msblogs

Yesterday I attended the very first Open@4 Press Event at Microsoft headquarters here in the Netherlands. Open@4 (the meets start at 4 PM) are informal press meetings to be held quarterly, with a different topic each time. This time the topic was Cloud Computing. What can Cloud Services do for you?

Introduction

First there was a general introduction about the Cloud and Microsoft Cloud Services.

IaaS – Infrastructure as a Service (to move to)
Infrastructure and storage capacity to host and manage applications and services.
PaaS – Platform as a Service (to build on)
Windows Azure is a platform existing of an operating system, (relational) database and web services with on-demand scalability (pay for what you use).
SaaS – Software as a Service (to use)
Subscription based on-demand applications and services. For examples:
- Business productivity Online Suite (BPOS)
- Exchange Hosted Services
- Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online
- Office Web Apps
Also think about Hotmail, Messenger, Windows Update, MSN, Bing and Xbox Live.

There are 3 kinds of Clouds:
- Public (all can see)
- Personal (only I + those I allow can see) 
- Private (think Corporate, employees only)

Announcements

There were also some announcements made. First announcement made was a partnership agreement with Regus in the Netherlands: Customers of Regus in the Netherlands will be able to make (fully web based) use of BPOS.

Furthermore we can expect the following in the next months:
- Windows Live Release 4
- Windows Intune – PC management client, currently in beta
- Dynamics CRM Online – Customer and Relationship Management
- Business Online Services
- Live@EDU
- Windows Azure Appliance – turnkey cloud platform that customers can deploy in their own datacenter

Windows Live

After the introduction and announcements it got divided into 3 groups (Business, Customer….).

Of course I attended the Customer session as this was about Windows Live. A presentation was given about the new Windows Live Messenger and Hotmail.

Taking notice of anything that could be new I only found one thing you may or may not have discovered yourself yet, if you are using the beta: Starting this week you can also find MSN in Messenger’s full view, so you can keep up-to-date with the latest news!

Afterwards there was some time to mingle/network. I very much enjoyed this informal meet and look forward to the next one.

LiveSide.net

New on the WindowsPhoneUK YouTube channel is a promotional video teaser for Windows Phone 7:

The Revolution is Coming – WindowsPhoneUK

Apparently this is a trailer that was shown prior to a “Secret Cinema” screening of Lawrence of Arabia, where everyone dressed up as their favorite L of A character, promoted by WindowsPhoneUK.  Go figure.

Whether or not “The Revolution is Coming” will be a part of that half billion dollar marketing campaign or not remains to be seen.

(via TNW)

LiveSide.net

Now Windows phone 7 RTMed and the launch isn’t that far away anymore, let’s have a look again at what we can expect. And by look, I do mean look.  I’ve gathered some videos* for you to look at.

The latest video that showed up is showing off Bing Maps.

Very handy, it has got everything you could ever need whilst on the road (even for pedestrians!). Voice navigation is still missing though…what’s up with that?

More videos:
Windows Phone 7 Phone Experience
Windows Phone 7 keyboard preview
Windows Phone 7 Start Screen, Camera, and Settings
Windows Phone 7 Photography Features
Windows Phone 7 Text Message
E-mail & Calendar on Windows Phone 7
Speech recognition in Windows Phone 7
Microsoft Office in the Office hub on Windows Phone 7
Xbox LIVE on Windows Phone 7 (website)

What many of you will also be interested in, is how Windows Phone 7 compares to iPhone 4 and Android (on Google Nexus One). Here are some comparison videos:

Windows Phone 7 Browser Comparison
Windows Phone 7 Email Client Comparison
Windows Phone 7 Startup Speed Test

Enjoy!

Visit the Windows Phone 7 Website for even more news, videos and backstage access!

*Note that the hardware and software shown in these videos are not final.

LiveSide.net

Sometimes we focus so much on all the latest upcoming news that we forget to talk about some of the cool existing features in Windows Live.  Windows Live Photo Gallery does some pretty amazing stuff, from simple photo fixing, to facial recognition and people tagging, to Photo Stitch, a way to almost magically combine a number of photos into one.  In a new promotional video for WLPG and Photo Stitch, Microsoft seem to capture the magic of it all:

Double Rainbow – on YouTube

(via Brandon and Harrison on Facebook, thanks guys!)

LiveSide.net

As of today, operating system for Windows Phone 7 is complete, and released to manufacturing.  Terry Myerson made the announcement today in a blog post:

Today is the day that the Windows Phone team has been driving towards, and we’re very excited to say that we’ve reached the biggest milestone for our internal team – the release to manufacturing (RTM) of Windows Phone 7!  While the final integration of Windows Phone 7 with our partners’ hardware, software, and networks is underway, the work of our internal engineering team is largely complete. 

While much of the system has been publically shown already, the Windows Phone team has made some changes, according to an email we received announcing the RTM:

Since Technical Preview back in July, Microsoft has focused on the important task of finalizing the Windows Phone OS and added a few feature updates such as:

·         Made it possible for people to filter their contacts so only the Facebook friends they really know will show up in their contact list  

·         Incorporated the ability to “like” a Facebook post from the People Hub and delivered the ability to quickly post a message to someone’s Facebook wall directly.

LiveSide.net