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All posts tagged "Microsoft"


Monday, January 26, 2009

Roundup of Windows 7 Tips

Posted by Chris Gohlke in "Digital Home Software" @ 09:00 PM

http://www.maximumpc.com/article/fe...MC-R3A917316679

"It's been over a week since the Windows 7 Beta was released to the public. You've read our initial impressions and even followed our guide to installing the OS using a USB key. So what now? Microsoft's post-Vista Windows experience is more than the obvious Taskbar and user interface updates; there are plenty of hidden features and shortcuts that haven't been advertised. But fear not: we've compiled a list of every known Windows 7 tweak and secret. Follow these 20 tricks to make the most out of this beta and become a Windows 7 power user."

I have not had time to play with the Windows 7 beta yet, but looking forward to giving it a whirl. If you've already given it a go, check out these tips to get even more Windows 7 goodness.


Monday, January 5, 2009

Windows 7 Beta 1 Looks Good

Posted by Timothy Huber in "Digital Home Software" @ 06:00 PM

http://blogs.zdnet.com/hardware/?p=...3&tag=mncol;txt

"I've now had my hands on Windows 7 beta 1 build 6.1.7000.0.081212-1400 (the build that is widely expected to be made available to beta testers by Microsoft early in January) and have had some time to compose my thoughts and feelings about this latest release."

Over on ZDNet there's a short review of the Windows 7 build that's expected to be widely available for public beta. It sounds like Microsoft has a great product on their hands. I'm looking forward to the beta and have a machine I'm ready to install it on, when the time comes. I'll just need to make sure and be careful when using Windows Media Player 12.


Windows Media Player 12 Beta Maiming MP3 Files

Posted by Jason Dunn in "Digital Home News" @ 02:24 PM

http://www.neowin.net/news/main/09/...rrupt-your-mp3s

"Several reports from users testing the latest leaked build of Windows 7 indicate a potential data corruption issue using Microsoft's Windows Media Player 12. Windows 7 beta 1 build 7000 leaked over the Christmas holidays and a Microsoft spokesperson has confirmed that there is a bug which affects the leaked build. Approximately 2-3 seconds will get shaved off the beginning of MP3s if you have set your Windows Media Player 12 settings to retrieve information from the internet and update files. The default configuration for WMP12 sets this if you use the "express" option during setup."

I've beta tested a lot of software over the years, including Windows operating systems, and I'd never have hesitated to use it to play back my media. Sure, you don't use the beta OS for mission-critical stuff, but I'd certainly test out the media player...but now I'm sure going to be cautious about Windows 7 until they fix this bug! Apparently the problem is triggered if the header is more than 16 KB in size on the MP3...and since I embed high-res album art in all my MP3s, the headers are definitely bigger than 16 KB. As always, when testing beta software, assume that things are going to go wrong.


Monday, December 1, 2008

Blockbuster Announces Mobile Services with Microsoft

Posted by Timothy Huber in "Digital Home News" @ 11:00 AM

http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcon...n1.4a219e8.html

"Blockbuster Inc. caught up to the competition last week by introducing a set-top box that brings rentals from the Internet to the television. Now, the Dallas-based company hopes to pass the pack by teaming with Microsoft Corp. on new mobile services that will let customers watch even more movies on more devices. "Eventually, we'll give customers instant access to any movie on any device with an Internet connection and a screen," said Keith Morrow, Blockbuster's chief information officer."

Blockbuster news continues to trickle out. Last week Blockbuster announced a new set-top box and over the weekend it was announced they would eventually support downloading to some Blu-Ray players. Today, the news broke that they are teaming with Microsoft to deliver a new set of mobile services, in part based on LiveMesh. Details are sketchy and this is more of a directional announcement than an product announcement. However, it sounds like Blockbuster is seriously considering how to better compete in this new media environment.

Now if they can just do something about the paltry size of their Blockbuster OnDemand library...


Friday, November 14, 2008

FolderShare To Be Re-Named Windows Live Sync

Posted by Jason Dunn in "Digital Home Software" @ 10:00 AM

http://www.liveside.net/main/archiv...-live-sync.aspx

"Apparently the shroud of secrecy that surrounds Windows Live and Wave 3 doesn't extend to help files, as our friend Picturepan2 at LiveSino.net discovered as he was snooping around doing some investigative reporting. While Microsoft has maintained that FolderShare would continue on, even in the face of what seems to be redundancy with Live Mesh, those outside the company have been wondering what would become of FolderShare. FolderShare was acquired when Microsoft bought ByteTaxi in 2005, and offers file and folder synchronization between computers with a web interface component. Folder synchronization between Windows and Mac computers is possible. However it does not offer "in the cloud" storage, or work on the FeedSync RSS underpinnings that power Live Mesh (at least in its current configuration)."

Live Sync? Meh. I'm not feeling that name - FolderShare is a descriptive name that Joe Average can understand - it's something that allows you to "share folders". Sync is a geek work that has virtually no meaning in the realm of non-geeks. Names aside, what I really care about is whether or not FolderShare is going to continue to survive. As Live Mesh improves faster and faster, and FolderShare seemingly stays the same, I worry that FolderShare isn't going to be allowed to survive much longer. Of course, if Live Mesh reaches feature parity with FolderShare, it might not matter.


Saturday, November 8, 2008

Windows 7: New Desktop Slideshow Support

Posted by Jason Dunn in "Digital Home Software" @ 06:00 PM

http://www.withinwindows.com/2008/1...iles-rss-feeds/

"Curious as to what else was under Microsoft's elaborate lock, key, and duct-tape protection scheme mentioned earlier, I had my friend Chris Holmes run a scan of his 7 system, as I'm still babying my laptop's SSD drive. What we found were ties into system files littered across the entire operating system. Post-analysis revealed another feature tucked away in the corner - Say hello to (what I think should be called) Desktop Slideshow. If your memory is sharp, you'll remember Long Zheng found mention of this very feature on MSDN first, of which was quickly sanitized by Sinofsky's secret police."

As someone who enjoys vibrant and colourful desktop backgrounds, and who changes them on a regular basis, I'm excited about this feature - essentially it allows you to select multiple deskop backgrounds and have them rotate on a timed basis. More importantly, it's not just limited to backgrounds on your computer - you can subscribe to RSS feeds and use these feeds as photos sources. With most photo sites providing feeds, it wouldn't be hard to imagine a scenario where you could have a constant stream of images flowing to your desktop from a variety of sources - especially if you got creative with merged feeds with Feedburner. Want grandma and grandpa to have desktop backgrounds of your family photos? Looks like it will be easy with Windows 7!


Friday, November 7, 2008

Windows 7: "Impressive At Every Turn"

Posted by Jason Dunn in "Digital Home Articles & Resources" @ 08:00 PM

http://www.downloadsquad.com/2008/1...-at-every-turn/

"With the Microsoft PDC recently wrapping up, excitement has been building for Windows 7. I wonder, will it be able to live up to the hype? There's only one way to find out: install it and see for myself. This is by no means a complete analysis of the OS, rather my observations from the first few days of experimenting with it. The Aero interface has been refined, and it's leaner and meaner than before. Visual effects look superb and are silky smooth, even on less powerful hardware like a Celeron M520 laptop with Intel integrated graphics. Even with all the Aero Glass effects enabled, battery life didn't take a substantial hit (I noticed anywhere from 15 to 20 minutes less on a 5.5 hour battery). Need to move a full screen window? Just click the title bar and start dragging - no need to click restore first, it will automatically resize. The reverse works as well: drag a window to the top edge of your screen, and Windows will maximize it."

I'm seeing something very interesting happening here: the praise for Windows 7, even though the software is still raw and uncooked, is almost universally positive. Is the impression of Vista so negative, that Windows 7 looks great in comparison? Or has Microsoft taken the criticism on Vista seriously and really dug down deep to improve Windows 7? I suspect the latter - Microsoft doesn't always make the right decisions, but they do seem to learn from their mistakes. I'm going to try slapping my Windows 7 copy onto my HP tx2500...I have no idea what to expect, but I figure I might as well give it a try!


Wednesday, October 29, 2008

Checking Out Windows Media Center in Windows 7

Posted by Jason Dunn in "Digital Home Articles & Resources" @ 03:00 PM

http://blog.retrosight.com/WindowsM...OfWindows7.aspx

"If you are attending the 2008 Professional Developers Conference you received a pre-beta Windows 7 build today (6801) which contains many features the Windows Media Center team has been developing over the past year. It's my pleasure to take a few minutes to outline some of these new features for you. If you install this build do keep in mind it's considered an ‘Alpha' experience meaning some features may not be polished or work quite as well as they will in the final product AND things may change (mostly for the better we hope) between now and beta and RTM. So let's jump right in..."

Microsoft employee Charlie Owen has published a bunch of screen shots from the Windows Media Center interface inside Windows 7. Lots of improvements are shown, but the one that really caught my attention was native h.264 support, including Media Center Extenders. Finally, using h.264 inside a Microsoft ecosystem won't be quite so frustrating. There's some good stuff here!


Audio & Video Improvements Galore in Windows 7

Posted by Jason Dunn in "Digital Home Articles & Resources" @ 02:30 PM

http://news.cnet.com/8301-13526_3-10077345-27.html

"Windows 7 will ship with a new version of the Windows Media Player. This is somewhat surprising, given Microsoft's complete neglect of the Media Player since Vista's release and its emphasis on the Zune PC software, which has its own playback and organizational features. But apparently Microsoft has realized that native playback of digital media within Windows is too important to force people to download an application separately. This is not the case with some other applications--for instance, Windows 7 will not come with Mail/Outlook Express, Photo Gallery, or Movie Maker--instead, users will have to download Windows Live versions of these applications. (Or PC makers will have to pre-bundle them.)"

It looks like there will be a lot of good things coming related to audio and video on Windows 7. Some of the highlights? Better Bluetooth support for speakers and headsets, a new version of Windows Media Player, native support (finally!) for h.264/MPEG video files and AAC audio files, improvements in networked music, intelligent routing of the right kind of audio to the right kind of device, and more. I think Vista is quite a capable operating system when it comes to media, but I'm definitely looking forward to the features in Windows 7 that will make the experience even better.


Tuesday, October 28, 2008

eWEEK Has Short Windows 7 Walk-Through

Posted by Jason Dunn in "Digital Home Articles & Resources" @ 02:42 PM

http://www.eweek.com/c/a/Windows/eW...ough-Windows-7/

"Today at its Professional Developers Conference, Microsoft gave the public its first peek at the Windows client release that's supposed to make up for Vista. Based on our early tests of the new client, we're impressed with Seven's speed and polish."

The biggest news about Windows 7? Paint is getting an overhaul! I kid, I kid. Well, no, actually Paint is getting an overhaul and an Office 2007-style ribbon control - but I'm sure there's more to Windows 7 than that! Perhaps the most promising thing I've seen so far is that according to this New York Times article, Steven Sinofsky, the guy leading the development of Windows 7, is planning on showing Windows 7 at PDC 2008 on a low-priced Lenovo computer with only 1 GB of RAM and <cough> an Intel Atom CPU. If Windows 7 has been trimmed of that much fat and can run properly on such minimal hardware, then colour me impressed. About the only time I haven't liked Vista is when I've used it on a small devices like the Samsung Q1 Ultra, or on the HP Mini-Note 2133 netbook. Vista just sucks on those types of devices. On reasonably-equipped desktop PCs, even the $599 type, Vista runs quite well.


Wednesday, October 22, 2008

Microsoft Sidesight

Posted by Chris Gohlke in "Digital Home Hardware & Accessories" @ 02:00 AM

http://gizmodo.com/5066691/microsof...s-have-it-wrong

"Many of us are pretty happy with touchscreen implementation in products like the iPhone or HTC Touch. But Microsoft (teaming with HTC hardware, at least in this photograph) has developed a new sort of touchscreen that doesn't involve touching the screen at all. Instead, IR beams shoot out from the sides of the phone and track your gestures on any surface. The beams are arranged in two rows and spaced 10 millimeters apart, aimed horizontally preventing overhead light sources from interfering. Users can then operate the device using both hands without even touching the phone, scrolling with vertical or horizontal movements, rotating an object on the screen by twisting or even scrolling on one side wile writing with a stylus on the other."

This seems like an absolutely brilliant idea. I've never been a fan of touchscreens, especially on small devices since your fingers end up blocking the view and you get fingerprints all over the place. The only downside I see is that it would not be overly practical to use while holding the device. Otherwise, nice to see an outside the box idea for user input.


Tuesday, September 16, 2008

What Windows 7 Needs Is...

Posted by Chris Gohlke in "Digital Home Software" @ 01:00 AM

http://www.maximumpc.com/article/fe...hange_windows_7

"By now, we’ve got a pretty good idea of what’s working and what isn’t in Vista. Here are our recommendations for how Microsoft should proceed with Windows 7. Add Something Inspirational. Say what you like about Steve Jobs, but he stirs the Apple faithful into a frenzy with his promise of “one more thing.” Apple has done a great job of adding features, applications, and functionality to OS X that inspire its users. Some of that is just marketing mumbo jumbo, but the tight integration and the user-focused design of Apple’s integrated apps impress even the most die-hard PC user."

See the full article for the other 7, but I've really got to agree with this one. At this point, Vista is pretty good, so from here on, it is really a marketing problem. The other and possibly biggest thing they need to do is make sure Windows 7 works at release. For both XP and Vista, it has seemed to take a service pack or two before it finally worked. No matter what, Windows 7 can't be released until it is ready.


Wednesday, August 27, 2008

Microsoft SyncToy v2.0

Posted by Chris Gohlke in "Digital Home Software" @ 06:30 PM

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/...&displaylang=en

"There are files from all kinds of sources that we want to store and manage. Files are created by our digital cameras, e-mail, cell phones, portable media players, camcorders, PDAs, and laptops. Increasingly, computer users are using different folders, drives, and even different computers (such as a laptop and a desktop) to store, manage, retrieve and view files. Yet managing hundreds or thousands of files is still largely a manual operation. In some cases it is necessary to regularly get copies of files from another location to add to primary location; in other cases there is a need to keep two storage locations exactly in sync. Some users manage files manually, dragging and dropping from one place to another and keeping track of whether the locations are synchronized in their heads. Other users may use two or more applications to provide this functionality. Now there is an easier way. SyncToy, a free PowerToy for Microsoft Windows, is an easy to use, highly customizable program that helps users to do the heavy lifting involved with the copying, moving, and synchronization of different directories. Most common operations can be performed with just a few clicks of the mouse, and additional customization is available without additional complexity. SyncToy can manage multiple sets of folders at the same time; it can combine files from two folders in one case, and mimic renames and deletes in another case. Unlike other applications, SyncToy actually keeps track of renames to files and will make sure those changes get carried over to the synchronized folder."

I installed this yesterday and I really like it. It has finally let me set up backups the way they should be done and should be much speedier. I've actually set it up to do three separate synchs of my user data (which totals 82 GB). The first synch goes to a second hard drive installed in my PC. I set a Windows task to automatically perform this synch ever time I boot up. A second synch occurs weekly to network storage. Finally I set up an on-demand synch with a USB drive to let me quickly update my off-site backups. Now that they are all set up, synching the changes will be MUCH quicker than the full backups I was previously doing. Plus, having a fully automated synch will protect me from my own laziness!


Thursday, July 24, 2008

Microsoft's $300 Million Windows Vista Ad Campaign

Posted by Jason Dunn in "Digital Home Articles & Resources" @ 09:22 AM

http://blogs.zdnet.com/Bott/?p=499

"If this is going to be the overall message of Microsoft's much-vaunted new $300 million ad campaign, it might be money well spent. According to the folks at LiveSide, the first ads in the new campaign were previewed at Microsoft's employees-only Global Exchange conference last week to rave reviews. As Tim Anderson astutely noted the other day, "Vista is now actually better than its reputation. That's a marketing issue." Microsoft's biggest challenge is to get would-be customers to set aside whatever preconceptions they have and listen to its pitch for Vista. Aligning its most vocal Vista critics with the Flat Earth Society is a clever way to get people's attention."

I don't know about you, but when I talk to people about Windows Vista, in almost every case they have no reason for disliking it or upgrading to it beyond "Well...I heard it sucked!". There's certainly a hardware issue with some people, but I'm often amazed at the craptastic hardware people use to run Windows XP - like the Dell Dimension 2400 with 256 MB of RAM I saw last month. Yikes! The above ad is apparently not a part of the official campaign, but I like the tone of it - pointing out that perceptions aren't always reality.


Wednesday, July 16, 2008

Live Mesh Goes into Public Tech Preview

Posted by Jason Dunn in "Digital Home Software" @ 10:00 AM

http://https://www.mesh.com/Welcome/Welcome.aspx

Microsoft has opened up their Live Mesh service to the general public in the form of a "tech preview" which is a nicer way of saying "mostly still beta". I've been using Live Mesh for a couple of months now, and it's a pretty cool service. You set a folder to be "Live Meshed" and not only will it be kept in sync between multiple computers, the contents of the folder will be kept in the cloud (where you have 5 GB of storage). I think there's a lot of potential here, especially since they've stated they'll be targeting mobile devices. I've been dreaming of having my FlexWallet file be pushed to my device when there's a change in it, because connecting my device with my desktop computer is something I just don't do anymore. I was hoping for years that the FolderShare team would release a Windows Mobile client, but they're still struggling to get the service stable, so no joy there. If you have a desktop and a laptop, and haven't checked out Live Mesh yet, you should.


Monday, May 19, 2008

Microsoft Puts Surface-like Features into Touchwall

Posted by Chris Gohlke in "Digital Home Hardware & Accessories" @ 01:00 AM

http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/05/1...-touch-display/



The video pretty much speaks for itself. I love the concept of Surface, but some of the preliminary cost figures I've heard have definitely priced it out of my living room for a while. Touchwall uses a much simpler mechanism but still provides many of the great features of Surface at what should hopefully be a much more consumer friendly price point.


Tuesday, May 13, 2008

New Webcam from Microsoft is Extra Bendy

Posted by Chris Gohlke in "Digital Home Hardware & Accessories" @ 04:00 PM

http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/press/2008/may08/05-13NewLifeCams08PR.mspx?rss_fdn=Press Releases

"Today, Microsoft Corp. reshapes the webcam experience with the LifeCam VX-5000, a webcam with a unique bendable attachment base that molds to virtually any surface — from a notebook to a desktop — so users can take it anywhere. For personalized flair, the LifeCam VX-5000 features a brightly colored ring around the front of the webcam in the colors Cool Blue, Lucky Green and Fire Red, allowing consumers to choose their favorite to suit their style. To complement the fresh, new look, the LifeCam VX-5000 features MSN Photo Swap, a special feature that lets consumers share digital photos in midvideo conversation and see real-time reactions as both callers view the pictures. The new webcam arrives just in time to help share summer vacation memories and keep consumers connected throughout the year."



The flexible base is an interesting idea. It looks like you can either use it freestanding as pictured, or bend it to mount on an LCD monitor. And as a plus, with some minor mods, it could substitute for the HAL 9000.

Tags: Microsoft, webcam

Thursday, March 6, 2008

Is Intel Responsible for Suck-Tastic Hardware Running Vista?

Posted by Jason Dunn in "Digital Home News" @ 05:00 PM

http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/pos...soft-bends.html

"When we learned Windows Vista would come in three consumer editions, we were surprised: wasn't two enough? New evidence supports the possibility that the birth of the most controversial of these—Windows Vista Home Basic—was rooted in an attempt to sell aging hardware and survive yet another holiday season without a new release of Windows. while this remain just a hypothesis for now, it is clear that Microsoft made compromises to what it considered the minimum specifications for full Vista support in order to accommodate Intel."

An interesting article about Intel pressuring Microsoft to loosen their hardware requirements for Windows Vista, which resulted in a lot of computers running Vista that probably shouldn't have. And then people wonder why Vista is "so slow" on their designed-for-XP hardware...


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