Channel 10

Making Engaging Digital Presentations With Freepath

sarahintampa — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 15:42:00 GMT

Freepath 2.0 is a new application that lets you create presentations that are mashups of web content and content from your PC. So, instead of a traditional PowerPoint, for example, your Freepath presentation could combine a PowerPoint file with images, videos, music, PDFs, Word, and Excel documents and play them as a seamless digital presentation. You can integrate web content like YouTube videos, slideshow’s from slide.com, music from Pandora, images from flickr or photobucket, and more alongside files saved on your PC like those from Office documents, PDFs, Quicktime videos, or Flash files.

The Freepath 2.0 software offers three different viewing modes: a preview mode which shows you digital assets on the right but also makes the playlist and playlist library accessible, a full screen mode (like what PowerPoint offers), and a dual screen mode which shows the presentation both on your screen and that of an external monitor. This dual monitor mode is also compatible with WebEx, GoToMeeting, Live Meeting, and Intercall.

If you’re more comfortable creating presentations in PowerPoint and are hesitant to try a new tool like this, you can actually prepare your slides in PowerPoint itself and then drag them into FreePath’s downloadable software to take advantage of the other tools that it provides.

When complete, your presentations can be shared with the Freepath community on myFreepath.com, which is similar to how Slideshare operates. All beta users receive 100 MB of free storage space in this community.

Rock the Vote From Your Xbox

sarahintampa — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 15:39:00 GMT

Xbox and Rock the Vote have partnered up in order to reach out to young voters through the Xbox community. Starting August 25th – the same day as the first day of the Democratic National Convention - Xbox 360 owners will be able to register to vote, participate in presidential polls, and voice their opinions to the presidential candidates through Xbox LIVE, a community whose members reach 12 million. Said Heather Smith, executive director, Rock the Vote: “To realize our goal of registering 2 million young Americans by this fall, we need to go where young Americans are, and there’s no doubt in our minds that many are on Xbox 360 and Xbox LIVE.”

I remember in the past Rock the Vote was involved with MTV, but I don’t ever remember seeing them actually go seek out young voters through a gaming platform before – that is definitely a first. And how creative! I went and checked out the Rock the Vote homepage to see where else they were besides Xbox, and it turns out that they’re on YouTube, facebook, and flickr, too. (Hmm, someone should tell them about Twitter.)

Windows Home Server - First Look at New Reference Hardware

Larry — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 15:28:00 GMT

Charles Torre and I paid a visit to the Windows Home Server team to get the latest on what's up with the SDK they released, what it means to consumers, what Add-In's they're playing with now, and what we can expect from the team down the road. (Check out Charles' video on Channel 9 here)

While I was there, they pulled out some new hardware for Home Server. The first (at 11:00 in) is the Epson Endeavor, based on an Atom CPU (low power, very quiet) using 2.5" laptop hard drives. Next is reference hardware from VIA (at 14:30 in the video) called the Antigo, based on a Pico-ITX motherboard. This one is extremely small sizing up smaller than a Western Digital My Book external hard drive. This one is without a doubt going to be my replacement Home Server.

Related links: WeGotServed (Home Server Add-In's), Windows Home Server Team Blog, Home Server Community Forums.

Twitter SideShow Gadget Released

sarahintampa — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 12:59:00 GMT

SideShow is a technology platform that allows developers to create applications specifically for devices with smaller screens. These apps, called “gadgets,” can run on devices like the displays attached to laptops, front panel computer displays, displays embedded in keyboards, displays on remote controls, digital picture frames, and more. Recently, the team at Ikanos Consulting released a new Twitter gadget for SideShow devices. With this gadget, you can update your status, view your friends’ timelines, and more. The gadget is now available for download from the Windows Live Gallery (click here). Note that this is not a Sidebar gadget – it’s SideShow only. (via The Media Center Blog)

Diary of a Surface Dev Team

Larry — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 14:36:00 GMT

While many of us dream of having a single Surface Computer to play with, Vectorform has 8 of them to play with. Fortunately they're documenting much of it on their blog. Follow along with the unboxing, their first entertainment app, explanation of a "muster", and videos of them playing around with new ideas.

With 8 Surfaces and a team of over 20 people, we can't wait to see what they come up with next.

Microsoft Research: A look at tomorrow's health solutions today - part II

Laura — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 14:15:00 GMT

In this special two-part video edition of House Calls for Healthcare Professionals, Bill Crounse, MD, visits with researchers at Microsoft Research. Each program reviews three promising areas of research that may one day lead to solutions with a direct or indirect application to health and healthcare. Viewers will gain insight to advanced ideas and technologies now in the labs at Microsoft Research long before they find their way into future products, solutions, or applications.

HIV Research, Visualization

One of the enduring challenges in HIV vaccine design is the remarkable rate of viral mutation and adaptation, which limits the immune system’s ability to mount a lasting, effective response. The HIV group at Microsoft Research is developing models of evolution that allow researchers to identify and visualize the complex, yet encouragingly consistent, patterns of adaptation that suggest novel vaccine strategies.

http://research.microsoft.com/research/eScience/

•David Heckerman, M.D. Ph.D.

Senior Directior, eScience Research Group

•Jonathan Carlson

Researcher

DynaVis Data Visualization

DynaVis is an information visualization toolkit that provides several extensions to business (or perhaps even clinical) charting, including animated transitions between data and between different views of data. The animated transitions help users stay in context when complex changes occur, making it easier for them to perform their tasks.

http://csdl2.computer.org/persagen/DLAbsToc.jsp?resourcePath=/dl/trans/tg/&toc=comp/trans/tg/2007/06/v6toc.xml&DOI=10.1109/TVCG.2007.70539

http://research.microsoft.com/vibe/projects/dynavis.aspx

•George Robertson, Ph.D.

Principal Researcher

Muscle-Computer Interface

Microsoft researcher Desney Tan and his team are working to create interfaces called muscle-computer interfaces, or MuCIs. that sense gestural input directly from muscle activity. This research may one day lead to new modalities for computer screen navigation and data input.

http://research.microsoft.com/cue/MuCI/.

http://research.microsoft.com/~desney
http://research.microsoft.com/cue

•Scott Saponas

Intern

Recycle Your Old Gadgets & Get Paid

Larry — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 05:19:00 GMT

Let me guess, somewhere you have a box of gadgets you consider worthless enough to sit in a box but valuable enough that you can't bare to throw away. eBay is an option but really, do you want to go to the trouble of selling each thing individually and then sending out to different places?

One option is Gazelle.com. Gazelle will make you an offer on your gadgets, depending on condition and what packaging/accessories you have left, and then send you a box to put it all in. Wrap it up and collect your check. They promise to remove personal information from devices, but that's never a job you should put on someone else in my opinion.

They have options to contribute to charities or put a link on your blog, email sig, site, that allows you to get a kickback on the gear your friends recycle. I was surprised to see Gazelle's offer to be within 10-15% of eBay. They say they sell the electronics through "a variety of retail and wholesale outlets." If you know of a retail store that sells used satellite radios or GPS', let me know in the comments, I can't say I've seen that.

I will say I'm a little disappointed Gazelle doesn't just sell the gadgets they collect. Since they silo them into model they should even be able to offer a warranty for a replacement if you get a bad gadget. Either way, better someone benefit from the hardware while they can rather than it sit in a box.

Mesh Your Bookmarks!

sarahintampa — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 05:11:00 GMT

One of the most useful things you can do with Live Mesh, beyond just syncing files and folders, is syncing your bookmarks. This is as simple as right-clicking on your Favorites folder and adding it to the Mesh. (Doug has more detailed instructions on this here). When you do this on all your machines, you’ll end up with a merged directory of all your Favorites so you can manage your bookmarks from in one location, no matter how many machines you have. How handy is that? You can even access them from any other computer that has internet access just by logging into your Live Desktop. And don’t forget that Live Mesh lets you invite others to share a folder, so, if you wanted to share your bookmarks, for example, with a team at work so everyone could contribute, you could that, too.

How To Use Photosynth In 4 Easy Steps

sarahintampa — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 05:01:00 GMT

So now that you’ve heard the big news about Photosynth, you’re probably dying to get started with your first synth. Well, get your camera ready, because here’s all you need to know as to how to use this new technology

STEP 1: TAKE PICTURES

When you’re creating your first synth, remember the rule of “3” – each part of the scene you shoot should appear in at least 3 separate photos from different locations. Try for at least 50% overlap when taking the pictures. Take a panamora shot and then move around – the wider the shot, the better.

STEP 2: EDITS

Photographers usually want to do all kinds of tweaking to pics, but with Photosnyth, there are things you don’t want to do, such as the following:

don’t crop
don’t do any geometric transformations like flips and perspective transforms
don’t use artistic filters (de-noise may be safe, though)
don’t use watermarks (Photosynth provides something for this itself)

You can, however, adjust color and contrast without any worries.

STEP 3: SYNTH IT

If you haven’t already, download the free software from http://photosynth.com. The software works alongside the web site, also a free service. From the Photosynth site, click on “Create” and pick the pictures you want to use. Give your creation a name and click on “Synth.” Photosynth automatically creates and uploads your synth which can then be accessed from any XP or Vista PC.

STEP 4: SHARE IT

Your finished synth can be embedded on web sites, blogs, social networks, or any other page where HTML can be edited. You can see other people’s synths that they’ve created and leave comments, too.

PhotoSynth- Learn how to do it

Laura — Sun, 24 Aug 2008 18:48:00 GMT

We all love taking digital photos but with Photosynth you can take them to the next level.

I'm sure you've all heard of this amazing new application that allows you to digitally stitch your pics together to create new 3D panoramic environments. In this piece you'll learn exactly how to make the most of Microsoft's new toy for photogs and then check out this video to see the behind the scenes action of how it was made.

And then go here for a bit of it's history.

ShutterSpeed EP04 - The Photosynth Team

Nic — Sat, 23 Aug 2008 18:00:00 GMT

By now most of you have probably heard of Photosynth. The cool new technology from Microsoft that allows you to explore collections of full resolution photos by relationship in an amazing, interactive 3D space.

From today (9PM PST) Photosynth is being released to the public which means anyone with access to a digital camera, PC and internet connection can create their own Photosynth collections. Just visit photosynth.net, download the app (approx 8MB) and start synthing.

To coincide with the release of Photosynth to the masses we thought it might be fun to sit down with 1/5th of the development team behind the technology to learn some more about how Photosynth works and how best to go about creating collections of photos specifically for synthing.

Joining me for this episode of ShutterSpeed is Live Labs and Photosynth Architect Blaise Aguera y Arcas (who you might recognize from this infamous TED presentation), Scientist Drew Steedley and Program Manager Scott Fynn.

Check out Max's interview with Rick Szeliski and Noah Snavely over on Channel 8 for more on the genesis (and genius!) of Photosynth. And for those of you about to grab your camera and go shoot some photos for a little synth action make sure you first watch Laura's how-to-synth video for tips and tricks.

Circle Dock Is No Ordinary App Launcher

sarahintampa — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 04:45:00 GMT

I’m sure you’ve seen docks before – the launch bars that let you start up applications with one click. For Windows users, one of the most popular docks is Rocket Dock (I use this one myself). Another favorite is Object Dock. However, I had never seen anything quite like Circle Dock before. Instead of a simple bar that attaches to a side of your computer screen, Circle Dock will launch (via a hotkey) wherever your mouse sits on the screen. The apps it contains can display either as concentric circles or as a spiral. There’s a lot you can do with Circle Dock too – you can rotate it, skin it, and add apps, files, folders, and shortcuts to the dock by drag and drop. Circle Dock may not be for you, but it’s definitely a unique take on the UI experience. Circle Dock is free download and works on 64-bit. It’s available here.

If you want to get really crazy, you can download the newly-released alpha version of Circle Dock. In this version, Circle Dock 0.9.2, the middle button can now open up the Windows start menu. You can also group your icons into dock folders and open them up in groups and click on the middle button to navigate back out of the folder. (The picture is of the alpha version).

Live Mesh Expands To More Countries

sarahintampa — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 04:43:00 GMT

Today, the Live Mesh team announced the expansion of their service into other markets. Now the list of countries that will allow sign-up without a wait list for the Live Mesh Tech Preview includes Canada, India, and Ireland. This is in addition to USA, UK, Australia, and New Zealand, for whom Live Mesh has already been made available. The announcement was posted today to the Live Mesh blog, where they also pointed us to other Live Mesh resources, including these Channel 9 videos and the link to the Community Forums, which is where you can send in Live Mesh feedback.

Get All the Microsoft Blogs at BlogMS

sarahintampa — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 04:42:00 GMT

At Microsoft, there are a lot of product and support teams blogging – so many, in fact, that it can be hard to keep up with them all. If you tried to subscribe to all the sites on your own, you could be overwhelmed by the sheer number of posts. Well, now there’s a better way to keep up with Microsoft news. A new resource called BlogMS makes it easy for you to follow all the Microsoft blogs by offering regular weekly and monthly updates from product, support and other specialist teams within Microsoft. The site tracks over 130 blogs in total! Every week and calendar month, BlogMS will also publish a full summary of all the latest articles in a single blog post on this site as well as offer a report which you can download. During the week, blog alerts will be issued to highlight important announcements. Here’s the list of all the blogs the site is tracking, but if you want to check out all the Microsoft produced blogs, you can go here to the Microsoft Community Blogs site. We hear that we have Brandon LeBlanc from the Windows Experience Blog to thank for getting this list started, so thank you, thank you, Brandon (and everyone else who ended up contributing to this site) for making our lives easier.

Snap2Face Version 1.0 Arrives

sarahintampa — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 04:42:00 GMT

Earlier this year, we told you about Snap2Face, a Facebook app designed just for Windows Mobile users. Now, that app is out of beta and the official 1.0 version has been released. With Snap2Face version 1.0, you can fully interact with Facebook. That means you can view albums, upload photos, update your status, see the statuses of your friends, view and respond to messages, pokes, wall posts, and friend requests. However, what’s really cool about the newest version is its Outlook integration. Snap2Face allows you to import your friends’ profile photos into your Outlook contacts and then use them for caller ID. Snap2Face is available as a free download on all Windows Mobile 5.0/6.0 devices (both Pocket PC and Smartphone). You can download it from here.

Office Labs: Email Prioritizer

Tina — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 16:30:00 GMT

Email Prioritizer is a plug-in for Microsoft Office Outlook 2007 (running on Exchange Server) that helps you manage email overload. This concept test provides a “do not disturb” button that temporarily pauses new email arrival, and prioritizes email with a 0-3 star rating system. We hope this prototype helps you focus on the emails that are most important to you.

Three Flickr Plugins You’ll Love

sarahintampa — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 07:11:00 GMT

If you’re a flickr user, there are three plugins that you need to know about: Flickr4Writer, Flickr4Outlook, and Flickr4Word. I had mentioned the Flickr4Writer plugin before when I blogged about some of my favorite plugins for Windows Live Writer - it helps you to insert flickr photos into your blog posts. However, thanks to gHacks, I learned that there are also similar plugins for both Word and Outlook. Like the WLW plugin, they give you easy access to your flickr photos from directly within the application. You can also use the built-in search feature to find photos from other flickr users that match the tags you enter in the search box. The Outlook and Word plugins only support Office 2007 installations (Word 2007, Outlook 2007). All of the plugins are available from their respective sites (linked above) as free downloads. Hey, does this count as software+services? I think it might!

Zemanta Plugin for Windows Live Writer

sarahintampa — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 07:10:00 GMT

Zemanta is a technology used by bloggers that inserts automatic links, adds relevant photos, adds links to related articles, and automatically tags your posts. The technology is available either as a browser plugin or a server-side plugin that supports either WordPress, Movable Type, or Drupal. However, I recently learned that it’s available as a Windows Live Writer plugin, too!

After installation, the Zemanta plugin will appear in the right sidebar of WLW where you can see the content it is suggesting for your post. (You have to write at least 300 characters before it will provide any suggestions.) The plugin works on Live Writer versions 12-14. You can see what version you run by going to “About” from the “Help” menu in Live Writer.

To try the Zemanta plugin for yourself, you can download it from here.

Get it now: Skyfire Mobile Browser + Silverlight

Larry — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 05:18:00 GMT

Skyfire delivers, just in time for the Olympics they let fly with Silverlight support on their Windows Mobile browser. If you haven't seen Skyfire, get up to date in this video from co-founder Nitin Bhandari at DEMO 08.

Skyfire gives Windows Mobile users a desktop experience with support for CSS, Ajax, QuickTime, Flash 9, and now Silverlight. The beta is for Windows Mobile 5 and 6 phones, and only for US phones right now.

And unfortunately Skyfire is a closed beta, but if you are one of the first 50 people to go to the sign-up page and enter the code "channel10" (no quotes) into the beta code field, you'll get to see what it's like.

Let us know what you think.

Microsoft Research: A look at tomorrow’s health solutions today: Part I

Laura — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 12:23:00 GMT

A special thanks to Dr. Eric Horvitz, MSR Area Manager, for his assistance in the production of this program.

Part 1

Situated Interaction

The Situated Interaction project at Microsoft Research aims to enable a new generation of interactive systems that can reason about their surroundings and embed interaction deeply into the natural flow of everyday tasks, activities, and collaborations. As an initial sample challenge in this space, researchers are currently developing a situated conversational agent that can act as a Microsoft front-desk receptionist (for example, make shuttle reservations, register visitors, and provide campus information). The system integrates a large number of artificial intelligence technologies—such as speech recognition and language understanding, face detection and tracking, intention recognition, engagement, and behavioral modeling—in a conversational framework that allows it to engage in mixed-initiative, natural language interaction with one participant or multiple participants.

http://msrweb/adapt/SituatedInteraction

•Dan Bohus, Ph.D.

Researcher

Gaze Tracking

Eye-tracking technology can be used to understand how people interact with information—for instance, search results and Web pages and perform other information processing tasks. This information can then be used to design new ways of interacting with computers in which the machine recognizes what people look at and better understands what they pay attention to in order to respond accordingly.

http://research.microsoft.com/~cutrell/

Cutrell, E., and Z. Guan. 2007. “What are you looking for? An eye-tracking study of information usage in Web search.” In Proceedings of CHI'07, Human Factors in Computing Systems (San Jose, CA), ACM Press, 407-416.

Guan, Z., and E. Cutrell. 2007. “An eye-tracking study of the effect of target rank on Web search.” In Proceedings of CHI'07, Human Factors in Computing Systems (San Jose, CA), ACM Press, 417-420.

•Ed Cutrell, Ph.D.

Researcher

Big Top

“FourBySix” is a large, 4-foot by 6-foot (standing height) surface computer that Microsoft researchers recently prototyped to explore productivity scenarios and applications involving small groups of users meeting face to face. For example, one use would be to support groups of designers who are combining and reviewing images, allowing them to sketch new designs in a collaborative setting.

•Andy Wilson, Ph.D.

Researcher