Microsoft not so secret social network called Socl is beginning to open to more users, this morning sending out invites to people. Previously restricted to Microsoft staff, then students, Socl is beginning to open its doors to everyday users. If you’d like to check it out, we have 10 invites to give away.

Update
That’s it guys and girls, all out of invites. Hope to get more in the future (ping Microsoft).

You can score an invite by being one of the first 10 people to sign up to Constructiv. The invite will be sent to the associated email address. Best of luck, be fast, and connect with me once you’re on Socl.

So far the experience feels more like Google+ than Facebook, but does have some unique features. The video party is similar to sharing a YouTube video on G+, but the most interesting is the Bing integration. It allows the sharing of content from search results really quickly. This sure beats telling a friend to go search for a term, or an image, you just share the search.

When searching you can filter results by web, news, videos, etc just like Bing results. The difference being that Socl allows you to just click images in the results and add them to your post. It’s a nice clean UI, but I can’t help but think that Facebook adding this Bing functionality can’t be far away.

Microsoft developers can now rack up achievements using the development software Visual Studio. Just like your Xbox, achievements are unlocked by performing different activities. Rather than games, these achievements related to development.

While some l33t developers like Toub have unlocked 169 points from Visual Studio achievements, there’s some items on the list I’m happy not to have. The Complex Achievement for example, is unlocked if you have 50 projects in a Solution.. that’s just madness.

When you unlock a new achievement its shown in the bottom-right corner of the application and is added to your count on the VS Achievement leader board on Channel 9. You can also share your programming skills by sharing these achievements via Facebook or Twitter.

So what do the developers out there think? Are these achievement going to encourage you to use the application more?

More info @ Visual Studio on MSDN via iStartedSomething.com

As Microsoft continues its efforts to gain market share in the smartphone war, they have just announced a new competition for local developers. Australians who develop applications for Windows Phone will have the chance to win either a Nokia Lumia 710 or the flagship Nokia WP7 phone, the Nokia Lumia 800.

To qualify, you have to publish 3 or 4 apps between Jan 1^st 2012 and 12 midnight EST Mar 30^th, 2012. This offer is limited to the first 50 developers and only 1 phone per developer.

It’ll be interesting to see the quality of apps that arise as a result of this promotion. While Microsoft continues its efforts to increase the number of apps available in the Marketplace, it’s important not to lower the quality of apps, just to hit a theoretical number. Your applications will still need to pass through standard certification to be published.

Dave Glover is a Developer Consultant, Technical and Business Development at Microsoft Australia and has published the full information. Dave Glover’s blog.

Via WPDownunder and WPCentral.

Today is New Years Eve in Australia and Bing’s HTML5, video powered homepage is celebrating in style. Head to http://bing.com.au right now to see the fireworks display from Victoria Harbour, Hong Kong from last year. You’ll any of the modern browsers to see the video, lets hope they film again this year, the result is impressive.

Whatever you’re doing to celebrate tonight, enjoy and take a break from that computer for a while.

Starting today, ABC’s iView application will be available on the Xbox 360. You will need to have upgraded to the new Xbox Dashboard to see the new app. As with all things Microsoft, it’s being rolled out, so if you don’t see it yet in the App Marketplace, just check back later.

The ABC iView app adds to the existing line-up of YouTube, SBSOnDemand, DailyMotion, NineMSN and Foxtel video apps on the Xbox 360. It’s important to note, that Xbox Live Gold Subscription isn’t required for iView. iView features shows like Good Game, Q&A, Gruen Transfer and more, allowing you to catch up on any episodes you or your DVR missed.

The iView app can be controlled using Kinect hand gestures (like the rest of the new Dashboard) and also supports voice commands. Not all the new apps do, so this is actually worth noting. If you’re using voice and hit an app that doesn’t support it, it really defeats the purpose, as you need to find that controller again.

ABC iView is now available on the Xbox 360, PS3, Boxee Box and the web. ABC has done an amazing job at making their content available wherever and whenever consumers want to consume it. If iOS had flash support it’d probably be on there as well. ABC’s content distribution is a model to be held as an example of how to use IPTV well. Without traditional commercial programming, ABC are free to distribute much more flexibly and achieve the ultimate goal of the content producers, to have it see by as many people as possible.

More information @ Xbox

After using Windows Azure since around April this year for the backend of Constructiv, I’ve gotten pretty familiar with the website. Today there’s been a massive overhaul of Windows Azure, probably the largest since launch.

It’s important to not the change is the the Azure website, but the Azure Platform (Managing your servers) remains the same. SQL Azure was updated a couple of days ago, so it is likely just a matter of time before we see the new design across the board.

The new design brings with it the Metro UI we’ve seen across a number of other Microsoft properties including WP7, Windows8 and now the Xbox 360.

Check it out for yourself at https://www.windowsazure.com/en-us/

Those logging into SQL Azure today will get a prompt to update to Silverlight 5. Why the need for the latest developer version of Silverlight? It turns out even Microsoft developers are now being moved over to the new Metro UI we’ve seen on WP7, Windows 8, Xbox and now Microsoft’s cloud database service SQL Azure. Where will it stop?

Update
It seems the Metro UI rollout was much broader than first expected. The entire Windows Azure website has now had the new UI design applied.

Check it out for yourself at https://www.windowsazure.com/en-us

Tip: To force the Dashboard Update, try running the network connection test to Xbox Live.

Update2
Microsoft have delayed the release of the Dashboard update without explanation. It’s likely a few last minute bugs were discovered that stopped the update from rolling out.

Update
@majornelson now says everyone in Australia should have the Xbox Dashboard update at 2AM tomorrow morning (Sydney timezone)

Go turn on your Xbox 360, there may be a major update waiting for you. The new Xbox 360 Dashboard is being rolled out today, the update adds a number of important new features including voice controls and applications, as well as a new Metro-style UI. Australian voice control has been missing since the launch of Kinect but is finally delivered in this update.

An increasing number titles are being released with voice capabilities exacerbating the delayed launch of Xbox voice controls in Australia. Strangely voice has been active in Kinect Labs and has worked well for months. The December 2011 Dashboard update bring Xbox-wide voice controls, meaning you can search for content by using commands like “Xbox Bing {movie title}”. The voice system is initiated by saying the word “Xbox” a list of possible commands is then displayed on each tile on the screen as well as common system functions at the bottom.

When you consider the challenges for Kinect, room acoustics, environmental noises and background conversations, it’s impressive how accurate it is. There’s also no training time like you may be used to with desktop voice systems like that of Dragon Dictate or even Microsoft’s own Windows 7 voice support. By limiting the list of possible commands, Kinect has a much easier task than attempting to interpret any words spoken in the room.

Metro-style UI
By now most of us are familiar with Microsoft’s current design philosophy Metro. It’s used on Windows Phone 7, Windows 8 and now the Xbox 360. This Dashboard update continues that theme with clean crisp text, minimal content per screen and large tiles. The use of Kinect gestures to move around the UI has also been improved from what was on offer in the Zune Marketplace. Gone are the days of having to find a ridiculously precise location to the left or right of the screen. Swipes gestures now work with a much larger region, achieving a much more natural experience.

If you don’t have a Kinect connected to your Xbox 360, don’t stress, it will continue to work just fine using normal controller operations.

Profile sync
With millions of Xbox sold around the world, it’s unsurprising that many of us find ourselves at someone else’s house, only for our profile stuck at home. With the new Dashboard update, you’re profile can now live in the cloud. This means that you can log into your account on any Xbox and have your achievements, game progress, friends list all come with you. About time right? If you’re thinking that this already existing with profile pull, it didn’t. Previously you’re account could only ever live on one console, now it can live anywhere you want with a simple sign in. This is progress.

Beacons
Setting up beacons on the Xbox, allows you to keep up to date with your best gaming buddies. While you’re contact list may have grown to dozens or more, there’s likely a few select ones that you always want to know about. Beacons also work with games. Set a beacon for Forza 4 and you’ll be alerted when one of your mates is playing that game. This information was previously only available when you started a game, it would say ‘4 friends playing this game’. Beacons will notify you Xbox-wide, so no matter what app you’re currently using, you’ll be up to date.

Gallery

Xbox as the future of TV
This afternoon, Microsoft confirmed they were bringing a number of key local applications to the Xbox 360. The following apps will be available in December.

• ABC iView
• SBS ON DEMAND
• YouTube
• Daily Motion
• Crackle
• Ninemsn – Nine News, Today, Wide World of Sports, CelebrityFIX TV

While Channel 7’s catch-up service is an omission this is actually a really impressive list, just remember they won’t be available today. Until now, 3rd party apps had been limited to Facebook, Twitter and Foxtel on Xbox 360. This announcement sets the scene for future applications to be delivered to the console.

The line-up of entertainment partners internationally makes out list look sadly depressing, but at this point we’ll take what we can get. It’s clear Microsoft is now committed to working with partners to deliver 3rd party apps. These apps will fundamentally change the way users think and use the Xbox 360. While predominantly a gaming console, Microsoft continue to push the device and an entertainment hub for the living room.

With each application that enables IPTV delivery to the big screen without switching inputs, take consumers one step closer to the ideal set-top-box. Unfortunately that ideal STB isn’t likely to arrive until the Xbox 720 (or whatever the next one’s called), when it could include tuners and DVR functionality. Searching the content on your Xbox is available now, how long do you think it’ll be before the Xbox adds search for the web and competes with GoogleTV?

A history of Dashboard updates
Which one is your favourite?

Metro-style UI

XNE Update

Original blade UI

More information @ Xbox Live

On Wednesday 23rd November, I attended Microsoft’s The Big Picture Experience, and to honestly say, I expected more from the event. For those who are not aware of the expo, it was essentially to showcase Microsoft’s latest and greatest technology in action that was targeted towards the home, improving business productivity, customer experience, and data analytics.

This was my first time to a tech-related expo so I didn’t really know what to expect, and being Microsoft, I expected a whole lot more than what it actually was. I spent the entire day there and I thought the place would be packed with so many people that you wouldn’t be able to get your hands on anything, but I was incredibly surprised that I could walk around without bumping into anyone.

The customer to staff ratio felt like 3 customers to one staff member. Although they were very helpful, full of information and friendly, I was only approached by one person to give a demonstration of their stand. Just because I’m not wearing a suit and tie, and I don’t look like a business man, it doesn’t mean you can ignore me. The only way I was given a demonstration was to listen in on someone else’s.

It Was Only A Sales Pitch That I Didn’t Buy

The main tools that were predominantly promoted at the expo was SharePoint 2010, Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 with Web Apps/Office 365 and Lync. Since I just finished a project working on SharePoint and Dynamics CRM, I’ve had a lot of hands on, technical experience with the tools. I sat down with one of the staff members to give me a demonstration, just to see Microsoft’s perspective of SharePoint. She gave me a run through of how easy it is to use in an organisation, the benefits it has, and how easy it is to edit documents online. When I got to the demonstration of Office 365, she said a number of times that when editing documents online, and in Microsoft Word 2011, the formatting stays the same. However, every time I have used the consumer version of Office 365, Web Apps (Office.com) with SkyDrive, I’ve never been able to have the formatting while editing online and offline the exact same.

Here is a screenshot of my Maths assignment I did in high school displayed in Microsoft Word 2007.

Here is how it appears in Office Web Apps on Sky Drive after a normal file upload.

Ah yes, I can see editing documents online keep the exact same formatting. The response to this I got was “I’m not sure why this happens”.

My next question to her was about my experience with Data Loss using Office Web Apps. In a nutshell, I lost an entire PowerPoint Presentation using Office Web Apps. Her response, “I’m not sure about that either, why don’t I get my colleague to help you out. Oh there he is, getting a coffee. You can talk to him about your problems as he works on the consumer side of things”. Nevertheless, he wanted his coffee, did a wave and never came to us. Unless he was ordering a coffee for another prospective attendee, I actually found that quite rude of him not to come over.

I also asked another technical question about SharePoint, and yet, the response I got was “I don’t have the knowledge to answer that”. Most of the staff there seemed to be sales people. Then again, the whole event just seemed to be one Sales pitch demonstrating the latest Microsoft products, but not actually selling anything or signing anyone up to the service.

I Heard The Same Speech Three Times

To make good use of my time for the day, I made a list of all the speeches I wanted to listen too. Some speeches were done multiple times throughout the day to ensure you got to listen to them all when there was another speech you also wanted to listen to at the same time. However, some presentations had a completely different name, yet the presentation was exactly the same. So one speech, with completely different names, I listened to three times, yet each presentation was delivered differently by the same speaker.

Image from Life@Microsoft Australia on Flickr

9am Is Different Compared To 4pm

At 4pm, when the last Vision speech was concluded, the bulk of people had left, yet I still wanted to listen to the remaining two speeches that I missed throughout the day. These last two speeches only had about 3 people listening to them. At this stage there was probably more staff than people.

But before they started, there were a couple of demonstrations that I missed, so I went over to them to find out more. However, there were three staff watching Foxtel on the couch in one display, and three more staff at the other display talking about a show that was currently on The Discovery Channel. I walked up to them, and not one single person acknowledged I was there. Although they’ve probably been there since 8am, and they are tired, it would have been nice if they’d say at least “hi”, but they seemed far more interested in talking to each other about the show they were watching, rather than to give a demonstration. To make matters worse, watching Foxtel wasn’t even part of their demonstration.

The Displays

Although my experience at the expo wasn’t that flattering, there were a few interesting displays.

Image from Life@Microsoft Australia on Flickr

Parrot for CRM

One aspect of the expo that I really enjoyed was the social analytical tracking tools and capabilities within Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011. In the CRM Marketplace, there is a free tool called Parrot, which for large organisations, I can see being extremely useful. It essentially crawls Social Media sites such as Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn picking up negative, neutral, and positive tweets and posts about your company, brand and image. This is great for organisations as they can get  a real insight into what people are saying about their organisation. For those people who have a negative experience with a particular company, using Parrot, the organisation can become aware of their message, ask them why they feel that way, and help them –  turning their negative experience into a positive one, or even simply to ask them for feedback to help improve the organisation’s brand. If you read my article about when I lost data with Microsoft Web Apps, a couple of hours later, Microsoft contacted me asking if I can reproduce the data loss, and created a case of the bug. Without a tool to read my negative tweet, Microsoft would have no idea that this bug existed, which down the track could cost them thousands. Not only this, but since it’s inbuilt into CRM, you can create a case about the issue, save their contact information, and even find connections that person has to other people within the organisation. It was quite an incredible tool for an organisation to have and use.

Image via Microsoft PinPoint

Analytics for Twitter (with PowerPivot)

If your organisation is small, and using CRM is a huge step, Microsoft has released a free download of Analytics for Twitter, which was also demonstrated at the event. It is pretty much an Excel Spreadsheet connected to the Twitter API which scans the tweets, shows pretty graphs and analyses what people are saying about a company. Although you need to have Microsoft Excel 2010, PowerPivot for Excel which is also a free download. Although it was on demo, when I typed a hash tag in to try it out, the application crashed – then again, when it works, it will be better than nothing.

FaceCake for XBox Kinect

Also on demo was FaceCake which is basically a virtual dressing room where you can stand in front of Kinect and try on different clothing, and view what you look like wearing it, and what it looks like in different environments. Although I only see it as a novelty right now, I can see that the technology is only the start of something big. However, I did find it hard to use, and so did other people when trying to scroll through clothing items. When I tried it, the clothing didn’t seem to cover my complete body, so it didn’t have the same visual appeal. But this could probably because of the environment it was set up in. Nevertheless, it is a great piece of technology, and it would be great to see where developers of Kinect take things.

Image from Life@Microsoft Australia on Flickr

Quotes and Notes of the Day

Although it wasn’t a product launch, throughout the day, I did collect some interesting quotes, stats, statements and notes.

• Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 has over 200 million users, and is Microsoft fastest growing CRM release
• There are over 1 billion copies of XP
• Microsoft is putting a lot of effort into security since Windows XP SP2 – they realise security is very important
• 95% of workers have used their personal mobile device for work
• 84% of workers have worked remotely
• 80% of software will be in the cloud by the end of 2011 (this stat might actually be 2012)
• The amount of data that will be produced in 2012 will be equivalent to all the electronic data that has been produced by the end of 2011
• Microsoft: “The future of productivity is: Unified communications, Collaboration, Enterprise Content Management, Business Intelligence, Enterprise search”
• “Productivity is to allow people to work from home, on the road, on any device, at any time” – Is working from home being productive, or merging personal life with work life?
• Customers using social media have a huge voice. You need to know what they are saying about you, and respond to them
• Advertising is now a two way street, you don’t tell them what you want them to hear, like on a television ad, people tell other people about your brand
• Microsoft Atlas, Fast, and SharePoint 2010 tracks, and target ads to users based on their browsing sessions, even without them being logged in
• People have on average, 4.8 personal technology devices they use everyday
• New XBox Kinect Promotional SDK will be released soon to enhance the development of Kinect applications with developers
• Wave 15 is Microsoft’s code name for Microsoft’s ‘next big thing’
• Kinect Voice coming soon to Australia – 6th December
• Star Wars limited Edition XBox 360 with C3P0 Gold controller will be released in March 2011 – the one on display is the only one in Australia
• Microsoft says: “Work is what you do, not where you go”
• You need to attract and retain the best flexible work environment for your workers – make things easy for them, don’t take productivity away from them
• Microsoft’s development focus is around productivity, workflows, and improving existing processes, and not so much in developing new applications
• You need to understand the business problem, define use cases, and use the right tools and technology to get the job done
• You need to provide the user with guidance, understand the organisation’s culture, and get executive sponsorship to shift the organisations culture to focus on helping the customers – shift the paradigm of knowing what your customer is saying, not telling them what to do
• Azure Social Analytics integrates social web information into business applications

Further Information

Microsoft made use of Tagly (instead of using Showbags). This allowed people to snap QR Codes on topics they would like to find more about after the event. So here’s everything you need to know that was on display at Microsoft’s The Big Picture Experience.

Image from Life@Microsoft Australia on Flickr

The Future of Productivity

• Government Workplace Modernisation
• The Future of Productivity – Our Vision
• Productivity in Healthcare
• Economic Impact of Implementing Microsoft’s Productivity Platform
• Economic Impact of Implementing Office 365
• Microsoft’s Productivity Solutions in Action – 5 Case Studies
  • Case Study – Commonwealth Bank of Australia
  • Case Study – Westmead Children’s Hospital
  • Case Study – Kordamentha
  • Case Study – SP Ausnet
  • Case Study – Prince Alfred College
• Test Drive the Future of Productivity
• Microsoft CIO Tony Scott on the Future of Productivity
• Building Skills for Tomorrow
• Try Office 365 Today
• See Office 365 in Action

Insights 24/7

• Rebel Sports: Insights 24
• Analyse Your Tweets
• Moving from Data to Decisions
• Visualising insights with BIG data from the Cloud
• Business Intelligence – Up and Running in One Hour
• Practical Marketing Insights for your Business
• Microsoft: A Leader in Business Intelligence
• The Data Explosion
• Predicting the Future: The Next Step in BI
• Review: HP Business Decision Appliance
• Microsoft’s Business Intelligence solutions in Action – 3 Case Studies
  • Case Study – Victorian Cytology Service Inc.
  • Case Study – Reliance Petroleum
  • Case Study – Centacare Ballarat

Mission Control

• How BlueFire drive real returns and new markets? – More Info
• Taking Public Sector to the Private Cloud
• Why are businesses moving to the Private Cloud?
• Managing the Mobile Workforce
• Windows Intune: Overview and Trials
• Which Server for your Small Business?
• Ready for Prime Time – Hyper-V Workload Performance
• Private Cloud Overview and first steps
• Windows Server 2008 R2, Remote Desktop, VDI and Virtualisation
• Case Study – Sims Metal Management – More Info

Image from Life@Microsoft Australia on Flickr

The Modern Home

• Windows 7
• The Future of Entertainment
• Vision Search built-in to Windows Phone 7.5
• Use Xbox as your Home Media hub
• Office 2010 OneNote in Action
• Up close with Windows Phone 7.5
• Internet Explorer 9: Pinning websites
• Use Your PC as a digital video recorder
• Edit and Share Photos
• Foxtel on Xbox 360
• Our latest and greatest hardware
• The Future Office

The Ultimate Customer Experience

• Digital Marketing: Engaging Web Experiences
• Customer Loyalty: Efficient, Consistent Care
• Sales Productivity: Close deals faster
• Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010 for Internet Sites
• Microsoft Advertising Ad Solutions
• Social Technologies: Transform Customer Experiences
• Experience Your 30-Day CRM Trial
• Retail Dressing Room with Microsoft Kinect
• Connected Experience showcase from Object Consulting
• Travel Agent application for Microsoft Surface
• Nsquared Touch Applications for Business
• Business applications for Microsoft Surface

A World of Devices

• Windows Phone
• Windows Embedded
• Xbox 360® Limited Edition Kinect Star Wars® bundle
• Alienware Aurora ALX
• Acer Aspire S Series
• Microsoft Touch Mouse Demo
• Sony VAIO L Touchscreen PC
• Toshiba Portege Z830
• The ASUS ZENBOOK
• Sony VAIO Y
• The Microsoft Surface 2.0 Experience

Microsoft The Big Picture Experience will be on again in Sydney on 1st December 2011. You can follow the hashtag #bigpicau and Microsoft Australia on Twitter.

This article originally appeared on JackCola.org

Over the past 24hours there have been a lot of posts about Microsoft’s Chief Research and Strategy Officer, Craig Mundie, claiming that “Microsoft has had a similar capability in Windows Phone for more than a year… All that is already there, fully functionality for years.”

With Siri, Apple managed to humanise the synthesized voice with comedic responses. With more functionality like setting alarms and geo-fenced reminders, scheduling meetings and more, Tellme is really not the same thing. WP7 voice functionality still feels like last generation voice commands, regardless of how Microsoft try and sell it.

The problem isn’t with marketing as the video suggests, but rather the lack of a response to Siri. Tellme was probably on-par with Apple’s voice controls like “Play Artist xyz” in iOS4, but with Siri, Apple takes it to the next level. Microsoft needs to respond by releasing an update and not only match the functionality of Siri, but surpass it to draw attention and be a point of difference for potential smart phone buyers.

Also its worth keeping in mind that Siri is still in beta. While we are yet to see an update, when it arrives, it’s likely to add even more voice controlled functionality. Make no mistake, the race is on to be the first to deliver an OS-wide voice command API that 3rd party applications can integrate with. When that happens, it will be a game changer.

The video below graphically demonstrates the difference between the two voice systems, you be the judge.

Update
More than 500,000 people have now watched this video, you’re an opinionated lot. Below is a video responding to some of the comments.