Redmond, Washington — Software behemoth Microsoft last week rolled out a series of major updates to its Windows Live Essentials suite of tools for managing photos and videos and keeping files in sync. But, reviewing the update appears that the small and medium business customers will be much more impressed with the expanded features and functionality of Windows Live Mail.
With no major update to Windows in line this year, Microsoft is banking on enhancements to Windows Live would help it bolster the appeal of Windows for this year’s holiday shopping season.
“We are updating Windows 7 with a new suite of apps,” general manager Brian Hall said in a telephonic interview.
The enhancements to Windows Live Photo Gallery, Windows Live Movie Maker, Windows Live Sync and Windows Live Mail will starts to appear in beta in the coming months, Hall said, declining to be more specific.
While a large number of the modifications to the suite have been reasonably minor, there are some new and noteworthy features which could turn out to be impressive to the masses. The first of which, as portrayed by TechCrunch, “allows for the creation of Animoto-like video clips containing photos and videos [in which they have] added a variety of transition and effect options, as well as the ability to add music and text, to these clips.”
A new feature in Photo Gallery is aimed at making for better group shots by letting people create composites from different photos of the same group. (Credit: Microsoft)
The coming version of the Windows Live Photo Gallery tool would also complement a facial recognition capabilities and enriched editing tools for removing blemishes or scratches. Apple has had face detection in the most recent version of iPhoto, but so far Microsoft has only distinguished the presence of faces in shots, not tried to recognize who, exactly, was in the picture. Hall said Microsoft’s face recognition features draw on the company’s research efforts as well as tapping in to the user’s existing network of social contacts to figure out who might be in a photo.
Once you log in to Windows Live Mail, the Highlights feature allows you to instantly view if there are any new messages from your contacts, social network updates, or engagements and reminders. The 1-Click Filter in Windows Live Mail enables you to filter your view of the Inbox to display only unread e-mails, or only messages from your contacts, or only messages from selected social networks like Facebook and LinkedIn. As the name implies, this filtering is accomplished with a single click.
Nevertheless, Microsoft possesses a powerful spam filtering protection, and additional innovations in place to proactively combat junk mail which help business professionals cut down on Inbox clutter. However, just the legitimate messages that are supposed to be in the Inbox can create a clutter of their own and make it difficult to communicate efficiently.
Another new attribute in Photo Gallery is designated at making for better group shots by allowing people to obtain multiple pictures and then use one person’s appearance from one shot with another person’s face from another shot, using technology to combine together a composite image. The new software also allows photos that are uploaded and then tagged on Facebook to have those tags brought back into Photo Gallery.
With the updates, Hall insisted, “Windows is better for photos than a Mac, hands down.”
The new tool empowers users to decide which folders are shared with which computers and which are shared to the cloud. Allowing for peer-to-peer sharing, Hall said, this concept provides a means for people to keep their files in multiple places without handing over control of the data to a third party.
“We empower people the most capability to access their files without saying all your files belong to us,” he said, taking a jab at purely cloud-based rivals.
However, the list goes on. Because, cloud-based programs and services are not Microsoft’s aptitude–those are Google’s dancing grounds. Microsoft is playing catch-up, but this latest refresh of the Windows Live Essentials seems to do an impressive job of catching up.
Both programs will work with Windows Vista and Windows 7, but not the older Windows XP operating system. The features and capabilities of Windows Live Essentials, and specifically Windows Live Mail, deliver noteworthy functionality for small and medium businesses looking for an alternative to Google for cloud-based services. And, Microsoft has better integration and fidelity with the desktop version of Microsoft Office, which can be a compelling feature.
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