Microsoft Tag officially launches V1 (updated)
After 18 months in beta Microsoft Tag is finally becoming a V1 product today. If you’ve never used the service before, then here’s the skinny. Microsoft created their own barcode (see below) that is specifically designed to work with cell phone cameras (even before they got decent). Anyone can create a Microsoft Tag, during the setup process, you setup what you’d like the tag to do when scanned. It can show contact details or launch a website etc.
Microsoft’s Tag comes with it’s own statistics, showing how many people action your Tag. Unlike traditional barcodes, the creator can at any time modify or update a tag. During the beta more than one billion tags have been created, clearly this has been a successful service, it’s not surprising Microsoft are going full version with it.
Update
Microsoft have now released an update to their Tag iPhone application. The update includes the new Microsoft Tag logo, as well as a better UI. The app is very quick to recognise a tag and also stores a history or previously scanned tags for future reference.
Microsoft say “Tags can help businesses engage customers at the point of maximum impact out in the real world, give developers with innovative ways to link the physical and digital worlds, and enable consumers to interact with others in new ways.”
The supported device list is massive, if you want to see if there’s a Tag app for your phone, check out the full list of supported devices.
More @ Microsoft Tag Blog
Windows Live Essentials 2011 beta update pushed
An update to Microsoft’s Windows Live Essentials 2011 beta (wave 4) has just been released. Those of you who found early builds of the software online will no longer be able to use the Essentials products. As the software nears completion this update is likely to be in preparation for a public beta.
Either there’s a bug in the update or Microsoft are intentionally breaking leaked versions.
The new Windows Live Hotmail (updated)
![FINAL Photomail Screenshot[4]](http://www.techau.tv/blog/wp-content/uploads/2010/05/FINALPhotomailScreenshot4.jpg "FINAL Photomail Screenshot[4]")
Today I was in Sydney for the official announcement of the upcoming version of Windows Live Hotmail. The new version is to be released ‘in the coming months’ and aims to reduce clutter, save time and share documents in the cloud.
The problem according to Microsoft is that “email hasn’t changed to cater for new and emerging trends in the last 14 years".
There’s also a new photo preview mode (above) so you don’t have to download large sized photos from friends, just select the one you want. There’s also a nice option to download all at once as a zip file.
Hotmail Highlights
This area shows not only email, but status updates from your friends on their social networks, appointments and birthday reminders.
Single Contact List
Your contact list will including people from your other social networking sites like Facebook and Myspace allowing you to view all your contacts in one place.
Conversation view
A feature borrowed from Office 2010 (or Google) is conversation view. This allows emails to be grouped together when it’s identified they belong to the same conversation. This saves space in your inbox, so you have one (expandable) entry, rather than dozens about the same thing. This is a strong part of the de-cluttering of the inbox initiative. Conversation view is opt-in, so those fans of old-school can be comfortable.
Sweep
A new sweep button allows for mass management of your email. Windows Live Mail will finally allow for outlook-type rules to move email to specific folders. A welcome inclusion.
![FINAL Sweep Screenshot[4]](http://www.techau.tv/blog/wp-content/uploads/2010/05/FINALSweepScreenshot4.jpg "FINAL Sweep Screenshot[4]")
Active views
A number of partner sites like Flickr, Linked In and YouTube, allow for content like photos and videos to be ‘live previewed’. This means you can view them directly in the email without having to launch a separate application or webpage. Internationally US residents will be able to use Active View with Hulu videos.
Exchange Push for Mobile
Something I’ve wanted Microsoft to do was something Google already offers and has done for months. Free exchange push email, contacts and calendar to mobile devices. The good news today is that Exchange Push from Microsoft is on it’s way!
Check out the video version of today’s announcements below.
Overall
Today’s announcements were positive for Windows Live Hotmail, but its important to remember there’s a long way to go. A number of the new features in the announcement today will make managing that mountain of email a whole lot easier. The ability to send Office documents to people without Office and know A. they can open them and B. they can edit them is awesome functionality.
For more information check out http://windowslivepreview.com/hotmail/new/
Windows Live Wave 4 press event May 18th
Next Tuesday I’ll be heading to Sydney for press lunch hosted by Microsoft’s Director of Marketing and MSN products – Alex Parsons. The Windows Live team will be showcasing a preview of the upcoming changes or 2011 versions of Windows Live Hotmail, Windows Live Messenger and Windows Live Essentials due out later this year.
You can expect lots of coverage of the event right here on techAU.tv so make sure you check back around lunch time on Tuesday 18th May. If you have any questions about the Microsoft products and services, leave a comment and I’ll try and get it answered.
The event is invite only.
No 250GB Xbox HDD for Australia.. yet.
A number of countries around the world are getting the standalone 250GB HDD for the Xbox 360. The UK being the latest example. As someone who has the 20GB launch console, I’m keen to see this available in Australia. I asked Xbox Australia about local availability and received the following response:
@techAU We don’t currently have anything to announce RE: 250GB HDD availability in Australia. If/when we do I’ll shout it loud! – jinx
The general trend internationally seems to be that the 250GB Xbox HDD will sell for the same price as the current 120GB model, which as Xbox fans know is pretty expensive. So until we hear different, the only way to get a 250GB HDD on your Xbox in Australia is to buy a special bundle.
Welcome to the Bing Bar
While most of us simply disable browser toolbars, the new Bing Toolbar is included in the new Windows Live Essentials Suite.
Customization
The Bing Bar contains a number of configurable properties, Color schemes and seasonal scenes. You can also switch out the default shortcuts for a number of other services. These include Windows Live, Sports, Messenger and many others. 
![image[51]](http://www.techau.tv/blog/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/image511.png "image[51]")
News and Weather and more
As with most Microsoft Products, it’s very US-centric, especially initially. That means the sources for this content are things like MSNBC and MSN Weather. The default Bing Bar also offers quick access to Stocks, Video and Hotmail. 
Sign In
As with all the Live Essentials products, the Bing Bar connects with your LiveID account, this allows your preferences to sync across multiple machines.
Windows Live Wave 4 / Live Essentials 2010 (hands-on)
The much anticipated Windows Live Wave 4 suite has landed. I got a chance to get hands on with the new suite of Essentials suite of applications from Microsoft. Rebranded as Windows Live Essentials this version includes:
- Windows Live Messenger,
- Windows Live Writer,
- Windows Live Photo Gallery,
- Windows Live Movie Maker
- Windows Live Mail
- Windows Live Sync
- Family Safety Family Safety
Windows Live Writer 2010
If your a blogging running Windows, then you’re likely using Windows Live Writer, if your not, you should be. Windows Live Writer 2010 supports the new ribbon UI consistent with other Windows 7 applications. In terms of functionality, it’s very much the same as the previous version, The main difference being that your options panel on the right is now in the context-sensitive ribbon. In the top left of the application you’ll also notice the menu bar has been replaces by an office 2010 style menu button.
Another small change is the move from having the category, tags and publish date toolbar up to the top directly under the Ribbon, personally I think this is a great decision. It can be easy to miss these before posting as they were positioned outside of your point of attention.
Windows Live Photo Gallery 2010
There’s a few new very useful features in the 2010 version of Windows Live Photo Gallery
People
Face detection is a feature available in most photo management applications these days and has been in WLPG for a while now. The new version comes with a much improved way to find people. The way you tag people hasn’t changed by the way you display all the photos of that person has. Using the Find Tab you can see the Top People and All People sections, the Top people are the most commonly tagged people in your gallery. Clicking on that person’s thumbnail will create a search filter which shows all the photos that contain that person. 
Location
This is a brand new feature that allows users to add location information to their photos. After selecting one of more photos you can begin typing in the Location section of the info pane on the right. As you type is searches for places that may refer to your location, if it finds multiple entries, just select the one your after.
From here it works very similar to the faces search filter explained above. Clicking on the location will filter all photos taken at that location. Unfortunately there’s no quick access from the Find tab like there is for people, also there’s no mashup of your photos positioned on a map. As you can tell from the orange circle thumbnails, this is still in beta, so we may see that added before final release.
Windows Live Movie Maker 2010
Good news for fans of HD video, Windows Live Movie maker now supports up to 1080p video. There’s also convenient access to publishing your masterpiece on YouTube, SkyDrive and Facebook.
A feature with a lot of potential is AutoMovie themes. If your imagining something akin to what’s on offer in Apple’s iMovie, you’ll be bitterly disappointed. Windows Live Movie Maker’s AutoMovie themes simply add intro titles, closing credits and either transition effects like a fade between clips, or a video effect like colour to your movie. Sure this will be a time saver for people, it’s got a long way to go.
Windows Live Messenger 2010
Unfortunately this build of Windows Live Essentials doesn’t allow messenger to connect correctly. However there are still a couple of new things we can learn. After jumping into Tools > Options we see a couple new and noteworthy additions.
First and foremost, tabbed conversations are coming to Windows Live Messenger in 2010. Secondly there’s a new item under the Sign In section that lists a new Social Mode. Not sure what exactly this entails, however Windows Live already has strong integration with pretty much every social network out there. It’s likely a single view into what your friends have been up to online.
Something interesting to note is the image below of the Windows Live Messenger 2010 login screen is 100% pixel for pixel display of the smallest dimensions you can make the window. This is slightly concerning given that many of us use messenger in it’s tradition long rectangle form at the edge of the monitor. Reminder: still beta and this is by no means a detailed look at messenger, there could be a very good reason for this.
Update
Thanks to the wonders of the internet, there’s a patch available that opens Windows Live Messenger, revealing the following screen. The UI can indeed be dropped back to the traditional sidebar style by turning off social mode in the options. 
Social View
Taking strong influence from the Zune / Windows Phone 7 UI, the new Social view. This works great in Full-screen view. Time to get another monitor, call it the Social monitor.
Windows Live Mail 2010
Mail looks, well, like you expect mail to look. Like the rest of the 2010 Live Essentials apps, the ribbon features heavily in the application’s functionality. You’ll notice the right hand column includes calendar entries of different colours, these represent entries from multiple Windows Live calendars.
Setup was incredibly simple, just sign in and the Live Sync agent takes care of the rest. Windows Live Mail is actually a really capable mail client, the more the application evolves, the less of a reason non-domain users have for Outlook. Although webmail is sufficient in most scenarios, it’s nice to have a rich client or a least a local backup of your mail. 
