Entries tagged with plugin - Channel 10

LiveUpload For Facebook

sarahintampa — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 15:30:00 GMT

LiveUpload for Facebook is a new plug-in for the Windows Live Photo Gallery Beta that lets you upload your photos from your PC directly into the social networking site, Facebook. Besides making it extremely easy to get photos off your PC and onto the net, the absolutely coolest thing about this plugin is that it also persists the tags you added in Photo Gallery when the pictures are added to Facebook. This includes any “people tags” that you’ve added using Windows Live Photo Gallery. What that means is that when you tag your friends in Windows Live Photo Gallery, those tags will also appear on Facebook if you’re Facebook friends with those people.

Photos uploaded with this plugin can be added to an existing album on Facebook or they can be added to a new one you create on the fly. You can even use the plugin with multiple Facebook accounts – which is perfect for those families who share one login on the home’s PC.

If you're interested in building your own plug-in, there’s a development resource page on the Windows Live Digital Memories Experience Team. Also, check out the Windows Live Photo Gallery Publishing Plug-in Platform Overview over on MSDN and the Sample Plug-in for Flickr.

The LiveUpload for Facebook plugin also works in the beta version of Windows Live Movie Maker, too. If you want to download the LiveUpload for Facebook plugin, just click here.

Taglocity Brings New Features To Outlook

sarahintampa — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 15:58:00 GMT

Do you live in Outlook but wish it had a few of the features that your webmail program has? Features like conversation threading and automatic tagging, for example? Well now the Outlook email plugin, Taglocity, delivers those features and more. With the latest version, Taglocity 2.0, Outlook users can take advantage of enhanced search functionality, conversation threading, tagging, and automation. Instead of moving messages to folders, email can be tagged with any number of labels and, based on those labels, certain tasks and actions can then be automated. For example, Taglocity can automatically turn email into calendar appointments or move messages into different folders.

Although some of the functions in Taglocity can already be done with crafty use of Outlook’s rules and views - not to mention Outlook 2007’s labels -the plugin aims to make that process easier. This is especially true for the conversation threading feature which displays emails in chronological order with all the related conversations grouped together. Some Outlook 2007 users won’t see the need for this addition, but for users of Outlook 2003, this plugin delivers some great additional features. You can check it out for yourself here.

Convert Anything With Zamzar’s IE Plugin

sarahintampa — Thu, 16 Oct 2008 23:18:00 GMT

Zamzar, the home of the popular online file conversion service, also offers a browser plugin that’s a must-have for any Internet Explorer user. The Zamzar web browser button is a bookmarklet you can add to your bookmarks toolbar folder in your web browser. With the bookmarklet installed, you’re then able to convert any files you find on the web and download them to your computer. To use the web browser button, just click on it when you’re on any website that contains files. Zamzar will auto-detect all the files on the page that can be converted and will highlight them for you. You can then choose which ones you want to convert and what format you want them converted to. You can even use the button to convert online videos from sites like YouTube. (A full list of supported video sites is here). I love this plugin, but I’m not a fan of all the pop-up ads on Zamzar’s website – so be warned. However, I don’t get pop-ups when using the plugin – only when visiting the Zamzar homepage. Still, the plugin is worth the annoyance, I suppose, at least until something better comes along.

My Movies Plugin, Now For Home Server

sarahintampa — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 12:57:00 GMT

The upcoming My Movies plugin for Windows Home Server has a lot of people excited. Already available for Windows Media Center users, the plugin will soon allow Home Server users to organize their extensive movie collections and use their Home Server as more of a media server. According to a new post on the We Got Served blog, the plugin will function as a standard server for My Movies clients, will include an automated “Disc Copier,” will automatically monitor movie folders added to or located on a WHS share, and will function as a metadata provider without the need for a My Movies client for Microsoft DVD library, Niveus Movie Library, Open Media Library, Media Portal, and hopefully soon XBMC. The plugin isn’t available in its final form just yet, but if you just can’t wait to try it out, a pre-release version is now available for download from here.

TV Manager for Windows Home Server Now Out of Beta

sarahintampa — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 13:56:00 GMT

In July, we told you about a new plugin for Windows Home Server called TV Manager. This plugin lets you copy your recordings from a Vista Media Center PC or XP Media Center 2005 over to your Home Server for storage and management. At the time we originally wrote about it, the plugin was still in beta. But now, the first version of the plugin has been officially released: TV Manager 1.0. With TV Manager, you can view your recordings stored on your WHS in Media Center as if they physically resided on your PC. Recordings can also be deleted from either the WHS Console or Media Center.

Since the beta, several fixes and additions have been added to the software, including the following, listed below.

Fixes:

TV Manager Service setting permissions.
Compatibility with limited user accounts.
Launch recordings straight from the Windows Home Server Console.
Changed how recordings were moved (to fix ghost file issue) but lost the ability to monitor progress percentage.

New Additions:

Added Media Center Extender compatibility.
TV Manager Add-In interface redone.
Experimental ComSkip feature (disabled by default)
Regenerate the Xml in case of cache corruption without tester.exe.

If you’ve been waiting for the final version before trying out this software on your WHS, you don’t have to wait any more: you can download TV Manager 1.0 from here and the documentation from here.

pptPlex From Office Labs

sarahintampa — Fri, 29 Aug 2008 12:35:00 GMT

Having just recently released Speed Launch, an application launcher for Windows, the Office Labs guys are at it again. This time, they’re releasing pptPlex, a plug-in for Microsoft PowerPoint that provides zooming capabilities. With pptPlex installed, you can present your slides as a tour through a zoomable canvas – sort of like Silverlight’s Deep Zoom – instead of a linear deck. You may remember seeing a similar technology demoed by Bill Gates at this year’s Microsoft CEO Summit, but pptPlex is really just a take-off on that technology, which was called Plex. It’s not the same prototype as Plex.

First we get the Cooliris plugin for PowerPoint and now this? Wow, looks like boring slideshows may be a thing of the past.

pptPlex only works with Office PowerPoint 2007 and is available for download here.

WHS Outlook Beta

sarahintampa — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 16:48:00 GMT

Mike Craven has been working on a way to put Outlook on your Windows Home Server through the creation of a WHS add-in. The WHS Outlook Beta add-in will let you use Outlook right from the Windows Home Server Console to check your email, switch between Outlook profiles on-the-fly, access all of your RSS Feeds, create new tasks or appointments, and more. You will get all the power of Outlook right through the WHS Console application. The add-in will require that you use Outlook 2002 or newer and you’ll be able to customize where your PST file is stored – either on the system partition or on the network shares. This add-in has not been released yet but a working beta should be available soon. If you’re interested in testing the beta, visit this thread on the WGS Forums and let Mike know of your interest. Active beta testers will receive a copy of the add-in at no charge when the beta period is over, but for everyone else the software will sell for $29.95 (U.S.) when ready. (Thanks to We Got Served for the tip!)

BBC Radio Plugin for Media Center

sarahintampa — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 13:05:00 GMT

For Brits, or anyone else who enjoys BBC radio, there’s now a new plugin for Vista Media Center that lets you listen to BBC Radio from within Media Center: BeebMC. This plugin is pretty cool, but there are a couple of downsides that you should be aware of: 1) it uses Real Player to do the streaming (so you need to have that installed in order to use it) and 2) it doesn’t work with extenders. Both of these problems have to do with the fact that the BBC streams their radio via Real Audio, an unfortunate choice on their part considering how many different options there are today. Still, if you’re interested in listening to the British perspective on things, this could be a fun way to do so using your Media Center PC. You can download the plugin from here.

(via We Got Served)

Have Urgent Emails Find You With AwayFind

sarahintampa — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 15:24:00 GMT

Recently, I wrote about an email overload solution that did not impress me, but here’s one that does: AwayFind. While it’s not necessarily the absolute be-all end-all solution to today’s information overload situation, it certainly has more usefulness than Attent’s virtual economy where emails are given prices.

What AwayFind offers instead is the ability to step away from your email without missing the really important items – the “emailed emergencies,” so to speak. The service works via an auto-responder which simply states something like:

Messaging me about something I need to know today (like a canceled meeting)? Please click here to get my attention:

http://awayfind.com/username

You can, of course, edit this message to include other details like when you plan on checking email, whether you’re on vacation, or the phone number to someone else who’s available to help.

If the email was indeed very urgent, the sender will (hopefully) click the link to get in touch with you. This takes them to a web page where they fill in their contact info and the message (which they will likely copy-and-paste from the original email).

The form is not too cumbersome to fill out, but has just enough fields that people will consider whether or not it’s worth their effort. This should help address the slew of email senders who tend to think that their emergencies are your emergencies. If anything, they’ll just go find someone else to get them through their current crisis.

The AwayFind service comes in two variations: a basic, free service and a professional version for $5/month. Most people will need the professional version, as the free service only offers 5 text messages per month. Of course, even the Professional version is somewhat lacking in that department, too, as it only provides 30 texts per month. Then again, hopefully, you don’t have 30 emergencies every month – that’s one emergency per day! Still, it would be nice not to be limited considering that you’re paying for the service.

You can also have email notifications sent to you when someone fills out a form. Ideally, these would be sent to an alternate address (like your personal address), so you’re not tempted to read your other work emails when you receive these alerts. The service actually supports as many different email addresses as you would like.

Whether you’re on vacation, on the road, really busy, or simply overloaded with email, AwayFind can help the most important messages reach you. To try the service for yourself, you can sign up here.

Transform the Web With PicLens

sarahintampa — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 20:02:00 GMT

If you haven’t yet tried out PicLens, then you’re missing out on one of the hottest web add-ons I’ve seen in a long time. This web browser add-on (available for IE here), literally transforms the web in an immersive experience, allowing you to browse through images and videos in a full-screen 3D view. When you’re on a page with videos or photos, you click on a little arrow that appears on your page thanks to the PicLens IE plugin and you’re zoomed into a full-screen, scrollable “wall” of media. In this “wall,” you can fly through photos or videos by scrolling with your mouse, and when you’re done “Esc” or “X” out and you’ll be back on the web page you started from.

The latest version of the PicLens plugin offers a “Discover” feature which lets you launch PicLens and use it as a media player of sorts. Here, you can watch movie trailers, get the latest news, view photos, and browse video feeds. Another newer addition is the “Shop Amazon” feature, which lets you virtually browse through products from Amazon.

Once you try PicLens, you’re going to love it, so if you haven’t checked it out yet, I suggest you download it now. This is rapidly becoming my absolute favorite plugin of all time.

TV Manager Beta for WHS

sarahintampa — Sun, 06 Jul 2008 05:42:00 GMT

There’s a new plugin for Windows Home Server users called TV Manager which copies your recordings from a Vista Media Center PC over to your Windows Home Server for storage and management. The plugin, still in beta, actually has 2 parts to it – one part for the WHS and one for Media Center. After the plugin copies the recording to the WHS, the original is removed from the Vista PC, freeing up valuable disk space on your machine. However, the plugin allows you to still watch the recordings just like you would normally watch “Recorded TV” in Media Center. The part of this program that runs on the Home Server displays a console for managing the recordings and deleting the ones you don’t want to keep. This plugin was created by Brent Friedman of We Got Served, where you can read in more detail about the features, requirements, and updates in the latest version of this beta software. (Image courtesy of WGS)

Official Del.icio.us Plugin for IE Now Available

sarahintampa — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 04:07:00 GMT

In May, Yahoo released a beta version of their Del.icio.us plugin for Internet Explorer which provided toolbar buttons for saving and tagging links, searching del.icio.us, and even syncing links from your browser’s favorites to the del.icio.us bookmarking service. Recently, Yahoo released the official version of the plugin – version 1.0 – which is now available for download here. This version works on both XP and Vista for both IE6 and IE7. IE8 should also work too, but since that browser is still in beta, IE8 support isn’t final yet. If you’re interested in testing the plugin for IE8, there’s also an online group where you can discuss and give comments and feedback.

Looken' Lets You Search Outlook

sarahintampa — Thu, 05 Jun 2008 14:21:00 GMT

Recently, Xobni has been in the news for their “inbox as a social network” Outlook plugin (see our review here), which can help you better manage your email. But apparently, they were just the start of a new trend of plugins that help you deal with information overload. Now, there’s a new application called Lookeen, which can also help you get control of the inbox by allowing you to easily search for and find emails and other related files. Lookeen searches through your inbox, public folders, archives on Exchange, Notes, and your Calendar. For advanced users, it also allows for the use of specific query syntaxes like “AND” or “OR” or + / – and a lot more. The real question is, do you want a more social inbox (Xobni) or a more searchable one (Lookeen)? For those that said the latter, Lookeem may be worht a look. (via VentureBeat)

Get the ODF Office Plugin Now

sarahintampa — Tue, 27 May 2008 13:49:00 GMT

You may have heard the news about the upcoming Service Pack for Microsoft Office 2007, that will let you access more document formats like the XML Paper Specification (XPS), Portable Document Format (PDF) 1.5, PDF/A and Open Document Format (ODF) v1.1. The ODF format is becoming quite popular these days because it's a free and open file format for documents. With the upcoming SP2, available in early 2009, you'll be able to open, edit, and save documents using ODF and save into the other formats, including PDF. However, if you don't want to wait, you can go ahead an grab the ODF plugin now from Sun's website. This plugin is also compatible with older versions of Office, including Office XP, 2003, and 2000. (via gHacks)

Xobni Makes Your Inbox a Social Network

sarahintampa — Mon, 12 May 2008 17:54:00 GMT

Last week, the startup Xobni launched their public beta, so now everyone can get their hands on the Outlook plugin that turns your inbox into a social network. Xobni (that's "inbox" backwards!), taps into the hidden social network you spend time with every day: your inbox. The plugin runs in a sidebar where it analyzes and extracts info about you and your relationships.

During their private beta, they tweaked several things, fixed bugs, and even decided to streamline the plugin a bit by removing the "organize" tab, instead choosing to focus on their core product's offerings - super-fast search and relationship management. Using Xobni, you have access to features like threaded conversations, analytics, user profiles, a "related people" feature, shared attachments, and other automatically extracted info - like phone numbers for your contacts. To get in on the Xobni public beta, just visit the Xobni homepage and sign up.

TripSync: Book all your travel from inside Outlook

Jesse — Thu, 26 Apr 2007 17:22:00 GMT

You almost certainly aren’t interested in Aaron Newman’s trip to Miami, but how he booked his travel should be of some interest to you. TripSync is an online travel tool that aside from having the standard web interface also features a very slick Outlook plugin. From within your calendar, TripSync will help you arrange and purchase all of your travel, and then create the appropriate entries for you. Not only that, but if you want to make a change to your reservations, simply drag and drop the Outlook calendar entry and TripSync will do as its name implies; synchronize your adjustments. The team has also issued something of a challenge to their competitors by dropping the online booking fees that most websites apply to the cost of travel.