s 2007 and Sync kicks ASS! I was blown away by how well everything just worked - I paired my iPhone in about 30 seconds, and suddenly my contact list was integrated into the car. The voice recognition is terrific - I didn't have to train it, it was a super noisy environment, and random names from the phone book worked great. If you plug in a Zune or an iPod/iPhone (or a 'Play From Device' player or even a portable USB harddrive), you get the same cool interface for music as for contacts – your whole catalog of music is available via voice control, including the ability to jump straight to an artist or song. I have a dealer installed iPod interface in my car and the interface is HORRIBLE. I really frickin' hate it, whereas the Sync interface rocks. All that, and the thing you plug your device into is USB and so your device charges while you drive. This is double-extra cool with an iPhone since you don’t have to worry about how long you talk and all your music is right there.

All that cool stuff, and I got a parking spot in the garage literally right under the science fair. It took me exactly 30 seconds to get from my car to the event. Sweeeeet!