This whole idea and ultimate demise all took place yesterday (March 31st).

The Background

Yesterday I saw a tweet by @ch9 about a video from Channel 9 Live from MIX 10 in which Bill Buxton was talking, as I find Bill’s idea’s fascinating and I was in the middle of a major procrastination session I thought I’d watch the half hour video. As expected there were some excellent ideas and thought provoking comments from Bill with one particular one being his comments about how a mobile device’s interface could be just like the Microsoft Surface through the use of a camera and a projector. Obvious true surface-like interface powered by a mobile device is still a few years off but its certainly a possibility and an interesting one at that.

Then later in the day I found a video on Inside the Circle where the 4.5 update to the Zune HD was demoed, this video demonstrated well how a mobile device, in this case the Zune HD, can easily have an altered interface that is very well suited for much larger TV screens; the only downside with this is that a remote is required.

One final piece of background information is the focus Microsoft has on catering for all the three screens and integrating software and service across the screens; this is shown well in the ability for developers to write 90% of the same code for XNA games that can be played on the TV, PC or a mobile. There is also Silverlight which allows developers to write a Silverlight app that can be accessed on the internet, run locally on a PC or a 7 Series device.

The Idea

Putting all the above information into the mix I had the idea that 7 Series could be plugged into a TV and browsed just like a cross between Media Center and Zune on the TV. This would allow for users to view their pictures, videos and browse their music just like with the Zune HD.

With 7 Series’ hubs it becomes apparent that a big screen could easily be filled with information such as browsing people, or at least their social updates, on the big screen or being able to browse Bing’s search results in big.

Then there are the apps for 7 Series, looking at how easy Microsoft are making it for game developers to write games for 3 different screens it could be very easy for devs to write an app aimed mainly at the mobile screen but could have additional functionality and alternate interface for the TV. For example we know Netflix is coming to the new mobile OS, being able to watch that on TV would be good…if you can get it through your TV or even browsing Bing Maps, if the 3D version exists on 7 Series then being able to browse 3D maps on your TV would be awesome.

If apps could exist on both the mobile device and on a TV screen but only required developer to rewrite about 10% then it could be another major selling point for 7 Series and would allow for some truly innovative applications for the devices.

I believe a remote is necessary for this connection, however having to use a special remote would seriously dampen the attractiveness of this extra feature as the spontaneous-ness  would be lost. If it was possible to use the device’s touch screen and/or accelerometer to control the actions on screen it could be a great way to use the device and the TV screen together, but a dock would be out of the question and a wired connection between the two screens necessary.

The Demise

To get my idea to actual work there would most likely need to be a standard connector for all 7 Series devices, I started to wonder if Microsoft had set out, in their massive specification for 7 Series devices, whether device makers had to include a set type of connector for 7 Series devices, something similar to the Zune HD. Paul Thurrott then leapt forwards, unintentionally, with the answer to my question and what a disappointing answer it was.

It appears that Microsoft, in all their specifying, didn’t see the need to tell hardware makers what connection the devices should have. This is disappointing for two reasons, first its unlikely we will see any kind of connection between 7 Series devices and the TV like on the Zune HD and secondly there is unlikely to be any kind of major accessory ecosystem to accompany the devices, something that could have made the devices even more popular.

There is an upside to this though there will be no proprietary connector for the devices which could actually lead to a more open, if smaller, accessory ecosystem. Hopefully the device makers will all tend towards a single connector, like the Micro USB.

The Conclusion

I actually got quite excited about being able to access 7 Series content on a much larger screen, with internet access and a wide range of inbuilt applications such as Bing and Xbox Live it could allow for some awesome uses; it could really be a portable Xbox. Its such a shame that this idea was shot down so quickly, although better than to get my hopes up too high.

All hope is not lost though, one thing that I have thought about though is that all 7 Series devices will be able to sync with the Zune PC software, if they can all do that perhaps there is hope yet for a TV interface for the devices.