Microsoft News Tracker

Vivek Jhaveri explains how at the WinFS Team Blog:

As some of you may have discovered there is a set of applications on the WinFS CD. Some of these are officially “unsupported”, but are included because they demonstrate some of the capabilities of the WinFS platform.

I’m going to describe Microsoft Rave, which is one such application. A little background – I work on WinFS Synchronization, and last year was tasked with building an application that the WinFS team could use to “self host” the sync features. Self-hosting is what product development teams do by internally deploying our code so that we have a day-to-day feel for the product. The idea is to have the product team go through the experiences a customer is likely to encounter, and so help ship a better product.

Microsoft Rave is designed to make it easy to synchronize your data using WinFS. You can synchronize between multiple computers running WinFS, and also between different users, while granting access to only those you want to synchronize your data with. WinFS has the ability to synchronize any of your data (Contacts, Email, Documents, Photos etc) regardless of which application created it. Rave allows you to select your data using Windows Explorer, and set it up for synchronization. You can then invite your friends and colleagues who have also installed WinFS to synchronize your data. Thus, you can share out your photos, contacts, and documents easily and have changes to them automatically replicated to others.
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When I consider what it would take to develop a peer-to-peer application like Rave in the absence of a powerful storage platform like WinFS, I think “several years” rather than the several months that it actually took. Hopefully this post helped describe why – no other general purpose store or file system provides the synchronization support, data change notifications, and security that WinFS does. Implementing a peer-to-peer data synchronization application like Rave in absence of these services would have been a daunting undertaking indeed.

WinFS as described at the 2003 PDC had a number of game changers and synchronization is one of them.

Robert Scoble visits Bill Gates in his office and the video is on Channel 9:

Visit Bill in his office for a few minutes to talk about where he sees the future going. This is a fun interview, prepares you for the PDC that’s coming next week. It’s going to be a fun next week, make sure to come back on Tuesday when we’ll have tons of videos from teams showing off their secret stuff for the first time. Next Tuesday morning not only will his keynote at the Professional Developer Conference be broadcast live (it’ll be on Bill’s webcasts page on Tuesday), but we’ll have a bunch of videos all week long.

Martin LaMonica at CNET - Microsoft Web plan takes aim at Google:

Microsoft will take aim at rival Google next week with a new Web development plan.

The software company plans to open access to its MSN and other public Web sites to let developers assemble new applications that build on those sites–a technique used successfully at Google and at other Web companies to promote their properties.

Microsoft will detail its “Web platform” strategy at its Professional Developers Conference in Los Angeles next week, company executives told CNET News.com. It intends to publish the application programming interfaces, or APIs, to some of its public Web sites, including MSN Search, and deliver better tools to write those applications.

The goal: to embrace the emerging model, often called Web 2.0 or the programmable Web, where new applications are built using pieces of existing, public Web sites.

More by following the link. This sounds like one of those ever nimble MSN initiatives.

Adam Nathan is providing it in Announcing www.winfxhearts.com!

To correspond with my PDC talk about making an application “light up” on Windows Vista, I’ve created www.winfxhearts.com. This site has a ClickOnce link that enables you can play a version of my new & improved Internet Hearts game.

Hit the links for screenshots and details.

Xbox Live Offers New Levels, Features and Premium Retail Packs to Supercharge Online Gaming Experiences on Xbox 360:

Microsoft Corp. today announced that the next generation of online multiplayer gaming service Xbox Live® will be available in North America on the Xbox 360™ video game and entertainment system starting this holiday. In addition to the free Xbox Live Silver membership available to every Xbox 360 owner, for only $49.99 (U.S.) or $79.99 (CDN)* gamers can amplify their gaming experience with a 12-month Xbox Live Gold membership. Gamers looking for a truly engaging and immersive online multiplayer experience can pick up one of the Xbox Live Premium Gold Packs, which include the new Xbox 360 Headset, Xbox Live Arcade games, Microsoft® Points for use in Xbox Live Marketplace, and mail-in rebates for up to $20 (U.S.) off any Xbox 360 game.

Microsoft also today announced that credit cards will no longer be required to create an account on Xbox Live for Xbox 360, removing one of the biggest barriers to entry. Gamers can purchase 12-month Xbox Live subscription cards via cash or other payment methods at any participating retail store. Subscriptions will also be available for purchase by credit card in one-month, three-month and 12-month increments through the Xbox Live Dashboard.

More details by following the link.