They don’t call Microsoft the platforms company for nothing. Thanks to a tip from reader Boldizsár, some developer documentation on MSDN is indicating Microsoft will indeed be backporting the new Scenic Ribbon UI framework introduced in Windows 7 to its misunderstood predecessor, Windows Vista (and Windows Server 2008).

Further information posted by a Microsoft employee in the MSDN forums reveals however a rather non-intuitive implementation of how the backport will be delivered to users. Instead of a simple redistributable resource file or runtime developers can bundle with their application package as one might expect, a “Windows 7 interoperability pack” creatively dubbed the “Windows 7 Client Platform Update” will be made available via Windows Update by October. This “recommended” update will then have to be installed manually by the user or silently triggered by the application setup to be applied.

Although the decision to backport Scenic Ribbon might come as somewhat of a surprise, it does make sense for Microsoft to quickly broaden support for its new frameworks rather than driving developers to adopt premature technologies that only become mainstream a release or two later.

If you’re a developer and have been holding back on adopting Scenic Ribbon in your application for this very reason, let this be the green light to Ribbon-away. That is of course if you’re willing to give up some XP users, but I say they don’t deserve it.

The competition between the Windows Marketplace for Mobile and the Apple App Store is heating up as Microsoft appears to have pulled a small punch at Apple and the controversy surrounding the rejection of applications in the iPhone App Store.

During the second and latest video to be released for the Windows Mobile Race to Market Challenge dubbed “The Race”, a scene appears in which a stick-figure developer walks into what is clearly to be interpreted as an “application store” only to have the pretentious-looking store staff (standing infront of a shelf full of other applications) reject his shiny new application.

If that wasn’t obvious enough, on top of all this the voiceover can be heard saying “If you want your app to do well, you’ve got to set it up for success. That means learning from experience, knowing when you could do better.” (emphasis added).

Whilst competition is always a good thing, I do find it somewhat hypocritical of Microsoft to highlight this when they know very well they could face the same criticism for disproving applications in the Windows Marketplace for Mobile.

And if it’s any indication of what’s to come, I’ve come across internal Microsoft documents that shows an outright ban on turn-by-turn navigation applications in the Marketplace. (Of course Windows Mobile has the advantage of being able to load applications via other methods). Update: A Microsoft representative has assured me turn-by-turn GPS navigation applications are not prohibited, contrary to the internal documentation.

It would be all too ironic and not entirely inconceivable to see Microsoft falling down the same rabbit hole which they’ve so prominently pointed out.

The original video is embedded below for your convenience.

A tiny piece of silicon has caught the attention of my peripheral vision perhaps providing some clues to just how far Microsoft is in to the development of Windows Mobile 7, or from the glass is half full perspective – how close Windows Mobile 7 might be to market.

Cambridge Silicon Radio, a UK company that specializes in chips for mobile devices (who just merged with the world’s #1 supplier of GPS chips SiRF), announced mid-June the UniFi CSR6026/CSR6028 chip, a single-chip solution to deliver WiFi 802.11n support in mobile embedded devices such as smartphones. The most noteworthy of its specifications is a mention of “Windows Mobile 7” in its list of supported operating systems, on top of “Windows Mobile 6.x, Windows CE 6.1 and 5, Linux v2.6, Android”.

Assuming the specification is accurate (and it’s hard to imagine it being a typo of Windows Mobile 6.5), it means either CSR engineers are in possession of an operational time machine or that the kernel or hardware interface layer of Windows Mobile 7 have already been finalized by Microsoft. I’ll let you decide which one is more plausible.

On a related note, a student newspaper at the University of Waterloo interviews student Naheed Hirji who worked at Microsoft during winter break on Windows Mobile 7. Whilst Naheed appears extremely well trained by the Microsoft public relations folks on disclosure, he confirms WM7 is to be released in 2010 and reveals “the aim of Windows Mobile 7 is to be a hybrid between business and consumer oriented phones”. Right, whatever that’s suppose to mean. You win this round ambiguous marketing speak!

First of all, a brief warning. This is one of those things that (like the arrow in the FedEx logo) cannot be “unseen”. Once you’re aware of it it will probably annoy you until the end of time. However fear not, thankfully there’s a simple solution to relieve the impending agony.

A sharp-eyed and on-beat user at the Windows 7 Taskforce has noted the default “busy” animated cursor in Windows 7 actually stutters a little during its animation loop. If you’re not seeing it at first, watch closely just before the shining highlight returns to the 12 o’clock position, skipping a beat somewhere around “11” on the clock face. …Yes, there it is.

What’s most bizarre is although the style of the cursor is not new to Windows 7, the same cursor in Windows Vista actually does not exhibit the same phenomenon. A closeup of the cursors in slow-motion is provided below for forensic analysis.

Windows 7 “busy” cursor

Windows Vista “busy” cursor

Diving deeper into the guts of cursor files, its revealed the Windows 7 cursor is actually designed to display each frame for 3 “jiffies” (1/60 of a second) whereas the Vista cursor displays each frame for 2 jiffies. As the cursor animation is comprised of 18 frames in total, that’s a discrepancy of 0.3 of a second per loop. It’s not certain if this is indeed what’s causing the stutter, but it’s a good sign something changed.

Nevertheless if this stutter now bugs you, the brilliantly simple fix is to use the Vista cursor instead! If you don’t have a copy of Vista handy, you can get the cursor file here, copy to “%SYSTEMROOT%\Cursors” and configure your “Pointer” settings from the “Mouse” control panel.

After that’s all done, simply hover over the test area from above to appreciate the elegance and bliss of a smooth animated cursor again.

Update: Leo Davidson has tracked down the root cause of the issue and also made a proper fix download available here.

Photo credit: BBBBianca / Flickr.com

Following the trend of Microsoft branded food-related products with the Windows toaster last month, now a Windows 7-branded cookie has appeared in China. One can only assume it will be packed with every pirated of copy of Windows 7 to satisfy your hunger during installation of the operating system.

In Europe, the cookie will only be sold unbaked. To promote competition, the European Commission advises purchasers to choose from a range of ovens in which they may bake their cookie.

As of two days ago, Microsoft has been indeed confirmed to be the new owners of the Office.com domain that one clever commenter on this blog made a note of almost a month ago (thanks Bob).

The transition of this valuable domain from its previous owners ContactOffice Group – an European company specializing in virtual office solutions since the late 90s – to Microsoft seemed to have occurred on August 4 2009 as the domain’s Whois record notes.

[whois.markmonitor.com]
Registrant:
        Domain Administrator
        Microsoft Corporation
        One Microsoft Way 
         Redmond WA 98052
        US
        [email protected] +1.4258828080 Fax: +1.4259367329

    Domain Name: office.com

    Created on..............: 1999-04-19.
    Expires on..............: 2019-04-19.
    Record last updated on..: 2009-08-04.

One would be wise to assume Microsoft paid quite a pretty penny for this rare single-noun and vowels-intact domain that now make its Office Web application suite far more convenient to remember and access. The current Office URL, http://office.microsoft.com, never quite rolled off the tongue.

Now’s a good time as any to start F5-ing the site for updates.

Update: Robin Wauters from TechCrunch corrects a minor detail that the ContactOffice Group didn’t actually own the domain per se, but licensed it from a third-party under a sharing agreement.