It is big, clean and pulls in your profile picture from Facebook if you have connected the accounts. Here’s a screenshot:

Things to point out, no links to Maps, Shopping, News, MSN, Hotmail and a consolidated More. While this could simply be due to the beta test, I wouldn’t be surprised if only Maps and News make it to the actual release.

I pinged Michael Gillett of MyMicrosoftLife if he knew anything about the nav bar, he believes it’s a design test, I agree. It does look pretty clean.

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Bing Trying New Search Bar & Header

The title and description of the patent are both intriguing. Called, Smartglass, Microsoft describes it as:

computer hardware and software for phones, mobile devices, televisions, video game consoles, media players and audiovisual devices

A search for Microsoft +Smartglass yielded nothing. But, Smartglass is apparently a self-tinting glass (PDF link). It uses electrical signals and depending on the lighting. So how does this apply to mobile devices? My guess is, rather than using the Power button to put the phone to “sleep,” the screen could be tinted. Or maybe I’m just thinking too far ahead.

If Microsoft does come up with a sw+hw implementation that did something so futuristic with their Windows Phone devices, it’d be pretty cool. The only thing is, Saint Gobain and a bunch of other companies already do such glasses. In fact, there is a SmartGlass Inc. too.

Trademark Application

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Microsoft Files For Mysterious “Smartglass” Trademark

The descriptions for the 5 trademarks are around managing medical records. Here are the different descriptions:

Repair and installation services for computer hardware and software in the field of managing medical records and data

Education services, namely providing of training services in the field of managing medical records and data; Providing a website featuring blogs and non-downloadable publications in the nature of articles and brochures in the fields of medical records and data and improving dataflow, workflow and business practices at hospitals, medical clinics, other medical facilities, healthcare insurance companies and other payers of medical bills; Providing on-line magazines in the fields of medical records and data and improving dataflow, workflow and business practices at hospitals, medical clinics, other medical facilities, healthcare insurance companies and other payers of medical bills

Medical apparatus featuring enhanced management of medical records and data

Medical services featuring enhanced management of medical records

Consulting services in the field of improving dataflow, workflow and business practices at hospitals, medical clinics, other medical facilities

Telecommunication services; electronic data interchange services for healthcare transaction information; Providing on-line chat rooms and bulletin-boards for transmission of messages among computer users concerning managing medical records and data, and improving dataflow, workflow and business practices at hospitals, medical clinics, other medical facilities, healthcare insurance companies and other payers of medical bills

Electronic storage of medical records and data

Computer software for managing medical records and data

Online non-downloadable software for managing medical records and data

When I was doing some research on the name, I came across another trademark application by Foundation of Santa Barbara Regional Health Authority. This trademark was filed in 2002 and is currently dead.

Trademarks: (1), (2), (3), (4) & (5)

Update: Todd Bishop over at GeekWire has some background on this story.

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Caradigm: Microsoft & GE’s Joint Online Health Record Management Suite

I came across a patent that Microsoft has been granted that deals with NFC based communication. The thing about the patent is, it was filed back in 2006. Like always, Microsoft was working on a technology before it became cool.

Near Field Communication is now slowly penetrating the market with OEMs and software vendors both offering support. According to a 2006 patent Microsoft has been granted, they hypothesize use of existing web formats (XML) to transfer information via NFC. Some claims from the patent:

[1] employing a near field communication (NFC) compliant air link as the wireless communication link; and exchanging information between two or more NFC compliant devices and/or an electronic tag over the NFC compliant air link utilizing a web-based format.

[2] employing a near field communication (NFC) compliant air link as the wireless communication link; and exchanging information between two or more NFC compliant devices and/or an electronic tag over the NFC compliant air link utilizing a web-based format.

[3] transferring the wireless messages utilizing an object exchange (OBEX) format over the NFC compliant air link.

[4] utilizing extensible markup language (XML) schema and/or microformat schema to preserve structured data during transfer.

Microsoft isn’t supporting NFC in their current version of Windows Phone, and according to reports, isn’t expected to till 2012. Though the patent talks a lot about kiosks, the title makes me wonder if Microsoft might be able to leverage this technique in Windows 8 or a future Windows version. By having NFC supported tablets and phones, a web format-based implementation to transfer information between the two devices might be more open for developers to work on. Windows 8 development has a lot to do with web-based languages and tablets. An interesting quote from the patent shows what all is possible:

 The types of information passed can include, but are not limited to, information such as raw data, tables, charts, graphics, audio, games, communication protocols, and software applications and the like. Instances disclosed herein provide techniques for transporting data and do not impose restrictions on types of data that can be transported.

HP did something similar with their webOS devices–Palm Pre and the TouchPad. Though HP was not using NFC, their Touch to Share implementation allowed users to transfer information from their tablet to the phone. Wrapping the information with existing web standards would allow developers to be able to offer this functionality without much hassle. Here’s a video of HP’s Touch to Share:

Click here to view the embedded video.

Though the patent does not talk about mobile based payments (Google Wallet) and controlling other devices for a better entertainment experience (Nokia Play 360), that are some of the use cases of NFC being advertised today.

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MSFT Might Use NFC For HP’s ‘Touch to Share’ Like Tablet-Phone Love Making

The three corners of the Information Strategy Triangle provide an intriguing insight into how RIM has tried and not been able to compete with their peers and have failed to regain their lost market presence.

For a technology company, RIM had unique selling points for the core product (mobile phones). Secure communication through email and instant messaging helped RIM penetrate the enterprise and consumer markets respectively. However, blindsided by products from Google and Apple, RIM was slow to react. Their Information Systems failed to realize the reasons why Apple, Samsung and Google succeeded. User experience is considered to be the primary reason behind Apple’s success and Google’s OEM partnerships that allowed others to offer an experience similar to the iPhone helped Samsung, HTC and others. The lack of innovation and relying on their laurels, RIM’s information systems failed the company. This led to RIM trying newer business strategies and products.

RIM, impacted by the lack of rapid innovation and products, decided to branch out into newer mobile computing market segments like tablet computing. The product did not meet the expectations since the company’s Information Systems still weren’t able to grasp the market demands. The company then looked at alterntive business models like licensing their software to become a software & services player. This consideration was accompanied by them looking at a possible sale of their hardware manufacturing division. Unfornately the leadership, the investors were not on board which led to a major organizational shift in RIM.

Trying to keep up with the loss of brain power, the company felt they needed a new vision and restructuring from the top. As a result the CEOs of the company asked to stepped down. The failure to adjust the three corners of the Info Strategy Triangle at the same time, RIM has not been able to adopt and adapt.

Drafted with inputs from Varun Kumar

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The Information Systems Triangle & RIM’s Failure