I found the other day that Microsoft Hardware had released drivers and software to get their LifeCams to work on Windows 7, something that was long over due. For quite a few months of the year I couldn’t use my webcam on my pc because Microsoft, yes the maker of both the operating system and the hardware, had not got the two working together properly. This puzzled me as nearly all the competitors were able to have their hardware working on Windows 7.

I wondered why it has taken Microsoft so long to get their own webcams working with the new operating system but then when I was installing the LifeCam software I noticed it needs to install Windows Live Essentials at the same time, then it dawned on me. Perhaps it took Microsoft so long to get their webcams working because they were waiting on other software to be complete and not just Windows 7, they were waiting for Windows Live Wave 4.

Another piece of information that support my theory of tight integration between Microsoft’s LifeCams and Windows Live is that today the first HD webcam is being launched by Microsoft and so I had a look on its website. There it states that it is optimised for Windows Live Messenger, not something new, but that it also works with Movie Maker and Photo Gallery, obviously the Movie Maker integration is something only a few weeks old. It doesn’t specify if you can record yourself and then use Windows Movie Maker to upload the video or if you can directly record yourself in the Windows Live application (I have had a look in both applications to see if you can capture Videos or Photos inside the applications but I can’t see how to get it too work, might be my camera or that it doesn’t mean a users can use the applications to capture videos and photos). There is already some integration between Windows Live and Microsoft LifeCams but I think there could and should be more to come.

There is already a lesser known Windows Live service called Video Messages, it is currently in beta and has been for some time, that works with webcams in a browser and I think this service could well be part of Windows Live Video. What I see happening is that when Wave 4 hits and if there is a new Video service, which is looking increasingly more likely, there will be the option to record and upload videos from a users webcam straight to the service. If this is implemented then I would expect to see a similar thing for the Photos service where pictures are taken in the browser and instantly in the user’s SkyDrive (a similar system is already used by Facebook to use a Webcam for  a user’s profile picture). To really make the suite work well with webcams users should be to capture video, audio and photos using a webcam in the Windows Live applications and not have to use the LifeCam software to do the same thing as it only slows the process down, especially if people only want to publish them to an online album like Facebook.

I don’t often use my webcam but I know of lots of people who do, it would good for Microsoft to allow users to capture pictures, video and audio using their webcams, then edit them in the applications from the Essential Suite and then upload them for the world to see with new Windows Live services. As always this could all be circumstantial and we wont see any kind of implementation like this, it would be a shame to miss out on such integration though.

This is to be the first of a series of articles where bloggers and commentators tell the story of their Microsoft Life which I hope will be published over the next few weeks.

My Microsoft Life

My Microsoft life must have started well back in 1997 when my parents first got a PC with Windows 95 on it, I can’t remember much about it as I never used it much other than that it had Office 97 and that the internet was good for Gameboy games cheats. I think my main use for PCs for the next few years was mostly for gaming, Age of Empires II, Tiberium Sun Firestorm and Diablo II being the games I remember playing the most and occasionally still play today. My parents didn’t upgrade the PC until 2003 when they got an XP machine and I guess they must have had Office 2003 too.

It must have been in 2003 that I really started to appreciate technology for what it was and not something to play games on and to found out cheats for said games. Not only did we get a new PC at home but I also got my first mobile phone, a Samsung A900 (if I remember correctly), and by the end of the year I had my first laptop brought through a scheme my school was running. My Acer TravelMate ran XP Professional and I loved it, it was a much better system than 95 or 98 (the only other OSes I had used). On my Acer I had Office 2003 and between Office and Windows that was my sum total of experience with Microsoft’s products.

At school I had a friend who was very much into technology, gadgets and everything else that goes with it, he persuaded me, in probably 2004, to getting a HP iPAQ running Windows PocketPC which I used for note taking, reminders and writing basic documents without the need to carry my laptop round. The PocketPC offered more than I used but it started my want of the latest gadgets and technology, from here my passion for technology kept growing and I started to find new software that I hadn’t even heard about before, such as MSN Messenger, as it was called then.

I loved Messenger even though I hardly had any contacts on it as it meant I could chat to a few of my friends any time they were home for free, pretty soon after signing up I was asking all my friends if they were on messenger, most said no and so I started to show them what it was like. Naturally most of them signed up which only made messenger better, its next to useless with no one online.

Because I liked my PocketPC so much and my phone was on the blink in early 2006 I started looking for a new phone and knew I needed it to be running on Windows Mobile as it could do so much more than my basic Samsung. After I while of trying to figure out which was the best phone for me I decided I wanted the HTC Wizard from O2; this was a great phone, running on Windows Mobile 5. Later in 2006 I had decided that I wanted my own PC in my room as sharing one computer with 3 other people was getting quite tiresome, I knew that if I wanted to have a PC in my room we would need to get broadband and wireless. Seems strange to think of having dial-up but we were one of the last people I know to get broadband and wireless.

It must have been about this time when Windows Live was created and made a unified brand for some of the services Microsoft were offering and I have to say it was great. What I most loved was the beta stuff as it meant I was able to use the very latest software, help fix it and be using things people I knew had never heard of. I have stayed with the Windows Live products ever since and have only become more interested in what they can offer.

I had a lot of help from my friend on what I would need to buy for my custom built PC and by mid January 2007 I had my PC up and running, I had XP but knew I would be getting Vista very soon because of what I had seen it looked great and I wanted it; same for Office 2007 and I found the ribbon interface to be a brilliant piece of user interface. I wasn’t quite as interested then in the latest tech as I am now or else I would have found that I could have tested Vista out months before I actually bought Vista Ultimate in 2007. I was very happy having the latest OS on my own PC and a phone that did everything I wanted.

However I managed to break the screen of my HTC Wizard and so I had to start looking for a new phone all over again. It took me months to decide which phone to get as I really liked the HTC Touch but I also loved the qwerty keyboard on the Wizard and in the end I made a compromise and got the HTC Touch Dual running Windows Mobile 6. The phone is alright but I don’t think it was as good as the Wizard and the only reason I still have the phone is because there are rumours that HTC are working on the HD2 and because Microsoft have yet to release Windows Mobile 6.5.

By the end of 2007 I had found that there was another gadget I could use and that was a camera, my phone just didn’t cut it as one, so when in New York City for Christmas I decided to by Fujifilm F50SE which was another great device. I didn’t want an MP3 Player as I had a 8GB micro SD card for my phone and used that for my music. By having a camera I have found that I use Windows Live more and more; Windows Live Photo Gallery is great for quickly tweaking the photo and Windows Live Photos is great for viewing the photos online, especially the Silverlight Slideshow. Windows Live Movie Maker has just been released and I can see myself using that quite a bit and there is Windows Live Mail/Hotmail which I use every time I am on any computer whether it view the browser of the essential application.

By following Windows Live as closely as I do I heard about Live Mesh very quickly and started using it in its beta form and found it to be a brilliant service, I use it today and not sure how I was able to work without it. Aside from Live Mesh the first half of 2008 was quite for me and my technology but in the summer my camera stopped working, I tried to get it fixed but because I brought it from America Fuji weren’t being helpful at all and it would have cost me a lot to get it repaired, it wasn’t until Easter 2009 that I got a new camera.

As I was starting university in the Autumn of 2009 I wanted to get a laptop or PC. I needed the PC to be small as I didn’t much fancy moving a huge one between my university halls and home. I also wanted something I could take to lectures to take notes too. I was undecided on what to get until I went shopping one day and saw a HP Pavilion Slim with a clearance price which came with a 24” monitor for less than £500 together. I bought it straight away and then soon after ordered an Acer Aspire One. The two have worked excellent (apart from a few issues with the netbook) at university and with Live Mesh I have easy access to my files at which ever computer I am at.

Last October/November time I was very glad to hear so much good information about Windows 7 and couldn’t wait to try it out when the beta went public. I put it on my home PC as soon as the beta came out and instantly loved the OS, I have not got around to putting it on all my laptops and PCs and keep threatening to put it on the home computer and maybe my parents’ laptops. I have my copies of Windows 7 preordered and can’t wait to put the final version on my machines.

I said earlier I brought a new camera this year and the other device I have got is a 8GB Zune that won from Shurgard via a Twitter competition. I think I should mention how good I have Twitter to be as I try and keep up to date with the latest technology as by following the people, websites and companies that I do I am able to hear about things I wouldn’t otherwise have done, I probably wouldn’t have set this blog up either. This summer has been great for me, I have really got into following everything happening in the technology sector and I am very glad I have found places like the Windows Live Clubhouse (I am still very surprised that I won the best story category in the awards and I thank everyone who voted for me in that) as it keeps me up to date and connected with some many people who know all the answers and are as passionate about technology and Microsoft as I am.

There is probably much I have missed but what I have here shows that I do pretty much live a Microsoft Life.

My Microsoft Future

By the end of the year I would hope to have a Zune HD (not sure how easy that will be as it is currently only for the US!), a new phone running Windows Mobile 6.5 and Windows 7 on all my computers. With regards software I can’t wait to see what new applications and services there will be in Windows Live Wave 4 (I have already made some predictions about that) and what new feature will be being added to the Office 2010 beta and how well the Web Apps work with it. Then there is PDC 09, strange to have 2 in consecutive years, maybe it’ll be Windows Mobile 7 announcements

I would like to have an XBox at some point but I don’t have a TV, I don’t do much gaming and being a student I don’t have oodles of money that I could spend on it. Another product/service I would like to be able to use the Zune Marketplace to buy music but that is only for the US at the moment.

Why Microsoft?

Its not that I don’t like any other company its just that for when and what I have needed Microsoft has always been able to offer it and now that Microsoft seem to be tightening their services up to make sure they work as well as they possible can I can only see things getting better. I am sure the iPhone is superior in most ways to my phone and any other Windows Mobile 6 phone but I am hoping that Windows Mobile 7 will be much better and a real competitor to it and so I don’t want to buy an iPhone yet. That is the kind of thinking I have for most of Microsoft’s products and services and I have yet to be majorly disappointed by anything they have done.

Is it possible?

I think it is very likely to happen seeing as Microsoft are getting rid of the video uploading service SoapBox very soon. I can’t see Microsoft putting all this effort into Movie Maker and make it so easy to upload the videos but then not allow their users to upload it to one of their own services.

The video service could also be linked to other video uploading services like YouTube and show other users in someone’s network what videos they have been uploading.

One final thing that adds credibility to my prediction is that Paul Thurott, in his review of Movie Maker, says:

One thing that’s missing, of course, is a way to post your video creations on a Microsoft service. Since Microsoft killed the Soapbox service, there’s been a void, and while the company has nothing to announce at this time, suffice to say they will be adding Windows Live-oriented publishing capability in the future.

I’m not sure if there is a great need for a video service especially seeing as Microsoft are pulling their current video service and because of the competition, but then I thought that of Windows Live Photos and now I use that all the time. I would like to know more about this and hope to see what Microsoft have got planned for a Windows Live Video service.