Kurt Shintaku's Blog

Microsoft has introduced Microsoft Interactive Media Manager, a next-generation digital content management solution that combines digital workflows and media application integration with a collaborative front-end environment.

The solution, an extension of Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007, is designed specifically for the media and entertainment industry, including film and post-production studios, broadcasters, game developers, publishers, and advertising and marketing agencies. ‘As the digital era continues to alter the industry, we’re seeing the walls between previously disparate functions beginning to crumble as the strengths of IT are increasingly relevant and needed in the creative side of the house,’ said Gabriele Di Piazza, managing director for Media and Entertainment in the Communications Sector at Microsoft.

‘Interactive Media Manager is a solution that spans those two formerly distinct worlds, automating the gaps that exist in the workflow process to create a fluid handoff between tasks and individuals’.

Interactive Media Manager is a server-based product that provides a Web-based interface for accessing and interacting with media files.

The solution provides powerful tools for quickly building complex workflows, monitoring the performance of those workflows and facilitating the reviews and approvals in the workflow process by pushing tasks and forms directly to the recipient’s Microsoft Office Outlook inbox or to an RSS feed.

Interactive Media Manager supports Internet Explorer, Firefox and Safari on Windows as well as Mac OS.

Read more here:
http://www.manufacturingtalk.com/news/mie/mie265.html

One the key technologies in Windows Mobile that may people don’t think about because they take it for granted is "tap twice" and "tap & hold".
– You might "tap twice" to get a different function on the screen or from a hardware button.
– You usually "tap & hold" to get a "right-mouse button click menu" from the screen interface.

It’s a great way to add new "Z" dimension to the traditional point & click interface.  But these won’t be features of Blackberry, Apple iPhone, or any Symbian/Linux based device… because it’s patented. 

I’d forgotten about this article:  It was from back in 2004 when the patent was finalized.

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Microsoft Wins Patent for Handheld Computer Click
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Computer users with itchy trigger fingers take note: The next time you open a software program with two quick clicks on a handheld computer you may be engaging in a process patented by Microsoft Corp (MSFT.O: Quote, Profile, Research) .

The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office on April 27 granted a patent for a "time based hardware button for application launch" in which a click of a button can start different programs if it is clicked once, twice or held down for several seconds.

That’s a process familiar to countless computer users who have double-clicked their way through Microsoft’s Windows operating system, as well as anyone who’s tried to set the time on a digital watch.

Mouse-wielding computer users need not worry, as the patent only applies to handheld computers which run Microsoft’s PocketPC software — specifically the method of bringing up different features depending on how many times a button is pressed.

http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml;jsessionid=2LJ3UKCKMXMTQCRBAEKSFFA?type=technologyNews&storyID=5349157

I’ve noticed that there’s a lot of people that own Motorola Q’s or Samsung Blackjacks but have installed virtually nothing on them outside of email, calendar and contacts.  I think this is either because they don’t really know about what’s available or they don’t want to pay for any new software unless they know it’ll work on their device.  (Probably more the former than the later) 

So to get everyone started, here’s a list of completely free yet great software for your Windows Mobile-based Samsung Blackjack or Motorola Q that I’ve collected over the last year or so.  All software is downloaded and installed from your desktop PC while your device is connected unless otherwise specified.

If you’re looking for commercial software, check out http://everythingq.com/.

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Connected Bits Weather (FREE)

You can view the current weather info, the forecast for the entire week, and you can drill down on a forecasted day to view additional details. For the BlackJack you should pick up the Smartphone WM5 – Beta 1 CAB file.  To use the application you simply need to select a city out of a list of about 50+, or you can enter any valid US zip code. The application remembers your selection the next time you fire the program up, so only if you want to view the weather in another city will you have to select a city/zip again.

DOWNLOAD:  http://weather.connectedbits.com/

Please Note:  This application requires .Net Compact Framework 2.0 which if you do not have can be picked up on the Microsoft web site here.
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=0c1b0a88-59e2-4eba-a70e-4cd851c5fcc4&DisplayLang=en

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SleepWell! for WM Smartphones (FREE)

The application allows you to schedule the phone module to turn off and on automatically. Advantages of this would be the ability of extending the battery life and eliminating the phone from ringing at bad times (ex. over night while you are sleeping).

SleepWell! adds a new functionality of automatic turning Off and On the phone module in accordance to your time plan. Events can be scheduled based on definite time, dates and days of the week. It is very convenient, because the workday schedule and weekend and holiday schedule can differ. The program has an ability to activate and deactivate scheduled events. There is no need to delete and create them again.

DOWNLOAD:  http://www.connectivetools.com/sleepwell.html

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A Better Calculator (FREE)

Simply put, a calculator that looks like a calculator on the Smartphone.

DOWNLOAD FROM POCKET INTERNET EXPLORER:  http://www.airfagev.com/apps/gCalc_v1.0_SP.CAB

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Total Commander File Explorer for Windows Smartphone (FREE)

This is essentially a File Explorer for the Smartphone that allows you to move files around the OS.. The application is a file manager that allows you to do lots of things including changing file properties (example: change read only or system file attributes on and off) and moving and deleting files. You can pick-up the latest version for your BlackJack here (It’s a CAB, so copy it to your phone and then using using your File Explorer found in StartApplications simply open it to install).

http://www.ghisler.com/smartphone.htm

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Mapping Software – "Maps from Windows Live Search" (FREE)

The fastest, easiest way to get more of the Maps and Local info you want on your phone. Download directly to your mobile device by going to http://wls.live.com on your device’s browser. Available now for the US and the UK.  Live Search for mobile (Windows Mobile phones – go to wls.live.com for a list of compatible devices) brings you new ways to find and view Local information and Maps on your phone so you can:

• Click your way to your destination without having to type in any text. Find and map all the Italian restaurants near you; or get maps to your friend’s, your office, your dentist, etc. Browse through Local listing categories from activities to taxis to hotels to health clubs.
• Your search results include phone numbers, addresses, and an estimated distance from you. Click to call for an immediate connection.
• Find maps with directions to and from a specific address—choose a 2D or Satellite map*
• View traffic information for major roads in selected cities*+

http://mobile.search.live.com/about/download/default.aspx

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Vieka Wordpad for Smartphone (FREE)

Small yet feature-rich, Vieka WordPad provides a complete wordpad for editing text file on your Smartphone with Open/Save/Save As for any text files anywhere on your Smartphone.

It includes simple file management functions such as New Folder/Rename/Delete, edit functions that you are familiar with, such as Cut/Copy/Paste/Undo/Select/Select All/Clear All, and search functions that you are accustomed to, such as Find/Replace/Replace All.  Editing wise, it also include font change and word wrap for easy viewing, customizable elements for quick phrase editing and customizable templates for preset template editing.

http://vieka.com/wordpad.htm

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3D Golf (FREE)

Hit the links with Nine Hole Golf, a challenging 3D game, perfect for playing wherever you are. Choose from six animated characters and three luxurious courses, each with a distinct climate and landscape. Plus, compete with your friends by adding up to four players to one game. Register now and find your swing.

DESCRIPTION:  http://www.microsoft.com/windowsmobile/domore/games.mspx

DOWNLOAD FOR Q/BLACKJACK:  http://go.microsoft.com/?linkid=6075895

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Pocket Express (6 months free)

Enjoy access to breaking news, local weather, stocks, up-to-the-minute sports scores and stats, maps and turn-by-turn driving directions, horoscopes, and even movie show times in one simple mobile option. Download it today and enjoy it free for 6-months ($41.94 Value)**. You will require an internet connection to access the services provided by Pocket Express.

DESCRIPTION:  http://www.microsoft.com/windowsmobile/domore/applications.mspx

DOWNLOAD FOR Q/BLACKJACK: http://go.microsoft.com/?linkid=6307329

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Ilium Screen Capture (FREE)

The program will allow you to take screenshots on your Q or BlackJack and of course works on the landscape screen.

http://www.iliumsoft.com/site/fp/screen_capture.htm

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Smoresoft Sudoku (FREE)

This is a simple Sudoku program with clean and legible graphics, manual and automatic pencil marks, and is optimized for single-handed use.  It works with all Windows Mobile® Smartphones (2003/2003SE/5.0) and supports any screen size (including QVGA).

It has a full-screen mode (ideal for square and landscape screens), automatically saves and loads the game in progress, and optionally keeps the backlight on while playing.  There are also downloadable puzzle packs and puzzle stats.

http://www.smoresoft.com/sudoku/

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PHM Registry Editor (FREE)

The Registry Editor allow you to edit your Smartphone registry where all its configuration and tweeks are stored.  It allow you to do the following tasks :

• Explore the registry to find the operating system and applications configuration.
• Modify system and applications tweeks not available from the standard options screens.
• Export all or parts of the registry to .reg files.
• Backup and restore the complete registry.
• Perform search on the registry data.

http://www.phm.lu/products/Smartphone/RegEdit/

This patch was released to the web last Friday as ‘This update fixes a problem in which a calendar item that is marked as private is opened if it is found by using the Search Desktop feature.  The update also fixes performance issues that occur when you work with items in a large .pst file or .ost file.’.

Basically, it’s a patch to fix some of the performance problems reported on the Internet around Outlook 2007.  It’ll require a reboot.

DOWNLOAD: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=C262BCFD-1E09-49B6-9003-C4C47539DF66&displaylang=en

Awwwwwyeah.  Now you can play World of Warcraft while in traffic on the 405.  And it’s got a DVD player, FM tuner, Wireless Ethernet, Touch screen, Bluetooth, USB ports & PC Card slots… DAMN!

If you ask me, any care that has this would be a pimpin’ ride.  $999.  Word to y’mutha.

Lilliput In-Dash Car PC DVD + VGA Touch Screen Monitor
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=300058182907

Before you mock it, check the bullet points:

*Car PC
*Media Player: DVD, VCD, CD, MP3 (Off OS)
*208W x 177H x 54Dmm
*Wireless Internet Access (Optional with PCMCIA Card)
*DVB-T Player (Optional with USB Accessories)
*Remote Control
*CPU Up to 1Ghz
*Memory Up to 1GB
*HDD Up to 80GB
*Front Panel USB, MIC, EAR Port
*Back Panel USB, MIC, EAR, LAN, PS2 Port
*Portable & Handy, Easy for Installation
*Low Power Consumption
*Antivibration Design
*Anti Noise Design
*Special Heat-elimination Design

Features:

Specifications:

How about a real-time traffic gadget?
Or a gadget that shows you your latest mail in Outlook?
Or a gadget that shows you your network throughput in a graph?

Here are the latest additions to my gadget collection along with links to the download site so you can install them yourself:

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Traffic by Live Search Maps
Don’t get stuck in gridlock or be late to your next appointment. Traffic by Live Search Maps is a quick and simple way to see real-time traffic conditions in your area. Shortcuts to driving directions, local search or full-screen traffic view on maps.live.com are also easily available from the gadget. All information within this gadget can also be found at maps.live.com. Metro area traffic currently supported in this gadget: Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Denver, Detroit, Houston, Los Angeles, Milwaukee, New York, Oklahoma City, Philadelphia, Phoenix, Pittsburgh, Portland, Providence, Sacramento, Salt Lake City, San Diego, San Francisco, Seattle, St Louis, Tampa, Washington DC.
DOWNLOAD:  http://gallery.live.com/liveItemDetail.aspx?li=d5ad423c-05bd-4de4-8803-b05ecc339397&l=1

Mini Outlook Inbox – v2.0
Your Inbox messages on your sidebar. Read your email from the sidebar via a flyout. You don’t even need to have Outlook open! Incudes the ability to create, reply delete, and forward email. You can now monitor folders other than the inbox. Clicking a message header displays the message body in a flyout. Some instances of Outlook will dispay a security warning asking for permission to get the sender and body of the message. There is a workaround add-in at mapilab.com/outlook/security/. That lets you supress these warnings. Download the latest version now! This one can practically replace Outlook’s email capabilities, no more need to keep it open.
DOWNLOAD:  http://gallery.live.com/liveItemDetail.aspx?li=21ce0cf7-c129-4308-aca9-a82aaf66437a&l=1

Siemens Sports Gadget
The Siemens Sports Gadget tracks sports scores in real time for major sports like NCAAB, NBA, MLB and more.

DOWNLOAD:  http://gallery.live.com/liveItemDetail.aspx?li=97513d51-fb05-450a-b38c-8b5f4de557de&l=1&wa=wsignin1.0

Amazon Explorer
A powerful Amazon.com search tool that enables you to locate the lowest price of the item you’re looking for quickly and easily.
DOWNLOAD:  http://gallery.live.com/liveItemDetail.aspx?li=34b5edb7-eb3b-4027-8948-b9f21d3208cb&l=1

Daily Dilbert
Daily Dilbert is a simple Windows Vista sidebar gadget which delivers the daily dilbert cartoon on your desktop.
DOWNLOAD:  http://gallery.live.com/liveItemDetail.aspx?li=c6f0ebbb-64a4-4a18-b375-e72a0bd76bc0&l=1

Multi Meter (Dual Core)
Info shown: – Cpu usage % ( 2 cores ) – Ram Usage % – Ram info ( Total, used, left size) – Status bars animated above 90% – 100 Skins + background selection – Help and email support included – Shortcut options Latest fix: – Undocked version – Interval speed option – Skin counter – Bug fixes
DOWNLOAD:  http://gallery.live.com/liveItemDetail.aspx?li=f5b13626-b266-4334-b2e5-157bd66ca5af&l=1

Network Utilization
Double click to toggle between history/current graphs, hover over the scale % to reveal the scale in MB. On the Settings page, you can change the NIC being monitored, the interval rate, graph history and how often it should rescale the history graph. v1.1 adds Gadget docked/undocked scale options, fixed history scale and bar history graph.
DOWNLOAD:  http://gallery.live.com/liveItemDetail.aspx?li=53941b50-77eb-42ab-8533-a3d9c841c988&l=1

Drive Info
You can select any drive connected to your system to display information about the drive. Drive letter and name heads the gadget. Displays space used and free in GB and percentage. Also has a usage bar on the bottom to graphically show the drive space usage.
DOWNLOAD:  http://gallery.live.com/liveItemDetail.aspx?li=a5caf5ec-7004-46e8-8872-762a0f6cba7f&l=1&wa=wsignin1.0

System Information
Displays your computer’s model, processor, RAM, graphics card and operating system information.
DOWNLOAD:  http://gallery.live.com/liveItemDetail.aspx?li=420af7f6-4a1b-4995-bd1d-97b3bd1ec7d7&l=1

iStat
Monitor battery usage. Shows time remaining when battery is draining. Includes 5 skins
DOWNLOAD:  http://gallery.live.com/liveItemDetail.aspx?li=633ce49f-84d0-472b-8e94-b467ca5877a0&l=1

Well, looks like we finally got around to releasing some XPS support for Windows Vista & Windows XP/Server 2003.  Now users can index .XPS documents as well as preview them in Outlook 2007/Windows Explorer just like any other document.

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Microsoft XML Paper Specification Essentials Pack

With the XPS Essentials Pack you can quickly begin reading and generating XPS Documents. It contains XPS Viewer EP to read XPS Documents and the Microsoft XPS Document Writer to output files to the XPS Document format.

Additionally, the XPS Essentials Pack download includes providers to enable the iPreview and iFilter capabilities found in many Windows applications. Windows shell handlers are also included to enable thumbnail views and file properties for XPS Documents.

DOWNLOAD:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=b8dcffdd-e3a5-44cc-8021-7649fd37ffee&displaylang=en&tm

Tired of getting tons of hits in your Outlook search?  Want to find a specific email that you’d sent to someone containing a specific word from the search pane?

ADVANCED OUTLOOK 2007 SEARCHES
In either the Windows Vista search field or within Outlook 2007’s search box, type in:

To: [recipient name] AND [keyword(s)]
For example: 
     To: John Smith AND gadget Vista

Or type:

Sent: [Today/Yesterday] AND From: [recipient name]
Sent: [Today/Yesterday] AND To: [recipient name]
For example:  
     Sent: Today AND To: John Smith
   (This would display every mail sent to John Smith today.)

There’s a lot of other advanced parameters that you can use against email & document searches that are documented here:
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/desktopsearch/addresources/advanced.mspx

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ADVANCED WINDOWS MEDIA PLAYER SEARCHES
By the way, this also works for finding the name of a song you have stored somewhere.  Using Windows Vista search, you can use several keywords to find the name of a song based on several criteria:

Composer:
Artist:
Album:

More media content search parameters can be found here:
http://windowshelp.microsoft.com/Windows/en-US/Help/e3a27361-8d1e-458f-98b1-b01531dedae51033.mspx.

Don’t forget that the AND, OR and NOT operators work as well.

WAIT.  I know you have no idea what HDR photography is but watch this and you’ll get the idea:
(HDR stands for "High Dynamic Range")

If you’ve been in any art or photo studios recently, you know that high dynamic range photography & artwork has been all the rage these days. 

High Dynamic Range photography is basically just normal photos that are unique because it’s imagery is always visible and clear while maintaining an extreme range of color & brightness.  No one detail is every "washed out" because it’s too bright and overexposed, and no one detail is ever "blacked out" because it’s too dark from underexposure.

It normally requires a lot of work and artistry to accomplish this, but using the technique above discovered by Microsoft Research, one can create high dynamic range photos with very little effort at all using a tool similar to a tool in Adobe Photoshop.

Details & a whitepaper are available at the link below:
http://research.microsoft.com/research/pubs/view.aspx?0rc=p&type=technical+report&id=1280

One of the coolest features of Windows Vista is "Guided Help".  It’s a feature that enables the computer to literally, step-by-step, show the individual how to accomplish a task that they look up in Windows Vista’s Help system.

WINDOWS VISTA… ASSISTS USERS WITH GUIDED HELP!
The OS actually takes control of your mouse, moves the pointer, and clicks on the display to open windows, select features, and basically show the user how to do what it is they want.

There’s a demonstration of this feature in this video here:
http://images.soapbox.msn.com/flash/soapbox1_1.swf
Video: COOL! Vista Guided Help Demonstration

Wanna try it yourself?  It’s easy.  Let’s say you want to have the "My Computer" icon on your desktop like in Windows XP but you can’t figure out how.

1. Go to START and click HELP & SUPPORT.
2. In the SEARCH HELP field at the top, type "show desktop icons".
3. Select "Show or hide common icons on the desktop (Guided Help)" from the list of possible results.
4. Select "Do it automatically" and watch Windows perform your task for you.

EXPANDING THE LIBRARY OF GUIDED HELP FOR WINDOWS VISTA
The question I get from IT professional types immediately after showing this feature is, can we expand the library of guided help in Windows Vista and the answer is yes.  As a matter of fact, if you want to expand your library, there already are additional Guided Help modules you can download from Microsoft Support. 

For example:  Let’s say you wanted to disable 3rd party tool bands in Internet Explorer like the Google Toolbar or Yahoo Toolbar.  You would find this KB article available:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/298931

In this article is a link to a downloadable executable that adds a Guided Help module to your Windows Vista system that walks you through the process of disabling 3rd party tool bands.

Here’s at least 30 or so other downloadable Guided Help modules available:
http://support.microsoft.com/search/default.aspx?catalog=LCID%3D1033&spid=global&query="guided+help"&adv=&mode=r&cat=False

CREATING YOUR OWN GUIDED HELP FOR WINDOWS VISTA
Next question is always, "How do I create my OWN Guided Help?"  Good question.  It turns out that there’s a tutorial on how to do this:
http://blogs.msdn.com/activecontentwizard/archive/2006/08/25/Authoring-a-Guided-Help-topic.aspx

And in the tradition of the Guided Help team, they have a nice video on how to build a Guided Help topic: 

AND NOW, SOME COMMENTARY… JUST BECAUSE I CAN
What’s really sick is that we had this technology back in 1989.  It was called Visual Test which was basically a companion product to Visual Basic and the other Visual development tools we had. 

We sold it off a development tools firm later on, probably because it was a bit ragged at the edged and originally created to just be a regression testing tool we built internally and just designed to package up and monetize.  I should know:  I bought the thing while I worked for Hewlett Packard back in the days when it was all about Windows 2.0 & Windows 386.

But it worked.  You could create and record your own "script" simply by moving your mouse around, typing on the keyboard, and having Visual Test record and macro-ize everything you were doing, so that you could edit the script then play it all back.  It was pretty impressive actually:  You could record scripts on the basis of windows/object names (so that the windows didn’t have to be exactly in the same spot over and over again) or you could record them on the basis of absolute location on the display, meaning everything had to be in exactly the right location.And you could compile the script into an .EXE so that it could be distributed and used against any test system.

And here we are, in 2007, slapping the name "Active Content Wizard" or something like that, and putting the damned automation engine into Windows.  WELL IT’S ABOUT TIME.