Archive for Digital Life
June 12, 2008 at 2:07 pm ·
Filed under Releases, Digital Life
The Release Candidate of Windows Home Server Power Pack 1 for public testing is now available at this location. This is the time to install and upgrade, and to send feedback to the team so they can still tune the final version. Power Pack 1 provides a range of new enhancements, including support for home computers running Windows Vista x64 editions, backup of home server Shared Folders, improvements to remote access, more efficient power consumption, improved performance and support for the Chinese and Japanese languages. Power Pack 1 also resolves the data corruption issue experienced by a very small set of customers.
- With Power Pack 1, the Windows Home Server Connector software for home computers is compatible with 64-bit editions of Windows Vista.
- Customers can now backup and restore their pictures, music, and documents that they have in their home server’s Shared Folders.
- Uploading and downloading batches of photos or other files, at home or away, is now easier with the option of ZIP or self extracting .exe files.
- Photos are now presented as thumbnails on the built-in Home Server web page, making it easier for customers, friends and family to see photo collections.
- There is now more granular control of the access various users have to data on a home server. This is particularly useful for home based-businesses who want to give their clients controlled access to certain files.
- Windows Home Server can automatically decrease and increase its power consumption on some processors, meaning making it more energy efficient.
- Windows Home Server now supports and streams Windows Media playlists.
More info in the press release
June 12, 2008 at 12:55 pm ·
Filed under Buzz, Technology, Digital Life
Harrah’s Entertainment and Microsoft are unveiling a new interactive entertainment experience with the deployment of six Microsoft Surface units at the iBar in Las Vegas’ Rio Hotel and Casino.
Guests in the iBar will be able to play games, order customized drinks for themselves (or that special someone across the room) and send photos and messages to each other via strategically placed video cameras that can be controlled by the Surface units.
The iBar Microsoft Surface units will feature eight brand new interactive applications:
• Flirt Vegas style by adding a hip ultralounge vibe to the flirting experience. This application allows guests to create an exciting new way to chat and meet people from one Surface to another. Strategically placed video cameras at each Surface add even more energy to the action, allowing guests to interact with old friends, flirt with new acquaintances, and take and send photos across the lounge.
• Mixologists are inspired to create and order their own signature cocktails for themselves or to send to that special someone across the room using Surface and Harrah’s intuitive food and beverage application.
• Hip-notic describes how guests will feel when kicking back to find and view the latest and most popular online videos with their friends on Surface.
• Head Games are taken to a whole new level with Harrah’s creative suite of play-for-fun games. With the unique Surface interface, Harrah’s adds an exciting new take on some old favorites such as High Roller bowling, Dissed multiplayer pickup pinball, and a Last Call musical memory game that encourage the whole group to play together. Leaderboards add excitement as guests compete with one another to see who can climb to the top of the scoreboard. In addition to Harrah’s unique applications and play-for-fun games, the Surface units also feature a photos application and a virtual concierge application developed by Microsoft that Harrah’s customized for its environment.
• See and Be Scene is what guests can do as they tour all of Harrah’s Vegas properties and explore attractions in Vegas without leaving their seat at the iBar.
• Virtual Vegas aptly describes how guests will take a virtual walk down the Las Vegas strip on Surface, letting their fingers be the guide. Guests will be able to get information on the latest events and attractions at all Harrah’s properties throughout Vegas.
Thanks for the heads up, Nic.
May 15, 2008 at 12:31 pm ·
Filed under Video, Digital Life
Even though internally we use another version of this clip, this is the clip I show at events whenever I need to show something about ‘digital lifestyle’. I was a bit surprized to find it on MSN Soapbox and YouTube, but since it’s out there, I’ll post it here as well. In the clip, we follow ’some guy’ who’s on his way to a party. What we see is a bunch of services and products working together to help him out. The point is that we do have a load of cool apps and services that make sense, and that we try very hard to make them work together. And if they do, it’s great fun. :)
The song in the catchy soundtrack is called “Girl From Mars”, and it is covered by a band named Magneta Lane. The original song was released in 1995 by a band named Ash from their album named “1977″. Enjoy.
May 6, 2008 at 11:10 am ·
Filed under Releases, Live Services, Photography, Digital Life
Microsoft Pro Photo Tools provides a set of tools for photographers to perform various tasks with their images—including RAW captures. The current version enables you to quickly geotag your photos, view and edit metadata, and more, leveraging the power of Windows and Microsoft Live Local. Very closely related, this cool Outlook plugin just saw the daylight: Microsoft Pro Photo Shoot is a new software add-in for Microsoft Office Outlook that allows photographers to add details of the client and equipment for a photo shoot appointment in Outlook. This allows photographers to greater leverage the power of Outlook when managing their photography.
Pro Photo Tools includes the following features:
- Geotagging with flexibility
As geotagging gains popularity, photographers want to be able to quickly identify the location for their images. With Pro Photo Tools, you can gather location information from a variety of sources and apply it to the metadata in your images.
- Determine location name automatically
With Pro Photo Tools, you can automatically apply the actual name of the location where a photo was taken based on the GPS coordinates. Instead of numbers, you’ll have the “real” names, and that information can then be saved in the metadata for your photos.
Determine GPS coordinates from location name. Just because you haven’t always had a GPS receiver doesn’t mean you can’t assign GPS coordinates to your photos. In fact, using the power of Microsoft Live Local you can determine the GPS coordinates where any photo was taken based on location name information in the image metadata. The GPS coordinates can then be added to the metadata for your photos and the photos plotted on a map.
- Identify location on a map
For the maximum in flexibility when assigning a location to an image, you can navigate to the precise location where you took a given photo and tag the photo with that location information based on a specific position on the map.
- View images on a map
As cool as it is to have GPS coordinate information connected to your images, to really get a sense of place with your photos, you need to view them on a map. Pro Photo Tools utilizes Windows Live Local to display your images on a map of the world, including the ability to view your images on a normal map or a satellite view of the world.
- Edit image metadata
Metadata has become increasingly important to photographers as a way to manage and organize their images. Among the many things it enables is a rich capability to search for images. You can now update a wide range of metadata for your images using Pro Photo Tools, and that metadata gets stored in the actual image file, so wherever your photo goes, your data goes.
- RAW support
By leveraging the Windows Imaging Components (WIC), we’re able to provide support for any RAW file format (in addition to TIFF and JPEG) for which a codec has been developed. And that includes most RAW file formats. Not only can you view your RAW images within Pro Photo Tools, you can also update metadata—including GPS coordinates—directly in the file. The updated metadata is stored within the RAW file, not in a cumbersome “sidecar” file. (For information on obtaining codecs for your RAW images or other file formats, visit (Codecs for Windows )
- Extensibility
Pro Photo Tools was built with extensibility in mind. Rather than creating a one-off tool, we created a framework we can leverage for future tools. This will allow us to add additional functionality in future versions of Pro Photo Tools more efficiently. That means you’ll get more features sooner.
Downloads:
Microsoft Pro Photo Tools
Microsoft Pro Photo Shoot
Very closely related cool stuff:
Microsoft Photo Info
SyncToy v.2.0 Beta
HD Photo Plug-In for Photoshop
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 :-)
February 29, 2008 at 2:58 am ·
Filed under Community, Digital Life
The UK sub has launched a pretty trendy Silverlight section to their site to demo a range of Microsoft products that fit in ‘the digital life’ in a fashionable way. As my fellow UK EEs pointed out, this is a really cool piece of work that shows you the possibilities to maximize the full potential of the tools you have at hand. Check it out, you might find some nifty things to play around with and impress your friends/coworkers with.
Select one of the four journeys and find out how ‘our’ products can fit seamlessly into your life. I dare you :)
The Canadians made a lot of work of their Microsoft Home Magazine too, and they list a bunch of tips, tricks and tools to help you maximize your everyday products. don’t forget to check out the template gallery, it list some very nifty DIY tutorials that show you how to do cool things in a just a few easy steps.
In Belgium, we’ve got the WoW Factory. Basically it’s the same concept but it differs from the others in the fact that consumers are invited to upload and share their ‘recipes for fun’ with the rest of the world. The best recipes are rewarded with a cool webcam. I love the way the old classic product pages are being replaced with modern approaches that add value to the products we have out there on the market. Things like this make it interesting for consumers to explore, and (in my opinion) it invites them to connect on a more emotional level with Microsoft as a company.
