LiveSide - News blog : FrameIt

SkyDrive to become the center stage of Windows Live?

damaster — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 14:44:00 GMT

With the recent series of updates to Windows Live’s web services (Calendar, Hotmail, Photos, SkyDrive and more), we’re seeing a tip of the iceberg of what’s to come with Windows Live Wave 4 (in fact, we know this because all of the web services have been updated to v15). However, these are no way reflective of what Wave 4 is all about and the recent updates seemed more to simply address what customers wanted with Windows Live. So if this is not it, what are we to expect for the future of Windows Live?

Recent developments seemed to demonstrate the idea that Wave 4 is all about “simplification”. One prime example of this simplification is the retirement of Events and having it replaced by Calendar. Extending this idea further, recent developments around Windows Live seems to show that SkyDrive will play a prominent role in the future of Windows Live services. We already have Photos built on top of the SkyDrive service, and earlier this year we’ve seen that Favorites has been integrated into SkyDrive. We’re even seeing that Office Live will be merged into SkyDrive with the Office Web Apps integrated well within (remember that Office Web Apps supposed to replace Office Live Workspace). With all these services built within SkyDrive, it looks like Microsoft is positioning SkyDrive to be the single destination to access, organise, share and edit all your files, photos and documents stored online.

But Microsoft’s ambition for SkyDrive is much more than that. As we’ve seen details leaking last month, Microsoft will soon be launching Windows Live Devices – its replacement for Live Mesh – in Wave 4, and SkyDrive is to play an essential role on its launch. It is expected that SkyDrive will become the storage-end of Devices, playing a similar role to the “Live Desktop” in the current Live Mesh. The next version of Windows Live Sync will also become “meshified”, so besides the original PC-to-PC synchronisation capability, Sync will also sync your files to the cloud – and you’ve guessed it, it’ll be onto SkyDrive. On this front, Microsoft is really positioning SkyDrive to become your online hard drive and an essential piece of the “Software+Services” model.

By understanding how Microsoft positions SkyDrive for the future, it’s not hard to imagine the possibilities Microsoft can achieve with Windows Live. Many existing Windows Live services can be consolidated and be built on top of SkyDrive, and we know that the first of them all could well be Windows Live FrameIt. Paul Thurrott also slipped out a few words regarding (another) possible Windows Live-oriented video service in his review of Windows Live Movie Maker:

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.

While Microsoft already have Video Messages, that service seem to be underexposed and didn’t integrate well with other Windows Live services. Additionally, Movie Maker seems to be the only Windows Live “software” that’s missing the “services” component under the “Software+Services” model. Thus integrating Video Messages into SkyDrive seems to make strong logical sense for Microsoft. Please bear in mind though that this is purely speculation, but we’re certainly watching Microsoft to see if this comes to fruition.

Of course, with all these files to be stored on SkyDrive, the current 25GB of storage space certainly won’t be enough. It’ll be interesting what Microsoft will do regarding this, as one of SkyDrive’s competing service ADrive currently offers 50GB for each account, will Microsoft increase its storage size for SkyDrive? We at LiveSide will of course keep you posted with any updates relating to SkyDrive and the rest of Windows Live, so stay tuned!

Windows Live Photos integrates with FrameIt

damaster — Sat, 21 Mar 2009 14:09:53 GMT

We told you it was coming the last time we told you about the new Windows Live FrameIt, and we’ve seen FrameIt integrated with Facebook already. This time it’s Microsoft’s very own service that gets the integration – yes you heard it right you are now able to import your Windows Live Photos albums straight into your FrameIt collections!

As you’re signed in to your Windows Live ID, you’ll be able to add Windows Live Photos as one of the sources into your FrameIt collection. As shown above, FrameIt will pull a list of all your public albums from your Windows Live Photos for you to add to your collection and share it on a FrameIt-enabled photo frame.

Unfortunately, due to privacy concerns, you won’t be able to add any of your privately shared (or private) Photos albums and share them with your friends. This is particularly strange though as the integration with Facebook actually allow you to display your private photo albums (or photos tagged of you) on Facebook to a public FrameIt collection, of course, that is after you’ve authorized FrameIt to do so through Facebook Connect.

It is great to see more and more integration between Windows Live services (I hope to see FrameIt appearing on the header menus soon). What’s coming next? I hope it’ll be Flickr and Live Mesh integration. We’ll just have to wait and see as Microsoft rolls out more features to its new FrameIt service.

Visit Windows Live FrameIt here: http://frameit.live.com

Facebook comes to Windows Live FrameIt, PowerToy now available for download

damaster — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 11:02:52 GMT

A few days ago we just reported that FrameIt received the latest Wave 3 update and gave you a preview of what the new FrameIt Client PowerToy will look like. Today Windows Live FrameIt just got updated with Facebook integration – now allowing you to import your albums on Facebook into your FrameIt collection. Let’s see how this works:

Firstly we can see now that FrameIt supports importing photos from a variety of online photo sharing sources: Facebook, Photobucket, Picasa, SmugMug and Microsoft’s very own Windows Live Spaces. It is frustrating to see that Windows Live Photos integration is not here yet though, but trust me, it is coming. Clicking on Facebook on this page allow you to add this source to your collection:

Integration with Facebook is done via Facebook Connect, and upon clicking the Connect button, the Facebook log-in page will pop-up and asking you to allow FrameIt to access your Facebook photos and albums:

Provided you have allowed access, you will be able to select where to source your Facebook photos from. There are two options: either select all those photos that you’ve been tagged in, or select from either one of your uploaded photo albums on Facebook.

You can then configure any of the settings provided with FrameIt, such as number of images, display order, age of images to display, and the display schedule. You can then preview what the source will look like on your computer first, and then subscribe to your Collection on any of the supported FrameIt devices. Alternatively, you can also download them locally onto your computer and share it others using Live Mesh, or even use them as your screensaver using the newly released FrameIt Client PowerToy. The best thing is, as your Facebook albums gets updated (or when people tag new photos of you), this will be automatically synced and updated! Talk about convenience! Microsoft is truly providing a seamless integrated photo sharing experience to everyone!

You can now download the new FrameIt Client PowerToy from this page.

A quick look at the new Windows Live FrameIt Client PowerToy

damaster — Sat, 28 Feb 2009 11:10:04 GMT

Yesterday we told you about the new Windows Live FrameIt and hinted at the FrameIt Client coming soon. Today we were able to get hands on with the latest FrameIt Client PowerToy. Here’s a screenshot of the client attempting to add my FrameIt collection named “LiveSide”:

So, you might ask, what is the FrameIt Client and what does it do? Here’s what the official help file says:

FrameIt Client is a PowerToy which enables you to subscribe to collections (RSS image feeds) on the Windows Live FrameIt service, and place the images in those collections into folders on your computer. FrameIt Client keeps the contents of these local collections synchronized with the collections on the Windows Live FrameIt service. This means that your local FrameIt Client collections are always up to date, and contain the same dynamic content and fresh images as your FrameIt service collection RSS feeds on the web.

Using the features provided in FrameIt Client:

You can send multiple RSS feeds to one folder, direct each RSS feed to a different folder, or send the same RSS feed to several different folders.

You can specify the size of the images (width and height) that are placed in each folder, or leave them at the native sizes in the RSS feed.

You can direct the contents of a Windows Live FrameIt service collection to a FrameIt Client plug-in, which can provide support for special devices, or perform virtually any function on the collection images. Information on how to create a FrameIt Client plug-in is provided in the FrameIt Client section of the FrameIt SDK.

So what good does it do? And why would you want to use the FrameIt Client PowerToy? Microsoft gives us the following response:

You can use FrameIt Client collections (local synchronized folders) for several useful purposes:

as the source folders for a USB-connected digital picture frame

as the source folders for a screen saver, slide show, or other image display program.

You can add the synchronized folders to your Windows Live Mesh and share the images with others.

This means that besides being a completely online service that only provides photos and images directly to internet-capable digital photo frames, with the use of the new FrameIt Client PowerToy you’ll be able to extend your FrameIt Collections (or Collections you subscribe to) locally on your computer for other uses. These extended uses include things such as automatically displaying the photos on an non-internet capable digital photo frame, or use them as your customised screensavers (and desktop background) that dynamically updates as the content of your Collection changes.

What’s also interesting to note is that Microsoft refers to “Windows Live Mesh” now instead of Live Mesh – a result of Microsoft’s recent reorg joining the Live Mesh team with Windows Live group.

Please do take note that the FrameIt Client will be a PowerToy that is designed for advanced power users only and will only be available in English. This product may not be supported by Microsoft in the future.

The new Windows Live FrameIt is here! SDK now available for download

damaster — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 15:45:40 GMT

Back in January 2009 we briefly reported that Windows Live FrameIt will be getting a Wave 3 facelift and that there will be a FrameIt client and SDK available soon. Soon after we exclusively gave everyone a sneak peek of what the new FrameIt would look like and outlined what some of the new features will be. Today, Microsoft have officially updated Windows Live FrameIt beta to the new Wave 3 look with some the changes we mentioned before. Here’s what the new version looks like:

Yes you saw it right – the new FrameIt is now able to import your photos stored on Photobucket and Picasa into your digital photo frame. Is that not enough? Don’t worry, we heard that Facebook and Windows Live Photos integration will be coming soon too! Unfortunately, we’re still seeing no signs of Flickr or Live Mesh integration.

One other new feature is the new Live Search source that you’ll be able to add to your FrameIt collection. This source basically allow users to type in a search query on Live Search Images and retrieves all the image search results as a feed into your collection. It is recommended that you choose your search query carefully as sometimes you might get irrelevant results displayed on your FrameIt feed.

We also told you last time that the Windows Live FrameIt Software Development Kit will be available soon as well. For those developers out there, it is now available for you all to download.

Click here for the download link to the SDK.

What’s even more exciting is that we’re hearing the Windows Live FrameIt Client we told you about last time will be available soon. Here’s a more detailed description of what the new Client will be able to do for you:

Windows Live FrameIt allows you to collect content from across the Web to display on Internet connected devices. Now, the Windows Live FrameIt client is available to help you display your FrameIt collections on a broader range of devices and applications. Have a keychain frame that downloads images from your PC? Want to use your FrameIt collections with your screensaver? Use the FrameIt client to synchronize images from FrameIt to your PC and voila, your devices and applications will automatically be updated with all of your aggregated content.

To check out the new Windows Live FrameIt, visit http://frameit.live.com

Stay tuned at LiveSide for the latest exciting updates coming to FrameIt!

Connect your Photo Gallery people tags with Facebook contacts: LiveUpload 2.0

damaster — Tue, 10 Feb 2009 11:35:10 GMT

When the new Windows Live Photo Gallery Wave 3 beta was first released, we gave you a review of the new features and one of those was the ability to add plug-ins for the application. One of the first 3rd party plug-in developed was the LiveUpload to Facebook plug-in, published on the Windows Live Photo & Video Blog, that allow users to directly publish their photos in Photo Gallery onto Facebook. One of the advantage of this plug-in was that it takes advantage of the people tagging feature in Photo Gallery and publishes this information onto Facebook as well. However, the first release of the plug-in had one shortfall – the people tags published from Photo Gallery had nothing to do with all the contacts you’ve already got on Facebook.

But fear not, as this is no longer a problem. The latest release of LiveUpload to Facebook 2.0 introduces the ability to link your Photo Gallery people tags with Facebook users! Better yet, these links are actually saved so the next time you upload the same people tags onto Facebook from Photo Gallery, it will automatically link that tag with the Facebook user! Here’s a screenshot:

What this means is that if all the people tags in your Photo Gallery are actually linked from your Windows Live People contact list (including those in your Messenger list or added to your Profile Network), you’re essentially linking your Windows Live contacts with your Facebook contacts – through Photo Gallery!

Although this is a 3rd party application, we’re seeing that Windows Live is having closer ties with Facebook. We’ve already seen the ability to import your contacts from Facebook into Windows Live (and vice versa), and we saw the announcement at CES 2009 that Facebook has signed on as a Windows Live feed partner, meaning that you’ll be able to get content posted on Facebook, including photos, directly in your Windows Live What’s New feed. What’s also coming in the future is that the upcoming update to FrameIt might see some integration with Facebook photos. As the two competing social networks are becoming closer together, the potential there for both Microsoft and Facebook is enormous. It’d be interesting to see how this relationship develops in the future.

Sneak peek of the new Windows Live FrameIt

damaster — Sat, 24 Jan 2009 05:06:29 GMT

Last week we reported the announcement that Windows Live FrameIt will soon to be updated with a Wave 3 theme, to have integration with Live Mesh, and soon to have a client and SDK released. Today we got the chance to see a sneak peek at the new Windows Live FrameIt. Unfortunately, the version we’re looking at doesn’t have Live Mesh integrated yet, nor does it have the client and SDK available for download. That said, we’re still seeing some new features and also the new look. Here’s what the new FrameIt home page looks like:

As you can see from the following screenshot, the left-hand navigation adds two new sections – Devices, where users can now register and set up their compatible photo frames and devices; and Downloads, where it provides the new SDK for partners and client download for power users.

Although we’re not seeing Live Mesh integration, the new FrameIt will also integrate with Windows Live Photos, with the ability to directly grab your photo albums stored on SkyDrive/Photos in your associated Windows Live ID.

The new Devices page also lists all the current partners that manufactures FrameIt-compatible digital photo frames. This page allow users quick access to link their photo frames with FrameIt. Of course, as Microsoft is still signing up with more new partners, expect this list to expand as time goes. There’s basically three ways in which any device (not limited to digital photo frames) can connect to FrameIt: via a specific frame Token; through a specific Feed ID (with a secret number) for your FrameIt collections; or through subscribing to FrameIt’s RSS feed address.

Unfortunately, the SDK and client are still unavailable for download. However, according to the website, the FrameIt SDK will “allow hardware and software providers to integrate FrameIt directly into their products”. What this means is that FrameIt has the potential to connect and display anything on the web onto your web-enabled device, anytime, anywhere, and better yet, it can be customised specific to your need (like time of day, frequency…etc).

Instead of directly competing with digital photo frame manufacturers, Microsoft had taken the first step to make FrameIt a platform for all device manufacturers to leverage on. It’ll be interesting to see what will be in the SDK and how Microsoft could expand the concept into this whole new field. The potential here is unlimited.

Windows Live FrameIt to integrate with Live Mesh, client and SDK coming soon

damaster — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 08:08:46 GMT

One piece of information that came out of CES 2009 that went unnoticed was about Windows Live FrameIt. The FrameIt team blog today posted a link to a Channel 10 video about the upcoming support for Live Mesh in FrameIt. In the video Cynthia Hagan demonstrates a new version of Windows Live FrameIt (including the new Wave 3 header) and how she used Live Mesh to sync offline photos to her FrameIt-enabled Samsung digital photo frame. What this means for FrameIt is that besides from obtaining photo sources from an RSS feed where the photos are already available online, FrameIt can now source photos stored in your computer using Live Mesh technology. You can check out the video here.

What’s more news is that according to this incubation website titled “Windows Live FrameIt Extras”, Microsoft is also planning on releasing a Windows Live FrameIt client and also an SDK for Frameit. It would be interesting to see how this ties in with Windows Live Photo Gallery and Live Mesh.

Stay tuned at LiveSide for the latest information on Windows Live FrameIt!

Windows Live FrameIt – new partners, coming to a photo frame near you!

damaster — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 11:33:50 GMT

We previously talked about Windows Live FrameIt, but we never found any practical use for it, besides a vision into the future with some Live Mesh integration. With today’s Windows Live Wave 3 announcement, Windows Live FrameIt is officially announced as part of the Wave 3 release and Microsoft has partnered with multiple manufacturers to produce FrameIt-integrated devices. First of all, here’s a description, officially from Microsoft’s PR, of FrameIt:

Windows Live FrameIt allows you to dynamically deliver photos and other content such as news, traffic and weather directly to digital picture frames that are wirelessly enabled. Through one service, you can set up personalized albums that contain pictures and content from any compatible photo-sharing site to be delivered to any compatible wireless picture frame and have that content dynamically updated when new images are uploaded.

Updated: Microsoft has partnered with leading digital photo frame manufacturers Amlogic, Aequitas, NAVTEQ, Pandigital, PhotoVu, RMI, Smartparts and Viewsonic to provide extend their FrameIt service into your digital photo frames. An example of how this integration is done, according to PhotoVu, is summarised here:

PhotoVu AutoFeed™ configuration allows customers to setup FrameIt on a USB flash drive then send it to another PhotoVu user. Once the drive is inserted, it starts to work immediately with no additional configuration.

PhotoVu SmartSync™ support syncs with online photos and information. If images are added or deleted, the changes will be reflected on the next FrameIt update.

Set times to play the FrameIt content using the PhotoVu scheduling feature.

Automatic image sizing using PhotoVu SmartResize™ to optimize each photo, without distortion, for full screen display.

PhotoVu Real-Time Vu™ allows customers to see new photos right after the FrameIt content is sync'ed. Great for weather or breaking news!

Pretty impressive! FrameIt is starting to get it’s spotlight with more focus being placed on it during CES 2008 this year. With a possibility of even integrating Live Mesh technologies, it’d be interesting to see what this service will become.

Live Mesh to support devices and peripherals, hints at FrameIt integration

damaster — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 11:59:51 GMT

We’ve seen that Live Mesh supports PCs, Macs, Windows Mobile, and perhaps also your Home Server, Xbox, Zune, and Mobile Car, but digging through our PDC2008 materials we’ve learnt that Live Mesh will even support all your computer devices and peripherals – so expect Live Mesh coming soon to your printers, digital cameras, and digital photo frames!

Jeremy Mazner’s presentation showed us how Live Mesh for Devices will support “mesh devices” such as your home printer (it even shows your ink levels and what documents you’ve recently printed!):

From his presentation he also briefly hinted at Live Mesh’s possible integration with Windows Live FrameIt in the future:

As we’ve previously reported that Live Mesh will likely to join Windows Live in the next wave of services, it’s particularly interesting to look at the possibilities of how Live Mesh can be integrated with the services currently available to us.

Thanks to PP2 at LiveSino again for the heads up!

Microsoft launches Windows Live FrameIt – Customise your photo feeds

Chris — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 15:05:00 GMT

Wow I love these guys. No hiding away by removing web pages inadvertently left on the internet, instead they come straight out and blog about it, launching a public release at the same time. You can check out the service, Windows Live FrameIt, over at http://frameit.com which has just launched into beta.

As we mentioned earlier this week, FrameIt allows users to customise the content delivered via RSS, to enhance the functionality of RSS-enabled devices. In particular, if you have a photo frame that supports feeds, then this is for you!

After logging into FrameIt for the first time, you’ll be presented with a first-run page, explaining what the service is about and asking how you want to continue. The choices are either using a sample collection setup for you, or starting from nothing. The default collections are their team blog photos and the weather for Seattle, basic but effective pointers showing what you can produce. Given this is the first release its no surprise that the UI is not completely user-friendly, so you may have to muddle your way through the various options.

Within FrameIt there are a number of default media sources that are currently setup, which appear in the top half of the main page. From news headlines, through to photos and digital art from SmugMug. There’s even military photos in case you wants helicopters and tanks in your house! There's also a standard RSS module, allowing you to add feeds from any site of your choosing.

I tried using the Liveside RSS feed, and set it up to display as photos. The results were impressive, with FrameIt showing a snapshot of the top of the page, essentially turning it in a subliminal RSS reader in the home.You can check out our entire FrameIt feed at http://liveside.frameit.com.

The key feature is the ability to setup each feed coming into FrameIt, customising when and how content is displayed. From time of day, to display order, this aggregation and management of feeds takes the personalisation of these devices to a new level.

The bottom half of the main page shows the content you have chosen to display on your frame, and lets you configure some general options. There's the option to use a custom url, as shown above with the liveside feed, as well as some technical options such as changing the nature of the feed as well as the size of images and the background colour. There’s also a pin option, allowing you to restrict your feed to just friends and family, however that just seems to put the pin at the start of the url – not that secure really then.

Not being someone who is content to use the basics, and wishing to deflect the almost inevitable comments, I wanted to add my Facebook photos to FrameIt. The actual gadget to do this has been hidden because it isn’t working yet (the session key setup gives an error), however if you visit this url you’ll be able to set it up and see it is upcoming. Just enter in your Facebook username and then click the “Log in” link. This will take you to Facebook, where you’ll need to grant access to frameit.live.com to use your content. Obviously if you don’t click yes you won’t be able to view your photos in FrameIt. Note again, this feature isn’t currently working!

Overall the service is definitely in a niche at this point in time, however I have a feeling this could prove to be a surprise killer service in a few years. The assumption is that feed-enabled devices, in particular photo frames, will become commonplace in the home. The is supported by the FrameIt frame setup where it says:

"If your photo frame supports using just the FrameIt feed name, enter the following name:"

This suggests that agreements between Microsoft and hardware vendors will be forthcoming over the next few months and years. So long as we avoid a repeat of the Messenger phone they could be on to a winner - CES 2009 anybody?

Windows Live Wave 3: New photo feed service – Windows Live FrameIt

Chris — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 03:31:00 GMT

With the recent deadpooling of Windows Live Expo, you could be forgiven for thinking that Microsoft was rationalising its online services. That’s not the case though, as this whois search shows. Microsoft appears to be preparing a new online service as part of wave 3, going by the name of Windows Live FrameIt.

So what does the new service do? Essentially it extends the functionality of digital photo frame devices, allowing users to customise the content delivery from multiple sources.

Take for example the Samsung frame launched at CES earlier this year, that displays photos using RSS feeds, including from Windows Live Spaces. This content source is fixed to whatever feed the user specifics, and changing the photos on display is an entirely manual process – the user has to change the feed address.

Enter Windows Live FrameIt. This service will allow the user to setup all their different content feeds, be it from Flickr, Facebook, Smugmug, the range of default content feeds or just a generic RSS feed. What’s clever is that the timing for when each feed of photo collections appears in the frame can be specified. For example, you might want today’s weather to be in the frame from 7-7.30am when you get up, holiday photos showing during the day and the latest city nightscapes from Flickr in the evening. In addition, we’ve heard that FrameIt will offer support for sharing these content feeds between users, allowing you to send photos to your friends’ photo frames and vice versa. Rickrolling anybody?

While this sounds like a cool scenario, it does mesh both hardware and software, something that Microsoft has already tried with Windows Live Messenger Phones. That didn’t really get off the ground despite some major airtime at CES and support from some big hardware vendors like Philips and Motorola.

For FrameIt the challenge is perhaps somewhat easier, RSS enabled devices such as the WiFi photo frames already exist and are selling across the world. They were also one of the devices mentioned just last week by Ray Ozzie at FAM 2008, suggesting that Ray sees them becoming commonplace over the next 10 years:

[T]his transformation will take us from a world where the dream was a PC on every desk and in every home into a world in which it won't be uncommon for families and individuals to have many, many PCs in their homes and in their lives, as well as many other Net-connected devices such as mobile phones, set-top boxes, game consoles, digital picture frames and so on.

While we’ll have to wait and see just how much marketing Microsoft gives this service in the short-term, is Microsoft now trying to make up for being late to the photos party? Is it enough? That’s a topic for another post I think.

If you’re interesting in finding out more, you might want to subscribe to the team blog – no posts yet though.