Archive for March, 2008
March 29, 2008 at 12:17 pm ·
Filed under MicroLife
I’m unfortunately forced to terminate my other blog, Coolz0r - Marketing Thoughts. With pain in my heart I say goodbye to Coolz, because it was one hell of a ride for 4 years long, since 2004, back when I still used to code everything in plain html instead of using a blog platform. The recent WordPress upgrade gave an error, and when I put back the backup files I took week after week, it became clear I had been backing up malicious or corrupt tables, which means I overwrote the good ones with the bad ones. I simply don’t have the time to go and fetch everything out of a search engine cache to restore it all. It hurts a little to say goodbye so abruptly, but that’s the way it is.
There’s no turning back, and it’s time to move on. No more Coolz0r. I’ll definitely remain blogging here, because my heart lays at Microsoft and I love to work for this company, but perhaps it’s not such a bad idea to focus on the now, and not on what used to be.
March 26, 2008 at 10:21 am ·
Filed under Releases, Live Services
Microsoft has partnered with some of the world’s top social networks on contact data portability. Starting today, we will be working with Facebook, Bebo, Hi5, Tagged and LinkedIn to exchange functionally-similar Contacts APIs, allowing us to create a safe, secure two-way street for users to move their relationships between our respective services. Along with these collaborations, Microsoft is introducing a new website at www.invite2messenger.net that people can visit to invite their friends from our partner social networks to join their Windows Live Messenger contact list.
It think this is a big step forward for ‘us’, because we can make the transfer of contact data more controlable and thus more safe. The involved websites also agreed to no longer screenscrape all your contacts whenever you sign up, which actually prevents you of accidentally inviting a bunch of people you didn’t really want to invite. And that means I get less spam. Isn’t that just lovely?
Check out Invite2Messenger
For more info and screenshots, check out the Angus Logan blog.
March 26, 2008 at 12:00 am ·
Filed under Community, Mobile
I’m a very satisfied user of Windows Mobile 6, and since I’ve signed up for their newsletter, I’m learning more and more shortcuts and tricks to handle my HTC Tytn with ease. It’s really cool how they make things better by sending out free ringtones, by giving you tips on how to maximize your experience and how to gain time by using shortcuts to handle your data. This month’s newletter pointed out how to easily put a phone number in your contacts book starting from a missed call. You can read all about that here. For a full overview of all tips and tricks so far, click here.
The Windows Mobile team actually tries really hard to make me happy, and they succeed pretty well. For instance, this link goes to their ‘themes’ web page, where you can download a bunch of cool themes to redecorate your phone. I’m not a guy that pimps the phone twice a week, but a nice change every now and then really is appreciated.
One of the best things I like about the Windows Mobile Owners section is the free ringtones. It’s always great fun to sit in the restaurant at Microsoft and hear the standard ringtone go off, only to then find a dozen of people grabbing their phone to see if it’s them. With the selection of free ringtones, I’ve already found quite a few really nice custom sounds that differ my device from a bunch of others. You can also compose your own ringtone, but I haven’t gotten into that yet. I’ll do that the next time I’m on holiday, somewhere in 2012 :-)
This month, the mobile newletter pushed out free invites for Zumobi, a really cool app you can download. Zumobi lets you use your smartphone to easily zoom in and out of snack-sized bites of entertainment and information throughout the day. When first downloaded, Zumobi includes a 16-subject arrangement, but you can download other subject-specific widgets for free or even create your own. From your Windows Mobile phone, go to http://wmoc.zumobi.com to download Zumobi directly. Your version of Zumobi will include a Tile first available only to Windows Mobile Owners Circle members, the On 10 Tile, which brings you great content from Channel 10, the Enthusiast Evangelist channel, which is definitely worth a look!
March 25, 2008 at 7:59 pm ·
Filed under Games, Releases
Guess what? We know Microsoft’s Flight Simulator is really cool and they make it better and better with every release. But something really neat is cooking and this has nothing to do with flying and air. This time it’s on rails. Game Studios is prepping the new release of Microsoft Train Simulator, and it’s scheduled for early 2009. The first screenshots already looked very promising and the details are incredible. I know it probably doesn’t beat that old train system you have on your attic, but surely it opens up perspectives to a whole new experience.
Train Simulator 2 will model almost all of the world’s railways using sophisticated processing techniques and real-world track data.
Powerful tools will let users build upon this framework by customizing, extending, creating, and sharing their own content with other virtual railroading enthusiasts.
I’d love to get my hands on this one and I think I’ll try to dig up some local train collector clubs and get a launch party together in an old abandoned station, with the release of the game on full screen and a nice experience around it. This game is developed for the Games For Windows section, and helps you get the most out of your Windows experience. Trains rule!
Keep an eye on TSInsider, the home site of the game.
Check out the screenshots on the site
March 25, 2008 at 7:19 pm ·
Filed under MicroLife, Demo, LSE, Digital Life
It’s been a hell of a busy month. So busy that I didn’t even have time to log all the things I attended and participated in, let alone to cover everything that has been launched. So the next couple of posts will be more for the archive, to document what’s been going on and what has been launched in the meanwhile.
The first of March, there was the B-wards, the ‘un-awards’ of the Belgian blogosphere. I co-sponsored the event and dropped by to socialize with all the bloggers that showed up. Obivously, Maarten Schenk was live-streaming the entire festivities, and so those who couldn’t make it still had the chance to tune in over the innerweb. Pretty cool location too, Love Lucy. A lounge concept on the top floor of a high building, with a view over the South side of Antwerp like I haven’t seen one much. I loved it. The funny thing is that two of the five awards were given to blogs of whom neither I, nor the other ‘regular bloggers’ were very aware of. Then again, with fair voting, it just comes to show that as long as you have a trusted flock of followers, you can easily score good points. Pictures of the event can be found on Flickr. The guys from Enchante, the dedicated blogger advertising network Adhese, hired Ine to take really cool pictures of the bloggers who wanted to be shot. Here’s mine :-)
Next on the list was de TechDays in Ghent (11th, 12th and 13th of March), where I had to present the ‘Digital Living Room’ for three days in a row. I had great fun, and so did the 5000 attendees. With over 60 demos given, I had a great opportunity to get in touch with people right at the heart of their interest: technology. These three days have given me more than I expected in terms of connections with all sorts of people. From technology lovers to IT Pros. I learned quite a lot as well from listening to my audience. It’s really amazing what some geeks cook up at home to fully enjoy their products. The demo-talks I’ve been giving were about the setup of Windows Home Server, Media Center to display pictures and videos that were stored on that server and XBox 360 as a media extender to the Media Center PC, to demonstrate you no longer need a PC in you living room to consult data stored on another location in the network. The XBox360, when used as an extender, uses the Media Center interface, which makes browsing through your pictures and videos a really pleasant experience.
Then on March 19th was the PLUGG conference in Brussels. Plugg is a one day conference focused on raising global awareness for European start-ups in the Web / Mobile 2.0 field. In combination with an impressive list of speakers - one by one visionaries and/or field experts from a variety of industries and all with ties to Europe -, there will be a place for 20 hot start-ups to showcase their business ideas and realizations. I sponsored the event with the kind help of Microsoft’s LSE (Local Software Economy) initiative and had a booth there where I handed out brochures and gadgets while showcasing some cool videos from Microsoft’s Research department about ‘visions of the future’. In between the sessions, it was pretty busy but I got a lot of time left to interact with start-ups from all over Europe who enrolled in the competition. This was a really cool event, hopefully the first of a yearly tradition since it’s really important for young startups to get a chance to come into the spotlight. The next garage startup might very well be slumbering somewhere in your very neighborhood. Obviously, more pictures of the event are on Flickr.
The rest of the days were filled with planning the calendar of the next fiscal year (as good as possible) and preparing the super cool event I’m planning in Amsterdam, together with Serge Van Schie from DPE NL. I’ll write more on that soon.
I realize it’s been a while since I posted, but I moved houses this month as well, and I had to wait a few weeks for the cable company to come hook me up. The time I spent in the office was rarely enough to sit down at ease and blog, since there was so much to be taken care of. But, since I’m now back online, I can finally get back to relaxing evenings of online fun. Stay tuned :-)
