Microsoft Max

I just discovered Microsoft Max.  While the application still seems to be in the early stages, it has to be the prettiest application I have ever used - just take a look at the semi-transparent splash screen with it's lovely wobbly progress bar. 

This is currently a photo-organizing/sharing app based on top of the WPF and WCF stuff in the .NET 3.0 release (think Picasa but from Microsoft).  I'm pretty happy to see that my Dell M70 with Nvida Quadro FX Go 1400 graphics card qualifies as a "Tier 2" device for WPF world - hopefully signifying a Vista upgrade will actually give me the fancy look and feel.

As far as the application goes - currently it allows you to automatically share photos with your friends so that they automatically receive new photos inside Microsoft Max.  It also has a decent RSS aggregator.  Apple has something similar in the iLife suite of products for Mac OS X, I think it is iPhoto, don't remember.  Anyway the use case I have in mind is an easy way for my father to get the latest photos of my family growing up automatically on his desktop so that he can print them / burn them to DVD.

However, while Microsoft Max looks incredibly nice, there are some problems with the current architecture as I see it.  The main one is that without the equivalent of a .Mac account, files are transferred directly between my machine and my fathers - meaning both machines have to be on for this to work.  It also has to make it through the multiplicity of NAT's, firewalls etc separating our machines.  I hoping that there is a backing Windows Live online service in the works to help with this, we'll see.  The fact that you have to have a MS Passport to use the software certainly suggests that this may be the case.  The lack of information on the Max web site leads you to think that this is the basis of some sort of social network type application - more indications that in the Web 2.0 world Microsoft are stepping up the pace to justify a specific OS to be an ideal complement to peoples new online lifestyles.

Anyway, this bodes well for applications coming the pipe from Microsoft to make Vista a more consumer friendly OS.  Also it shows what can be done with WPF. 

While WPF has me very excited, I'm also a little scared.  You are going to have to have a modicum of graphical talent to use WPF sensibly or you could very rapidly have a very ugly application.  It's looking like application vendors are going to have to hire some of the creative talents from the games studios to make apps that are visually pleasing. 

One thing is certain, the Windows world is going to have a revolution in UI design over the next 5 years - probably the biggest change in the history of Windows - and anyone not keeping up is soon going to have a very dated looking application.