21 ms·
Microsoft Xim
- rayiner 12y agoTrying to turn it into a verb (xim it) and a noun (add to the xim). Aggressive marketing.
- romanovcode 12y agoWhat's wrong with that?
- tdicola 12y agoAsk Zune folks how well squirt worked out for them.
- owenversteeg 12y agoI agree with your point, but I also want to point out that the term also has sexual connotations, which (in my experience) made up the bulk of the negative comments about it.
- Rachelgee 12y agoI agree, and its a rather nice way to advertise it. Like Google has done. (just Google it) :)
- danielweber 12y agoDidn't Google fight that, so that wouldn't get Kleenexed?
- nnnnni 12y agoYup. But no one says "Bing it"...
- UrlichtZwei 12y ago...except for Microsoft advertising materials.
- harryh 12y agoAlso Matthew Perry.
- wmeredith 12y agoIt's like giving yourself a nickname. It's annoying and self-defeating.
- akbar501 12y agoMy guess would be that we'll see more of these shared/sync'd experience apps in the future. A phone is personal so experiencing the pictures on your phone makes it more personal.
- gbog 12y agoI don't know if it exists already, but what I would like is a Bluetooth mixing app: say it is installed on my phone, I connect to speakers and I can play music from my phone. Buddies around can connect by Bluetooth to my phone and "play" some other track to me. Then a fader allows me to mix both tracks to the speakers.
- JoblessWonder 12y agoOnce again Microsoft being pretty low-key with the fact that this is a Microsoft product just like they did with Sway. [1] * No mention in the title bar or above the fold. * First mention of Microsoft is in the footer. * iOS App Store and Google Play links are before the Window Phone Store. * Mockups include iOS looking device and Androidy Device (however the largest one might be a Windows Phone?) [1] https://www.sway.com https://www.sway.com *Although they have now added this annoying Microsoft Toolbar dropdown-thingy which wasn't there on launch day. Interesting.
- guardian5x 12y agoThey also change the name from "Windows Intune" to just "Microsoft Intune", and did the same with "Windows Azure" to just "Microsoft Azure". There is definately a shift with Microsoft under Nadella, and i think it can be seen with a alot of small details already. [1] http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2014/10/windows-intune-now-just-intune-because-it-does-android-and-ios-too/ http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2014/10/window...
- tdicola 12y agoThis is from FUSE labs which is a little team inside MS who do research on new experiences and such. They don't really produce 'products' like Office, OneDrive, etc. They make neat demos and if they get enough traction try to influence the bigger products to adopt them.
- seanmcdirmid 12y agoKodu was more than a demo.
- emp_ 12y agoI love that direction. Recently stumbled upon "Microsoft Ajax Minifier" which is a prime example of the old way of naming things. What does compressing files have anything to do with async requests? At some point they were just giving the AJAX name to anything javascript related, without thinking or to not have "Java" appear in naming conventions.
- teebot 12y agoInteresting feat is only one person needs the Xim app installed for all to participate
- jbob2000 12y agoNot really, you just get a URL to send to your friends
- 0x0 12y agoI'm guessing the app has a small built-in webserver - or perhaps relays through a 3rd party webserver - and the others join up in their browser using some kind of websocket like transport? Wonder if they direct the others to the app user's phone's internal wifi IP?
- free2rhyme214 12y agoI don't see the point in this product when I can share photos with others using Dropbox, Google Drive or even OneDrive.
- notmarkus 12y agoI think that it's not meant to replace those. It's meant to replace the act of passing your phone around in person — say, around a dinner table — in order to show photos to the people you're with.
- jbob2000 12y agoSo what's wrong with passing the phone around? Now I have to ask everyone to pull out their phones. "Mine is in my purse, let me go grab it" "I left mine in the car, oops" "My battery is dead" Then I have to text/email them the link. "I didn't get the link" "I have no service here" Whereas, passing a phone literally takes a millisecond.
- sp332 12y agoNice that all of your friends are always in the same room with you.
- sliverstorm 12y agoIt leaves you in control of the "show". If you have a series of pictures, for example, you pick when to move to the next photo, and can narrate as you do. You don't have to think about them flipping beyond the photos you wanted to share. They don't have to figure out how to work your phone. It's certainly easier to pass around a phone, of course, but I can see the flaws. This is a place where NFC would really be a step up though. Tap-to-share-screen, instead of having to find contacts and numbers and sending texts.
- FiddlerClamp 12y agoI tried it out - the person you're sharing the Xim with can also control the slideshow.
- jbob2000 12y agoI never really had any problems with sharing/showing photos, don't see the purpose in this app.
- undata 12y agoThank god; another way to share photos with my friends.
- jackmaney 12y agoI know, right! I mean, there's already Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Flickr, Imgur, Dropbox, Google Drive, Google+, email, MMS, LinkedIn, Myspace, and hosting one's own site. But we need more options to share blurry photos of backgrounds or mediocre desserts.
- untog 12y agoWe got the joke.
- roywiggins 12y agoI assume the idea is to replicate the experience of projecting your vacation slides onto the wall and forcing your loved ones to watch?
- gagege 12y agoYes, and that's actually an activity I (and probably many others) enjoy.
- ahmett 12y agoUnlike everybody else, when it's Microsoft, iOS app comes the last.
- fataliss 12y agoFor a second I thought it would be some kind of editor vim style but Microsoft made. But no, just an other photo app. Can you still generate any revenue out of this kind of app in 2014? I feel like the market is pretty dense already, between dropbox, instagram, flickr ... plenty of apps already in the landscape, why an other?
- chc 12y agoIt's by Microsoft Research. Not everything they make is meant to be a direct revenue driver.
- jordanpg 12y agoKeyword being "direct". Publicly no doubt they have mission statements that read like they're trying to save the planet. Privately, they are tasked with exploring the margins of new paths to revenue. (NOTE: pure speculation.)
- chc 12y agoI don't feel like you are very familiar with Microsoft Research. While I'm sure Microsoft ultimately expects to benefit from their work, it's pretty far out there to suggest that their mission is discovering revenue streams or anything like that. Like, do you really believe Microsoft intends to monetize Haskell?
- seanmcdirmid 12y agoWell. To be fair, facebook did.
- chc 12y agoFacebook uses Haskell as a revenue stream? I was not at all aware of that (and still am not really, after some Googling).
- jordanpg 12y agoI have to imagine that this is part of a larger plan to rope people into an MS ecosystem by getting folks to use useful utilities one at a time. I can think of another company that did this a few years back with disparate utilities: Google. Recall gmail, Picasa, Reader, Maps, etc. Standalone in the early 2000s and now if you use one, you likely use them all. Also, a pretty unsubtle rebranding campaign: "Made with love by Microsoft Research FUSE Labs"??
- stormbrew 12y ago> Recall gmail, Picasa, Reader, Maps, etc. Standalone in the early 2000s and now if you use one, you likely use them all. I don't think I know anyone who uses 'them all' even from this small list. Of course, Reader doesn't even exist anymore. And I know no one who uses picasa as far as I know. People use gmail and maps, but not really as integrated components or because of their use of anything else in the google ecosystem. I mean yes, I agree that this is a very google-ish strategy, but I also don't think it's really driven a lot of cross-app use. And when they tried to push G+ through that channel people screamed bloody murder at it.
- vertex-four 12y agoPicasa doesn't exist any more as a standalone product - its backend is just what you use if you upload a photo to G+, or share a photo from an Android phone, these days.
- Scuds 12y agoGroup within MS research, which runs more or less independent of MS http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_FUSE_Labs http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_FUSE_Labs http://fuse.microsoft.com/ http://fuse.microsoft.com/ not really branding as it is a one-off "what if we..." toy application
- johnm1019 12y agoThis is a surprisingly simple idea which I'm surprised nobody else did first. Neat idea. +1 on you guys for making it so only one person needs the app too!
- csel 12y agoMarketing gimmick sometimes frustrates the hell out of me. 1. (No app required) - but the person hosting the photos need to install the app? 2. (Download on the Apple Store icon)- Yet clicking on it will give you a coming soon page. Will it kill you to put a "Coming Soon" text below the icon ? Of course, I am still trying to wrap my head around the use case for this concept, especially when you have a dozen other ways to solve this problem. Oh wait, what was the problem again?
- crantanplum 12y agoSo uhhh. How do you pronounce Xim? KS-im? Zz-im? SHim?
- dynamic99 12y agoAccording to the way it was pronounced in the video on the bottom of the page, it's Zim.
- 89vision 12y agoI thought for sure this would be a really efficient text editor.
- wehadfun 12y agoThis would be great if it was not limited to pictures. There still is not a great way to share your phone screen with a computer or another phone.
- reitanqild 12y agoNot available for any of my devices. (Note 2 etc) I guess that means somebody forgot Europeans exist?
- Spearchucker 12y agoIt requires a US phone number. I believe it will be rolled out internationally too, no idea of timelines though.
- Zaheer 12y agoIs the website down? Anyone have a cache?
- wasyl 12y agoShame Android app is restricted by country - can't install it here in Poland
- OoTheNigerian 12y agoLooks good. Not Available to my devices. I am guessing it is restricted by region. I'm in Nigeria
- johnhenry 12y agoI'm not sure if I'll get much use out of this, but at least Microsoft is starting to release their software simultaneously on all three platforms. Hopefully others will follow suit.
- manojlds 12y agoIf you go to /r/WindowsPhone, you will see complaints that MS releases / updates apps for iOS and Android much before WP.
- gggggggg 12y agoPretty sure something like this was on my Lumia from Nokia a year ago.
- kevinchau 12y agoThis has Zune written all over it. “wirelessly transfer a song you want to share to your zune friends, they can play it just a little bit" Then Steve Jobs said something like: “if you’re on the subway and want to share a song with someone cool, why fuck around with sending a demo song, just take off 1 earbud and listen to the music together" Edit: "Just put it(the earbud) in her ear" http://gizmodo.com/207754/steve-jobs-on-zune-wifi-getting-you-laid http://gizmodo.com/207754/steve-jobs-on-zune-wifi-getting-yo...
- teh_klev 12y ago>"Just put it(the earbud) in her ear" There's a whole sharing earwax and hygiene thing I'm just not comfortable with there.
- jimueller 12y agoUnlike many in the comments, I don't think this is a useless app. I don't particularly enjoy passing my phone around, and sometimes it's a nice way of showing everyone photos at the same time. At first I thought this was Nokia Photobeamer v2 [1], but it appears to be a completely separate app. [1]https://photobeamer.com/ https://photobeamer.com/
- DigitalSea 12y agoI think this app is actually pretty cool, especially in situations where you want to show family at a table photos from your latest trip or weekend adventures. It is such a shame that the scroll performance on this site is so horrible (performance wise), scroll up and down and you will see this behaviour first-hand.
- Aldo_MX 12y agoStrange, I used Chromepera and it reports < 10% CPU usage when scrolling the mouse like a maniac.
- fillskills 12y agoThis reminds me so much of one of my favourite apps ever - Google Hello: http://blogoscoped.com/archive/2008-05-08-n15.html http://blogoscoped.com/archive/2008-05-08-n15.html
- ChuckMcM 12y agoNicely done, I'm a bit surprised there isn't more of this. When you see several people there with their phones and only one has the content everyone wants to see, it makes a lot of sense to be able to "cast" it to everyone's screen.
- nilkn 12y agoPutting the snark aside for a second, if this app works as well as it's claimed to, then I actually think it's an awesome idea. I really dislike handing my phone over to other people, even to show them a photo or video, and if I'm wanting to show something to 3+ people at once there's no truly convenient way to do that anyway. I've already installed this and will definitely be trying it out at the next opportunity.
- darushimo 12y agoI agree with the use case, but most of the time I show someone a photo, it a fairly quick process. Comparing (1) how you share photos now to (2) how you share photos w/ Xim: (1) "wanting to share photo-> pull out phone-> unlock phone-> open photos app-> select photo-> show people your phone" is a lot faster and easier than (2) "wanting to share photo-> pull out phone-> unlock phone-> open Xim-> select images-> add or select contacts* -> send message -> wait for others to receive message-> they pull out phone (if not already)-> they unlock phone-> they open the message-> they are redirected (to app or website)-> they can see the photo" I don't think this use case is definitive, i just meant it as an illustration of "it will take longer to share photos with Xim." I think this MIGHT be ok if you only had to go through a laborious process the first time you used the app or viewed a Xim, but I think you have to go through that whole process (minus the adding the contact) every time you share. This app is trying to work at that intersection of cyber- and meat-space, and I think the handoffs will just take too long. The ironic use case--this could be a great tool for remotely sharing photos. But if you're doing that, wouldn't you be using your phone to talk with the other viewers about the photos? ;-( * Seems more likely you're trying to show more than 1 photo, as it's fairly easy to show a single photo to many people. Similar to above, and like you were saying, it's fairly easy to show 1 or 2 people a series of photos on your phone.
- ep103 12y agowhat about distance? Can xim do it with my friend wherever they are?
- skbohra123 12y agoNot compatible with Moto G (Android KitKat), this is the first app I have came across which is not compatible with this device. Edit - "Xim will initially be available in US and Canada only; we plan to add additional country support shortly" Ah!
- totmann 12y agoGonna give it a try sometime.
- NicoJuicy 12y agoToo bad the app can't be installed when you are living in Belgium from the Google Play Store(i don't see a valid reason)
- koyote 12y agoOr the UK. This localised internet is really starting to get to me.
- janaagaard 12y agoI can't find the app in the Danish App Store. :-/
- rikkus 12y ago"Sorry, this app isn’t available in your market." Windows Phone, UK.
- chj 12y agoWhy did they call it "Xim"? Sounds like a x-window instant messenger to me.
- ape4 12y agoThe group viewing is a nice idea. But I am not keen to put my photos into another garden.
- gagege 12y agoYeah, would be nice if this launched a little web server on your device with a temporary url for people to connect to. I feel like this is how social networking should work too, but that's a whole nother story.
- ableal 12y agoBetter details here: http://www.windowsphone.com/en-us/store/app/microsoft-xim/3627bc99-5f9d-4bbd-bb87-69eead70e28d http://www.windowsphone.com/en-us/store/app/microsoft-xim/36... Excerpts: • Xims only stick around for a little while so you can enjoy the moment with no storage or organization overhead • Xim is available for iPhone, Android and Windows Phone 8 devices and works in most web browsers • Xim will initially be available in US and Canada only; we plan to add additional country support shortly