It's probably Vista that makes the interface quite so slinky but... the iMP ([BBC]interactive Media Player) demo that Ashley Highfield presented at Mix06 looked pretty nice (it starts about 5.5 minutes into the video). A heck of a lot better than the first iMP trial I was on. For this demo, the media was probably already on the PC as there was no wait to get hold of it.
The initial trial iMP client was pretty ugly, to be honest. And difficult to search and navigate, as well as fragile - exact versions of Media Player were required, I forgot and upgraded my Media Player installation and thus ended the iMP trial for me. Bad encoding for the daily news and weather video clips didn't help, the audio quality was often pretty ropey and clipped.
This flashy new iMP client appears to be much sleeker, ergonomic and usable. As one person in the office put it earlier today "it's tacky". I think what he meant was that the mass consumer would like the knobs, bells and whistles. Personally, I think it looks very much like a Microsoft-ised Apple-like interface but that could be to do with Vista more than anything else.
One bit of co-incidence is that a couple of days before Ashley must have flown out for Mix06 was the first time I've actually seen him in the office. Admittedly, I don't often pass by his desk (ohyes, even for him it is the open plan office) but it's always been empty before. I've seen the Marks (Thompson and Byford) umpteen times around the place.
