Back in September, Nick blogged about two new LifeCams from Microsoft Hardware: the VX-7000 and NX-3000. Recently, I've been looking for a new webcam. I already owned the VX-3000 - but I wanted something a little more powerful and higher quality.  And the VX-7000 is just that! I went ahead and picked one up last week and thought I'd share some notes on my experience with it so far.

First off, let me give you a brief introduction to the device. The VX-7000 is the top-of-the-line webcam in the VX series of LifeCams from Microsoft Hardware. The VX series LifeCams are designed for desktop PCs while the NX series LifeCams are designed for laptops. The VX-7000 is a Certified for Windows Vista device so it is designed to work great with Windows Vista. All LifeCams are optimized for Windows Live - specifically being used with Windows Live Messenger for video calls. The VX-7000 comes with a pretty slick set of specs (you can also read the specs here from the Microsoft Hardware site):

• 2.0 Megapixel Sensor for clear video
• Built-in Microphone designed to capture crystal clear audio
• Universal Attachment Base to fit on top and clamp on to most monitors
• Auto-Adjustment for Low Light Conditions
• 71 degree Wide-angle Lens
• High Definition 8 Megapixel still digital photographs

Both video and still photos are shot at 1600x1200 screen resolution which is really nice.

The VX-7000 (and all LifeCams) utilizes the Microsoft LifeCam client where you can take photos and videos using the camera. You can download the Microsoft LifeCam along with the drivers here.

But what the VX-7000 is perfect at, I found out, is doing video calls with contacts in Windows Live Messenger. I used Windows Live Messenger's Audio and Video wizard (under the Tools menu) to set the audio and video up with the VX-7000. I then initiated a video call with a friend of mine and within seconds my friend could hear and see me via my VX-7000 webcam. And the quality was pretty good!

As I mentioned above, you can use the Microsoft LifeCam client to record photos and videos using the VX-7000 (or any LifeCam). And with Windows Live Photo Gallery - you can upload those photos you take to your Windows Live Space (or Flickr). Did you also know that with Windows Live Photo Gallery you can upload videos to MSN Soapbox as well?

I was able to take several videos I shot with the VX-7000 and use Windows Live Photo Gallery to upload them to MSN Soapbox.

Overall though I've been really impressed with the quality of the VX-7000 in general and it should certainly be looked at if you're looking for a new webcam.

Jensen Harris from the Office 2007 design team gave a very rare presentation at Microsoft’s MIX08 event today about not what the Office 2007 Fluent (Ribbon) interface is about, but instead how it came to be and what other concepts they tried.

He admitted himself it was the first time ever in a public venue where they’ve shown these never-before-seen prototypes of what would become Offer 2007. It was great insight into the development process of Office which frankly may not have been very interesting except the last release. Having said that, it was still a very small selection of material out of the 50-60GB worth of prototypes Jensen claims have been archived.

Most of these were presented in sequential order so it was also interesting to see how the design evolved.

It will be another 24 hours before the session recording will be uploaded to the MIX website, but I highly recommend everyone to check it out when it is available to hear Jensen had to say about each slide.

Also during the “Beneath the Surface: The Natural Experience Vision” at Microsoft MIX08, Daniel played the video created by Microsoft’s Office Labs used to show off their vision of personal health systems for the future. Nothing in this suggests it will be realized anytime soon, but it had some great ideas for both devices and natural user interfaces which the presentation was about.

On the last day at the Microsoft MIX08 event, Daniel Makoski from the Microsoft Surface team presented a session called “Beneath the Surface: The Natural Experience Vision”. During the presentation, Daniel briefly touched on the work they were doing in Windows surrounding natural user interfaces.

Most of the presentation was focused around the Surface which is interesting enough in itself, but a few slides in regards to Windows caught my attention. It showed off a range of alternate user interfaces for people who may not have been familiar with the traditional computing paradigm, particularly in developing nations. These are some of the ideas they had.

Just about every windows application has an ‘undo’ feature and most have a ‘redo’ feature. These are a lifesaver on those frequent occasions that we make a mistake in what we are doing, and in the case of ‘redo’, when we realise that we were right the first time.

The undo/redo feature will either be available as toolbar buttons (as shown) or from the ‘Edit’ menu. Alternatively there are, unsurprisingly, a couple of keyboard shortcuts for them. To undo the last thing you did hold down the Ctrl key and press Z; to redo the last thing you undid, hold down the Ctrl key and press Y.

Ever since I read my first Engadget liveblog, it’s something I’ve always wanted to try out for myself. Unfortunately it never seemed like the right time, nor did I have the right tools. Of course, I’m not alone in the liveblogging craze.

Today, Rafael Rivera and I tried for the first time a Rube Goldberg-inspired process which not only made our MIX08 keynote liveblog possible, but also efficient and hopefully fun to read as well.

We had a few people sitting around us wondering what sort of magic we were doing - like a photo I take would automatically appear on Flickr in a handful of seconds and then my blog in a couple of minutes - so I wanted to share how it was all done so you too can try it if you want.

You will need:

• A dSLR camera (Nikon or Canon)
• A friend who assumes the role of the writer/photographer (spelling and a firm hand respectively)
• Two laptops, one for each person (role).
• Internet connectivity (good upload, download irrelevant, WiFi will work)
• Most importantly, an interesting event with animated presenters.

Softwares and tools:

• Remote camera capturing software - stream pictures taken from your camera directly to your computer
  • Nikon: Nikon Camera Control Pro
  • Canon: Breeze DSLR Remote Pro
• Flickr account - store your photos
• Foldr Monitr - a software which monitors new photo images and uploads them to Flickr
• Windows Live Writer - offline blogging software
• Flickr4Writer Live Writer plugin - quickly embed Flickr images in your blog posts

Setup:

1. Check the camera compatibility of the above software’s as not all dSLRs are supported.
2. If possible, switch your camera to MTP USB mode (not Mass Storage).
3. Plug in your camera via install. Install your camera drivers.
4. Install the appropriate remote camera capturing software.
5. Download and install Foldr Monitr. Authenticate your Flickr account for this software.
6. Download and install Windows Live Writer.
7. Download and install Flickr4Writer plugin.

On the day:

After the event:

• Clean up the blog post by correcting formatting and spelling mistakes.
• Add additional pictures if there are any that’s appropriate or particular interesting.
• Categorize your Flickr photos into a set and make a link to it at the end of your blog post.

Tips:

• Photographer
  • Take lots of pictures, but not too many. You don’t want to miss something unexpected, but at the same time you don’t want to clog your bandwidth and build a queue of pictures from minutes ago.
  • Use speed-priority mode in your camera. The combination of low-lighting and fast-moving actions results in blurred pictures very often. A shutter speed of 1/80 is optimal.
• Writer
  • Keep the summaries short and concise. You’re not a transcriber.
  • Learn all the Live Writer shortcuts.

In the end, have fun and don’t make it a burden. Put in as much work as you think is necessary to make it enjoyable to read if you were someone not at the event and who’s DoSing your server. Look forward to doing more of these and reading more live blogs.