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[JimH]

OK, since V14 came out and I just went through all the changing to my settings, I decided to try the documents capability with a couple PDF files. This works great and I could see it being a great way to organize my PDf files instead of just folders. I used to own Paperport which was awesome for this but since I have now moved on to better PDF editors, I do miss the capability with Paperport of seeing true thumbnails of my PDF files. That would be nice to get in MC14.

I used Paperport several years ago.  I agree it was great.  We'll see what we can do about thumbnails for pdf.  One of the possible directions we may go is to organize more types of information.  I'd like to have contacts in MC, for instance, and be able to sync with my cell phone or with gmail.  The downside is that we'd probably get a lot of hate mail.

[leezer3]

Loss of focus
I'm not saying don't, rather polish off what you've got first. Also, by polishing what you've got first and foremost, you give current users a reason to upgrade- How many of the current userbase would rather have mobile phone contacts integrated, as opposed to enhancements in the media capabilities and theatre view?
I suspect that most of the current users would rather have the media capabilities enhanced.

Basically, you risk becoming a jack of all trades, but a master of none 

-Leezer-

[Mr ChriZ]

Loss of focus
I'm not saying don't, rather polish off what you've got first. Also, by polishing what you've got first and foremost, you give current users a reason to upgrade- How many of the current userbase would rather have mobile phone contacts integrated, as opposed to enhancements in the media capabilities and theatre view?
I suspect that most of the current users would rather have the media capabilities enhanced.

Basically, you risk becoming a jack of all trades, but a master of none 

-Leezer-

I'm completely with Leezer on this one.  MC's good but I feel still it needs polishing in the media department.    Long term the contacts thing might be a nicety, but not high on my list, and more to the point I certainly couldn't see myself using it as a reason to put money down for it.

[JimH]

Basically, you risk becoming a jack of all trades, but a master of none 

People said the same thing when we went from music only to music and video, then again when we added images.

Our job is to be ready for what you want next year, and for what others want the year after.

[leezer3]

People said the same thing when we went from music only to music and video, then again when we added images.

Our job is to be ready for what you want next year, and for what others want the year after.

At risk of becoming more and more sidetracked, IMHO music, video and images are logical extensions of each other
They're all media of one sort or another, and phone contacts are a different kettle of fish entirely- Stupid question I know, but would you add a contact to a playlist or similar?

-Leezer-

[MrC]

People said the same thing when we went from music only to music and video, then again when we added images.

Our job is to be ready for what you want next year, and for what others want the year after.

... and what about all the things people asked for last year!  "Clean your plate, Johnny; then you can have some cake." :-)

[rjm]

I like the strategy of handling all types of "media" but I do not consider contacts to be a media type. There is still a lot that can and should be done with true media without diffusing into non-media data.

[park]

Contacts seems like a dead end to me. I have mine all organised in gmail. It syncs with exchange to my iphone. I dont even need them on my computer any more.

[JimH]

Contacts seems like a dead end to me. I have mine all organised in gmail. It syncs with exchange to my iphone. I dont even need them on my computer any more.

That's what I use right now and it's slow and tedious to make changes, unless you always have it open or you always stay logged in (so google can track you everywhere you browse).

If I get a new phone number, I want to spend 10 seconds adding it and move on.  With google, I have to navigate to gmail, log in, find the contacts, click on new, enter it in their form, press SAVE (!), logout and exit.  It takes about 60 seconds.  It's worse than doing it in the Palm desktop app.

I think this could be done with MC in about 10 seconds.  On a web page, or in your e-mail, highlight the blob of text with the person's details, copy.  Open MC, navigate to contacts, and paste.  Auto sync to google.

But maybe it's a separate app.

[JimH]

... and what about all the things people asked for last year!  "Clean your plate, Johnny; then you can have some cake." :-)

I don't see our job as doing everything people ask for.  People ask for just about everything.

It takes 30 seconds to think of an idea, and it can take days, weeks, or months to implement it.

It can also be a lame idea.

[rpalmer68]

I don't see our job as doing everything people ask for.  People ask for just about everything.

It takes 30 seconds to think of an idea, and it can take days, weeks, or months to implement it.

It can also be a lame idea.

Very true but is contacts really a can of worms you want to open with Mediacenter?


Outlook, gmail, yahoo, windows mobile, ipod... this then leads to calendar syncing etc etc........ you're a braver man then me

But at the same time I do agree you need to be looking further ahead than the "now".  That's what the leader of a company has to do!

R

[GHammer]

Hmmm, whatever happened to Outlook?

[prod]

Contacts seems like a dead end to me. I have mine all organised in gmail. It syncs with exchange to my iphone. I dont even need them on my computer any more.

I agree. No need for contacts on my computer and even if I did I wouldn't care less about them being in MC. Just another feature to ignore.

[dcwebman]

Hmmm, whatever happened to Outlook?

Yeah, Outlook syncs perfectly to my smartphone.

[JimH]

It doesn't work with gmail.

[park]

That's what I use right now and it's slow and tedious to make changes, unless you always have it open or you always stay logged in (so google can track you everywhere you browse).

If I get a new phone number, I want to spend 10 seconds adding it and move on.  With google, I have to navigate to gmail, log in, find the contacts, click on new, enter it in their form, press SAVE (!), logout and exit.  It takes about 60 seconds.  It's worse than doing it in the Palm desktop app.

I think this could be done with MC in about 10 seconds.  On a web page, or in your e-mail, highlight the blob of text with the person's details, copy.  Open MC, navigate to contacts, and paste.  Auto sync to google.

But maybe it's a separate app.

I only add new contacts in 2 places:
1. When I'm already in gmail anyway.
2. On my phone

Using the iphone, when I add a contact to the address book, it is immediately synched to gmail's contacts. Same with using the Calendar app.

In firefox, using gmail's contacts to add a new contact is either done automatically for me when I reply to a new contact, or takes me about 10 seconds to copy and paste into a new contact.

I really think that contacts on a computer are dead in the water. How are they even used any more? Skype imports them once and then forgets about them forever. I use mail software, but only to periodically download all my gmail so I have an offline copy. I never compose mail in it.

[park]

Sorry to change topic, but a gap in the market that MC could fill if it were quick enough would be Notes.

Google notebook has ceased development and people are trying the alternatives, but nothing feels feature complete yet. I'm using evernote which has a similar tag philosophy to MC, but browsing notes is a nightmare. It's the best I've tried so far though.

MC already has heirachical tags (evernote's are visually heirachical, but clicking on a parent tag doesnt show any of the notes tagged in child tags). MC's filtering is excellent (evernote's iphone app doesnt let you choose between "match any/ match all). Panes are added bonus and something evernote doesnt even have.

[ThoBar]

While I agree MC needs to add some polish to it's current feature set, I have to think that where I'm looking at going with MC is far beyond Audio, Video, Images.

I'm already trying to bend MC to my will for some things (Recipies, Wine Reviews, Live Recordings, etc), but would love it if I was able to check mine, my wifes, our joint calendars from MC, look up our respective contacts, and sync our phone with data (Contacts, Recordings, etc) from our KitchenPC or HTPC (Ideally over Bluetooth or Wireless).

To be able to automatically import categorise media recorded on mobile devices, and even upload to Pix01, YouTube etc would be very nice.

If anyone has ever used HP's TouchSmart environment, you'll have an idea of what I'm thinking of - although it is inferior in every other way..

(Speaking of touch... is MC preparing for multitouch at all? Its coming -well duh- and situations like Kitchen PCs will become more and more common I should think.)

I have to agree a notes functionality would also be awesome.

In summary, I'd like to see MC move throughout the house, not stay locked to the TV. I think a well developed and documented plugin system for Theater View will also be a huge boon in this regard.

[ThoBar]

Bah... just lost a nice big addendum to my last post... summary as follows:

This is well meant observation and advice, I hope it's taken with a grain of salt. (and it probably doesnt belong in this thread)

Issues noted:
1) MC13 generally considered 'not squared away'

• Advice: Add no new major features, refine existing product (I guess this is what you're intending now that 14's here).

2) MC14 seems to have arrived very quickly

• Advice: Don't rush 14 out. I think your general user base will be happier that you're moving on when 13 is 'done'. -- User confidence issue.

3) MC13 added new features incrementally from 12 - there was no real WOW factor jump (and I don't just mean eye candy)

• Advice: Let your large, well skilled, OCD Beta team test your new features until there are enough to provide a significant reason for users to want to go to 14 as soon as it is released, and that they can have confidence that most of those features are in a very usable state. While there were a few things to attract users to 13 initially, most seemed to come incrementally rather than arriving with the new version.

Note that I'm not proposing you move to the more traditional release method (I love the way you guys release so often), but I think it may provide some benefit to you to delay the release of 14 for a while yet.

Not that I know what you were intending to rush it out anyway

[raym]

No need for contacts on my computer and even if I did I wouldn't care less about them being in MC.

I agree. This is Media Center, right? 

[RhinoBanga]

Remember that device convergence is snowballing and it won't be long till the ultimate music/video/camera/phone/pda device is here (2 or 3 years).   Just take a look at the Nvidia Tegra chipset for a glimpse of whats coming at the end of this one.

It makes perfect sense that JR start thinking about the PDA side of things since MC has reached a critical mass, in software terms, in the music/video/photos area.

Another idea to throw in the pot is an SMS/MMS utility.   I have been bitten by the provider lock-in situation where I cannot transfer my messages easily between phone providers, e.g. a Nokia phone to a WIndows Mobile one.   I think a generic tool which communicates with your phone that will allow you to browse/backup/send messages/edit contacts is needed.