I had the chance to speak to Doug Berrett (Wow, did I mess that up. Sorry Doug. I'm tired.) while on the Racing Team tour. Doug was at his workstation. It was very quick and off the cuff. Here it is.
Me: Hi Doug, Thanks for giving me a minute.
Doug: No problem
Me: So, the big question I get often during user group meetings is "Will Webguide work in Windows 7 and I have to tell them 'No'"
Doug: Yup, the guide data is stored in a different data type and the new WTV format is not supported by Webguide.
Me: This is under NDA, so can you tell me if there is any work being done on a new version of Webguide?
Doug: Actually, I gave a demo of what I'm working on at PDC, so it's not really NDA.
Me: Awesome, So what can you tell me?
Doug opened up a Live Mesh session on his desktop.
Doug: I'll show you.
He opened up an app on the Mesh window titled "Webguide Mesh"
Me: Webguide Mesh? Is that what it's being called?
Doug: That's a working name. I had to come up with something for CEDIA and that was just something they would understand there. The name may change.
He showed me some guide stuff and said that it was coming from Fake Data. The interface looks like the old webguide menus.
Me: Will it have all the functionality of the original webguide?
Doug: Yup
Me: ALL the functionality?
Doug: Yup, that's the plan. Of course this is VERY early in the process and it may all change. We'll have to wait and see what the final version looks like. Right now I can open up mesh while on the road and change a cached schedule to record a program, then when you connect to the net, mesh will upload the changes and then you will get a confirmation that the program was scheduled. That's all the software does at this point in time.
Me: That's great news Doug! I know you're busy, so I'll let you go. Thanks for your time.
Doug: Welcome, seeya later.