SkyDrive updated - 25GB of free online storage

Six months ago, the last update to SkyDrive right there on the SkyDrive team blog was announced. Although they have been pretty hush-hush since then, the team has been working diligently to bring you new features and improvements across SkyDrive and the rest of Windows Live based directly on your feedback.

While they work on the finishing touches, here's a taste of what's to come.

• Even more free online storage - Bringing you the grand total of 25MB free online storage.
• More control over your data - Download your photos / files directly or in a zipped format. You can also move and copy them between multiple folders.
• Photos rule - Twenty new features have been included in this release that contains bigger thumbnails, order prints, slide show and people tag.
• Sharing sould be easy - Share your files and photos without requiring friends and family to use Windows Live ID. Also, see what your friends have shared lately all in one place with some more features.
• Plus much, much more - Keep your Internet Explorer favorites in sync between computers, and access them anywhere from your SkyDrive. A complete overhaul of the look and feel to match the look and feel of Windows Live and many more..

Windows Mobile 6.5 screenshots revealed

Screenshots for the new Windows Mobile 6.5 operating system have appeared on SmartphoneFrance delivered by an Anonymous source. The new interface is designed to be touch-friendly by having a honeycomb home page as well as a carousel menu.

In previous Windows Mobile releases, the items in menus were often too small to use a finger, forcing the user to resort to a stylus. Windows Mobile 6.5 hopes to change this by having a large scrolling menu that enlarges the current object and provides additional information for it. The honeycomb menu shown above allows the user to quickly select their task. Tasks that are used more often appear closer to the center of the screen.

These screenshots have yet not been confirmed by me.

Microsoft's Oslo on the move

Microsoft plans to give developers their first crack at its new Oslo modeling technology later this month when it releases an early test version of the software at the company's semiannual Professional Developers Conference, Microsoft announced Friday.

The company is calling the release a community technology preview

Model-driven software development seeks to impose rule-based structure and workflow on applications in order to make software development more efficient and the software itself more stable and better suited to the needs of users. Oslo itself includes three pieces: a new programming language to help architects and developers describe models, a visual modeling tool, and a repository for storing different models in a database [...]

Microsoft provides first look at Visual Studio 2010 and the .NET Framework 4.0

Microsoft Corp. today provided the first look at the next version of its developer tools and platform, which will be named Visual Studio 2010 and the .NET Framework 4.0. Microsoft described the next release through the following five focus areas: riding the next-generation platform wave, inspiring developer delight, powering breakthrough departmental applications, enabling emerging trends such as cloud computing, and democratizing application life-cycle management (ALM).

Today’s announcement included an in-depth look at how Visual Studio Team System (VSTS) 2010 (code-named “Rosario”) will help democratize ALM with a unique solution that brings all the members of a development organization into the application development life cycle, and removes many of the existing barriers to integration. Additional details on the other focus areas will be disclosed over the product development cycle.

You can check out the Norman Guadagno, the Director of Product Management for Visual Studio Team System video from channel9.

Windows Cloud: Microsoft's forthcoming OS

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer revealed a few details on Wednesday of a forthcoming operating system that will help developers write Internet-based applications.

Within a month, Microsoft will unveil what Ballmer called "Windows Cloud." The OS, which will likely have a different name, is intended for developers writing cloud-computing applications, said Ballmer, speaking in London to an auditorium of IT managers at a Microsoft-sponsored conference. Cloud computing is a term often applied to programs that are presented in a Web browser, but the actual computing is performed at a distant datacenter.

Ballmer was short on details, saying more information would spoil the announcement. Windows Cloud is a separate project from Windows 7, the OS Microsoft is developing to succeed Windows Vista.

Companies such as Google and Salesforce.com have embraced the concept of delivering software over the Internet, as it can mean lower costs and less maintenance for those who use the applications.

Microsoft, which has built its fortunes on desktop-based software, has been anxious to show it also has plans for adapting its software for the Internet.

Internet Explorer Administration Kit 8 Beta

IEAK8 Beta is now available publically for everyone to try. To give you some background, the IEAK allows you to deploy customized packages and manage IE settings post deployment within corporations and among Internet Content Providers (ICP) and Internet Service Providers (ISP). For instance, Acme Corp could use IEAK to create a custom IE package for their employees that has Acme favorites, search providers, home pages, Web Slices, Accelerators, and more.

IE Developers simplified creating, deploying and managing branded IE packages. They optimized the IEAK to help you build your customized IE packages more quickly and to allow you to configure and customize new features in Internet Explorer 8, like Accelerators and Web Slices.

Find more at The Windows Internet Explorer Weblog

Microsoft to launches new shopping site

Microsoft is working on a new shopping Web site for software, hardware, and peripherals that it plans to advertise in the Windows XP Start Menu and the Internet Explorer Web browser.

Called "Windows Marketplace," the Web site is slated to go live for U.S. Windows users by year's end, according to Microsoft, which plans to officially announce the online store on Monday at its Worldwide Partner Conference in Toronto.

The Windows Marketplace will be a way for Microsoft partners to peddle their wares to the millions of Windows users, the Redmond, Washington-based software vendor says in a statement.

Providers that are expected to sell their products through the store include Dell, Hewlett-Packard, Circuit City Stores, Buy.com, and Best Buy Company, according to Microsoft. Products that have gained a "Designed for Windows" logo will be easier to find on the Web store through a special search filter, the software maker says [...]

Microsoft warns of IE8 lock-in with XP SP3

Microsoft yesterday warned users of Windows XP Service Pack 3 (SP3) that they won't be able to uninstall either the service pack or Internet Explorer 8 (IE8) under some circumstances. The warning was reminiscent of one Microsoft made in May, when Windows XP SP3 had just been made available for downloading. At the time, the company told users they wouldn't be able to downgrade from IE7 to the older IE6 browser without uninstalling the service pack.

In a post to the IE blog today, Jane Maliouta, a Microsoft program manager, spelled out the newest situation, which affects users who downloaded and installed IE8 Beta 1 prior to updating Windows XP to SP3. If those users then upgrade IE8 to Beta 2 , which Microsoft unveiled today, they will be stuck with both IE8 and Windows XP SP3. A warning dialog will appear to alert users. "If you chose to continue, Windows XP SP3 and IE8 Beta2 will become permanent," Maliouta said. "You will still be able to upgrade to later IE8 builds as they become available, but you won't be able to uninstall them."

Photosynth: Multi-Dimensional Digital Imaging

Recently Microsoft released the final version of its long-in-beta web app called Photosynth.

Photosynth gives users the ability to view and create 3D Panoramas and virtual tours. Basically it takes a collection of regular photographs and reconstructs the scene or object in a 3-D environment.

Photosynth is potent mixture of two independent breakthroughs: the ability to reconstruct the scene or object from a bunch of flat photographs, and the technology to bring that experience to virtually anyone over the Internet.

The Photosynth viewer allows user to zoom in/out, view in 3D/2D and circle through next and previous frames. Below you can see some screenshots of 3D panoramas of Taj Mahal, Smith Tower and the Sphinx.

View Taj Mahal

View Smith Tower

View Sphinx

Apart from providing a library of 3D Panoramas for users to explore, Photosynth lets users create their own Synth and upload them for others to view in 3D.

It is a Microsoft Labs product so don’t expect it to bug-you-not. To get started with viewing or creating your own 3D Panoramas, hop on to Photosynth and enjoy the tour.

It is currently available only to Windows users.

SyncToy v2.0 - Free PowerToy for Microsoft Windows

Computing now a days, has become very ubiquitous with the help of different computers such as laptops, mobile phones, desktop machines etcetera. To enable resource sharing between these devices is the real essence of distributed computing, thus, synchronization plays an important role in copying, moving, renaming and deleting files between folders and computers as quickly as possible.

Microsoft introduces it's SyncToy v2.0 that allows you to store and manage your files created by digital cameras, e-mail, cell phones, portable media players, camcorders, PDAs, and laptops.

This PowerToy of Microsoft is quite easy to use, highly customizable program that helps users to do the heavy lifting involved with the copying, moving, and synchronization of different directories. SyncToy manages multiple set of folders simultaneously it can combine files from two folders in one case, and mimic renames and deletes in another case. Unlike other applications, SyncToy actually keeps track of renames to files and will make sure those changes get carried over to the synchronized folder.

With the help of customers' feedback, Microsoft has incorporated a lot of features in SyncToy v2.0. As this software is not a part of Microsoft Windows so you might not be able to get any kind of help from Microsoft Technical Support, so you can use SyncToy forums, where you can find out everything related to that.

Storage Feature Pack for Windows to arrive soon

Without making users wait for the next major Windows release, Microsoft throws Feature Packs to get them new features. As the name suggests, Feature packs are the delivery vehicle for new, between-release, features.

The new feature pack for storage which will be announced soon by Microsoft contains 3 technologies.

• Active Storage Platform - With the help of this feature, you will be able to restrict access to portable devices (such as a USB Flash Device) via a certificate or password authentication based on the IEEE 1667 standard specification.
• Image Mastering API update for Blu-Ray media - It will help in burning the blu-ray optical media in a master fashion.
• Smart Card Driver - It will provide support for new form factors, such as ICCD/CCID.

Windows Feature Pack for Storage will be available for the following operating systems: Windows XP SP2+, Windows Vista, Windows Vista SP1, Windows Server 2008, Windows Server 2003 SP1+.

This storage feature pack won't be the first one for Microsoft as it has released couple of them based on different necessities. Like an optical feature pack, the Windows Vista Feature Pack for Wireless and the Windows Media Center TV Pack.

pptPlex - arrange and zoom your PowerPoint presentations

Project pptPlex is a research prototype developed by Microsoft Office Labs as an exploration of an alternative method of presenting Microsoft Office PowerPoint 2007 slides. This plug-in allows you to arrange slides on a canvas then zoom between the slides during the presentation. You can move around the canvas and show groups of slides, individual slides, or even zoom in to show a particular section of a slide.

Windows Live Wave 3: Messenger v9

Looks like its open-season on Wave 3 now, with Inky over at Mess.be getting his hands on the Wave 3 Milestone 1 installer for Windows Live Messenger. While Inky may be obsessed with version numbers and about screens, we’re more interested in what’s going on in terms of new integration across services. Its now been 9 months since the launch of Messenger 8.5, Mail and Photo Gallery as part of Wave 2, but as this is only a first milestone, there’ll be other internal updates before a version gets released to the public. That said, there’s still some positive signs that the eventual Messenger v9 release is going to be good.

View: LiveSide for Screenshots and more info

SQL Server 2008 RTM now available on TechNet Plus

The availaibility of SQL Server 2008 RTM has been announced as a part of TechNet Plus subscription downloads. TechNet Plus subscribers can now get SQL Server 2008 and evaluate it without time limits.

SQL Server 2008 provides a trusted, productive, and intelligent data platform that enables you to run your most demanding mission critical applications, reduce time and cost of development and management of applications, and deliver actionable insight to your entire organization. These downloads are available on a worldwide basis. The related links are as follows:

Edition	Language	Download Location
SQL Server 2008 Enterprise (x86, x64, ia64)	English	TechNet Subscriber Downloads TechNet Top Subscriber Downloads
SQL Server 2008 Standard (x86, x64)	English	TechNet Subscriber Downloads TechNet Top Subscriber Downloads
SQL Server 2008 Web (x86, x64)	English	TechNet Subscriber Downloads TechNet Top Subscriber Downloads
SQL Server 2008 Workgroup (x86, x64)	English	TechNet Subscriber Downloads TechNet Top Subscriber Downloads

Microsoft Sphere - The new surface

As you're already familiar with Microsoft Surface, Microsoft Sphere is the current R & D product that Microsoft is developing. Multi-touch, natural interaction are few in the top good features.

Please have a look, and give your feedback here? What do you think, is it just for research? or can it be bought into the retail like Microsoft Surface was into AT&T stores.

Cuil not a google killer yet

With hours of being launched Monday, Cuil - a new search engine created by former top Google engineers - was already being touted in the blogosphere as the next Google killer. But unless Cuil (pronounced ‘cool’) can develop an ad platform to rival Google’s, Cuil will have a difficult time challenging the search giant.

The comparisons to Google were inevitable. Cuil was founded by several lead engineers from Google, including Anna Patterson, chief architect of the company’sTeraGoogle search index. Cuil also claims its search algorithm scans through 120 billion web pages - three times the number that Google sifts through. And Cuil’s spare start page is reminiscent of Google’s minimalist home page.

The launch of Cuil certainly raised eyebrows at Google. Though the company would not comment on Cuil’s launch, Google’s web search team stuck it to the small search startup on Monday with a blog post that begins, “We knew the web was big…We’ve known it for a long time.”

“It’s a new kind of technology and platform that is going to unseat a company like Google - not a company that‚s trying to beat them at their own game,” says Scott Kessler, Standard & Poor’s Internet analyst.

Both Yahoo and Microsoft have been trying [...]

MIcrosoft to bring LiveSearch to Facebook

Microsoft Corporation unveiled plans to weave Live Search into the Facebook social networking site, widening the scope of the two companies' nearly two-year-old advertising relationship.

Set to launch in the fall, the agreement will let users conduct Web searches from within Facebook and will also include Microsoft's paid search advertising, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer said in a keynote speech at Microsoft's annual financial analyst meeting.

"We will be providing an API to Facebook where they will create a rich search experience, including a Web search for the Facebook users," Ballmer told analysts. "So we're excited about even using that as an opportunity to further extend the Live Search reach."

Facebook and Microsoft first hooked up in 2006 when the two firms announced a strategic partnership that made Microsoft the sole provider of banner ads on Facebook's U.S. site, a deal that's slated to run until 2011. In October, Microsoft acquired a 1.6 percent stake in Facebook for $240 million, in a deal that pegged Facebook's valuation at a staggering $15 billion.

Microsoft, a distant third to Google and Yahoo in search, has been getting creative in its quest to gain search market share and compete more effectively with its more established foes.

In May, Microsoft announced Live Search Cashback, a program in which users receive ad-funded rebates each time they buy a product from one of the software giant's 700+ merchant partners, a list that includes eBay, Barnes & Noble.com, Overstock.com, Sears, and Zappos.com.

Of course, Microsoft would love to buy Yahoo and has been attempting to acquire search player No. 2 for months, but Microsoft executives at the financial analysts meeting indicated that a deal involving Microsoft buying the entire company is extremely unlikely at this point.

Windows Live for Windows Mobile

The latest bits for Windows Live Client for your Windows Mobile are available for download. To get yours now, point your mobile browser to http://wl.windowsmobile.com

If you have Windows Live already installed on your device, you will need to uninstall it first. To do that, go to Settings->Remove Programs, select Windows Live entry from the list (if any) and click Remove. If you don’t find Windows Live on the list, then you are good to go.

With Windows Live client you will be able to:

• Synchronize Live contacts with your contacts on the device
• Synchronize your Live email (msn, hotmail, live)
• View graphics, web links and contact photos in emails
• Respond to emails with voice recordings
• Upload photos to your Windows Live Spaces

Go ahead, give it a try and let Windows Mobile Team know what you think!

Latest tutorials for WPF, Blend and Silverlight

A great site that covers designer-oriented Expression Blend topics is Celso Gomes’s Nibbles Tutorials

This all-Silverlight site includes some informative articles on how you can use Blend to create WPF, Silverlight 1, and Silverlight 2 applications. He has recently updated it and covered the new features in Blend 2.5 such as the Visual State Manager, so if you’ve been itching to learn more about it, head on over to his site.

Gates leaves or leaves not?

Microsoft's Chairman stepping down from his job in honor to concentrate on his charitable organization, the Bill and Melinda Foundation.

Gates since his teenage had a vision of a personal on every desk in every home and in 1986 after an agreement with IBM (1980) became the youngest self-made billionaire.

He will remain as Microsoft's chairman and work on special technology projects but according to Mr. Gates, great wealth brings great responsibility and his future work will include finding new vaccines and financing projects in the developing world.

Have a look at Bill Gates' Last Days video