Here on the Windows Experience Blog, I use Soapbox on MSN Video to embed and share all my videos for my blog posts. Tonight, the Soapbox and MSN Video Team has launched MSN Video V4 with new features to Soapbox worth taking note of:

• Enhanced Copyright violation. Soapbox users will now be explicated told one of their videos has been flagged for copyright violation versus previously the video would simply not show up without any sort of message.
• Improved encoding time. This is a HUGE plus for me because it lets me get videos uploaded faster when writing a blog post. Previously, it took quite a bit of time to get a video completely uploaded to be embedded into a blog post.
• New Mini-Showcase. The Mini-Showcase is a new area on the landing page where the video team editors can show you what’s hot on the site. I’m hoping to get one of my videos flagged for the Mini-Showcase sometime in the next few months.

There are a few more notable changes to take into account. When going to soapbox.msn.com - you will be directed to MSN Video. Soapbox is now directly part of MSN Video. In the menu you will see a new addition of “Soapbox user videos” where you can access user generated content from Soapbox including your profile via a new drop down menu. Also: you will note that MSN Video now consumes the most out of the browser window instead of being a fixed width at the center.

Congratulations to the MSN Video Team for pushing out an excellent new release of MSN Video and Soapbox and I look forward to continuing to use the service to share videos with my readers.

Users using the new Windows Live Photo Gallery beta can also now publish videos directly to Soapbox on MSN Video. This feature continues to work absolutely wonderful for me especially with the improved encoding time from tonight’s release.   

Be sure to keep your eyes peeled on the Soapbox on MSN Video Blog for more on tonight’s update.

• NVIDIA ForceWare 163.71 Beta driver released
  Yet another Nvidia beta this week.
  (tags: Nvidia Software Video Drivers Beta )
• Vista burns laptop hard disks - Failure eight times higher than under XP
  Vista runs a hard drive 7 to 9 degrees warmer, even in idle mode says a German magazine.
  (tags: Hardware )
• Windows Vista Ultimate Extras, Less than 3 days and counting
  The end of summer is here, where’s the Vista Ultimate Extras we were promised?
  (tags: Ultimate Extras )
• Everything you?ve read about Vista DRM is wrong (Part 3)
  The third part of Ed Bott’s series on the FUD surrounding Vista’s DRM.
  (tags: DRM )

Microsoft 2007 Office system provides many security improvements over its predecessors, including digital document signing. By digitally signing a document, you can confirm that you are the originator of the document and help prove that the document has not changed since the time you signed it. This white paper introduces the reader to digital signatures: what they are and how to use them.

You can digitally sign a document for many of the same reasons you might place a handwritten signature on a paper document. A digital signature is used to help authenticate the identity of the creator of (authenticate: The process of verifying that people and products are who and what they claim to be. For example, confirming the source and integrity of a software publisher’s code by verifying the digital signature used to sign the code.) digital information — such as documents, e-mail messages, and macros — by using cryptographic algorithms.

Digital signatures are based on digital certificates. Digital certificates are verifiers of identity issued by a trusted third party, called a certification authority or CA. This works similarly to the use of standard identity documents in the non-electronic world. For example, a trusted third party such as a government entity or employer issues identity documents such as driver’s licenses, passports and employee ID cards on which others rely to verify that a person is whom he/she claims to be.

Digital signatures help to establish the following authentication measures:

• Authenticity The digital signature helps to assure that the signer is whom he or she claims to be. This helps prevent others from pretending to be the originator of a particular document (the equivalent of forgery on a printed document).
• Integrity The digital signature helps to assure that the content has not been changed or tampered with since it was digitally signed. This helps prevent documents from being intercepted and changed without knowledge of the originator of the document.
• Non-repudiation The digital signature helps to prove to all parties the origin of the signed content. “Repudiation” refers to the act of a signer’s denying any association with the signed content. This helps prove that the originator of the document is the true originator and not someone else, regardless of the claims of the signer. A signer cannot repudiate the signature on that document without repudiating his or her digital key, and thus other documents signed with that key.

Read more and download the withe paper here

Microsoft today announced that its trademarked HDi™ logo will soon appear on all Toshiba HD DVD players. In addition, Universal Studios Home Entertainment and Paramount Home Entertainment will include the HDi logo on packaging for HD DVD movie titles beginning in the fourth quarter of this year. HDi technology is Microsoft’s high-performance implementation of the interactivity layer for the HD DVD format, which has taken the movie-viewing experience to an entirely new level with such advanced features as network connectivity and community scenarios. HDi is also a trademark of Microsoft, as recognized by the United States Patent and Trademark Office in its July 2007 notice of allowance for trademark.

Microsoft HDi technology powers the interactive capabilities in every stand-alone HD DVD player on the market as well the HD DVD drive for Xbox 360®. More information about HDi can be found at http://www.thisishddvd.com.

News Source: www.microsoft.com

Office Communications Server 2007 Best Practices Analyzer
The Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 Best Practices Analyzer Tool is a diagnostic tool that gathers configuration information from a Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 environment and determines whether the configuration is set according to Microsoft best practices. You can install the tool on a client computer that runs Microsoft .NET Framework 2.0, or on a server that runs Office Communications Server 2007.

Multilingual User Interface Package for Microsoft Office Communicator 2007
Microsoft Office Communicator 2007 introduces a wide range of new features, most notably enhanced presence and enterprise voice capabilities, enabling users to place computer-to-computer calls and to place outbound calls to, and accept incoming calls from, traditional (PBX/PSTN) phone users.

By installing the Multilingual User Interface Package to an existing Office Communicator 2007 installation, users can switch the user interface of Office Communicator 2007 from one language to another.

Language Pack for Microsoft Office Communicator Web Access (2007)
Users of Communicator Web Access have access to many of the same features that are available in the Office Communicator 2007 desktop client. By using Microsoft Office Communicator Web Access (2007 release), users can access the instant messaging, presence, and conferencing features in Office Communications Server 2007 through a Web browser without installing software desktop client or connecting through a VPN.

When you add the language pack to an existing Office Communicator Web Access deployment, users can switch the user interface of Office Communicator Web Access from one language to another.

Intel, along with other technology heavyweights, have formed a group to promote USB 3.0 with plans to deliver a specification in the first half of 2008.

The group, which was announced at the Intel Developer Forum in San Francisco, includes HP, Microsoft, NEC, NXP Semiconductors and Texas Instruments. USB 3.0 is designed to deliver transfer rates 10 times the speed of a connection today.

According to Intel, USB 3.0 “will target fast sync-and-go transfer applications in the PC, consumer and mobile segments that are necessary as digital media become ubiquitous and file sizes increase up to and beyond 25 Gigabytes.”

USB 3.0 will reach these fast speeds by using fiber-optic wiring instead of the traditional copper variety. USB 3.0 will also be backward compatible.

Stephen Shankland, who interviewed Pat Gelsinger, general manager of Intel’s Digital Enterprise Group, reports that there is generally a one to two year lag from the time a standard is formed to actually making it inside a PC. Based on that timeline, USB 3.0 will be coming to a PC near you in 2009 or 2010.

News Source: blogs.zdnet.com