Hopefully most of you saw my pictures posted from Japan.  It was a great,  eye opening trip.  As one exec said, "Japan is an audience segment of one- unique and should be treated as such".  Boy did I see that.  The culture is multi-layered and rich with meaning.  The technology, hands-down the most advanced in the world. A trip to Ahikibara greets you with 8 floors of every conceivable type of gadget (pics coming soon).  A few things I learned:

• Narita airport is about 2-2.5 hours from Tokyo. Pack a Bento box.
• Japan should be treated as a separate market with its own needs and opportunities.
• Politeness and etiquette is very important, more-so than the US
• Gaijin (foreigners) are expected to be unfamiliar with most customs, small attempts go a long way.
• Don't open the taxi door or close it.  It's automatic.
• Don't hand money to someone. Put it in the little tray.
• Our mobile phones pale in comparison. With less than 1% turnover, hundreds upon hundreds of dollars in subsidies are paid out to customers. A $10US phone in Japan is more advanced then a $300 smartphone in the US.
• Simple, clean UI often appears empty and feature-less in Japan.  Cluttered/compacted UI in good Industrial Design wins the day.
• A mobile phone should be a flip-phone and make an audible, tactile "click" when opened.  The bigger the phone, the more features you have.
• In Japan it's legal to rent CDs.  Everyone rips them and returns.
• Americans are too worried about Location-based services and privacy vs. Japanese.  Japanese already have TV and GPS maps built into their phones. This is very cool.
• Many Japanese snooze on the train in-between stops.  Perhaps it's because they work late and then many stay out late.
• Melatonin can really take the edge off jet lag and help you sleep.  I've adjusted both ways better than any other trip.
• Slingbox is hands-down the best thing for business travelers.  EVER.  I was watching local TV flawlessly from Japan in WMV9 from my TiVo at home. It helps avoid homesickness.
• MSN Messenger is good for voice chat but you must remember to bring a microphone if you laptop doesn't have one.
• Nintendo DS is very popular with older Japanese thanks to a new game called "Brain Games" that tells you your mental age through a series of fun little games.
• Harajuku girls aren't out during the mid-week.  Go see the Meiji Shrine. 
• The Fish Market & auction must be seen at 5am, but the market is closed on Wednesdays. Have the best sushi in the world with your VP in a hole in the wall with a long line, even if you don't like sushi.
• If local Japanese ask you where you're from and you say Seattle, follow up with "Ichiro".  Then they'll understand- the Mariner's player is a source of great national pride.
• If you learn one Japanese word, it should be "Sumimasen".
• Have a drink at the Park Hyatt, where "Lost in Translation" was filmed. 
• Pick up a Japanese Bullet Train (N-Gauge) model at Narita airport if you have a young son. You'll be the greatest Dad ever and hear about it for days. :)

Next up: My whirlwind "Circle Asia" tour next month- Seattle>Sydney>Adelaide>Melbourne>Singapore>Hong Kong>Narita>Seattle.  Over 27k miles in 11 days. I heard circumnavigating the earth at the equator is 24k. 

Geek dinner anyone in Sydney?

I'm off to Japan on Sunday.  It's my first trip to Japan and I'm really looking forward to meeting with the subsidiary, our partners, and of course taking in the culture.  I'll do my best to keep up with moblogging and posting a semi-daily journal here of our experiences.

The small bummer is that by going, I missed out on an opportunity to show our execs and leadership some of the new features we're working on in media for upcoming Vista CTP (Customer Technology Preview) releases.  Let's just say the next CTP release will be exciting, but it's going to get even better much faster from there.  Sorry, I can't say more than that at this time.  But when we can, I'll make sure to set up a geek dinner with some members of the teams and we'll take your feedback. Timing is TBD ;)

I had lunch today with one of my "mentors".  He's very smart and we often spend the time debating company strategy instead of discussing career goals.  I'm in a good place right now and enjoying learning in a role that has freed me from some of the baggage I used to have to endure.  I'm a builder- I'm enjoying working with motivated v-teams that are building better products.

I sense a change in the air right now but for the good company wide.  People seem to be "thawing out" - becoming less risk-adverse than I've seen for the past three + years- when done smartly, that's a very good thing.

Here's a short video clip of Steve Ballmer and Suzan DelBene showing off a bunch of new phones announced at the keynote

• HP 6900
• Samsung i320
• Asustech's P305 3G Smartphone
• HTC "Star Trek"

Interesting to note there are now over 100 Windows Mobile devices on the market. Suzan described these phones as having "direct push technology".  This is exciting stuff- I have a phone with this enabled and I have to say, getting emails on my mobile phone as they arrive in my inbox on my Exchange server is pretty nifty.  While not earth-shattering (the device could poll every few minutes before if you wanted) for customers who need near-real-time access to mail, this is a good thing.

What's even more exciting though for digital media enthusiasts is that Motorola has announced support for Windows Media and PlaysforSure on upcoming mobile music phones with WMA and WMA Pro support.  Also included is support for MTP which will allow for a single USB-plug connection to Windows PCs and no need for additional drivers.  Benefits of this solution over a certain iMusic product I would expect: I won't be limited to 100 songs per device, I can use my own music collection, pay-per-download, or music subscription services such as the upcoming service from MTV/VH1/CMT, "Urge" (or Napster or Yahoo etc.)  What's more, Microsoft and Motorola are working together so that WMA Pro super-high fidelity music can be easily delivered over 3G high-speed wireless networks worldwide. More details in the announcement here.  Michael Gartenberg also weighs in on the announcement and it's impact here. 

With this announcement, Microsoft is actively working with two of the largest handset manufacturers in the world - Motorola and Nokia on mobile media solutions for their platform as well as ours.

I'm off to Japan this weekend for business.  My Slingbox is ready to roll, but I'm really looking forward to taking in the local culture.  Any suggestions, tips, or pointers are appreciated. :)

Call it an ad or what you will, it's a bit european and quirky.  Check out the video the IE7 team put together as a teaser/commercial. 

IE7_Big.wmv       (7.8MB)
IE7_Medium.wmv (2.9MB)
IE7_Small.wmv    (1MB)

News.com is reporting this morning that Aeon Digital, a privately held firm specializing in IPTV-over the Internet has confirmed a licensing agreement with NBC Universal.  The service will be made available via a $299 DVR available at retail and will use Microsoft's Windows Media technology for delivery.

Upon further inspection, Aeon Digital has ambitious plans for their products. Two integrated LCD-TV and two set-top box products.  Features of the DV-220 STB-include:

• IPTV Support
• 200 hour DVR with ability to archive to your PC.  No mention of CableCard support though :(
• Streamed playback of music, photos, and video from your PC
• Component, composite and S-Video outputs
• Built-in 802.11g WiFi router with VOIP support,uPnP, NAT firewall
• Built-in EPG (Program Guide)

Movies such as "Ray" and the "The Motorcycle Diaries" will be made available as well as what looks like some tier-2 television programming.  No details were provided on pricing.

This is a good step in the right direction. For now, this looks to be a contender for stand-alone TiVo Series 2 competition at retail but for the serious enthusiast, without HDTV and CableCard support, it leaves me a bit wanting.  But it does signal an interesting trend- the logjam of IP-accessible content from big-name providers appears to be straining thanks to a lessening of fear (and interest in making more money) via these types of solutions by the content providers.

It's not daily I get excited about terrestrial radio, much less a latecomer to the Internet.  But, today is that day.  I just learned LA's own KROQ- the #1 Rock Station in the US is now broadcasting for free on the Internet in Windows Media.  It's a very solid 96kbps stream offering great fidelity and in-line purchase and the like.

Link to Embedded Player w/ Album art etc.

Announcement here in MediaWeek.

I have to say, I love my Samsung DLP TV for everything but gaming.  Brightness could be a little better too but hey, it's HD!

Now, new HD TV's are on their way that bring the clarity of CRT, the flat-ness of Plasma, and power savings reportedly all into one technology called SED - complete with ink-jet like printability. Canon and Toshiba are working to bring this to production right now.  If they can get the prices down, this could be disruptive technology.

Link