Entries tagged with beta - Channel 10

SideShow for Windows Mobile Beta

sarahintampa — Mon, 09 Jun 2008 08:14:00 GMT

Windows SideShow for Windows Mobile Developers Preview is software that runs on your Windows Mobile 5 or 6 device that lets you use your phone as a Bluetooth SideShow-compatible device. With SideShow, you can access info on your PC and control some of your computer’s functions. You can check your email or calendar, run a PowerPoint presentation, browse your tunes, and much more. You should be aware that “developers preview” means “beta,” and this app is still very much a beta – version 0.01 – but those who have been testing it so far have found it to be problem-free so far. To see some more photos, check out Chris Craft’s screenshot gallery on his blog. (story via/img via the::unwired)

Get Ready for IE8 Public Beta

sarahintampa — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 08:37:00 GMT

A post on Nick MacKechnie's blog reminds us that the public beta of IE8 is just around the corner - third quarter of 2008 to be exact. When this happens, there will be tons of new users trying out the browser for the first time. Thanks to popular demand, IE8 switches on the standards-compliant mode by default, which means sites that have been coded to work with previous versions of IE may display differently. For website owners that means you'll need to make sure your site is ready. To help you prepare, you can access the Internet Explorer 8 Readiness Toolkit online, which is a great resource for both web designers and developers. The site offers up information about the new features, the release notes, resources and links, and, most importantly, a great big list of testing tools you can use to make sure your site works with the new IE browser.

Xobni Makes Your Inbox a Social Network

sarahintampa — Mon, 12 May 2008 17:54:00 GMT

Last week, the startup Xobni launched their public beta, so now everyone can get their hands on the Outlook plugin that turns your inbox into a social network. Xobni (that's "inbox" backwards!), taps into the hidden social network you spend time with every day: your inbox. The plugin runs in a sidebar where it analyzes and extracts info about you and your relationships.

During their private beta, they tweaked several things, fixed bugs, and even decided to streamline the plugin a bit by removing the "organize" tab, instead choosing to focus on their core product's offerings - super-fast search and relationship management. Using Xobni, you have access to features like threaded conversations, analytics, user profiles, a "related people" feature, shared attachments, and other automatically extracted info - like phone numbers for your contacts. To get in on the Xobni public beta, just visit the Xobni homepage and sign up.

Office Labs is Live

sarahintampa — Fri, 09 May 2008 16:58:00 GMT

A new web site called Office Labs has just gone live. Here, you will find all sorts of projects, prototypes, proof-of-concepts, downloads, and more, all of which are centered around productivity. The site features tools for the Microsoft Office system and SharePoint, too. To get the launch started with a bang, Office Labs is already offering a bunch of cool projects you'll want to check out, including the following:

Community Clips - Community Clips is a place where you can find "how to" videos made by other users like yourself; you can also easily create your own.
Search Commands - This is quite possibly the hottest of the current Office Labs offerings, considering how strong user demand was for just this sort of tool. Search Commands is an experiment designed to see if search is an effective way for you to find commands in complex software applications. You can download the Search Commands add-in into your Microsoft Office 2007 installation and begin using it today to help you find the command you need.
InkSeine - A tool for Tablet PC users, InkSeine offers an innovative new interface for pen input
Task Market - This is an online marketplace that can help you find freelancers skilled in graphic design, writing, editing, translation, and more.
SharePointPedia - SharePointPedia is social community application that can help you find useful info about SharePoint technologies, tools, tips and tricks.

To stay up-to-date on all the latest news from Office Labs, you can follow the new Office Labs blog, available here.

Windows Speech Recognition Macros Tool Beta

sarahintampa — Mon, 05 May 2008 14:22:00 GMT

The Microsoft Speech team just announced the introduction of a new Windows Speech Recognition Macros tool (WSRMacros) which lets you create macros that are triggered by spoken commands. Macros can record a series of actions on your computer, which can be as simple as entering in your mailing address, or as complex as to allow you to interact with various applications via speech.

The tool is currently in "pre-beta" (hey, isn't that alpha?), and they want to hear your feedback about it at release notes and you can follow all the news from the team on their blog.

Who wants to bet that someone is recording a macro right now that involves them saying "Computer, Show Map On Screen," or "Computer, Tea, Earl Grey. Hot." ...Oh right, that's me.

MapCruncher: A Virtual Earth Mashup Tool

sarahintampa — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 17:12:00 GMT

MapCruncher is a Microsoft Research project which uses the Virtual Earth API to import entire supplemental maps into Virtual Earth. By supplemental maps, they mean any drawn-to-scale maps you can find, be they bicycle maps, transit maps, national park maps, university maps, or antique city maps, just to show a few examples. But not only that, you can use MapCruncher to add your very own, Do-It-Yourself Aerial Photography to Virtual Earth, too. Their Gallery has even more examples of this.

The process of importing your own maps they call "crunching," hence the name "MapCruncher." To use MapCruncher, you just import your map then find 5-10 corresponding landmarks on your map and VE. MapCruncher will then register your map to global coordinate system and generate a set of image tiles based on your map and mash them up with VE's road and aerial imagery.

MapCruncher support both vector formats (PDF, WMF, EMF) and raster formats (JPG, PNG, TIFF, GIF, BMP). To view a mashup, you'll need IE6, IE7, or Firefox version 1.5 or higher.

To download MapCruncher click here unless you need it for a commercial application, in which case you will need to visit this page instead.

Panoramic View of Your Desktop

sarahintampa — Thu, 20 Dec 2007 15:01:00 GMT

360Desktop is a new software app that lets you see your Windows Desktop in a whole new way - as a user-generated, panoramic space, which scrolls around in a circular manner. This gives you the experience of having a virtually unlimited desktop, as you can open programs and windows and then spin to the "other side" of your desktop to have more space. You can further customize your desktop with web apps, widgets, RSS feeds, AJAX start pages, and any part of any web page. Even better, the web content placed on your 360Desktop can be viewed independently from your web browser. The download will be free - forever, the company promises. Announced at the DEMO conference, the download is not available yet, but you can sign up to be a member of the beta program if you're interested in testing it out. The software will work on Windows XP and Vista computers.

Red vs Blue welcome you to Halo 3

Nic — Thu, 17 May 2007 04:40:00 GMT

Now that the Halo 3 launch date has been announced and the Halo 3 Multiplayer Beta is up and running what better was to celebrate than with an introduction to the game by the Red vs Blue team.

Beta Complex
http://rvb.roosterteeth.com/viewEntry.php?id=427

Good to see Red team up to their old tricks :)

Halo 3 beta date announced - are you in?

Tina — Tue, 10 Apr 2007 10:00:00 GMT

We know you're crazy for Halo 3 news, and here it is. The multiplayer Halo 3 beta will debut on Xbox Live, May 16th at 5AM. (Can I call in sick 5 weeks in advance?) How do you get on that beta? Either through the "Rule of Three" promotion or buying a copy of Crackdown for Xbox 360.

This is your chance to get to try new levels, weapons, vehicles, and try out some new game types. Maps shipping with the beta include Snowbound, Hugh Ground, and Valhalla - all new to Halo 3. Try your hand at the new Mongoose ATV, and gun-up with the new and improved Assault Rifle, Brute Spiker, Spike Grenades, and the killer Spartan Laser.

And this is just a taste of what will be in Halo 3!

And if you're just so curious about Halo 3 that you've recently been put on anxiety medication then check out some behind-the-scenes videos at bungie.net or in HD over Xbox LIVE Marketplace.