My life has been crazy busy lately, I’ve been running back and forth between two Jobs, Doing a ton of design work..etc..etc.

I have new title and new responsibilities as an editor for Phonedog.com, which is awesome by the way. Working for phonedog is soooo much more fun then working @ my day job. There is even a chance that I may get travel to some of the bigger phone shows! That is awesome, because I’ve wanted a job where I can travel around the country.

I also had the pleasure of recording a podcast with Marcus of the windows Live team. That should be up shortly on his space.   

Right now I am engrossed by all the happenings of PDC & am very happy that Live mesh is going beta!!! So stick around this blog once the Live mesh update hits later this week and I’ll tell you all about it.

PS: if anyone @ Microsoft wants to slip me a copy of Widows 7… I would be most grateful  ;)  

These days you are always hearing something about “Cloud Based” services

Live Mesh has a little identity problem… Its not quite sure what it wants to be when it grows up. On one hand it is almost an “cloud OS”. On the other hand, it is an awesome way to keep your myriad of computers & devices synced up! But no matter what it career path it chooses, it will still be awesome.

As it stands right this minute, Live Mesh is the best syncing and remote desktop there out there. Having tried most of the remote desktop services (go to my pc, pc anywhere…etc…etc) None of them come even close to Live mesh ease of use.

That is the main screen for Live Mesh in your web browser, which shows all of the devices on your “ring”. I am the techy in my family, so all those computers belong to my family & extended family. That connect button allows you to connect to that computer like I was sitting in front of it. This allows me to help my family with tech support issues, even though I live 2 hours from home.

You also get 5 GB of online storage for your “Live Desktop”

Here you can store any file you want, Plus you can sync “down” from the cloud to any of the devices that belong to your mesh. You can also run Live Mesh right from you desktop once you have it installed.

Sync folders across your mesh is very easy, Live Mesh Integrates it self into the windows explorer shell. So all you have to do is right click on the item you want to add to your mesh.

After you do that, it will be automatically be added to your Live desktop, within seconds!

  You can even pick which you devices you want the folder to sync to.

Live Mesh is currently in “Tech Preview” which is MS’s fancy word for pre-beta.  But if this in only the pre-beta, what can we expect in the full release? It blows my mind to even think about what MS is cooking up.

If you want to try out the Live Mesh goodness, head on over to

www.mesh.com

enjoy!

Photo Gallery does a lot of things right, But one of the things I like best  is the quick, easy and powerful edting.

Most photo sorting programs have built in editing tools. But to be honest.. Most of them are ether way to simple, or just plan junk.  Photo Gallery strikes a nice balance between Powerful & easy to use. For hardcore editing Photoshop is still the ideal tool.. but for quick and easy editing,Photo Gallery is awesome.

To get started just select the photo you want from the gallery.

the select the “fix” tab from the top menu

You will now have a bunch of options on the right hand side of the photo.

This Photo need is a little washed out & needs to be cropped. Click on the crop icon and then drag and drop that grey box that appears until you are satisfied with the results.

Now that we have it cut down to size, lets work on the color.

Photo Gallery also provides a quick “auto adjust” button in case you don’t want to mess around with each setting.

Now lets compare the two photos.

This was just a small sample of what photo gallery can do. I’ve found it can rescue the pictures that you thought where too bad to be saved.

Check out for yourself!

My desktop was in need of an update, so I whipped something quick. They turned out so good, I thought I would share them,

I’ve included some flickr links to the full size, for anyone who wants use them as desktops.

enjoy

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3293/2910728947_c733065939_o.jpg

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3054/2910729177_21e996493e_o.jpg

At Long last… & I do Mean LONG last, Zune Is making it’s first foray into the phone market.

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer confirmed today in an interview that a Zune “experience” will be showing up Windows Mobile phones. It’s about time… Steve offered not a hint of a timeline. I would hazard a guess that it will arrive long before, Windows Mobile 7 Shows Up.

You know what the best part about this is… Unlike a certain other phone maker. This “App” will run on any Win-Mo phone, on any carrier that it happens to be on. So the possibilities are endless & predict that this is only the tip of the iceberg. I’m still holding out for a dedicated Zune Phone, We know you want to MS, so just do it!

Read more here,

     http://zunited.net/index.php/topic,5490.0.html

Something interesting I found today, When You have multiple Linked Live ID’s online such as I do. I have one for my main ID and another for my brand new hotmail address (Is there anyway to combine Live ID’s?). When you switch from one to the other online… It switches your desktop clients too. So If I’m signed in to my main ID while I update my Live Space, And then switch to my hotmail ID. It will sign me in on my desktop version of Messenger, Writer..etc..etc as my linked ID.

Cool stuff & just one more way Windows Live makes connecting you digital life easier.

Quick, what's the difference between “web apps” & just plain apps?

Besides web apps being in the “cloud”, There is one key difference between them.  When a developer creates a product for use on the desktop. They create a program that contains a .exe file and the supporting files. The end user downloads a “static” program ( non-dynamic). When the developer wants to update the program. they must make the needed tweaks & post the full program online for the end user to re-download.

Now imagine, if developers could create dynamic apps. Anytime an update would be needed, it could be delivered quickly & discreetly.

How it would work,

Every time you would log in to any of the “Live” services, any updates would be silently installed in the background.  Sort of the way webmasters would update a website.  You wouldn’t be prompted to install anything, just like surfing the web. This way Live could roll out much more frequent updates. It would also allow for quick bug fixes, just fix it in the background. Apps would check for updates anytime they where connected to the web. However, it not work like Windows Update, where the user has to manually check for and apply updates.

Why would this be good for Window’s Live?

Messenger,Photo Gallery, Writer..etc..ect could all benefit from this.  MS could catch and fix bugs or add updates, in half the amount of time it currently takes. It would also make sure all the users are using the same version of the app. Also since MS has confirmed that Windows Live will be replacing, Windows’s built in tools In the Upcoming Windows 7. It would send the adoption rate for WL through the roof.

Enough of what I think… What do you think?

The Zune Social came back online today earlier then expected. Even during the short “blackout”, I got the idea of how iPod users feel like.

I’ve always taken Zune’s social networking aspects for granted. After using it for 2 years, I’ve been accustomed to getting song ideas from my online friends. So I’m always checking up on their Zunecards to see if there's anything good. 50%-60% of my library was built around my friends. How many iPod users can say that? Huh, Huh?

People (iSheep) always get all up in arms when you start talking about the Zune’s social elements. “It doesn’t have a web browser or touch screen, So it sucks.”  I have a touch screen phone that has a great browser, and I need a Browser on my MP3 player…..?

So it all boils down to, Zune is for people who love music. And that want to connect with other people who do also.  All I know is that I’m happy with my Zune and its current features. Anything above and beyond that? I’ll take it as it comes.

PS: I am so, trade marking “iSheep” 

I’ve been using Window Live Photo Gallery, for little while now. It is a HUGE upgrade over the old one. The feature set is well developed & most of them are very useful. Like all beta’s there is some room for improvement. So check out my suggestions.

Auto-Tagging

I love the “people”  tags in WL Gallery, just take it one step farther and you would have a killer feature. Have some sort of algorithm that would “learn”. The people in your pictures. It would tag them as you imported them right from the camera. It would also scan your current library & suggest tags. That way you “teach” it who the people are.

Batch Editing

This is simple, allow users to select a group of pictures to edit. Currently you can only edit one at a time.

Visual Photo Search

A more visual way to search for photos. Would be very helpful for people like me, who have ton of pictures. The ultimate ideal would be something like this.

What you see above is the “Cooliris” plug-in for IE & firefox. It allows users to search certain websites in a visual way. I love using it to look through flickr. If MS would adapt this to the desktop client,It would be purely awesome. Just tell the suits upstairs to acquire the company (I kid). http://www.cooliris.com/

That’s enough ideas for one night, if you have any ideas be sure to post them in the comments.