TechHaze.com » Release

Microsoft Flight: what to expect

Florian Wardell — Thu, 19 Aug 2010 23:40:23 +0000

If you’re a regular here, you may have noticed a certain passion for flight simulation in our articles. Be it in space or at flight level 390, it doesn’t matter, we just love jumping into a virtual aircraft and fly around. Until now, the best know way of doing this was through a program called Flight Simulator, which Microsoft killed a few years ago. At the time, Microsoft promised that the flight simulation franchise would continue in one form or another. This week, Redmond confirmed that it is indeed following through with a new title: Microsoft Flight.

But let’s not open the champagne bottles yet.

The first, obvious, gargantuan, monstrous, scandalous thing about Flight is the omission of the word “simulator”. I immediately contacted Microsoft about this, and a spokesperson came back to me with this frightening answer:

With “Microsoft Flight” we’re approaching the flight simulation genre from the ground up, with the focus on the universal appeal of the experience of Flight. We believe the simplicity of “Microsoft Flight” perfectly captures that vision while welcoming the millions of existing Flight Simulator fans.

I know, dear sim fans, I know. What our virtual world needs is endless tweaking and optimizing, not a ground-up redesign. On the other hand, a dumbed down product designed to appeal to the trigger-happy halo-playing masses isn’t a simulator, so kudos to Microsoft for being honest about it and naming it right.

But is all hope really lost? A decisive factor when it comes to games is who is building them, obviously. Some games rely entirely on one man, like X-Plane, Flight Simulator’s main rival, which was built from the ground up by a genius called Austin Meyer.

In flight simulator’s case, it was a group of people called ACES studio. It’s precisely this studio which was let off a few years ago. When asked if former ACES members were behind Microsoft Flight, I was told by Microsoft that

Microsoft Flight is being developed internally at Microsoft by a team that includes many of the same creative minds that helped deliver countless entries in the Flight Simulator franchise.

This is good news, but I wasn’t completely convinced yet. Will I finally give up on my FS9 installation? One decisive factor will be realism. In this area, X-Plane will be hard to beat, because it uses something called blade element theory, rather than a physics engine based on static tables. In other words, it’s the physical features of an aircraft that will determine its performance, just like in real life. I asked Microsoft if they planned on implementing a new model, and here is what they replied:

We aren’t ready to share a specific development details at this time, but I assure you this game is very real.

Of course, the game is real, but will it feel real? Only time will tell. I wouldn’t expect a release before christmas of 2011, but we look forward to X-Plane 10 in the meantime.

Here is the official trailer:

Contact the author via email

Mac app: Transmit 4

Florian Wardell — Tue, 27 Apr 2010 11:47:13 +0000

Today, one of my favorite Mac apps graduated to version 4.0, and it’s absolutely awesome. Transmit 4.0 is the best FTP client I’ve seen on any platform, and the developer studio behind it, Panic, deservedly uses the motto “shockingly good Mac software” to promote it. Transmit is the Swiss army knife any web developer or power user should own: the best just got better.
Some of you might wonder what a FTP is and what Transmit has to do with it. Well, FTP is an acronym for File Transfer Protocol. As the name suggests, FTP is used to transfer files between computers on a network. You can use FTP to exchange files between computer accounts, transfer files between an account and a desktop computer, or access online software archives. More importantly, FTP is the primary way of uploading and modifying files on a server. For instance, once I finished creating TechHaze, I uploaded all its files onto a server (which you access trough your browser) with the help of an FTP client (Transmit 3, in this case). Interested? Here is our review:

The user interface

Whether you like it or not, the UI is the first thing you’ll notice in a new app. It’s a good thing that first impressions are important, because Transmit’s new interface is absolutely gorgeous. Panic is well know for their sleek UIs – some elements of Coda, one of their other apps, have been implemented in Snow Leopard by Apple, which says a lot – but this time they’ve really outdone themselves. Believe me, I spent a while trying to find something negative to say about the design, but I honestly can’t find anything. The buttons, the shadows, the gradients, the icons, every little detail is gorgeous, every pixel is where it should be. I’ve tried resizing the window, something that usually throws the design equilibrium of an app out of whack, but the user interface is just too good. Screen real estate is fully used, there’s information everywhere, but it’s still very readable and balanced. It’s not eye candy for the sake of beautiful pixels – well, a little – but for the sake of interactivity and usability: you’ll quickly notice that everything in this app has a function.

The workflow

The best user interface is useless if the workflow isn’t any good. The beauty of Transmit is that workflow and UI are so closely linked that the UI’s sleekness is reflected in the way you use the app.
For instance, favorites and bookmarks are nothing new in FTP clients, but there’s something about Transmit 4 that just makes you want to keep everything organized and tidy. It keeps iDisk locations, bonjour locations, automatically catalogs your history, and has folders for bookmarks. You can either rapidly add bookmarks right from the favorites screen, or add them as and when you’re connected to your servers. These favorites will even automatically sync over MobileMe, keeping Transmit on all your Macs updated with the same data.

Once you’re connected to your server, you can get to work, and nothing will distract you from your task. The right pane shows you local files, and the left pane shows your remote documents on the server. Tab bars on top of both panes indicate your current folder in each location. Click the little toggle switch and it immediately switches the view to a remote or local location in either pane, making the UI extremely versatile. You can even be browsing two different FTP locations and transfer files to and from them without having to bring them down to a local folder, thanks to Transmit’s user transparent temp folder. Beautiful. Transmit 4 allows you to connect to FTP, SFTP, Amazon S3, and WebDAV servers.

The new features

Sync is a great addition to Transmit. You choose which direction of the synchronization flow and run through easy to understand settings like whether you want to delete orphaned destination files, how to determine if a file has changed, among others. At the bottom, Transmit will display a beautiful speech bubble, reading out in layman’s words what’s going to happen to your files once you do synchronize. If you want to be extra cautious, you can even simulate the sync.
Disk mounting allows you to mount a server location on your computer’s desktop. This basically means that you can browse your server just as if it were a hard drive on your computer, even after quitting Transmit!
Places are basically shortcuts to different folders within the same FTP location. This is really handy of you host more than one website on your server or use sandboxes. Add to this the ability to use both panes for the same FTP location, and it’s usability heaven.
And much, much more: It’s been a long 5 years since Transmit 3 came out, and Panic has packed this release with new features. At its core, Transmit is now 64-bit. Panic also says that they’ve rewritten and fine tuned the FTP engine to make it scream, and trust me, it feels just crazy fast. Uploading, on my 2000 kb/s connection, is about 6x times faster than on Transmit 3 or any other FTP client. There’s also many more view options, including the famed Cover Flow and Quick Look support. And, if you choose to do so, you have have folders show up above files in a list. Last but not least, there’s a throttler, which was one of the big drawbacks of Transmit 3.

Verdict

This software is beautiful, polished, useful, oh, and did I mention beautiful? It’s also very stable. I haven’t had a single crash with the beta, and the 4.0 version is just as smooth-running. Transmit is the best FTP client in the world, all platforms included. I mean, what other FTP client do you know that gets people exited? I am quite sure some people will get themselves a website just to try that baby out. This kind of software is quite unique to the Mac platform: Transmit has a style that would just not be present if it had been created by a vast open source community or large developer studio belonging to Microsoft. No, there are only a handful of developers behind this app, and they have a recognizable feel for aesthetics and usability. Trust me, once you’ve used a Panic app, you’ll recognize a Panic app.
It’s also this kind of software that will ensure that I will never look back to Linux or Windows. Mac apps have something about them; I don’t know if it’s the way they are designed and polished till they shine, but even Transmit’s website is a little gem of webdesign.
Take Billings, Tweetie, AppZapper, Bodega, DaisyDisk… These apps are genuinely good, and they will stand the test of time. Transmit, after all, has been around since OS9, on which it ran under the name of “Transit”.
All right, enough about this app, let me find something to review that I can actually criticize!

Transmit costs $34 for a single user license, and it’s $19 for upgrades.

Contact the author via email

Interview with Celsius X VI II Co-CEO Edouard Meylan

Florian Wardell — Fri, 26 Mar 2010 23:54:59 +0000

Each spring, some 2000 companies from the watch, jewellery and precious-stone industries, together with related sectors, showcase their latest developments and innovations at the Baselworld expo. This year, one company in particular stood out: Celsius X VI II. Regular readers of blogs such as Gizmodo should already be familiar with their quite extraordinary project, the creation of a luxurious mechanical phone. At the core of the company, the very recently announced “LeDIX” phone, depicted in the pictures. But make no mistake: it has nothing to do with Nokia’s ridiculous Vertu phones. Not only is Celsius X VI II’s concept innovative, but they take the term “Luxury phone” to a whole new level. LeDIX will cost 275,000$ apiece.
A few weeks ago, an x-ray style teaser photograph of the phone was released, tickling our curiosity. Edouard Meylan, Co-CEO of the Swiss-French company, graciously accepted to answer our questions:

TechHaze: Dear Edouard, Tell us more about Celsius X VI II: What is the story behind its foundation, and where does the name come from?
Edouard Meylan: Celsius X VI II was created in 2006. The founding concept behind Celsius X VI II was born in 2005 in the mind of Thomas Pruvot, a mechanical engineer specialised in industrial design, during a flight from Paris to Hong Kong. Frustrated at losing the time display when he had to switch off his cellphone, he had the idea of adopting a mechanical solution inspired by watchmaking. Please refer to the “Genesis” document for more details.
The name Celsius X VI II has a secret meaning that only the 4 founders know… we don’t want to reveal it.

TH: You studied engineering at the EPFL and have an MBA from UPenn. Tell us how this led you to Celsius X VI II. Did you study watchmaking? What is your role at Celsius X VI II?
EM: I came across a first draft of the Business Plan in 2007. I got seduced by the creativity of Thomas and Romaric. I got in touch with them. We met early 2008 for 1 hour , we had a great discussion, realized that our ideas and vision were aligned and ours skills complementary. We decided to work together on raising funds and that’s where our partnership started.
I did not study watchmaking, but grew up in a “watch valley” in Switzerland. Most of my family and friends are involved in the watch industry.
I am Co-CEO of Celsius X VI II, focusing on the front line: Sales Marketing and Finance. Romaric André, the other CEO, focuses on the operations and administration, but we work hand in hand on all aspects.

TH: LeDIX is your flagship creation, yet very few know what it’s all about. What exactly is a mechanical phone ? Can it truly be 100% mechanical? Where did you get the idea from?
EM: The dream vision of Celsius X VI II is to create a micromechanical phone. A phone in which every function will operate mechanically solely through human energy.
Every creation of Celsius X VI II will get us closer to our dream.
Our approach is 2 fold:

Reducing the energy requirements of the phone by:

Focusing on the key essential functions: Calling, messaging, managing contacts and taking pictures.
Mechanizing those functions (displays, ringtone): The screen of a phone requires a lot of energy to keep the information, by creating simple yet mechanical displays, we reduce the amount of energy required.

Optimizing the efficiency of kinetics energy gathering system: We have patented different systems to gather kinetic energy from the user, we are now working on improving the efficiency of those systems so we can use them to power both the mechanics and the platform of the phone.

It is the convergence of those 2 streams of research that will allow Celsius X VI II to reach it’s dream.

TH: Like Apple, you aim at fusing aesthetics and technology, and like Apple, you keep a fair amount of secrecy regarding your products. How much inspiration do you draw from them?
EM: While we are going in the completely opposite direction in terms of technology, we drew a lot of inspiration from Apple:
The product innovation is just a small component of their model… innovation must be everywhere: Business model, process, network, brand, distribution channel, consumer experience. Only Apple has truly been innovative in all aspects: from the Business Model (ITunes) to the consumer experience (Apple store).
In a different way, that’s what we want to achieve… behind LeDIX we have created what we call the Celsius X VI II Ecosystem, including everything from accessories to services, to provide what we hope to be a truly holistic approach to our partners and customers.

TH: Richard Mille is said to be involved in the project, and your father, if we’re not mistaken, is the former CEO of Audemars Piguet. How much watchmaking knowledge is involved in LeDIX’s creation? Do you think that luxury phones will one day attain the status of luxury watches?
EM: My father was indeed the former CEO of AP, but he is not involved in this project, but obviously that helped me open many doors.
A lot of watchmaking knowledge is involved, we work with the best watchmakers. A product like LeDIX was a real challenge because of its size and because of the interferences created by the combination of metal parts and antennas.

TH: What other technologies did you have to develop for LeDIX?
EM: As mentioned earlier, we had to develop a telecom platform for our product. It was extremely complex because of the amount of metal and moving parts involved in LeDIX, but we had the chance to work hand in hand with Sagem Wireless, our sister company (Sagem Wireless is owned by Sofinnova Partners, one of our main investors)

TH: In addition to LeDIX, does Celsius X VI II have other products coming up?
EM: This is our first product it will be in the market in September 2010. We have many other concepts in the pipeline. The next one will be revealed by the end of 2010… it’s another innovative product, in line with the first one but getting us one step closer to our dream…

TH: How does the luxury market stand out from other sectors?
EM: Luxury is a term that has been over used, to a point that it has lost its true meaning.
At Celsius X VI II we call the top the pyramid, the Prestige Segment. It follows different rules from any other segment, especially in terms of marketing. In the prestige segment you don’t talk about positioning, a prestige brand doesn’t compare with the other brands, it sets its own rules and codes… and this simple principle impacts all the rules of marketing.
For anyone who wants to learn more about the luxury market and how it differs from other markets I recommend the amazing book from Jean-Noël Kapferer: The Luxury Strategy, break the rules of marketing to build luxury brands.

TH: Did you encounter challenges during your transition from working for DESCO in Asia to running your own company in Europe?
EM: The main challenge was to accept that you have to do everything yourself, even the most tedious tasks… but as an entrepreneur you know why you are doing this.

TH: Do you have any advice for high-aiming young entrepreneurs?
EM: Create an environment around you that will bring you “luck”… I believe that people that tend to be lucky have created around them an environment that favors the surge of opportunities. How do you do that?

Active networking… not just gathering addresses
Choose interesting fields (knowledge, location, skills, etc.) where you can grow and that will set you apart
Listen and be proactive

As a true entrepreneurs you will sometimes fail. Don’t give up and use it as a new opportunity.

TH: Edouard, thank you for your time. Good luck with LeDIX, and we look forward to seeing Celsius X VI II’s success and upcoming creations!

Meanwhile, here are some specs, for those of you who intend to buy a few LeDIXs:

General features

• Clamshell mobile phone with Sagem, 2.75G Platform/ integrated watch movement
• Around 600 mechanical parts, including 330 in the watch movement alone
• Weight ~245g
• Structure entirely milled from a block of grade 5 titanium
• Some parts of the structure require more than 8 hours of individual milling, within an overall process involving more than 40 hours for the structure alone
• High-end watchmaking finishes: polishing, satin-brushing, Clous de Paris hobnail pattern, shotblasting
• Dedicated Celsius X VI II screws with indents at ten, six and two hours recalling the Celsius X VI II logo
• LeDIX is available in two limited editions:
• LeDIX Origine, limited edition of 18 in grade 5 titanium with ebony inserts
• LeDIX Sport, limited edition of 28 in black PVD-treated titanium with carbon fibre inserts
• Inserts in solid ebony wood (LeDIX Origine edition), exclusively treated to resist to temperature differences and humidity, while maintaining a natural look and feel; or carbon fibre inserts (Le DIX Sport edition) with 3D effects

Mechanical movement

• Patented mechanical hinge (Remontage Papillon), serving to harness and store the kinetic energy generated by the user. On this specific model the energy is then used to activate the mechanical system
• Hinge with clicks and bevel pinions
• 100-hour power reserve indicator positioned at 7 o’clock and displayed over a 200° angle
• Each opening and closing of the clamshell phone generates an additional 3 hours of power reserve
• Flying Solitaire tourbillon visible on both sides
• World’s most off-centred tourbillion (36 mm)
• Regulating organ mounted on shock-absorbers (4 springs)
• Barrel disengageable by a slipping spring
• Steel hands coated with Superluminova
• Time-setting via the crown at 12 o’clock
• Labelled: “Manufacturé en Suisse”
• Movement integrated within water-resistant box in aluminium treated with GL coating of titanium and ceramics to ensure extreme resistance
• Dial featuring black gold finishing with three-dimensional logo and hour-markers
• High-end watchmaking finishes: satin-brushed black gold, rhodium-plated and bevelled bridges, circular graining

The phone

• Mechanical battery-ejection system, Clous de Paris hobnail pattern
• Main connector protected by a mechanical-locking flap
• Mechanical screen-cover shock-absorbing system ensured by spring-mounted beads
• 7 main sapphire parts, some much larger than conventional watchmaking standards and featuring two radii of curvature
• Camera lenses and flash protected by sapphire lenses
• Volume buttons designed like chronograph pushbuttons
• Mechanical engraving
• Logo featured at the back of the phone and on the dial

Technology

• Technology developed in cooperation with Sagem Wireless, renowned for the high quality and reliability of its platforms. Every platform is tested to meet the Sagem standards.
• User interface deliberately simple, user friendly and designed to optimize the understanding and the ergonomics. It’s been proven that the global perception of a human being doesn’t go beyond 7 elements, therefore the main menu includes only 7 essential features”
- 2 functions: validate and back,
- 4 applications most used: Call, messaging, camera and address book,
- 1 direct access to a sub-menu that includes internet, email, agenda and other additional applications
• Phone Sagem 2,75 G GSM-GPRS-EDGE : Triband 900/1800/1900MHz
• Screen AM-OLED : 2.2” QVGA 320×240 262k colours
• Photo / Video : 3.2Mpix camera, Autofocus, Flash, Digital Zoom
• Music : MP3, AAC, AAC+, Music Player. Stereo, 3D sound
• Video streaming, video capture and playback, progressive download
• Bluetooth 1.2 Profile : AADP, AVRCP
• MMS, Java application, 2Go internal memory (SD card)
• Browser open source
• Battery: Li-Ion 770mAh, >3.5 hours of talking time, 240 hours of power reserve in standby mode
• Multi-lingual interface, including: French, English, Chinese, Russian, Spanish, Arabic
• Simple data transfer system. By transferring the SD card and the SIM card from one device to another all private data is deleted from the original device and transferred to the new one.

Ecosystem of accessories

• Minimum of 3 hand-stitched leather accessories per set. All items are designed by Celsius X VI II and made by specialized craftsmen
• Mechanical Hands-Free Kit in leather and polished /satin-brushed metal. This “tie pin” accessory includes an ingenious system ensuring the wires do not tangle
• Mechanical Docking Station in wood, leather and polished and satin-brushed metal to recharge and synchronize the phone. A mechanical system enables easy docking and undocking of the phone
• Mechanical presentation box crafted in noble materials

Contact the author via email