The day started off with meeting the fellow bloggers, the PR people and Ian Moulster who is a Product Manager at Microsoft UK. We were given a brief for the day that included 2 challenges for us bloggers; the first was to take photos from the London Eye and then ask our Twitter followers to name the building we photo’d and from where we too the photo, the second challenge was to make a PowerPoint about the day using the photos we took.

On board the London Eye we had to take photos of:

- St Paul’s Cathedral

- The BT Tower

- The Battersea Power Station

- The Shard

These photos were then stored on SkyDrive and shared to Twitter. I was at an advantage to the bloggers who didn’t have a Windows Phone as I could share my photo to Twitter and have it automatically save it SkyDrive. People using alternative devices had to upload the photo to SkyDrive and then share it to Twitter manually.

It is very easy to share anything from SkyDrive with people via several different ways. It is possible to email someone a link to a file or folder on SkyDrive or share via a social network (so long as the user has linked their Windows Live account with their social network account) and even generate a link to share anywhere, including Twitter. This is a relatively new feature and was introduced in one of the recent SkyDrive updates.

Below are the photos I took whilst on the London Eye.

Next up we had to make a PowerPoint presentation to show the others the photos we had taken. We started the PowerPoints in the feature rich PowerPoint Web App but I decided to then continue work on the PowerPoint on the desktop version. This gave me some additional customisation options, allowing me to make a Metro theme for the presentation. Because I had started the PowerPoint in the Web App and then opened it in the desktop version all I had to do was click the “save” button to save the updated version on my desktop back to the cloud. Users don’t have to manually upload a newer version of an Office document if the start editing a document on SkyDrive and then choose to open it up in the desktop version.

Below you can view the embedded PowerPoint I quickly cobbled together during the event.

There were some interesting points made during the event about SkyDrive. One that struck me was that there is no easy way to add a photo, or indeed any file, stored on SkyDrive to an Office Web App document. This seems to be an oversight and one I hope Microsoft addresses soon, this is certainly a feature that makes a lot of sense.

I had a very enjoyable day and despite knowing most of what was talked about and shown off I think it was a very beneficial day for all those who attended. I am looking forward to what else Microsoft has planned for SkyDrive and the Web Apps. If you are interested in keeping up to date with the latest SkyDrive news then you might want to check out the official Windows Live blog and check this out to find out more about SkyDrive.

I recommend reading the Bing blog post with the information about 2011, however, I would warn you that most Brits only seem interested in celebrity gossip and scandal.

Windows will be giving away PCs to the most deserving cases via Facebook and Twitter and will embark on a tour of the UK. Rufus and the Windows team will be matching unsuspecting owners of out-of-date, old computers with shiny, new laptops from The Collection complete with Windows 7 and Office 2010.

The tour will take Rufus and Windows UK across the country starting today in London and they can be found at various locations within the cities from streets to university campuses. The cities that are going to be visited:

- London – 1 November

- Bristol – 8 November

- Manchester – 10 November

- Birmingham – 22 November

- Southampton – 29 November

This campaign is aimed very much at those people who are too ashamed to upgrade their PC or don’t realise that they should upgrade their PC, much like the idea behind the Windows ads of building a PC shop in someone’s living room. This idea is backed up with the statistic that “72 per cent of us found it difficult to purchase a PC because of the overwhelming choice”.

It sounds like Rufus is looking forward to handing out free PCs to people as he had this to say:

When Windows offered me the chance to follow in the footsteps of F9 and a paperclip I jumped at the chance. Half of the people I know have got PCs so rubbish they make Noddy’s Plod look like Inspector Morse. The fact that they want me to hand out a bunch of free super whizzy machines to the great unwashed is the cherry on the cake. But people have got to sign up on the Facebook page otherwise I have no way of knowing they need a shiny new PC. I’m not Santa Claus although, granted, we share a very similar silhouette.

If you know anyone or indeed you yourself needs a new PC then you can use Facebook or Twitter to get in touch with Windows UK and see if you are one of the lucky people to get a new PC. On Twitter you will need to use the hashtag #YourPCMate where as on Facebook you can use an app. If you want to find out exactly where Rufus is then you can follow him on a Bing powered map. There’s also a video you can watch of Rufus talking about this new campaign.

What do you think of this new ad?

Now this is exciting as their could more ads to come form Windows Phone UK, maybe also print and radio ads. Let’s hope so. I also hope that Microsoft UK will talk about these new ads and upload them to YouTube, it is what they have done in the past which is why I was surprised to hear of this ad.

The Windows Phone UK team are doing an excellent job at the minute of generating buzz about Windows Phones and if you want to share a review of your Windows Phone running 7.5 you could win a goody bag.

It wont just be Windows Phone UK who choose the winning review as they have enlisted the help of Stuart Miles from PocketLint and also the US Windows Phone site WPCentral to help select the winner. Of course to make this competition worth entering there is a nice prize up for grab, its a Windows Phone goody bag that includes:

- A square umbrella

- USB stick

- Notebook

- Stickers

All you have to do is go to the Review page or go to the Facebook page and write your own review of a specific Windows Phone running Windows Phone 7.5. Let me know if you submit any reviews for this competition.

You might notice that in the bottom right hand corner of the Bing image there are now Metro UI – like icons rather than the older arrows. Next to the arrows is a new information button that shows the information when hovered over. Liveside have more info on the US version of the site which sees the navigation on the left hand side of the image move up to the very top of the screen and doesn’t cover the image at all.

Liveside also believes that the text below the image is slightly bigger and that a lighter shade of grey is used for the background. I think the site also appears to be faster at loading the image, not that it has much else to load.

Have you noticed anything else new with Bing?

This year should be slightly different from last year though as Microsoft UK are experimenting with a new way of running the MSP program in that there are now three different types of MSP positions available. The three positions are Technical, Senior Technical, and Business each expecting and requiring the student the to do more or less. I am a Senior Technical MSP for this year and look forward to the extra responsibilities I will have.

The thing that is perhaps good for you as a reader though is that if you’re a student somewhere in the world you’ll likely be able to apply yourself to be an MSP. You will get great benefits and opportunities and you don’t even have to be doing a technical, engineering or science degree. You can be doing any degree and still become an MSP, you just need to show a very keen interest in technology of any kind (doesn’t even have to be Microsoft).

If you want to apply just go to MicrosoftStudentPartners.com where they have all the information you’ll need to apply.

Streetside in the US had a radical makeover a few months ago using the Streetslide design where users can effectively slide down a street and see all the businesses and sites along it, users don’t actually move down a 3D street anymore.

Currently Streetside is only available in London but I hope to see a rapidly rollout of more Streetside places around the UK. It will be interesting to see if this has only positive impact on Bing in the UK and if there will be any mobile counterpart for this mapping feature.

If anyone had spotted Bing Streetside being available in the UK before today then please let me know; I’ve contacted Microsoft to try and find out.

Thanks to @henryed07 for the tip!

The photos this week are all from areas of Britain that influence and inspired Dizzee Rascal with the photo above coming from the East End, where he grew up, and today’s Bing image being of the Olympic Stadium that Dizzee Rascal is heavily involved in being an East End ambassador. The theme of inspiration is reflected in the competition with its aim for people around the UK to take photos of places or things that and inspired them. There are 4 categories for photos: my local Britain, my natural Britain, my Britain at night and my urban Britain.

Dizzee Rascal said: “I hope I can spark some creative energy in people to take shots of what inspires them about Britain. Beauty doesn’t have to be about traditionally accepted perceptions; it can be anything from memories to ideas – beauty is in the eye of the beholder. It’s important for everyone to be inspired by what’s around them, so this is a great opportunity to visualize what you see as beautiful about Britain. It’s worth it – you can win £10,000 and get your images out to 16 million people on Bing.com.”

Alex Payne, Head of Search for Bing, said: “This will be the first time Bing has allowed a guest editor to curate its homepage and broadcast images to 16 million users. We are delighted that Dizzee Rascal is taking the lead in deepening Bing’s view on the world, and that he is so keen to express his own view of life in Britain through photography on Bing. We hope his take on Britain will inspire Brits to take photographs and share their views of what makes Britain so special.”

The competition runs from May 16th to June 24th so make sure you snappin’. You can find out more about the competition and vote on the photos already sumbitted to competition at the Your Britain site, I have to say it’s a very nicely designed site.

I shall be uploading some photos to this competition, I do love photography. It’s refreshing to see that it is not only the US version of Bing that allows its users to have a chance at getting their own photos on the homepage. I look forward to the other photos from Dizzee Rascal and the user’s photo in the summer.

I can’t figure out if this move indicates a realigning of the premiere partner in the UK or if the Mozart is not selling well or what this could mean. One thing I do know is that it is good news for Windows Phone and UK customers. There’s a pretty good contact for this phone on O2; £21.50 24 month tariff which includes 500 texts, 500MB of data and 100 free minutes. That’s quite a bit cheaper than Orange’s £30 a month tarriff with a free phone, but you do get more minutes and texts.

O2 now sell the HTC HD7 and Mozart, I would like to see one of the UK networks also sell the Dell Venue Pro. Are any of my readers tempted to get the Mozart now that it is on O2?