Microsoft Photo Story 3 for Windows

Microsoft have released Photo Story 3 for Windows

Monad (MSH) Wiki on Channel 9

MSHWiki

Google buy Keyhole

Google have bought Keyhole and immediately dropped the price to $29.95 for personal use.

Check out the tour of the Athens Olympic venues and the Longhorn real estate videos.

iPod Photo and U2 iPod

I'm not a big fan of the iPod due its relatively poor sound quality and limited, proprietary features, but Apple have finally released the iPod Photo and U2 iPod. The iPod Photo looks okay, but U2 seems to have been short-changed in the style department.

Whidbey Update

Scott Guthrie gives a Whidbey Update. His team develops ASP.NET 2.0.

In addition to the news about the beta 2 release, it lists some interesting testing techniques includng ZBB (Zero Bug Bounce). Note that his team has 102,000 test cases!

Tom's Hardware review the iRiver's H320

Tom's Hardware Guide review iRiver's H320 and seem impressed. I have the iRiver H340, which includes a docking cradle in addition to the accessories mentioned in the review.



I'd recommend getting the LCD remote which gives full control of the device.



I'd also recommend getting the Belkin TuneCast II FM transmitter for listening to your audio collection in the car.

Virtual PC and Command & Conquer

My favourite game of all time is Command & Conquer, but I could never get it to work on Windows XP. I tried it in Virtual PC without any luck until now. Ben Armstrong (aka Virtual PC Guy) explains why it does not work, and how to get it to work: Virtual PC and Command & Conquer. He has also got Dune and Dune II working. Excellent! I'm really enjoying his blog, and look forward to more information.

Also check out his Operating System Nostalgia and More Operating System Nostalgia entries.

Microsoft Partner Pack for Windows

Microsoft Partner Pack for Windows is a collection of free games and utilities for Windows XP.

Archos

The Archos Gmini 400 is fairly feature packed. It can play movies on the colour LCD display. It is also not too large at 10.6cm x 6.0cm x 1.7cm. It also has a CompactFlash reader built in so must have good expansion potential.

Expanded multi-user controls, QuickTime sharing spotted in new Tiger builds

Apple Developer Connection have a new technical article on Mac OS X v10.4 Tiger

AppleInsider reveal more details: Expanded multi-user controls, QuickTime sharing spotted in new Tiger builds.

X1

A number of bloggers (for example, Jim Blizzard) have written about an alternative to Google Desktop Search called X1. Having played with the trial version, I agree; it is much better with a clean, standalone UI. There is a downside: it costs $74.95, but in the long-run I think it'll be worthwhile.



A comment pointed me to Copernic, who produce a free Desktop Search Engine. It is still indexing my disks, but I really like what I see so far. Notice how well integrated into Windows it is with a search text box appearing in the task bar.

Froogle UK

Froogle UK is now in beta.

Visual Studio 2005 Express October CTP

Following on from the earlier release of SQL Server 2005 Express, Microsoft have updated the Express editions of Visual Basic 2005, Visual C# 2005, Visual C++ 2005, Visual J# 2005 and Visual Web Developer 2005.

KDiff3

Craig Andera blogs about a new favorite diff and merge tool, KDiff3.

OQO Photos and Reviews

The coolest thing about the OQO is you can use the same computer running Windows XP Professional at work or while mobile. It is true that you can do the same thing with a notebook comuter, but the OQO takes the mobility aspect a lot further. The next two screenshots show the OQO in handheld and docked modes.





For more photos, see the Engadget hardware.

Here is a batch of reviews:

    New York Times
    Wall Street Journal
    CNET
    PC World
    PC Stats

Monad Demonstration Videos

Jeffrey Snover, Monad (Windows Command Shell) architect, demonstrates and discusses Monad here

SQL Server 2005 Express October CTP

Microsoft have refreshed the beta of SQL Server 2005 Express. Download the October CTP here.

Windows Media Player 10 Mobile Review

Paul Thurrott also has a reivew of Windows Media Player 10 Mobile.

Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005 Review

See Paul Thurrott's SuperSite for Windows for a review of Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005.

There is a basic streaming demo here.



Also see the Media Center Extender Review.

For Windows Media Connect see here.

Google Desktop Search Beta

Google Desktop Search is now available for download. This is still in beta, but seems very stable.

Google Desktop Search supports the following:

    Outlook / Outlook Express
    Word
    AOL Instant Messenger
    Excel
    Internet Explorer
    PowerPoint
    Text

Microsoft Virtual Server 2005

Virtual Server 2005 Enterprise and Standard Editions are now available on MSDN Subscriber downloads.

TechNet have a Script Repository for Virtual Server 2005.

Microsoft are beta testing the Microsoft Virtual Server 2005 Migration Toolkit. This is really cool. Virtual Server 2005 Migration Toolkit is an add-on to Microsoft Virtual Server 2005 and creates images of physical computers; allowing them to be deployed as virtual machines running within Virtual Server 2005. See the FAQ for more information.

OQO model 01

The amazing OQO model 01 is now available to order. It looks to cost around £1,100.

Microsoft Virtual PC 2004 Service Pack 1

Microsoft Virtual PC 2004 Service Pack 1 has just been released.

Groovy, Java's New Scripting Language

Groovy is Java's New Scripting Language. Quoting from the FAQ:

"Think of Groovy as a Ruby- or Python-like language that is tightly integrated with the Java platform (as opposed to the UNIX/Posix command shell and C-libraries), allowing you the same powerful and concise coding syntax as Ruby or Python, but allowing you to stay on the JVM and protect your investment in J2SE, J2EE, and all the plethora of great useful Java code out there without any adapter layers or parallel API sets ..."

Microsoft Time Zone

The Microsoft Time Zone Utility is a cool little utility that sits in the system tray and allows you to easily view the data and time in various locations around the world.

Amazing Mount St. Helens pictures

Steve Makofsky blogs about some amazing Mount St. Helens pictures. You can see some more from USGS here.

iPodder - podcast downloader

iPodder is a cool little application implemented in Python. It sits in your system tray and downloads media files to your computer or portable device. It uses RSS feeds and works in a similar way to blog aggregators such as NewsGator. Downloded files are automatically added to the My Playlist section of Windows Media Player. It is available for Windows, Mac and (soon) Linux.

A list of podcast feeds is here.

Update: HOW-TO: Getting Podcasts on a Portable Media Center (and other Windows Media Devices).

Desktop Sidebar

One of the new features of Windows "Longhorn" is the sidebar. This is a usability enhancement that displays a panel docked to the side of the screen. This panel can host a number of functions including an analogue clock and picture slideshow. It shows great potential. However, "Longhorn" is unlikely to be released before 2007 (late 2006 is the current plan).

In the meantime, Desktop Sidebar is a great application that delivers, and goes beyond, the functionality of "Longhorn" sidebar. Best of all: it is available today for Windows XP.

Desktop Sidebar includes lots of pre-installed plug-ins including an analogue clock similar to that installed with "Longhorn". It includes a RSS newsroom (which adds a "Subscribe" button into Internet Explorer), integration with MSN Messenger and Microsoft Outlook and Windows Media Player. There is also a vibrant community developing skins and other plug-ins.

Desktop Sidebar is definitely worth an install.

NASA World Wind

Nasa World Wind is an amazing program that allows any user to zoom from high altitude to any place on the Earth's surface. The data comes from high-resolution LandSat and USGS data.

Some of images are literally jaw-dropping; in particular the USGS high-resolution ortho-imagery. (To view this, use the Layer Manager, select "High-Resolution Terrain Mapped Imagery" and deselect all but "USGS Urban Area Ortho-Imagery".) Several major US cities are covered at 0.25m. Good examples are Washington D.C., Houston, Chicago and Tampa Bay. For a list of ortho-imagery data see here.

The final cool part to World Wind is that it is implemented in C# and includes full source code.

ClearType Tuner

ClearType Tuner is a new Windows XP PowerToy that makes it easier to calibrate the ClearType technology. This installer adds the utility to the Control Panel.

Is Windows Forms Dead?

Mike Harsh is a PM on Microsoft's Windows Forms team. He answers the question: Is Windows Forms Dead?

This seems to give the clearest intent (short of a Microsoft press-release) of what will happen with Windows Forms. It is interesting since, even though it is intended to calm the community’s worries about Windows Forms, it goes further than any other article I've seen. It indicates that Windows Forms has a very limited lifetime! Furthermore the recent news that Avalon is to be retrofitted to Windows XP soon, seems to imply that the only reason to write in WinForms going forward is for Windows 2000 compatibility (or WinNT4/Win98 etc.).

I presume that we can expect Visual Studio 2005 ("Whidbey") or an upgrade release (presumably pre-"Orcas" since that is tied to the full "Longhorn" release) to include declarative (XAML) and programmatic support for Avalon in the near future.

Daniel C. Robbins: Prototype UI Elements

Daniel C. Robbins, a User Interface Designer working at Microsoft Research, has come up with a number of UI prototypes.

Fun Flash game: Yeti Olympics

See: ylympics

Microsoft DevDays 2004 Streaming Sessions and Code Online

See Microsoft DevDays 2004 Streaming Sessions to access recordings and source code.

Windows Media Player 10 released

Windows Media Player 10 has been released along with some new visualizations.

Visual Studio 2005 Beta 1 Refresh with Visual Studio 2005 Team System

Microsoft has released the Community Technology Preview (CTP) of Visual Studio 2005 Team System to MSDN subscribers. This is a 3.39 GB download.

Jim Allchin - The Longhorn Update

On Friday Microsoft's Jim Allchin made three announcements:

1) Microsoft reaffirms their commitment for broad availability of the Windows “Longhorn” Client in 2006. The Windows “Longhorn” Server Operating System continues to be expected to be available in 2007.

2) Microsoft plans to make elements of Longhorn’s WinFX programming model available for Windows XP and Windows Server 2003. This will enable developers to write WinFX applications that run on hundreds of millions of PCs and offer these next generation of applications sooner. Specifically, Microsoft plans to deliver the “Avalon” and “Indigo” pillars of Longhorn’s WinFX programming model for Windows XP and Windows Server 2003.

3) Delivery of WinFS will now occur after the initial availability of the Longhorn client. It is expected to beta when Longhorn client is broadly available.

For more information see: Jim Allchin - The Longhorn Update video on Channel9

Tag Database Tool

Tag Database Tool builds the iRivNavi.iDB file for the iHP 100 and 300 series of HDD players. It is superior to the similar tool from iRiver; it is much faster and supports WMA and OGG in addition to MP3 files.

Update: Version 3.0.1 is now available.

SyncBack

SyncBack from 2BrightSparks.com is by far the best tool for synchronising files between two folders. Best of all, it's free!

Update: SyncBack 3.2.3 has just been released.

Windows XP SP2 released on MSDN Subscriptions

Windows XP SP2 has been released to MSDN subscribers. Weighing in at a hefty 475.3 MB, this release has been well over a year in the making.

iRiver N10

One of the smallest solid-state MP3 players to date is the iRiver N10. Not sure when it is due, but here are some screen shots (page in Korean): iRiver N10

IronPython 0.6 released

IronPython 0.6 has been released as Open Source Software under Common Public License - v 1.0.

IronPython is a fast Python implementation for the .NET framework and Mono created by Jim Hugunin.

Also note that from Monday (August 2, 2004) Jim will join Chris Brumme, Brad Abrams, Adam Nathan, Jason Zander and the rest of the Microsoft CLR team.

Office 2003 Service Pack 1 released

Office 2003 Service Pack 1

iRiver PMP-140 preview

Portable Media World have a pre-release review of the iRiver PMP-140 portable media player.

SQL Server 2005 Express Beta 2

A new beta for SQL Server Express has been released: SQL Server 2005 Express Beta 2

Resign Patterns

Resign Patterns
Ailments of Unsuitable Project-Disoriented Software

Windows "Longhorn" Help (MAML)

Here are a couple of links for Microsoft's new Help system for Longhorn:
Introducing Windows "Longhorn" Help
Longhorn Help SDK

XML Tools in Visual Studio 2005

MSDN Library: An Introduction to the XML Tools in Visual Studio 2005

Jason Anderson on Channel 9

Jason Anderson, a member of the Visual Studio 2005 Team System, describes how Visual Studio 2005 can help with modern development methodologies such as test driven development:

Part I
Part II
Part III
Part IV

C-Omega compiler preview available for download

Dare Obasanjo blogs about the preview release of the C-Omega compiler. The Comega language site is here. The installer can be downloaded here.

This is an evolution of X# (which was renamed Xen last year) and attempts to address the mismatch between relational data and object oriented programming.

Is this research going to become C# 3.0 - as discussed by Anders Hejlsberg - Programming data in C# 3.0?

Apple Dashboard

  
Tiger Preview - Dashboard. You can see a QuickTime movie here.

Sun Cartoon: Inside Jack

Inside Jack is a fun take on the Microsoft-Sun agreement.

Microsoft Research Data Visualization Components

Steve Makofsky blogs about the MSR Data Visualization Components. They look pretty cool, especially the ThreadTree.

Microsoft "Next Media Research" Demo

Bill Gates and Steven Drucker demonstrate a new data visualization interface for multimedia: 2004 International Consumer Electronics Show (a transcript of the speech is here).

PearPC - Mac OS X on Windows

PearPC is a PowerPC emulator. See SourceForge here and a screenshot here.

First PMC: Yepp YH-999

To add to my WMA player dilemma, Samsung have announced a PMC device: Samsung YH-999. No real indication of when this is going to become available, although I4U indicate July 2004.

MonoDevelop 0.5 Released

MonoDevlop is a Mono IDE. See a VS.NET user's first impressions here.