Before I get started, let me say this. I’ve tried the “wave 3” Windows Live toolbar, I liked it. But it is still a work in process. I’ll try again once it gets out of beta. Luckily Microsoft has another toolbar up it’s sleeve, that should catch your eye. The MSN\Window Live toolbar is amazing. Built on Silverlight technology, it looks good as well as being a powerful toolbar.

I don’t usually pay that much attention to MSN. But this toolbar made me sit up and go whoa! It’s simple and easy to use, but it is also a powerful thing to have around. MS would do well to make this the default “Windows Live” toolbar. So what is this toolbar? Its a one click portal to everything you might need on the web. On one hand it’s a quick & easy news source. It’s News source is Microsoft's & Universal’s joint venture  MSNBC. Which is a nice balance between far far left CNN…..& far right Fox News (just had to put that in there). 

A nice touch, when there is a significant news event. The News tab will glow bright red and pulsate until you click it.

Example, when I woke up this morning. It was glowing red, to tell me that Wachovia Bank was being bought out by CITI group. These updates are instant and dynamic. 

It’s a great news toolbar, but flip (literary!!) to its other side and its a portal to Live search from anywhere.

    This feature is killer, unlike Google's toolbar. It allows you to refine you search in any of the above categories.

Of course it wouldn’t be complete with out a link to the online Window’s Live services.

I’ve gotten so used to it, that it is now the only way I click through to spaces\hotmail. The UI is so simple and intuitive that it makes using & getting to Window’s Live a breeze.

Something else I love, The dynamic weather icon you can see in the right hand corner. Press it to bring up your area’s forecast.

As you can see the UI & effects are simply beautiful. You can also view stocks, but who in the right mind would want to do that these days!

So there you have it, an awesome toolbar for IE. This toolbar is free and available from

 http://www.newmsntoolbar.com/

There is one thing that I would add to this toolbar. Spell Check!! add that and I could delete my Google toolbar for good!

Talk about a fast turnaround, Photosynth went from being a Microsoft research project. To a Photo Gallery built in plug-in a few short months.

What is Photosynth?  That I’m not quite sure… It’s a cross of video’s, photo & 3D image’s. Photosynth takes your photos and creates a “3D Scene”. It is based on Microsofts “Silverlight” technology & also based on the “Seadragon” program. Basically all the techno-mumbo creates an awesome experience.

I believe that Microsoft made and awesome choice by including choice by adding a “photosynth” option to  photo gallery. See how to make one below.

1: Go out a take TON of photos of the thing you want to “synth”. Photosynth works best on things that have a lot of texture, not color. So white walls or anything that is one color won’t synth well. To get an good Idea of what works & want does not check out my synths.

2: Load the photos into Live Photo Gallery, and make sure they are all right side up. You can play around all you want with the color and contrast, But don’t crop the photos.

3: Select all the photos and then select “Make photosynth” from the drop down “extras” menu.

I took these photos of a laid-up locomotive at a museum today in my hometown. Which is located here.  http://maps.live.com/default.aspx?v=2&FORM=LMLTCP&cp=qrqqrf8p1fk6&style=b&lvl=2&tilt=-90&dir=0&alt=-1000&scene=27978679&phx=0&phy=0&phscl=1&encType=1

After you select the photos, press make photosynth & sit back and relax as your photosynth is created. The time this takes varies greatly depending on your computers specs. Photosynth makes a lot of use of your video card, so a faster card will greatly shorten the time needed.

After the process is complete, you may view your “synth” online. If you don’t have Silverlight you will need to install it, Along with the Photosynth viewer.

I got the above synth to 98% “Synthy” which measures the completeness of the synth.

check it out at the below link.

  http://photosynth.net/view.aspx?cid=ae45beab-e6b1-44ed-9c3c-e3a0d6fc2f42&i=0:0:7&z=419.9064799999999&g=0&p=0:0&m=false&c=0.11103:3.67388:0.0777241&d=-0.443756:1.79707:2.07074

enjoy

Photosynth is free and you can get it at www.photosynth.com

Photo gallery has one of the best panoramic photo makers I’ve ever seen. It is built on Microsoft’s “ICE” technology ( Image Composite Editor) which is extremely powerful. In Live photo galley "stiching" your photos together to make a panoramic is super easy.

First, select the photos you want to use in the pano & select “Make panoramic Photo” from the drop down menu.

Here I’ve selected some photos I took at Universal Studios in Hollywood (That place was amazing!). The awesome part is that, once you start the process. The panoramic is made automatically. On my quad-core desktop it only took a few seconds. My older computer accomplished the task in about 30 sec.

Once its done, you will be presented with the “Raw” pano.

What a perfect day (I so envy all you so-cal-ers!)! as you can see this photo needs to be cropped. Which is available in the “Fix” menu.

There You have it, a fast, fun & FREE way to make awesome panoramics. Just one more reason to try out Windows Live Photo Gallery.

You can also check out all of the other pano’s i’ve made using Photo Gallery, by clicking on the slideshow below. Feel free to use them as desktops or whatever you like.

   
Windows Live Spaces

How many photos do you have on your computer 1,000  ,  10,000 or 100,000? I think I may have around 10,000 on my various external hard drives ( I have 3-4). It’s a daunting task even trying to look through all of them. I use Photoshop for all of the heavy-duty editing, but it is nice to have program that you can easily flip through all of your albums. Just name some of the photo organizing tools available today, I’ve probably used them all. They’ve all had bits & pieces that I liked, but they where always missing something.

Window’s Live brings all the stuff I liked about the others and adds a bunch of other cool stuff. Here is one of the most useful ones.

Facial Tagging: This a life saver when you have 1000’s of photos of people spanning years. Don’t panic if this option does not show up right away when you start Photo gallery. It takes a while for it scan you pictures for the 1st time. After its done scanning you can go through and tag as you like.

After you tag someone, you can sort the files by “People Tag’s"

Facial tagging also allows you to cross reference photos with multiple people in them. So you could look for all the “Andrew” Tags in all of the “Ryan” pictures.

Tell me in the comments if this was helpful.

Earlier this afternoon I received an very short email from Zune. Notifying me that the Zune service would be going down for “ scheduled maintenance” on Monday, September 29, at 12:01 a.m . What so interesting about this? not much.. unless you look across the aisle at MS’s other media powerhouse. That's right Xbox LIVE is going down for “ scheduled maintenance” at the same exact time.  While this is expected (Zune & Xbox LIVE use the same backend servers.) This could signal something else. I’ve always wondered why MS didn’t combine the Zune & Xbox marketplace’s from the start. My best guess as to this “ scheduled maintenance”? I would say MS is testing Zune-Xbox marketplace combination. We may not see anything until Nov, when the “New Xbox Experience” hits. Until then.. Keep you fingers crossed that MS shocks is all with an update soon the expected.

This is awesome… But that picture is so embarrassing. Oh well that's the price of fame, :)

Night & Day, that's the difference between WLM 8.5 & 9.0 Beta.

Even if you took a passing glance at the new WLM you would notice a lot of changes. Most of the time when a product is in beta, you would expect there to be a lot of unfinished features. That is not the case with WLM 9.0. If only all beta’s where this polished.

I’m going to run down my top Five features,

5 Look

WLM underwent a major makeover in the UI department. It’s window now makes full use of Vista’s “Glass”.

It also has some nice eye candy when it comes to the window transition & etc. They are even options for hiding unused toolbars, which give it a nice clean look. You can even set your own custom header, which the person your chatting with will see. Status indicators are also got a revamp. Your Contacts pictures now glow Red, Green Or Yellow. Depending on their status.

4

“High Def” video calling

I’ve used Skype for video calling for a long time, but this release of WLM has made me switch. As it now allows you to make FULL use of your webcam. Skype has “High def” video. But they have crippled it by locking it. By only allowing Logitech webcams to use it. WLM allows you to use any webcam you want.

3 “What’s new feed”

This feature has the most potential, as it can be expanded in the future. This feed allows you to keep updated when you friends make updates to their space or upload a new file to skydrive.  I think in the future it will be able to interface with the Zune software. So your friends can see when you make a new playlist or etc..

2

Photo sharing

Photo sharing has been updated, & I love it!! it is now totally dynamic & real-time. When you share a photo it is 10X faster then before.

You also see the photo at the same time the you friend does. Which make the process even more social.

1

WLM is only in beta! So it only means, it gets better from here. So I will be anxiously awaiting the next update. Keep up the good work WLM team! 

I took this photo while I was playing Burnout paradise for the Xbox 360. Which has dynamic ads built in.

Its awesome that this Campaign is reaching beyond the normal media.

Keep it up MS

Enjoy!

Have you noticed the Blogosphere these days? It’s abuzz with MS news & rumors (Shock!)

As soon as the 1st Bill + Jerry ads hit the airwaves they where almost instantly panned as being Weird,Odd,Bad,Strange & many others.

However those ad’s did just what MS wanted them to, They made people sit up & say “what?”. You could not check a blog, Read Digg or watch the news without hearing or seeing them.  So for better or worse the whole world is suddenly talking about MS.

The next stage of the ad’s is interesting and Innovative. I am sooo glad that MS did not resort to Apples mud slinging tactics. The I’m A PC\Life without walls ads are going to be an interesting ride over the next few months. One of the biggest parts of the campaign is the community element. MS will be allowing PC users over the next few months, to upload short video clips to a site. They will then also be available to be used in the ongoing ad’s.

Also I applaud MS for allowing just about anyone to upload a video, most of the videos that up on the site right now are made by people just like me. Not actors or paid spokespersons.  

So with all the said, I predict the adds to be smash hits,

we shall see….

A quick intro to the Sidekick 2008, It a great phone for texting manics. But lets just say I won't be trading my dare in for this anytime soon.

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Zune Fall Update: Channels

   

 

 

 
Video: Zune Fall 2008 Wireless Features 
Video: Zune Fall update: buy from FM
Video: Zune Software Features - Zune Fall 2008