simba-hiiipower

also, this issue is nothing new and is certainty not unique to microsoft or the xbox. i think its fairly well understood that there's going to be a change in this area as the way content is distributed continues to evolve..

whatever the actual implementation is, i'm pretty sure it wont be as bad as you're implying (... removed the ability to buy, sell, and lend games) and will probably be standard across the industry - and structured in a manner as not to totally decimate the second-hand market..

[1] http://www.polygon.com/2013/5/21/4348916/xbox-used-games

from what i've seen this appears to match the ps4 in every way - even down to the architecture. the only difference is they glossed-over all that and decided to focus on the ways its differentiated..

according to op (of original thread) it appears that the flagging occurred almost immediately, so the argument that some may be flagging due to the toxic nature of the thread doesn't make much sense to me.

any details around the locker component; namely storage size?

seems its just cool to post things like that without bothering to test if it, in fact, does work.

numbers have been officially reported at two intervals: 60 million sold as of January 2013 [1], and 100 million as of May 2013 [2]. both points indicate its performing fairly well, and just shy of its predecessor. while not ideal, achieving these volumes is most certainly not so catastrophic that ‘investors’ are getting worried. if anything, they appear to be rewarding the company for taking steps to adapt early-on (relatively speaking).

as for sales needing to be higher following a successful release, that’s most certainly not true as a general rule and in this particular case doesn’t make sense either. we're not talking about movie release.. a PC (and, by extension, Windows to most) is a utility, not a discretionary good. most people depend on it in some form or another and if their PC isn't performing adequately to accomplish some task, they upgrade; if it’s fine, they stick it out until need be.. in the case of Vista to 7, many people were plagued with issues and in-need of new PCs (and a more stable OS), hence the rapid rate at which it sold. today, a PC running 7 from a few years back is still fairly capable and the need to upgrade is less pronounced. that it especially true if people are spending less time on a PC as many consumption-related activities can be transferred to other devices like smartphones and tablets.

speaking of which, keep in mind how much has changed since 7 was released.. people are now holding-on to their PCs for longer periods of time and there is increased competition from tablets and smartphones. the market is in decline, i’m not arguing against that, but pointing to 8 as the culprit is inaccurate.

[1] http://blogs.windows.com/windows/b/bloggingwindows/archive/2...

[2] http://blogs.windows.com/windows/b/bloggingwindows/archive/2...

edit: sales numbers are never that comparable, and its been three years.. for all the reasons listed above, they're not comparable.. introducing surface into the mix also makes them less comparable..

my point has less to do with specific milestones and more so to the point that by no reasonable standard could you call the product a failure so far. and projecting your particular dissatisfaction with the changes made (or maybe just a general grudge against the company, i don't know?) to the 'masses' is inaccurate and doesn't add any real value.

> Consumers have spoken clearly; they don't like or want Windows 8.

any evidence to back that up..? if anything, it seems the 'masses' are just fine with it and its tech geeks that are most bothered.. Microsoft just announced that they've passed 100 million Windows 8 licenses sold in the six months since launch, which is on-par with where Windows 7 was at this point in its lifecycle.

> The lack of sales has shown that, and it's why Microsoft is reversing direction and releasing this patch.

again, no. if anything, i'd say Windows 8 sales are rather impressive given they’re matching the pace of Windows 7 which came following a poorly received Vista.. you'd think that a release following a very popular and stable release (7 to 8) would see comparatively less traction than one following a poor one (Vista to 7), but it’s still holding-up, and doing so in a declining PC market farcing a number of other external forces.

> There's a reason this news is being covered in the Financial Times; because investors see lack of Windows 8 sales and they get very unhappy.

not true. just because it’s the FT reporting doesn't mean it’s any more insightful than your typical tech blog or speak for investor sentiment, at all. MSFT shares have been performing rather well since the launch of Windows 8. either way, Microsoft is a large and increasingly diversified company, so i wouldn't put too much weight in that one way or another. you make it sound like this is the largest product flop in the history of the world.. very sensational, also very not untrue.

and i sort of saw this coming for a while now given its somewhat odd positioning in adobe's product portfolio (overlap with photoshop, illustrator) and the lack of meaningfully updates over the past few iterations (though, as mentioned, there really hasn’t been much room for improvement for a while..). i’ve looked for alternatives, but sadly, can’t seem to find anything suitable.. on the plus side though, i imagine current versions should be perfectly capable for some time to come.

it is sad day indeed though.

i get the sense that you can achieve very similar outcomes using either one, but just always preferred the way you do so with fireworks over photoshop and similar programs. i’m not too savvy in the design space, but would appreciate any insights into the differences between the two, particularly as it relates to workflow.

¹ should note that while i initially gained exposure to the program via less-than-legal ways, having since grown up i am now a happy paying customer. i imagine this experience is quite common and this type of exposure a net benefit to companies like adobe.

in this case the images with the spoon 'head' to top-right look to be most common (darkest/most defined). but the next most common orientations appear to be where the spoon is flipped with the head aligned somewhere between top and middle left, and with many more variations..

http://research.microsoft.com/en-us/projects/illumiroom/

official project site with documentation + other media

macklemore (and ryan lewis! - no love for the production, ever!) are the exception, not the norm, and i don't think represent the beginning of larger some trend..

i think the music industry is very analogous to startups in the tech space.. most fail, some make it alright, and some make it big. the difference between them usually comes-down to the right combination of talent, luck, and external support (from people who know the industry, have capital, and have been there before). in the startup world vc fills the support gap, in the music one it’s the labels..

as an aside: i genuinely do wish it were true though.. i could easily put together a really good case study charting the composition of a growing artist’s fanbase before and after signing to a major label. in the case of hip-hop, i’ve encountered countless data points where sentiment among an artist’s early fans takes a sharp nosedive down once signed and under the pressure from labels; this usually tracks song quality very closely and is a perfect inverse of trendlines for radio plays and itunes sales..

yes, that’s largely true. and i’d say the extent to which labels profited over artists historically is pretty fucked-up. but, riaa itself aside, labels do serve a real purpose and are a valuable player in the space, like them or not.. and going from having the labels asymmetrically commanding industry profits (largely derived from record sales) to artists now doing the same (largely derived from other streams like touring, merch, …) may feel like ‘justice’ but isn’t an optimal state. they may have excess profits to coast on for a while but, in the long term, if both artists and labels can’t monetize the end result is less good music out there.

this disconnect in the market has hindered progress for too long (and i do blame the labels for it), but the solution should be shifting to a more equitable split of overall profits that reflects the value record companies generate in building-up an artist’s brand..

you may be right in that growth in other revenue streams (touring, merch, royalties, ...) potentially offset, or maybe even exceed, the decline in media sales when looking at the space in aggregate. however, that shift has major implications for different players in the space, and that shouldn't be ignored.

things may be working out better for superstars like madonna (and that’s not necessarily true; i really don’t know) given their ability to draw massive crowds willing to pay-up for the experience; smaller artists however lose out, as do the record companies..

historically, record companies took the lion share of media sales and artists (frankly speaking) got fucked. while the model has evolved, slowly, that’s still largely the same today, though things have now flipped - where the media sales, that the record companies depend on, have collapsed, and the other streams artists mainly depend on have taken-off.. love em or hate em (likely the latter), record companies do provide real value and remain an essential player in the space, helping discover and get good music out and supporting pre-madonna-level artists early-on, and their losses shouldn't be viewed as a win for the little guy, as it most certainty not.

i'd say this long-standing disconnect in the industry is why it’s taken nearly two decades to adjust to a disruption (digital formats, internet, file sharing) in the market; a ridiculously long amount of time if you think about it..

would love to see this built-out to where i could take any album in my (digital) collection and add it to the experience.

has a very retro yet futuristic feel to it and i totally dig it.

..which is more narrowly focused around the business of music and industry-related news, for those interested

and while that would be nice, i feel this (and pretty much every similar site) misses a very real problem around music discovery.. in that, for very active consumers, there’s no efficient way to track and monitor releases of specific interest to them. sites like this, r/music, and hypem are fine for surfacing what the majority finds cool, but they in no-way replace the need to monitor and frequently check-in with numerous source blogs and other sites to cover all that an individual is interested in (a very inefficient and time-consuming task)..

even more focused sites (and subreddits, if active), can never reach the level of personalization required to make them a reliable single-source for music discovery. don't get me wrong i frequent many and do find some great gems i'd otherwise have missed, but they're far from comprehensive..

and i don’t mean to discount anything here. it is a very difficult problem to solve given how disparate people’s tastes in music are, and even more so considering how widely distribution methods vary. i really feel anyone who can solve this problem would do quite well..

..which, of course, would only be making the problem worse, so i don't think it’s a marketing ploy as high demand is the issue here.

thanks for the link.

somewhat disapointed; was much more impressed when i thought it was an actual amazon product listing..

seems like a valuable exercise for startups to take

and i’m hard pressed to come-up with feedback for the content or structure of the newsletter itself, but (and this, understandably, may be taking things in a direction your wholly uninterested in) i’ve always thought it’d be nice to have this content delivered as an app.. in addition to offering an alternative way to monetize (i’d gladly pay for it), i think it could really enhance the user experience, particularly on mobile devices. some user-specific benefits i could see from such an approach:

- open story links within the app (rather than switching between email and browser)

- better comment viewing experience (viewing hn on mobile generally sucks)

- direct access to all archived issues (would be nice)

thinking about it, and considering all the work that would have to be put in, it could make for a great mobile hn reader (integrated newsletter for highlights + mobile-optimized hn access for staying current).

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also just want to add, that your wayback letter [1] is beyond awesome! it’s really cool being able to step back at various intervals in time and see what was going on. i find it pretty funny seeing what was in-focus as recent as a month ago, and actually quite insightful reaching back a few years. as i said, beyond awesome and very well put together, encourage people to check it out.

[1] http://www.waybackletter.com/

..yes, that's probably true. clicking the link you'd see that they are pretty clear in that the 60 million licenses number is just that, licenses they've sold (consumer upgrades + oem installs). wouldn't really call it creative as, financially, this makes perfect sense from their perspective -- in that they record revenue at the point of sale (with the majority of sales to OEMs). as far as I know this is also consistent with how they've always reported sales, making the numbers comparable with previous launches.

I don't know too much about the dynamics of the industry but I'm guessing activations likely lag licenses sold by a month or so..

regarding the colour gradient comment: i was referring to the background of the app tile/icon.. it fades from a dark yellowish to a light brownish, a fairly pronounced shift. while there’s nothing wrong with that generally speaking, it tends to contrast (in my opinion, in a bad way) the ‘metro’ design common to the os where gradients are typically avoided, or less pronounced if used, in favour of flatter design (solid colours)..

regarding the wp8 version: totally understand you have to prioritize. if you ever do get around to it, would love to hear your thoughts on the process of porting from w8 to wp8.

all the best

- note titles should be editable directly (currently the note takes the title of whatever my first line of text is; feels odd)

- support for bullets and numbering would be nice (lack of these was immediately apparent when creating my first note)

- being able to pin individual notes to my start screen would also be nice (a very basic feature, common among w8 apps)

and i know this is subjective, but relating to the design, i’d highly recommend removing the colour gradient from the app tile; it’s particularly pronounced and feels very inconsistent with the design principals of the os

also, i really like the idea of charging to enable syncing across devices, though i (personally) find it less appealing than i otherwise would given there is no companion app for windows phone.. any thoughts on a wp8 release? as an aside, i think it would be interesting to hear how that goes given the similarities between the two platforms and supposed ease in porting code from one to the other