Darren Straight's Blog

Just like Volkan said it would be, Windows Media Player 11 Beta 2 (11.0.5705.5043) is now available for customers to download and now includes a new Media Sharing feature, as well as improvements to the Beta 1 release that are based on customer feedback.

A list of changes since Windows Media Player 11 Beta 1 (11.0.5358.4827) to Windows Media Player 11 Beta 2 (11.0.5705.5043) for Windows XP include:

• Fixing issues. Fixes have been made for issues that occurred in the first beta release of Windows Media Player 11 for Windows XP.
• Additional online stores are now available. More online stores are available in this beta release of Windows Media Player 11 for Windows XP.
• Changes to sharing digital media content. The functionality of Windows Media Connect is now integrated into Windows Media Player 11 Beta 2 for Windows XP as the new Media Sharing feature, which lets you enjoy the contents of your Windows Media Player library from anywhere in your home. If you have a home network (wired or wireless), you can use Windows Media Player 11 to stream the contents of your library to networked devices such as Xbox 360 or other digital media receivers. For more information, go to Digital Media at Home. Note that digital media sharing is targeted for home users; therefore, computers that are joined to a domain might experience issues when trying to share digital media.

Download now at the Windows Media Player 11 Site.

Microsoft’s Mac Business Unit (MBU) has launched its first official blog, which is available on the company’s website.

Called ‘Mac Mojo’, the blog is focused on the company’s Office for Mac development.

“We decided to create a team blog because we wanted to offer a broad range of voices and perspectives across MBU. Bloggers on this site include developers, testers, user assistance, product managers, usability engineers, product marketers, and our general manager,” the company explains.

“We’ll blog on a variety of topics (some technical, some not) that interest us and we hope will interest you,” the company adds.

Via: Bink

Following the recent Windows Live OneCare Family Safety Invites being sent out to Windows Live Butterflies and the appearing of Windows Live OneCare Family Safety on Connect we thought that this Beta would be resticted to only those who had been approved to use it.

However the Windows Live OneCare Family Safety Team have announced that the Windows Live OneCare Family Safety Beta program is now live and that it is in fact a public accessible beta.

And though Windows Live OneCare Family Safety Beta is still in the testing and development phase, OneCare Family Safety will offer some great features to help families create a safer and more enjoyable online experience, including:

• Content filtering. Web filtering will allow customers to choose allow, block or warn settings for a range of content categories, and unique settings can be applied for each member of the household. Parents can review and adjust settings any time from any Internet-connected PC to help meet the family’s evolving needs, and your family’s settings will be automatically applied to any computer that has the Family Safety software installed.
• Expert Guidance. Expert guidance from respected child organizations like the American Academy of Pediatrics on age appropriate settings and online activities will provide valuable guidance for parents. For example, users will have access to guidelines on how to help a child use online communications safely or how parents should talk to children about inappropriate Web browsing.
• Activity reports. Parents will be able to access activity reports for each user in the family, anytime from any Internet-connected PC, to help them stay informed about how their children are browsing the Web. This kind of information can help facilitate important conversations between parents and children about using the Internet in a way they feel is safe and appropriate.
• Contact management. In future versions of the service, parents will be able to create allow lists for other Windows Live services their children might use to communicate with others like instant messaging, for example to help prevent their children from crossing paths with unknown contacts and instead only communicate with contacts that parents have approved.

You can signup to the Windows Live OneCare Family Safety public beta (US Only) at Windows Live Ideas (http://ideas.live.com) and access the beta at the main Windows Live OneCare Family Safety Site (https://fss.live.com/)

International versions are expected either at the end of this week or in the coming weeks.

Update: A Windows Live OneCare Family Safety Tour can be found at:

http://fss.msn.com/en-us/tour2/fsstour2.html

Microsoft’s third Windows Live Dev sample mashup called Showing Your Contacts on a Map is now available for download. This Contacts on a Map mashup uses the Windows Live Contacts Gadget beta and Virtual Earth to place your Windows Live Contacts on a map.

Just got word from my friend Eric that Adobe have finally rolled out their Flash Tenth Anniversary Micro site, and well I couldnt agree more with what Eric said to me in his email:

I would like to say, this site is just a masterpiece… featured a selection of flash videos combined with flash contents seamlessly. This experience is something you never have dream of.

So go ahead and check out the Flash Tenth Anniversary Micro site, you are sure to be impressed!

I’m not sure if you’ve heard about this or not yet, but SpiralFrog, the new music download destination, has signed an agreement with Universal Music Group (UMG), the world’s leading music company, to make UMG’s extensive catalog available for legal downloading in the US and Canada via SpiralFrog’s advertising-supported service.

SpiralFrog will offer users of its no-cost web-based service the ability to legally download music by many of the world’s most popular and award-winning artists.

CEO Robin Kent stated that the site “will offer consumers a better experience and environment than they can get from any pirate site”. Kent also stated that “Offering young consumers an easy-to-use alternative to pirated music sites will be compelling.”

Kent highlighted some key factors – legal digital files with no viruses or spyware in a controlled client-server architecture, quick downloading, and quality songs and music videos by great artists as among the primary benefits users will gain.

SpiralFrog will launch in beta later this year.

Windows Vista Build 5536, which was only recently released on Microsoft Connect to participants of the Windows Vista Managed Beta Program, is now available as a public download.

However please note that the Windows Vista pre-RC1 build is only available for a limited time Microsoft will close the program when they reach 100,000 downloads. 

Download Windows Vista Pre-RC1 Now!

Looks Like Microsoft’s Math v3 Beta is Coming Soon as you can now fill out the Beta Program Application on Microsoft’s Connect Site.

Microsoft Math is a set of mathematical tools that will help you get your work done quickly and easily. At the heart of Microsoft Math is a full-featured graphing calculator with extensive graphing and equation-solving capabilities. You can use it just like a handheld calculator by clicking buttons, or you can use your keyboard to type the mathematical expressions that you want the calculator to evaluate. Additional tools help you evaluate triangles or convert from one system of units to another. Version 3 will be the first stand alone version of Microsoft Math.

Check out MSN Alerts (http://alerts.msn.com) it’s now Windows Live Alerts (http://alerts.live.com)

A Better Way To Update Your Readers… for FREE!

• Drive more traffic to your blog by distributing content using the Windows Live Alerts service
• Automatically alert readers to new posts via desktop alert, email, or mobile device

Windows Live Alerts gives your readers control of when and where they receive information. Reporting tools give you valuable insight into your readership.

Just as you’d expect, readers are in 100% control of opt-in and opt-out.

Feeds supported: RSS 0.9X, 1.0, 2.0 and Atom.

I think there’s so much more that could be done with Windows Live Alerts especially within the search and social netowork areas of the web. For more information on Windows Live Alerts check out:

http://signup.alerts.live.com/brochure/index.jsp

Hey fellow Windows Live Fans, Windows Live Qna Beta is now available as a public beta, so head over to http://qna.live.com and give it a go, always as long as you’re from the US though!

Via: Windows Live QnA Team Blog