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VX-5000

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Are you a Geek? Want a Chance to Win a LifeCam VX-5500?

A few weeks ago, Chris Pirillo (of Lockergnome fame) launched a brand new community website – called Geeks! - designed to give geeks of all ages a place to socialize on the web. On Geeks! – folks can sign-up to become members on the site and create photo albums, add videos, and even create a blog – all for free! The best part essentially is interacting and socializing with fellow geeks with the same geeky interests as you. Being a geek myself – I’ve signed up on Geeks! and if you’re a geek – you should too!

To help attract more geeks to Geeks! – the awesome Microsoft LifeCam folks at Microsoft Hardware have donated 10 Microsoft LifeCam VX-5500 webcams to Chris for a giveaway. These are the brand spankin’ new webcams just announced earlier this month.

This is how you can be entered to win one of these new Microsoft LifeCam VX-5500 webcams:

1. Microsoft Hardware group on Geeks!

Once Geeks! hits 7,500 members – Chris will randomly draw 10 names for the 10 Microsoft LifeCam VX-5500 webcams from the list of members in the Microsoft Hardware group. You are required to be a member of the Microsoft Hardware group to be entered for the giveaway. As of the writing of this post – Geeks! currently has 5,040 members. So sign-up and tell your friends!

I own both a Microsoft LifeCam VX-5000 and VX-7000 and both offer excellent quality video as well as impressive video conferencing capabilities via Windows Live Messenger. You can also use the brand new LifeCam 2.0 software to add video effects to your webcam video and images. Microsoft’s LifeCams (including the VX-5500 being given away) are also compatible with AOL Instant Messenger, Yahoo! Messenger, Microsoft Office Communicator, and Skype.

Click here to view Chris’s announcement of the giveaway.

After you sign-up on Geeks! – feel free to add me as one of your geek friends!

This post was written using the new Beta of Windows Live Writer now available on download.live.com. I used Chris’s YouTube video to test Windows Live Writer’s ability to insert videos from YouTube. In the past I’ve only inserted videos from Soapbox on MSN Video. For a more complete list of what’s new with the Windows Live Writer Beta – click here.

Written by Brandon LeBlanc on September 23rd, 2008 with no comments.
Read more articles on VX-5000 and VX-5500 and Geeks! and Microsoft LifeCam and VX-7000 and Microsoft Hardware and Community and otherSoftware and Featured News.

New LifeCams Announced & Windows Live Video Messages Launched

Today we announced 2 new Microsoft LifeCams that will be entering the LifeCam Family - the LifeCam Show and LifeCam VX-5500. We also have something to go along with the new LifeCams that extend the LifeCam experience...

People leave friends and family personalized voice mails or send them emails all the time. What about sending them a customized video message with all the benefits of voice mail and email but with video instead? Today, we're launching Video Messages to do just that!   Video Messages lets users enjoy the combination of what they get with voice mail and email with video to send personalized video messages to friends and family (or whoever they want).

You can visit Windows Live Video Messages at videomessages.live.com.

How about we check out what Windows Live Video Messages is all about?

When users sign into the Windows Live Video Messages website, they will notice it is set up quite a bit like a mailbox is for email. And that's how users should treat their Video Messages - like voicemail but better.

Note: Silverlight is required for Windows Live Video Messages.

On the top left hand corner, users will see 3 categories for Video Messages next to their display icon: Received, Sent, and Unviewed. A listing of how many Unviewed Video Messages is also displayed along with total Video Messages you have in your account.

On the left hand side users will have a sidebar that also displays new Video Messages (the black number circle in the above screenshot) as well as a list of their top 6 contacts.

When I first signed in to Windows Live Video Messages, I had 1 Unviewed Video Message. This was Video Message by Microsoft welcoming me to Windows Live Video Messages. A tile with a link to a list of available Microsoft LifeCams and where to buy them was also included.

On the top right hand side of Windows Live Video Messages is another set of buttons and options.

Users can select how they wish to view their Video Messages. There are 2 options: "Scattered" View or Grid View. By default, when users sign in it will be on Scattered View as that's what it was one for me when I signed in. Users can also check how much space they have left in Windows Live Video Messages by moving their mouse over the little harddrive icon. Users will get 2GB of storage for their Video Messages. Because Video Messages aren't usually very long - 2GB of storage will go a long way. And of course the Recycle Bin icon lets you manage deleted Video Messages and can be emptied at any time.

Recording a Video Message is really easy. To do so, all users need to do is press the "+" at the bottom right hand corner. A recording window will pop up.

NOTE: Windows Live Video Messages is designed to work with all of Microsoft's LifeCams. Non-Microsoft webcams are also supported by the website.

Windows Live Video Messages will detect your LifeCam and display your LifeCam in the Recording window.

After users record their Video Message, they can play it back before sending to make sure it's what they want to send. If it is what they want to send, they can click the "+" buttons on the empty display icons at the bottom to add contacts they want to send the Video Message to. You will be able to add multiple contacts as well. Users will also be able to lock certain Video Messages from being forwarded or saved by recipients.

After the user sends their Video Message, the person you sent it to will be notified via email a new Video Message is available for them to view.

That person can then reply to it just as they would reply to an email you send.

Sending and receiving Video Messages is really easy. But wait - there's more!

For users on Windows Vista, there is also a LifeCam video messages gadget available that lets users create, send, and receive Video Messages right from their Windows Vista desktop (with Windows Sidebar of course!). Users can choose 6 of their top contacts to be always shown in the gadget for quick access to sending Video Messages to specific people - like your mom. The LifeCam video messages gadget supports the all of the Microsoft LifeCams.

The Gadget will run on 64-bit systems when running Windows Sidebar in 32-bit mode.

Give Windows Live Video Messages a try today and start sending Video Messages to your friends and family! I also currently own the Microsoft LifeCam VX-7000 - which I blogged about here. I also got my hands on the Microsoft LifeCam VX-5000 which is also proving to be an excellent webcam. I'll be blogging more about the VX-5000 shortly. And certainly check out the new Microsoft LifeCams announced today as well.

Written by Brandon LeBlanc on September 9th, 2008 with no comments.
Read more articles on LifeCam Show and Windows Live Video Messages and Microsoft LifeCam and VX-5000 and VX-5500 and VX-7000 and otherSoftware and Featured News and Windows Live and Sidebar Gadget and LifeCam and Windows Vista.