I really like the custom tags idea that Microsoft is enabling via their Microsoft Tag technology. The idea is that you can take the same concept as the original Microsoft Tags and overlay them on pictures. You can also replace the triangles with dots. The result is a whole new set of marketing opportunities...

For those interested in what Outlook 2010 is shaping up to look like, here’s a few screenshots from the Microsoft PressPass Image Gallery. You may have read our post on Exchange 2010 a few days back. Whilst we were mostly critical of the increasing reliance on email, we also made mention of some of...

I agree with Joe Wilcox and his take on the current position Microsoft finds itself in: a very difficult one. Times are tough. Interesting then, that announcing a drop in revenue last week resulted in an increase in stock price. I’m no stock analyst and I’m not going to event try to understand...

Further to my post yesterday, I thought I’d dig a little deeper into some of the applications taking advantage of the new Facebook Open Stream API (announced on Monday).  This video from CNET is a wonderful demonstration from Microsoft’s Brian Goldfarb where he shows two Open Stream enabled...

It’s a big day of Service Pack Releases from Microsoft, with the following being made available today: Office 2007 SP2 Office 2007 continues to improve with a substantial list of enhancements and fixes. Whilst every product in the Office suite has received attention, the major focus (as we’ve mentioned...

Well this one certainly hasn’t had the hype that Windows 7, IE8 or Windows Mobile 6.5 has experienced. And perhaps you aren’t exactly sure what BizTalk is yourself. You wouldn’t be alone. BizTalk is one of Microsoft’s enterprise tools, and has been powering away for almost a decade. It’s now...

I’m really excited about the upcoming Windows 7 RC availability (who isn’t?). As the Windows 7 Team blog announced on Friday, it should be appearing on MSDN on 30 April, with the public release to follow on 5 May. I’ll be downloading it straight away, as will millions of others I’m sure. What’ll...

Good to see some credible rumours about Windows 7 being published. May 5 seems to be the day when Windows 7 RC goes public (and hopefully earlier for MSDN and TechNet subscribers). A week later on May 11 Windows Mobile 6.5 might be released (or perhaps not). But before those releases we’ll have Office...

Most of us have a love/hate relationship with email. In spite of all its problems, email is still the main communication mechanism of corporate existence. That’s despite the spam, incessant interruptions and lack of proper tracking functionality. I wonder if you’ve considered how insidious email...

Most Australian’s won’t have had the fortune of seeing Deadliest Catch – it’s a show where a bunch of blokes do blokey things on ships that are always caught in The Perfect Storm while trying to catch crabs. No joke. I’ve seen an episode and thought it was the biggest load of drivel I’ve...

Thanks to those wonderful folk at Soul Solutions I was notified of an update to the Virtual Earth 3D control. You simply head over to Live Search Maps and click on 3D. You’ll be prompted to install the control if you don’t have it already.   But before we go on, a quick gripe first. After...

Time to check in on the daily Windows 7 RC rumours and yet again we’re in for a treat. If much of the Twitter buzz is true then the RC will be released on April 10. What a wonderful way to spend the long weekend (Australia has a 4 day weekend starting Friday), reformatting my machine and loading on...

Just a quick link to the download (approx 900MB) for SQL Server 2008 SP1 which was released earlier this week. The release is predominantly a bug fix release (you can view the full list of fixes here). There’s nothing really new in the product itself, although install (via slipstreaming) and uninstall...

More on Surface, this time with Health Care taking the focus (see also our earlier post on Surface in Education). At the annual HIMSS Health Care conference this week, Microsoft is demonstrating a number of health care scenarios with Microsoft Surface (along with Amalga and HealthVault technologies). You...

Michael Kordahi may yet turn me back to Internet Explorer (I’ve been living in FireFox and Chrome for the last few months). His ‘3 minute’ series kicks off with how to add a web slice to your page. It’s so easy, even I could do it! (see the Featured section on this site’s home page –...

Its been a good week for rumours with the Google-Twitter discussion generating a lot of interest on the interwebs. So, it  must be time to re-stoke some other rumours – how about the Windows 7 release date rumours again. This time the suggestion is for a September RTM according to today’s Windows...

It’s not until you get to the end of Mary Jo’s excellent summary of Microsoft Office ‘versions’ that you hit the gold. It’s all about Silverlight. Well, in my mind at least. The Silverlight 3 details announced at MIX last month are exciting in their own right, especially the opportunities for...

According to StatCounter, FireFox 3.0 is now more popular than IE7 in Europe. Here’s the graph based on usage from weeks 4 to 13 this year (we are currently in week 14 as I write this). The green arrow is where Firefox has just overtaken IE. The red arrow down the bottom is pointing at the uptake...

Perception is a funny thing. I’ve sometimes said that ‘perception is reality’ – meaning that it doesn’t matter what the reality is, all that matters is what people think the reality is. Take web browsing speed for example. Someone applies a patch to IE8 that they are informed will speed it...

Ars Technica (who I love reading by the way) have a surprising piece on kids using Microsoft Surface. Surprising because it seems as though the writer has only just cottoned on to the fact that Microsoft is making a big push into the education sector. For those interest I covered some of the Surface...