Darren Straight’s Blog

Today at 3GSM World Congress 2007, Microsoft announced three new Windows Live for mobile services that provide search and communications capabilities to help people access their world of relationships, information and interests from their mobile device. Now available in the United States and the United Kingdom, Live Search for Windows Mobile and Live Search for Java provide customers with advanced local search and mapping capabilities on their mobile device. In conjunction with the availability of Windows Mobile 6, Microsoft also introduced Windows Live for Windows Mobile — a rich set of Windows Live services including e-mail, instant messaging and search — uniquely designed to work with Windows Mobile powered devices.

“People want to stay connected and informed wherever they are, and our aim is to deliver easy-to-use, familiar mobile services that keep people connected to the people and information they care about,” said Steve Berkowitz, senior vice president of the Online Services Group at Microsoft. “Live Search for mobile and Windows Live for Windows Mobile are the latest examples of our commitment to enhancing the mobile search and services experience for our customers, and helping mobile operators, OEMs and advertising partners access new revenues and differentiate their products in this competitive mobile market.”

Windows Live Messenger

• Send IMs or join group chats to stay connected.
• Set status (online, offline and mobile) and see the presence of friends and colleagues.
• Send messages via voice as well as text.
• Use emoticons to express exactly how you feel.

Windows Live Mail

• Powerful, free e-mail with security features.
• Get up-to-date access to Hotmail or Windows Live Mail.
• View graphics, Web links, and contact photos in e-mails.
• Respond to e-mails with voice recordings.
• With push e-mail your inbox is always up-to-date.

Live Search

• Quickly search the Web for information, directions, maps and images.  
• Find local listings for business and entertainment.
• Access one-click calling to phone numbers.
• Get maps and driving directions.
• Get answers via SMS with Instant Answers.

Windows Live Spaces

• Stay connected to your community when you are on the move.  
• Send photos and videos to a space.
• Access links to friends’ spaces within contact cards. 

Customers interested in the Live Search for Windows Mobile and Live Search for Java applications can go to http://mobile.search.live.com to view a complete list of device availability and download the software for their device at no cost. Users can easily download the Live Search client directly to their mobile phone by going to http://wls.live.com on their phone’s browser.

More information can be found here.

Microsoft today unveiled Windows Mobile 6, the newest version of its mobile software platform. By improving usability and adding support for Microsoft Office features previously available only on PCs, Microsoft Windows Mobile 6 delivers to the small screen a familiar and rich experience that meets the needs of work and life while on the go, all with a single device.

• Better-looking e-mail. Users view e-mail the way it was intended with its original pictures, tables and formatting, whether from a corporate e-mail server such as Exchange Server 2007, Web-based accounts such as Windows Live Hotmail or Yahoo! Mail, or a wide range of other service providers.
• Ease of viewing and editing of Office system documents. The new Office Mobile suite, built for all Windows Mobile powered devices, gives users a truly familiar and powerful experience with rich viewing and editing capabilities, without having to worry about the deletion of critical formatting and images.
• E-mail management and setup with fewer clicks. Nine new one-click options have been added, including Reply All, setting a flag, moving a message to a subfolder, and, of course, Delete. Users can set an automatic out-of-office reply while on the road when using a Windows Mobile 6 powered device and Exchange Server 2007.
• Synchronization with Windows Vista. Windows Vista™ and the Windows Mobile Device Center take the guesswork out of managing a device and swapping music, pictures, movies and Outlook information between PC and the device.
• Smart calendar bar. This innovative new feature gives users the ability to understand at a glance the day or week ahead and quickly determine open time on their schedules. With Exchange Server 2007, they can see who is attending a meeting and forward or reply to meeting requests.
• Web search, e-mail, instant messaging (IM) and blogging all together. Windows Live for Windows Mobile will provide customers with a rich set of services including Windows Live Hotmail, Windows Live Messenger, Live Search and Windows Live Spaces, uniquely designed to work with Windows Mobile software. Users can also find all their contacts in one unified list and see presence information on their Windows Live Messenger contacts.
• Contacts with context. Call history is now placed where it belongs, in each individual contact card, so people spend less time searching and more time communicating.

Microsoft Windows Mobile 6 Fact Sheet

Together with the launch of the new Dutch MSN portal, Microsoft also launched a digg like site at reporter.msn.nl

This site has apparently been in beta for 2 months and has already been having 800,000 unique visitors a month.

Via: Bink

Comedy lovers can visit MSN Video today to enjoy a dose of humour from one of Ireland’s most famous exports – Ed Byrne.

The comedian from Dublin has created a series of 3-minute stand up clips called Ed Byrne’s Bytes, exclusively for MSN Video. Containing fresh and exciting material, a new clip will be uploaded onto the site each day from Monday 19th February until Friday 2nd March, providing three minutes of light comic relief for anyone who tends to be tied to their computer all day.

Best known for his wickedly funny insights into the everyday and mundane, Ed’s fresh take on everything from builders to bathroom scales, sadistic dental hygienists to cool uncles will have audiences across the UK chuckling into their keyboards.

The clips can be viewed online at video.uk.msn.com and for those who can’t get online each day, they will remain available to view on the site until May. While visiting MSN Video, comedy fans should also take time out to enjoy the best of Jongleurs stand up clips, which will be streamed on site for the next six months.

Ed says: “What better way to spend 3 minutes each day than with me, so everyone should visit MSN Video and take a look. If nothing else, it’s a great way to waste some time at work! Just make sure you listen with your headphones on, so you don’t get caught out!”

Ed Byrne has been doing stand-up since 1993 and was the fastest selling act at the Fringe last year.  A regular guest on 8 out of 10 Cats and Mock the Week, he is currently on tour in the UK with his show ‘Standing Up and Falling Down’.

Is it MSN Hotmail, is it Windows Live Mail? No it’s Windows Live Hotmail.

When the Windows Live Mail Team at Microsoft launch their new mail service worldwide, it will be named Windows Live Hotmail. That’s right, Windows Live Hotmail! Some of you will begin to see the Windows Live Hotmail brand show up in the beta – first in the Microsoft internal version (dogfood) and eventually in the public version in the coming weeks.

As we prepare to launch the final version of our new web mail service, we recognize the importance of ensuring that our 260+ million existing customers come over to the new service smoothly and without confusion. By adopting the name “Windows Live Hotmail”, we believe we’re bringing together the best of both worlds – new and old. We’re able to offer the great new technology that Windows Live has to offer while also bringing the emotional connection many existing and loyal users have with Hotmail.

God knows how this will affect the Windows Live Mail Desktop branding name!

Via: MailCall

It seems that Florence Devourad, chairwoman of the Wikipedia Foundation, has warned the audience this morning at LIFT that they need more funds to keep servers up and running.

“At this point, Wikipedia has the financial ressources to run its servers for about 3 to 4 months. If we do not find additional funding, it is not impossible that Wikipedia might disappear”. The warning by Florence Devouard, chairwoman of the Wikimedia Foundation was certainly dire, and Lift07 was as good a venue to make an appeal. But it is another illustration of how difficult it is to find the proper business model in the digital age, and more precisely in this case in what Florence called the “gift economy”.

Via: Robert Scoble | Via Digitalis

MySpace has launched MyMovie MashUp in partnership with Vertigo Films – a competition to find the best short film director on MySpace. The winner will get to direct a feature film with a budget of over £1 million with the film scheduled for theatrical release in 2008.

Entries will be judged by a distinguished panel of filmmakers and actors who will select five finalists. The finalists then face a public vote by millions of MySpace users to decide the ultimate winner. The lucky winning director will immediately begin production on their feature film…

To enter the competition and win the chance to direct MyMovie Mashup, you need to set up a MySpace page or Filmmaker page. You then need to enter your video through the entry form on the MyMovie MashUp page (available from the 31st January 2007). You must be the director of the video, a legal UK resident and aged 18 or over to enter this competition. You must be available to participate in all aspects of the video development process. If you are the producer of the video you may enter your video into this competition on behalf of the director ensuring that the director is available to participate. Note that the prize is limited only to directors and not to producers unless they also directed the video. Twelve videos will be selected to go to the next stage and pitch to a panel of industry luminaries on a date to be announced. The director will need to be available to participate in the filmmaking process from submission until the video’s premiere in 2008.By posting a video on the MyMovie MashUp page and entering the competition, you agree to adhere to the rules of this competition.

Check it out at: http://www.myspace.com/mymoviemashup

Well as you may or may not know, I’m now an IT Consultant for The Kent IT Clinic (KITC) at Medway which is a University-based IT Consultancy (provided as a University Module) which aims to provide help and expertise to the small and medium enterprise. As well as providing support to small and medium companies, The Kent IT Clinic (KITC) also provides a laptor laptop repair service and other such works to students.

And well the photo below was taken today just before a presentation I had to do with my buddy kevin (the guy on the right) so I thought I would show you our a little sample of what we do in The Kent IT Clinic (KITC)

So hey let us know if there’s any work we can do for you in either the Medway or Canterbury area or anywhere within reasonable travelling distance from the University of Kent at Medway or Canterbury, and we shall see what we can do.

And just in case you were wondering, yes that is Windows Vista and yes that is a Mac with OSX installed.

Microsoft has licensed Netcraft’s Phishing Site Feed for use in its Microsoft Phishing Filter Service, providing users of Internet Explorer 7 protection against the latest phishing attacks reported by the Netcraft Toolbar Community.

Microsoft’s inclusion of Netcraft data in the Microsoft Phishing Filter was announced by Microsoft chairman Bill Gates during his keynote speech today at the RSA Conference in San Francisco, which introduced new security intiatives by Microsoft.

The Netcraft Toolbar Community is a giant neighborhood watch scheme for the Internet, empowering the most alert and security-aware members to defend the rest of the community against phishing frauds, which to date has blocked over 650,000 distinct phishing urls aimed at customers of over 900 institutions. In independent reviews by ZDNet, CNet and academic researchers, the free Netcraft Antiphishing Toolbar has been found to be more effective than antiphishing tools in IE7, Firefox 2 and other toolbars.

In the February 2007 survey we received responses from 108,810,358 sites, an increase of 1.93 million from last month. Apache has a decline of 442K sites this month, and sees its share of the web server market slip by 1.47 percent to 58.7 percent. This is the first time Apache’s market share has been below 60 percent since September 2002.

Microsoft-IIS gain 935K sites, continuing an advance that has seen Microsoft steadily chip away at what once seemed an insurmountable lead for Apache. In our Feb. 2006 survey, Apache held 68% market share, giving it lead of 47.5% over Windows (20.5% share). In this month’s survey, Microsoft’s share has improved to 31.0%, narrowing Apache’s advantage to 27.7%.