In the last one year we saw both the high-tech companies (Microsoft & Google) releasing their versions of mashup editors to help us create web 2.0 applications without having to write even a single line of code. Today I review both of these services to actually see which of one these 2 services has the edge over one another?

Microsoft Popfly

Popfly is Microsoft’s version of a mashup editor. It’s built using Microsoft Silverlight platform which gives it all that slick look and ease of use. Using Popfly, we can create online mashups easily by using what they call as "Blocks". There are many blocks already available to provide data from different web services like Facebook, Wikipedia, Digg, MySpace, Flickr etc. We can also create gadgets easily by just dragging and dropping that works both on Windows Vista and Windows Live. 

Popfly also enables us to create games without even having to write a single line of code. These games works also on Xbox Live.

Popfly is designed in such a way that it’s very easy to jump in and design a simple application even if you don’t have any coding experience.

Pros:

1. Simple & easy to use.
2. Eye-candy interface.
3. Enables us to create games on the fly.

Cons:

1. Not as customizable as Google’s Mashup Editor.

Google Mashup Editor

Google Mashup Editor is targeted towards more advanced developers. What this means is that it takes more technical approach than Popfly, hence only appealing to real hard coders.
This technical and not so easy approach is going to limit Google’s service to very limited user base but it surely has great appeal for those who really want to have freedom of having to code everything down.

The service enables us to create mashups using CSS, JavaScript, HTML and some special XML tags.

Pros:

1. Its advanced and technical nature allows us with much more customization.

Cons:

1. Too complicated for those with limited knowledge of development.
2. Interface - Not as easy to use as Popfly.
3. The service is still in private testing phase.

Conclusion

After having played with both the services, I came to the conclusion that for average Joe, Popfly is by far the best choice for creating mashups whether it be for creating websites, gadgets or for games.

Taimur Asad (Via Startup Meme)

For years Microsoft has been investing in many forms of natural input in order to simplify the way people interact with their PC's and devices. The advent of the original Windows graphical user interface forever changed the way people used their PC's. Today, advances in pen and handwriting technology in Windows Vista offers students a natural and intuitive way to capture searchable notes and diagrams in the classroom. Others are using this technology to quietly capture pen based notes during meetings. Speech recognition, something which was once considered science fiction, is enabling many Windows Vista users to see, hear, and use their computers for the very first time.

Last year, at the Wall Street Journal's D: All Things Digital conference, Bill Gates introduced a groundbreaking new computing experience called Surface. Surface harnesses touch and multi-touch capabilities to provide users with a natural way to interact directly with computing devices.  Expect to see the table-like Surface devices in hotels, retail establishments, restaurants and public entertainment venues.

Touch is quickly becoming a common way of directly interacting with software and devices. Touch-enabled surfaces are popping up everywhere including laptop touch pads, cell phones, remote controls, GPS devices, and more. What becomes even more compelling is when this experience is delivered to the PC -on a wide variety of Windows notebooks, in all-in-one PC's, as well as in external monitors. In working with our broad ecosystem of hardware and software manufactures, we're excited to be showing some of the great work and investments we are working on in Windows 7.

Tonight, at this year's D:All Things Digital conference, Julie Larson-Green showed Walt Mossberg how a few of the multi-touch innovations first previewed in Surface will ultimately enhance the next version of Windows. A transcript of the demo can be found here: http://d6.allthingsd.com/20080527/gates_ballmer/.

Below is an abridged version of the demo that Julie delivered this evening. Please note, the applications you will see are for demonstration purposes only...but it's all Windows 7 underneath.

Taimur Asad (The Microsoft "Wow" Blog!)

Ever wanted to try try out Windows Vista Ultimate before shelling out money to actually buy it?

Microsoft brings a stripped-down online version of its flagship product to enable its current and new customers to try out Windows Vista Ultimate online for free to help them make decision before actually buying it.

The service allows us to try out Vista in a remote desktop web session using Internet Explorer, with out needing to install the OS on our desktop. We can also explore all the new features in Vista like 'instant search', 'windows media center' etc. or just follow guided exercises and watch videos.

Microsoft also has a similar service to test drive Office 2007 to see how it helps us better manage documents, organize our workload, and collaborate with coworkers—not just from our desk, but from almost anywhere!

Click here to test drive Windows Vista Ultimate online and here to test drive The 2007 Microsoft Office System.

Taimur Asad (Via Startup Meme)

Typically when Microsoft ships a new OS (like Windows Vista), we immediately start talking about the next version-which begs two questions: 1) is Microsoft working on a new version of Windows, and if so, 2) why aren't you talking about it?

I thought I would spend a minute giving you an update on where we are. First, yes, we are working on a new version of Windows. As you likely know, it's called Windows 7.We are always looking for new ways to deliver great experiences for our customers.  This is especially true of Windows - where we're constantly examining trends in hardware, software and services to ensure that we continue to drive the innovation that has both made Windows the world's most popular operating system and has provided a foundation on which our partners built great products and businesses. When we shipped Windows 2000, we were already working on Windows XP and we started working on Windows Vista even before we released Windows XP. So naturally, we've been thinking about the investments we made in Windows Vista and how we can build on these for the next version of Windows.

What is a little different today is when and how we are talking about the next version of Windows.  So, why the change in approach?  We know that when we talk about our plans for the next release of Windows, people take action. As a result, we can significantly impact our partners and our customers if we broadly share information that later changes.  With Windows 7, we're trying to more carefully plan how we share information with our customers and partners.  This means sharing the right level of information at the right time depending on the needs of the audience.  For instance, several months ago we began privately sharing our preliminary plans for Windows 7 with software and hardware partners who build on the Windows platform.  This gave them an opportunity to give us feedback and gave us the opportunity to incorporate their input into our plans. As the product becomes more complete, we will have the opportunity to share our plans more broadly. Steven Sinofsky, Windows and Windows Live Engineering SVP, talks more about this in his interview with CNET's Ina Fried, published today: http://news.cnet.com/8301-13860_3-9951638-56.html.

We know that this is a change in our approach, but we are confident that it will help us not only to build even better products, but also to be more predictable in the delivery of our products. We also know that this change has led to some confusion, so we would like to share information today that will hopefully clear up some of this.

Before we talk about what's ahead, we should take a look at where we are today with Windows Vista.  From a quality perspective, both Windows Vista SP1 and the ecosystem have delivered measurable progress in the six dimensions of quality we track -- device compatibility, application compatibility, reliability, performance, battery life and security. The business results speak for themselves. As of March 31, we had sold more than 140 million Windows Vista licenses, and analyst firm forecasts indicate that Windows Vista adoption among businesses is on a similar pace as Windows XP in similar timeframes. Millions of enterprise users are already running Windows Vista, and we invite you to read their stories published in more than 100 case studies. The benefits they are experiencing range from energy conservation, lower TCO for mobile users, and greater security. Our job is not done, but we've worked hard with our ecosystem to improve the quality of Windows Vista and we're pleased with the customer response.

Another question we often get asked is whether Windows 7 is a major release. The answer is "yes"  -- it's hard to describe any product that is used by millions of people and worked on by thousands of engineers as anything else. That said, the long-term architectural investments we introduced in Windows Vista and then refined for Windows Vista SP1 and Windows Server 2008 will carry forward in Windows 7. Windows Vista established a very solid foundation, particularly on subsystems such as graphics, audio, and storage. Windows Server 2008 was built on that foundation and Windows 7 will be as well. Contrary to some speculation, Microsoft is not creating a new kernel for Windows 7. Rather, we are refining the kernel architecture and componentization model introduced in Windows Vista.  While these changes will increase our engineering agility, they will not impact the user experience or reduce application or hardware compatibility. In fact, one of our design goals for Windows 7 is that it will run on the recommended hardware we specified for Windows Vista and that the applications and devices that work with Windows Vista will be compatible with Windows 7.

We are well into the development process of Windows 7, and we're happy to report that we're still on track to ship approximately three years after the general availability of Windows Vista. As always, we will be releasing early builds of Windows 7 prior to its general availability as a means to gain feedback, but we're not yet ready to discuss timing and specific plans for any Beta releases. In the meantime, customers can confidently continue with their Windows Vista deployment plans.

Source: Windows Vista Team Blog

Taimur Asad (The Microsoft "Wow" Blog!)

Windows Live & Xbox.com has released a Windows Live Messenger theme pack for GTA IV enthusiasts which enhances the overall experience of Windows Live. The theme pack includes display pictures, emotions,
backgrounds(skins) and Hotmail signatures from Grand Theft Auto IV.

Grand Theft Auto is a popular cross platform video game franchise Developed by Rockstar North. It is available for Xbox 360 video game and entertainment system and is in stores worldwide since April 29, 2008.

Download GTA IV Messenger Theme Pack
Download GTA IV Hotmail Signatures

Taimur Asad (The Microsoft "Wow" Blog!)

Earlier this week, SkyDrive team rolled out the much awaited update to their already popular file sharing service!

Here’s what’s been added to Windows Live SkyDrive:

• More places. The service now is live in 24 additional locations, bringing the grand total to 62 countries and regions!
• Comments. The ability to add comments to the files uploaded has now been added as also been illustrated by the screenshot below:

• Captions. Now you can add captions and descriptions to your files and photos to better describe your files/folders to your friends & families.
• Click control.  When you click on any file, you can speed through all the files in the folder:

• Larger photo previews - Photo previews are now even bigger!

Some other features like Details view and Photo Thumbnails view have also been added which give SkyDrive users an experience similar to Windows Explorer.

Taimur Asad (The Microsoft "Wow" Blog!)

One of the most requested feature by Media Center users has been the ability to play videos from the most popular video sharing site i.e. YouTube. Microsoft in the 4th quarter of 2007 did release a beta of "internet tv" but it was only limited to US audience and it only supported video playback by MSN Video (which was well kind of expected).

Comes Yougle - a third-party plugin for Windows Media Center which brings popular web services from YouTube, MSN Video/Soapbox, Flickr and many more right on our Windows Media Center so that we all can enjoy our favorite videos from these popular services right from the comfort of the couch in our lounge!

Yougle is currently only supported on 32 bit versions of Windows Vista Home Premium & Windows Vista Ultimate.

Download Yougle 0.4.0d

Taimur Asad (The Microsoft "Wow" Blog!)

For the last several months we have had the opportunity to focus on virtualizing both the MSDN and TechNet websites with Windows Server 2008 Hyper-V as a start to our overall virtualization adoption strategy. This was a group effort across our entire Operations Team including individuals from the Technical Architecture group I am part of, the System Engineers who run the sites, the data center hosting team which handles our infrastructure changes and the very supportive product group which is responsible for MSDN and TechNet. Today we are very pleased to be able to share how Hyper-V was deployed for those two sites and our lessons learned through that process.  We have written an article on the TechCenter which goes through how we approached virtualizing MSDN and TechNet and hopefully conveys how successful we found Hyper-V to be as a web platform.

The article covers the reasons and characteristics which made MSDN the first site we looked to move onto Hyper-V.   It provides an overview of how both Hyper-V Beta and Hyper-V RC0 were deployed as well as the general architecture used for the deployment.   Possibly the most surprising finding was that Hyper-V was far more stable than we had expected for a beta version deployment.  There was in fact no difference we found in stability or availability between Hyper-V and a physical deployment! We were also not able to identify any bugs for the Hyper-V team during our deployment under either full production load or even stress load.

An excerpt from the article:

Implementation

The rollout of Hyper-V in our production environment followed our standard approach to new technology adoption. Our architecture allows us to use global and local load balancing to quickly bring clusters or individual servers into and out of rotation. We heavily leverage this agility during our technology adoption efforts. This helps us safely bring new systems under production load in a controlled manner, while ensuring a continued positive customer experience.

After analyzing the results of some standard performance tests (for example, memory, CPU, and I/O) our confidence in Hyper-V was such that we moved to site-specific testing in production. We monitored the site with normal production monitors while gathering detailed performance metrics specific to each physical server and virtual machine (VM). The production monitors include basic server health as well as end-to-end application tests. This ensured that the deployment was meeting or exceeding previous MSDN and TechNet site performance and availability targets.

Hyper-V Beta Deployment

Our production testing began in early February 2008, when we installed the Hyper-V role on two physical servers, with each hosting three VMs running MSDN. Production load on these six VMs progressed from a cautious 1 percent to 20 percent very quickly and smoothly. During the next six weeks, we tested various amounts of load and VM combinations to better understand the performance characteristics and scalability of the product and the site. MSDN was also deployed directly onto matching physical servers to compare VMs against physical performance, scale, and stability with the same load characteristics.

In an effort to push the site and Hyper-V to their performance limits, we replayed production IIS logs by using the Web Capacity Analysis Tool (WCAT) to understand the upper range performance and scale characteristics.

We tested and compared one, two, and finally three VMs per physical server. The data gathered is in line with those discussed in the "MSDN and TechNet Virtualization Results" section later in this article. The performance and stability of MSDN on the Hyper-V Beta release were so encouraging that, with RC0 nearing release, we began making preparations to move to the next phase of implementation.

Update: The full article can be seen here.

The success of Hyper-V as a web platform for both MSDN and TechNet for performance and stability has given us the confidence to accelerate our plans to implement Hyper-V for many of the other sites we run, such as the live traffic testing of www.microsoft.com on Hyper-V, which we have already started.    We are also actively working on our internal adoption of SCVMM 2008 as a major part of our overall virtualization strategy.  

As we deploy more systems with Hyper-V and have information from our adoption of SCVMM 2008 we will share that on our TechCenter  in the form of additional articles or blog entries.

Source: Microsoft | Virtualization Team Blog

Taimur Asad (The Microsoft "Wow" Blog!)

Speaking of Microsoft information lockdown, there’s been no word in ages from Microsoft about “Fiji,” the next version of Windows Media Center Edition.

But that isn’t because Fiji has evaporated. In fact, the Fiji beta began a few weeks ago, according to a few sources with whom I’ve spoken and who’ve asked to keep their identities under wraps.

It’s not clear how many testers are part of this current test phase. There’s also no word on when and if Microsoft is going to tap the many other Fiji testers whom the company has signed up over the past year-plus or when Microsoft expects Fiji — also known as “Media Center Edition +1″ in some circles — is due out.

Last anyone heard, Fiji was supposed to build on the functionality that Microsoft delivered as part of Vista Service Pack 1. Some potential testers said they heard that Fiji would deliver some of the fit and finish that was missing in the Vista release. DirectTV support also is expected to be added to Media Center with the Fiji release.

Microsoft initially sought testers for Fiji last spring. It’s not clear whether any of the selected testers ever received any internal Fiji builds. Last anyone heard, Fiji was looking like a late 2008 deliverable.

Microsoft’s only comment on Fiji, delivered via a corporate spokesperson: “Microsoft has many ongoing betas, however at this point we do not have any announcements to make related to any future version of Windows Media Center.”

Source: Mary Jo Foley

Taimur Asad (The Microsoft "Wow" Blog!)

Eat your heart out, Firefox ! Well, maybe not. Internet Explorer 7 , the current version of Microsoft's browser and the one that comes with Windows Vista, can do a lot of the stuff Firefox can do. One of those things is the ability to handle add-ons (formerly "extensions" in Firefox).

The problem with IE add-ons is that most of them cost money. Finding decent, free ones is hard enough; even searching for free IE add-ons turns up scores of IE toolbars and little else. Toolbars! It seems like virtually every company with a product of some sort has an IE toolbar, evidently trying to capture the success of the ubiquitous Google Toolbar. Do we really need toolbars for casual game publishers, or for jazz radio?

Buzz up!on Yahoo!

We spent hours digging through the toolbars and other freebies to find ten totally free IE add-ons that don't suck. We split them into two categories: Useful Stuff and Fun Stuff. Each entry links to the Windows Marketplace page where you can find more information and a download link for each add-on.

Find as You Type
Hit CTRL-F in Firefox and type a word, and the browser parses each letter and finds the combination of characters instantly, if it exists on the site that you're searching. IE, however, has a lame search dialog box. Not anymore! Find as You Type replaces the IE search dialog with an interface much like that in Firefox, with largely the same functionality.

If you find the sequence punch, but it's not the instance you were looking for, navigate through all instances of your search string with the Next and Previous buttons. Click "Highlight All" to surround each instance with a bright, yellow glow. You can even match the case of the search string you type in if you wish to.

IE7 Open Last Closed Tab
Did you ever accidentally close a tab, and, having no idea what the URL was, doubt if you'd ever find it again? With this add-on installed, just hit ALT-X and the tab you closed most recently will reappear, as if by magic. It's simple and elegant.

IE Snapshot
With this add-on, you can capture parts of pages or entire pages as one of several file types: JPG, GIF, and even PDF. There's nothing to install; just run the executable, punch in the URL you wish to capture, and use the GUI to capture it as you please.

IE Snapshot runs on its own, separate of Internet Explorer—although it does use the browser within its own GUI. A Configuration tab lets you choose the file type and selection specs, and then you're ready to capture single or multiple pages in just a few clicks. IE Snapshot is perfect for creating presentations out of Web pages, or for printing your favorite pages with parameters that you control.

ieSpell
This is a must-have if you rely on spell checkers. Stop looking like a semiliterate dork in the forums with ieSpell, a universal spell checker that allows you to check your spelling in any text entry window.

ieSpell integrates itself with the right-click context menu. Just type in your text on any Web text entry field, right-click it, and click Check Spelling. ieSpell takes it from there, pointing out misspelled words and even making suggestions; it works much like the spell checker in any word processor.

WOT for Internet Explorer
A security program, WOT busts sites that try to assault you with spyware, adware, viruses, phishing, browser exploits, and other unsavory Web tactics. WOT rates sites, and allows you to help rate them, in terms of trustworthiness, vendor reliability, privacy, and child safety. WOT warns you when you try to interact with a site that could be harmful.

WOT uses its users ratings and also other trusted sources to keep your browser from becoming a liability when you hit the wrong site. It even integrates with Google, so that you'll see a WOT symbol next to each link (green for a good site, yellow for caution, and red for don't go there, sister!) Wondering what it stand for? Why, Web of Trust, of course.

FoxyTunes for Internet Explorer
Firefox users love this one, and you will, too. FoxyTunes lets you control just about any media player it finds on your PC. It presents a single, universal media control interface on your Web browser, and you can pump through tracks, choose songs, and perform other playback tasks.

Besides playing your own tracks, you can engage in some real-time music discovery, last.fm style. Just listen to music with FoxyTunes, and it'll learn your musical tastes. Then, click the FoxyTunes Planet button for recommendations. Learn about artists you might never have even heard of through FoxyTunes.

Loki for Internet Explorer
Loki is a little bit different. It's a Wi-Fi powered, GPS navigated toolbar that lets you find the nearest, say, Italian restaurant from your Wi-Fi-enabled notebook—as if the notebook were a Magellan GPS car navigation system. Yeah, it's a strange idea, but bear with me.

Skyhook has what it calls WPS, for Wi-Fi Positioning System, which gives Loki your physical location. Loki incorporates that data into your searches and other Internet activities, up to and including sharing your location via email or SMS.

Give Loki a try the next time you're traveling; you definitely won't need that Magellan.

PicLens for Internet Explorer
PicLens turns Web browsing into a visceral, 3D experience. Just install it, head to a PicLens-supporting site, and click the little Play button on any picture or movie. Suddenly you can browse the site via a virtual wall of photographs, such as this site with pics of my girlfriend, Charlize Theron.

Yeah, she digs me.

The best part about PicLens is those pics are constantly moving as you drag them about with your mouse. Click on one to be taken to its Web page, if there's a site associated with it. After you've experienced PicLens, the rest of the Web will be dull, dry, and old.

YouTube Downloader
This little cheater lets you download video from YouTube , and a number of other, similar sites around the Web. Just punch in a URL and it's off to dig up the video. Convert YouTube video into stuff like iPhone, PSP, WMV, XVid, and others.

You can even convert files after the download process is complete.

Finally, grab those undownloadable videos from YouTube or some other unsuspecting, viral site and make them your own. Just watch out for the MPAA and its power lawyers...

Crawler Fun Ball
Did you really think we'd let you leave without foisting upon you something you can actively play with? This is the one toolbar I let slide, allowing it to run in my browser (unless you count FoxyTunes).

Choose your settings upon installation (basically a bunch of borderline-adware stuff) and launch IE. Suddenly, a ball will bounce all over your desktop. You can grab it with the mouse and whip it about whenever you feel like it.

The rest is pretty vanilla. There's a search bar, customizable of course. There's email settings and other stuff. Entertain your recipients by making them believe you've gone mad—by including email smilies!

But do enjoy the fun ball!

Source: ExtremeTech

Taimur Asad (The Microsoft "Wow" Blog!)

Save time and money as Virtual PC allows you to maintain the compatibility of legacy and custom applications during migration to new operating systems and increases the efficiency of support, development, and training staffs.
With Microsoft® Virtual PC 2007, you can create and run one or more virtual machines, each with its own operating system, on a single computer. This provides you with the flexibility to use different operating systems on one physical computer.
For more information about the ways you can use virtual machines, see Virtual PC at http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=78095.
This update for Microsoft Virtual PC 2007 includes support for the following additional Host and Guest Operating Systems:

Additonal Guest Operating System support:
Windows Vista® Ultimate Edition with Service Pack 1 (SP1)
Windows Vista® Business Edition with Service Pack 1 (SP1)
Windows Vista® Enterprise Edition with Service Pack 1 (SP1)
Windows Server® 2008 Standard
Windows XP Professional with Service Pack 3

Additional Host Operating System support:
Windows Vista® Ultimate Edition with Service Pack 1 (SP1)
Windows Vista® Business Edition with Service Pack 1 (SP1)
Windows Vista® Enterprise Edition with Service Pack 1 (SP1)
Windows XP Professional with Service Pack 3

Download At Microsoft

Taimur Asad (The Microsoft "Wow" Blog!)

The Office Live Update 1.1 for Microsoft Office Live Workspace beta makes working with Microsoft Office programs faster and lets you access workspaces from Microsoft Office Word, Excel, and PowerPoint.

The Office Live Update 1.1 installs (1) performance updates to make using Office Live Workspace with Microsoft Office programs faster, (2) the latest Office Live Add-in for Microsoft Office that enables you to access your workspaces directly from Word, Excel, and PowerPoint and (3) the Multiple Document Upload Tool.
The Office Live Update 1.1 auto-detects and installs these necessary updates to ensure optimum performance:

• Update for Office 2007 (KB 941637)
• Update for Windows Vista (KB 933860)
• Update for Windows Vista (KB 945145)
• Update for Windows Vista (KB 945435)
• Update for Windows Vista (KB 947864)
• Update for Windows Vista (KB 948531)
• Windows Live Sign-in Assistant

The Office Live Add-in adds new menu options in the 2007 Microsoft Office Suite and a toolbar in Microsoft Office XP and Office 2003. You will be able to open documents located in Office Live Workspace directly from Word, Excel, and PowerPoint. You will also be able to save files directly from Word, Excel, and PowerPoint to Office Live Workspace.
The Multiple Document Upload Tool lets you add multiple documents to a workspace at once and even allows users to drag and drop files directly from their desktop.

Download At Microsoft

Taimur Asad (The Microsoft "Wow" Blog!)

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.

The LifeCam VX-5000 will be offered in three colors: Lucky Green, Fire Red and Cool Blue.

Click for high-res version.

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.

“With the LifeCam VX-5000 we are changing the perception of webcams from boring and bulky to fun and flexible,” said Michael Cowan, product marketing manager for the Hardware Division at Microsoft. “We designed this LifeCam to match the experience its technology delivers — it’s all about fun and letting consumers share their personalities.”

Microsoft is also offering the LifeCam VX-500 and the LifeChat LX-2000 — two affordable products, each with a unique, compact design. The LifeCam VX-500 is a versatile webcam designed to fit on notebooks and desktop PCs. The LifeChat LX-2000 is a full-size headset that folds down into a small, portable shape. Both are perfect products for consumers on the go.

Photo Swap: A Feature You’ll Flip Over

Digital camera owners have on average more than 1,200 photos stored on their computer, and Photo Swap helps bring the pictures to life as a virtual photo album. Using Windows Live Messenger, consumers easily can share pictures from summer vacations or holiday gatherings. The best part is with Photo Swap they can see and hear the reaction of their friends and family — whether across town or across the country — and feel like they are sitting right next to each other.

See, Hear, Share — Easy as 1, 2, 3

The VX-5000 comes with Windows Live optimizations and the latest version of LifeCam software, making it easier than ever for users to experience a great video call. Key features and benefits include the following:

• Windows LiveCall Button, located on top of the LifeCam, allows users to open their Contact Picker (a tool showing which contacts are currently online) with one touch, so they can quickly initiate video calls to friends and family.¹

• LifeCam Dashboard incorporates full LifeCam navigational controls (pan, tilt, zoom, face tracking and Video Effects) within the Windows Live Messenger interface, enabling a seamless and easy navigating experience.¹

• World-class VGA optics with a VGA sensor, 640x480 video resolution and 1.3-megapixel still photography (interpolated) offer high picture quality.

• Built-in unidirectional microphone with acoustic noise cancellation delivers crystal-clear audio.

• Pan, tilt and 3X digital zoom features allow users to adjust the image to see more clearly.

LifeCam VX-500 and LifeChat LX-2000

Microsoft continues to bring friends and family together with the additional announcement of two affordable products made to enhance the computing experience: the LifeCam VX-500 and LifeChat LX-2000. With true VGA video, the LifeCam VX-500 enhances the webcam experience with brilliant video quality, and its compact design allows for easy mobility — working seamlessly with both notebooks and desktop PCs.

The LifeChat LX-2000 delivers supreme comfort as a portable, full-size headset that is perfect for music, gaming, online chatting and more. The unique collapsible design allows the headset to fold into a compact shape for easy portability — just throw it into the carrying case and go. Both the LifeCam VX-500 and the LifeChat LX-2000 can be easily used with major instant messaging programs, and the setup is quicker than ever, with no software needed.

Pricing and Availability

The LifeCam VX-5000 will be widely available in June 2008 for an estimated retail price of $49.95 (U.S.).³ The LifeCam VX-500 and LifeChat LX-2000 will be available in May 2008 for the following estimated retail prices:³

• Microsoft LifeCam VX-500, $16.95 (U.S.)

• Microsoft LifeChat LX-2000, $29.95 (U.S.)

The LifeCam VX-5000 and LifeChat LX-2000 are available for pre-sale on Amazon.com, and all three products will be backed worldwide by a three-year limited hardware warranty from Microsoft.

Taimur Asad (The Microsoft "Wow" Blog!)

Microsoft is making available to testers a first beta release of Service Pack (SP) 1 for Visual Studio 2008 and the accompanying .Net Framework 3.5.

On May 12, Microsoft made available to any/all interested parties the first beta bits for both VS 2008 SP1 and .Net Framework 3.5 SP1. These can be downloaded from Microsoft’s Microsoft Developer Network site. Microsoft is warning testers that there are some compatibility issues involving the VS 2008/.Net Framework 3.5 SP1 betas and Expression Blend, the Silverlight 2 Beta 1 software development kit (SDK) and Silverlight Tools Beta 1 for VS 2008.

New to VS 2008 SP1, according to Microsoft, are “new features for targeting Windows, Office, and the Web. Developers building .NET-basedapplications will enjoy improved performance in the WPF (Windows Presentation Foundation) designer, new components for Visual Basic and Visual C++, as well as an MFC-based Office 2007 Ribbon. Web developers will see continued improvement in the client-side script tooling including JavaScript IntelliSense.”

And new to the .Net Framework 3.5 SP 1 are “more controls, a streamlined setup, improved start-up performance, and powerful new graphics features for client development and rich data scaffolding, improved AJAX support, and other improvements for Web development.”

The .Net Framework 3.5 SP1 and VS 2008 SP1 also both add support for the ADO.Net Entity Framework. The framework service pack also adds support for ADO.Net Data Services, and the VS 2008 one adds support for the still-in-beta SQL Server 2008 release.

Microsoft has been building an entity data model framework around its ADO.Net technology that is designed to raise the level of abraction for database programmers. Originally, the ADO.Net Entity Framework was slated to be part of Visual Studio 2008.

ADO.Net Services, the technology codenamed “Astoria,” is a RESTful interface for data. Astoria is designed to enable applications to expose data as a data service that can be consumed by Web clients within a corporate network and across the Internet. Microsoft released a first test build of Astoria in December 2007, with officials saying the final release should be ready around mid-2008.

Microsoft officials declined to provide a target date for delivery of the final SP1s for Visual Studio 2008 and .Net Framework 3.5.

Source: Mary Jo Foley

Taimur Asad (The Microsoft "Wow" Blog!)

ASoft AutoExit for Windows Home Server is a console add-in for Windows Home Server.

It can be used to shut down, reboot machines in your home network from within the console.
Wake On Lan is also supported, this enables you to easily boot up machines remotely.
You can execute these actions per machine or for all machines.

Other handy features are sending messages to the different machines, configuring the timeout/message.
There is even support for opening a Remote Desktop session to the remote machines and to the server!
Statistics are kept of all actions, so that a detailed trace can be viewed on when certain actions were executed.

AutoExit for Windows Home Server is free and does not need registration.

Current version
The current version is 2008

Requirements
Windows Home Server

Pricing
Free

Download AutoExit 2008 for Windows Home Server

Taimur Asad (The Microsoft "Wow" Blog!)

Given Long Zheng's passion for Microsoft promo videos, I thought it only fitting that we pay tribute and post about the Live Mesh one that has appeared on YouTube from the Web2.0 Expo. While I can't offer high-res stills of Mesh bringing animals back to life, there's still a few points you can take away about the high-level vision Microsoft has for Mesh.

At first glance it seems a lot like the generic Microsoft "next-generation" videos that occasionally pop up, full of ideas for the future, most of which will probably never materialise.. Then you remember that actually the products it is showing are already here and Mesh, the link between them all, has just entered initial public testing. Score +1 point for lack of vapourware.

Mobile: say hello to your new Windows Mobile Mesh client. The two screenshots show show before/after when you get a new file synchronised to a Live Mesh folder. Oh it looks good on the HTC Touch Dual too!

There's a Mac in the video! I can't think when the last time I saw one of these make an appearance in a Microsoft promo was. The client for Mac was also demoed at Web 2.0, so its definitely on the way.

Xbox: Not quite sure what the "File Share" aspect relates to as the shared content doesn't tie in with the rest of the video (it looks like they are sharing a screenshot from a game). Still, its not impossible to imagine that Mesh would eventually tie in with Microsoft's gaming platform, just like Windows Live Messenger does already.

Ok so I lied when I said no vapourware. Zune makes an appearance too, synchronising a playlist collection from the Zune device at one location, through to an in-car mp3 player somewhere else. You gotta have dreams though, right?
Perhaps one of the most potent applications that Mesh can offer is the ability to access your media library from anywhere, on any device. While this is definitely achievable now for Vista and Windows Mobile devices, the challenge will be making that available elsewhere: iPod and iPhone applications anybody?

Source: LiveSide

Taimur Asad (The Microsoft "Wow" Blog!)

Why would you like to see some reduced in size images or images with somebody's logo on them, if you can see high-resolution and original photos of this new phone?

Here is overview:

... and here are links to high-resolution images of HTC Touch Diamond (in some Internet browsers after opening you should zoom-in, for example by clicking on given image, to see them in full resolution):

• HTC Touch Diamond 6 View
• HTC Touch Diamond Angle
• HTC Touch Diamond Back
• HTC Touch Diamond Dimensions
• HTC Touch Diamond in hand
• HTC Touch Diamond-Side
• Orange Screen on HTC Touch Diamond

Source: msmobiles.com

Taimur Asad (The Microsoft "Wow" Blog!)

The Windows Home Server team has solved a software bug that may affect files that are compressed using Advanced Attributes (NTFS compression).   NTFS compression can be enabled on an individual file, folder or at the hard drive level and is sometimes enabled by users to save disk space on a home computer.  More information on the bug and a link to download the fix at KB950190.

You can visit the Windows Home Server Community Forums if you want to ask questions or discuss this issue, by accessing this thread.

Taimur Asad (The Microsoft "Wow" Blog!)

Today, we are delivering the first Community Technical Preview (CTP) of XNA Game Studio 3.0, giving you the ability to build games for the entire family of Zune media devices.  This feature gives you access to the majority of the XNA framework APIs while retaining a seamless sense of integration with the Zune media experience.  In addition, this release now requires either Visual Studio 2008 Standard Edition and higher (C# language support must be installed), or Visual C# 2008 Express Edition.

Keeping with Zune media experience, the XNA Game Studio 3.0 integration includes discoverability/access to user’s non-DRM music –  allowing you to customize background soundtracks or create real-time visualizations.  In addition, we’ve announced the ability to have multiple nearby Zunes wirelessly engage in an ad-hoc social gaming experience. 

A preview release of XNA Game Studio 3.0 is now available through the XNA Creators Club Online site (http://creators.xna.com), with a final release scheduled for the holiday 2008 season.  For those of you that prefer the shortest path to happiness, the direct link to the XNA Game Studio 3.0 CTP is here.

There’s three other important things we want you to know before you dig in:

• Either Visual Studio 2008 Standard Edition and higher (C# language support must be installed), or Visual C# 2008 Express Edition are required to install and run the XNA Game Studio 3.0 CTP.  Visual Studio 2005 SKUs are not supported with XNA Game Studio 3.0 and beyond.  However, you do not need to uninstall Visual Studio 2005 or XNA Game Studio 2.0, as those products will work side-by-side with Visual Studio 2008 and XNA Game Studio 3.0 CTP.
• This current CTP does not enable Xbox 360 game development.  Only Windows and Zune are supported in this CTP.  If you want to build and deploy games for the Xbox 360, you must continue using XNA Game Studio 2.0 for now.
• This CTP doesn't work in 64 bit yet.  We plan to support it before RTM.

We hope you have fun with this CTP, and we look forward to your feedback on this product!

Taimur Asad (The Microsoft "Wow" Blog!)

It’s with great honor, pride and responsibility that I announce that I’m appointed as Microsoft Student Partner (MSP) for Bahria University Karachi Campus. I would also like to thank following people without whom this wouldn't have become a reality:

• Syed Khusro Azmat
• Twaha Ahmed Minai
• Sumair Samad Shaikh

Our Mission

At Microsoft, our mission is to enable people and businesses throughout the world to realize their full potential. Everything we do reflects our mission and the values that make it possible.

Our Values

As a company, and as individuals, we value:

• Integrity and honesty.
• Passion for our customers, our partners, and technology.
• Openness and respectfulness.
• Taking on big challenges and seeing them through.
• Constructive self-criticism, self-improvement, and personal excellence.
• Accountability to customers, shareholders, partners, and employees for commitments, results, and quality.

Here, I am sharing some MSP wallpapers that I found randomly over the Internet.

Taimur Asad (The Microsoft "Wow" Blog!)