May 15, 2008 at 10:20 am ·
Filed under Technology, Releases
It’s here! All yours to enjoy and totally free. I’ve made a demo about it, but it’s taking aaaages to upload and so after 3 attempts, I’ve decided to use Keith’s wonderful demo instead. It’s even better than mine, so turns out even better for you readers as well :) Keith points out most of the goodies in the little app, and the most coolest part of it is indeed the fact that the planets keep revolving, true to their behavior in real life. Check it out:
Go download WorldWide Telescope
May 9, 2008 at 12:50 pm ·
Filed under Video, Fun
Yes, it’s Friday, it’s sunny outside and it’s time to glance back at a cool Microsoft clip from a few years ago. This one is called “Extreme Makeover: Server Room Edition” and it’s about Phil. It’s ALL about Phil. Quote: “Phil began his IT career with just one NT Server that we, of course, just destroyed.” :)
May 9, 2008 at 8:56 am ·
Filed under Technology, Releases
As announced on November 13th last year, the guys from the Microsoft Office team released a plug to help people with a handicap ‘read’ Word documents. It’s a simple software add-in for MS Office that converts text documents from Word into audio files, so people with a reading disability (or blind people) can still ‘know’ what’s in the document.
The add-in appears in the menu and shows as “Save As DAISY” (image below), just like when you’d save for an older version of MS Office, or in a different format. The plugin has been created together with Sonata Software and DAISY (which is an abbreviation for Digital Accessible Information System). The software allows you to save Open XML-based text documents as DAISY XML, which can then be converted to the DAISY Talking Book format (DTB). However, this last bit does require an extra bit of software called Pipeline, and is not included in the plug. As shown below, the plug is compatible with Microsoft Word 2007, Word 2003 and Word XP. I’ve experienced that during the install, the loader bar does not make progress very fast, and then jumps almost straight to the end. Might be because my demo laptop is pretty full already, but it’s just so you know. :)
The cool part about a DTB book is that the audio file encloses part of, or the entire source text plus a joint file that makes sure the text lights up as it is being read. Nice job!
Links:
Announcement Press Release
Download the plug
DAISY Pipeline (updated on May 7th)
MS Presspass: DAISY Virtual Pressroom
May 9, 2008 at 8:22 am ·
Filed under Fun, WoW
Bert Simons has upped the ante in the field of paper craft. Seriously. I remember when I used to fumble around with my little Origami books, folding swans and other cute animals. It always took so much time. Then yesterday I saw an email fly by on an internal alias about this guy in the Netherlands who makes 3 dimensional pseudo realistic paper portraits and sculptures, and all I could say was WOW! This is waaaay cooler than any paper art I’ve seen so far. Check out his site, and try the DIY thingy. Might take a couple of hours to finish it though. :)
These are papercraft sculptures made in the same way as the familiar papercraft houses and animals. Bert Simons rules.
May 6, 2008 at 3:01 pm ·
Filed under PR, Live Services, Photography
The script writers of CSI:NY used Photosynth in last week’s episode. That’s really cool :) Here’s how the story went and where the product has been used:
“A guidance counselor at a Manhattan prep school is murdered while the prom is taking place in the gymnasium.
Forensic scientists for the New York police attempt to recreate the crime scene by uploading hundreds of camera phone thumbnail photos snapped at the dance onto a computer.
The PC screen fills up in a concentric square pattern, revealing a wide shot of the gym at the center. Investigators can manipulate the images to show close-ups of the scene from every angle.” (Source)
Photosynth is one of my favorite tools at the moment. Pretty soon, when they release the new client, I’ll publish the demos I’ve recorded about this technology. I can’t show them yet though, so you’ll have to sit on your hunger for a couple of months. All I can say is that it’s really really awesome :)
Screenshot of CSI:NY
Link: Photosynth
May 6, 2008 at 11:41 am ·
Filed under Games, Releases, Fun
If you’re familiar with mash-ups and you’re into gaming, then this is the rocking fun zone for you! As the name suggests, this release builds on Popfly’s current set of mashup and Web page authoring tools to add support for easily creating and sharing casual games. There are 2 ways to get to the Game Creator. On the landing page, you have the “Create a Game (Alpha)” link, or if you select the “Create Stuff” dropdown, you will see “Game” there.
Here’s a tutorial and walk-through to get you started:
See you in the next level :)
Related:
PopFly site
The PopFly Wiki
Snapshots on TechCrunch
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
May 6, 2008 at 10:41 am ·
Filed under Releases, Gadgets
Time for another Outlook plug to fly out the beta-zone and into the great wide open. I’ve been on Xobni for a few months now, and I must say I really enjoy the plug. There’s a load of options this thing has, but I’ll tell you what I use it for. The rest is something you can dig out for yourself. So, the coolest part is that when I click on an email in my inbox, Xobni keeps track of all conversations I had with the sender. It also lists all the attachments that have been sent by me or to me from the selected contact, so I no longer need to search my inbox or any folders I might have dumped the email in. Other than that, it keeps track of the contact’s activity - which is the timeline of the conversations. That means that I can see when it is most likely that this contact is behind his or her computer. With a very easy ’schedule time with x’ I can book a meeting, or I can see the contact data in a glance. Sure, all of this information is already in Outlook, but Xobni just makes it accessible even faster. Less time spent looking. Yeey!
So, below is a real sized image of the little sidebar that is added in Outlook. I’ve clicked on my own name from an email I sent to someone, so this lists my activity. I peak during lunch, funny enough, and apparently there’s no time during the day that I have no email activity. Maybe I should send this to my boss :)
One of the other nice little thingies about Xobni is the fact that it also keeps track of ‘lost contacts’. It’s like ‘hey, did you know it’s been three months since you’ve had any conversations with x or y?’ - I love that.
Get Xobni for your Office Outlook edition and join the fun!
After the jump: a video of Bill Gates promoting Xobni and the Xobni demo video. Read the rest of this entry »
May 6, 2008 at 8:44 am ·
Filed under Releases, Live Services
Finally, the official Windows Live Messenger App for Facebook is here. There’s been quite some unofficial apps present, but I never installed them because I don’t really like to give up my password and Live ID to some third party dude. Even if he doesn’t harvest the addresses, I still think it’s a bit tricky. BUT, no more of that. The official app is here! On April 29th, Microsoft released the Windows Live Messenger Facebook Application. Members of Facebook can chat with their friends using this application that runs on the Facebook site. Once you have installed the application, people who have access your Facebook profile page can initiate IM conversations with you (it is based on the Windows Live Messenger IM Control. One side of the conversation happens on the Facebook site, the other side in the WL Messenger client). You can invite your Facebook friends to add the application and join Windows Live Messenger. The application also shows the WL Messenger online presence of your Facebook friends who have installed the application (it is based on the Windows Live Messenger Presence API).
The application will be promoted worldwide in partnership with RockYou. RockYou will only promote the application to existing Facebook users. This is an opportunity for Windows Live Messenger to acquire new users.
May 6, 2008 at 8:26 am ·
Filed under Video, Mix Event
For those of you who attended the event in Louvain La Neuve, and also for those who weren’t there or couldn’t make it, all the sessions have been recorded and put online on the ChopSticks pages. Tune in for the breakout sessions you missed or to see those ones again you attended. All there, all free - All you need is a Windows Live ID. To start off the goodness, here’s the closing keynote of SteveB (you’ll need Silverlight to see the clips):
Thanks, Katrien
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