Last week Nokia announced that an official Vine app will eventually come to Windows Phone, but for now, users of Microsoft’s smartphones can enjoy Twitter’s popular video sharing service with the help of 6sec. Launched yesterday, the unofficial app brings the entire Vine experience to Windows Phone 8 devices, in addition to Live Tile support and the ability to access the service directly through the phone’s camera app. Other features unique to 6Sec — like the option to show a grid when filming and setting a focus point for the video — are included as well.
If Microsoft ever releases the smartwatch that the Wall Street Journal reports is in development, the gadget won’t just be entering a wearable computing market that has yet to be proven out. The watch would also extend a family of Surface hardware devices that no one is clamoring to buy.
Yet hardware is a critical component of Microsoft’s mobile-focused reinvention, and the company can’t let crappy tablet sales dim its ambition. The Surface family must grow larger if Microsoft is to realize its quite public aspirations, and if you really begin to think about what a Surface Watch might offer, the concept suddenly segues from misguided and far-fetched to “Hmmm… I might actually buy that thing.”
The watch won’t look anything like the MSN-connected Swatch Paparazzi shown in the image above, but it could go down in flames like the Paparazzi if Microsoft doesn’t nail the gadget’s design and intent. With that, I describe the Surface Watch that I would want to buy, and wax fantastically on four more Surface brand extensions.
Surface Watch
If you can’t sell customers a $1,000 Surface tablet, maybe you can sell them a Surface smartwatch that’s priced to move. Let’s say this device is $150 (the same as Pebble’s smartwatch). Let’s say it grabs Microsoft’s modern UI, and tosses a new Live Tile on your screen every 10 seconds. How’s that for a conversation starter? With its always-on connection, the Surface Watch throws tweets, news headlines, and other streaming bits and bobs directly onto its touchscreen face.
The leaked development version of Windows Blue, an upcoming version of Windows 8 expected later this year, has shed light on even more improvements coming to the operating system. Windows Blue—whose leak prompted Microsoft to admit its existence—won’t be a whole new OS, but rather an update or service pack to Windows 8, packed with incremental updates and features while maintaining the same overall user experience.
Our first look at the Windows Blue leak revealed some useful changes. The leaked build includes the ability to snap two apps on the screen in 50/50 ratio (compared to the only 75/25 ratio currently available), additional Live Tile sizing options, easier screenshot sharing, new gesture controls, and better access to critical system settings from the modern-style interface.
Paul Thurrott of the Windows Supersite dug a bit deeper and unearthed a feature that will make your life easier if you use multiple Windows 8 devices: a greatly enhanced Start screen sync.
Although the interface for managing the feature is broken in the test version, he was able to sync his start screen by simply signing in to two different Windows Blue-equipped PCs with the same Microsoft account. While Windows 8 allows for the syncing of basic settings and your wallpaper, Thurrott reports that Windows Blue ups the ante by syncing your modern Start screen’s color scheme and pinned tiles, including said tiles’ colors and layout.
