Microsoft to launch new Vista-subscription trials in early 2008

• Microsoft is readying a new Windows-Vista based version of its FlexGo hardware-software-services bundle aimed at emerging markets.
• As part of FlexGo ‘Next,’ Microsoft plans to shift its emphasis from pay-as-you-go to subscription-based pilots, company officials said at the Windows Hardware Engineering (WinHEC) conference in Los Angeles this week.
• Microsoft rolled out the first version of its FlexGo program in May 2006. With a group of hardware, telecommunications, retail and financial services partners, Microsoft began testing pay-as-you-go and subscription-based rentals of PCs and software in Brazil, India, Mexico and Russia.
• A year into the trials, Microsoft has decided to shift its focus to subsciption pilots with 20 or so telcos in Brazil, India and Mexico, officials said this week.
• Microsoft also is beginning to phase in Windows Vista into the FlexGo trials, officials said. Starting in the first quarter of 2008, Microsoft will begin offering all of the different 32-bit Vista SKUs via the FlexGo pilot program.
• “In the past, you had to have a separate SKU for a FlexGo-enabled system. Now every version of 32-bit Vista will be offered,” said Mike Wickstrand, a Director of Product Management with Microsoft’s Market Expansion Group.
• In explaining the pilot program’s change in focus, Wickstrand acknowledged that pay-as-you-go had “high consumer appeal, but not enough usage for the financial institutions” providing credit to the user base. Given the explosion in availability of consumer credit, subscriptions are emerging as a more popular option.
• Under the FlexGo program, users make initial down payments on mid-range PCs and make monthly payments for software and broadband services from their local telcos, much the way customers pay cable providers for TV and Internet access. Microsoft and its partners will allow users to sign up and pay for their subscriptions in a variety of ways, ranging from ATMs and point-of-sale terminals, to the Web.
• FlexGo systems require activation and Windows Genuine Advantage authentication. Once subscribed, users will be reminded via notifications and account status screens, as to the amount of time they have remaining before their systems will move to “borrowed time,” and, ultimately, a locked status for lack of payment. In order to unlock systems that have degraded due to lack of payment, users will need to obtain a code from the FlexGo partners.
• During the latter half of this year, Microsoft will be adding new hardware to the list of systems supported under the FlexGo program, including AMD- Infineon ASIC- and Intel-based options.via

New Web Previews App Launches

 

• Back in January, Alex Iskold reviewed a number of 'web previews' tools - including Browster, Cooliris, Snap and Sphere. A couple of others are iReader and Blogrovr, although the latter is more about delivering content than previewing it. We've reviewed several of these web previews products before - e.g. see our post about iReader. Essentially all of these apps aim to save you clicks, by providing a preview of the web page behind a link. Sometimes this type of technology is intrusive, but a lot of times it is useful - because it allows you to check out a preview of the content without clicking through. Indeed a month or so ago we implemented Snap previews on Read/WriteWeb, and I myself regularly use it to preview the blogs of commenters (for example).
• So now Interclue has joined what is a reasonably crowded market - and as yet a market where there is little evidence of profitablity. Browster has already bitten the dust. So what makes Interclue different? Like iReader it is a browser add-on that provides more information about a link, including a text summary of the content. Here is an example:
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• Interclue is very nicely implemented and it doesn't interfere with my browsing. By default you have to physically click the little icon to the right of the link to see the content preview, which is much better (in my view) than automatically popping it up when the user passes their mouse over the link. You can modify this behavior, including hover time. Also there is a lot of handy information packed into the previews - a useful text summary, plus some stats about the web page. It also has a del.icio.us tagcloud and digg count, two very nifty features for web 2.0 savvy users.
• The current service is free, but CEO Seth Wagoner says there will be a premium subscription based service too. He says it will make Interclue "3-5 times faster and bring you even more clues per pixel."
• Check out the Interclue blog for more info, but also try it out and see what you think. Overall I'm definitely impressed with the implementation of web previews in Interclue, but - as with its competition - it remains to be seen if Interclue gets a steady revenue stream. It is a handy tool, but is it one users will pay for?
• A final note, this is a web app that hails from New Zealand (where I live). Nice to see web 2.0 startups beginning to pop up here - there are others I have my eye on too.via

Windows Vista: 6 Tips in 6 Minutes

In this segment, “Microsoft gives the Orange County Register the six-minute scoop on the coolest features of Windows Vista: Instant search, Aero, parental controls, security, step-by-step help and shadow copy.” If you’re a new Vista user, this is definitely a helpful video to watch. via

New Stuff At My Yahoo

• The big guys are really starting to focus on personalized home pages, where Yahoo dominates and Google is coming on strong (by adding a link from the Google.com home page). Google says their personalized home page has been their fastest growing product over the last few fiscal quarters. Pageflakes and Netvibes are two notable startups in this space.
• Tonight Yahoo is announcing a few enhancements to the recently relaunched My Yahoo: a new calendar module, a My Netflix module that uses the Netflix API and an update to the Yahoo Bookmarks module.
• The calendar module has read/write functionality (as it should). My Netflix lets users see what movies have recently been released on DVD, the movies in your queue and movies you have at home. The main addition to the bookmarks module is the ability to add new bookmarks directly from the module.
• The new features will be rolled out on Thursday. Screen shots are below. The first one shows the calendar and netflix modules.via

Sneak peak at Mogulus: new live blogging platform

I got to take a sneak peak at a new video broadcasting service that opened its doors to a select few this morning. Mogulus is a live video broadcasting service the likes of uStream.tv, but with a twist: Multiple people can work on live video feeds at the same time. Each user can create their own branded channel, and fill it up with video content either from their hard drives or pulled in from YouTube. Each contributor can also command the broadcast using their Web cam, complete with customizable over-the-shoulder graphic overlays and a scrolling CNN-style news ticker. The result is a live blogging experience that's visually stimulating to the viewer, and completely customizable for the amateur content producer.

Mogulus is giving its producers two ways to share content--either embedding the live feed, or linking to their own custom URL. All public channels go into a listing for live feeds a la Kyte.tv, so casual users looking to tune into things that are live or interesting will be able to browse through and find something they like.

Managing broadcasts in Mogulus is handled completely inside of a Flash-based application. Content is clumped together in small management units called "storyboards," which can be inserted into any broadcast almost like video playlists. Producers queue up content, mix and match the order of video clips, and can break in at any time to broadcast live from their Web cam. Power users have a lot to play with, as it actually feels like a professional video-editing app with a ton of options for tweaking and fine-tuning.

Mogulus plans to roll out its service with two models, one free and one paid. The free version requires inserting a short advertisement for every 10 minutes of broadcasting, while the pro version lets producers go ad-free in exchange for paying a fee for every gigabyte of bandwidth transferred. My hunch is that many casual users will be OK with the advertisement model, with what Mogulus is tentatively planning to keep at around 10 seconds per ad.

More on Mogulus as it leaves private beta. Until then you can sign up and check out an explanatory video here. More screenshots of the interface after the jump.via