Anyone find the search box in Spaces as rather useless?

To me, the search box on the Windows Live header bar in Spaces is very useless.

                                                      

How so? Well…

• Little integration with your ID and Spaces – Like my Spaces friends don’t automatically come up in the results, I can’t search for my SkyDrive files, can’t search for ‘gadget’ modules for Spaces, individual photos, events, etc. None of the important stuff that directly matters to me is included in the results.
• No nice Instant results as you type – This ties in with the first bullet. I love how in Facebook, as your start typing into the search box, your friends automatically start popping up as you type, or maybe an application, network, or whatever. Instant results appearing as you type. I mean if Microsoft has to look anywhere at how to do it correct, Facebook does a great job of utilizing the search box.
• Results as of now are just dumb – The separate verticals are People, Spaces, and Blog Entries. Ok, so aren’t People and Spaces exactly the same? I mean People do have a Live Space, right? Or what does it mean? People can give their Space a title, but it’s still the same person. So they should belong together, instead of apart. As for blog entries, well I’m guessing it only shows results from Spaces with public view, but I searched a few of my own post, and some are there, and some aren’t. Really weak feature. You know what it needs? It needs to be able to search for people by location, age group, school, name, and all that, as well as look up gadgets, Windows Live Events, SkyDrive files, Photos from peoples’ Spaces, and a bazillion other things. That’s the only way it’d be useful.

Well that’s the gist of it. If you use Live Spaces, you know what I’m talking about. I practically never use the search box, because it’s capabilities are at the bottom of the barrel.

Oh, and here’s a picture of 3 exactly redundant results:

                                                                   

What’s up with that? And if I last remembered correctly, those 3 excerpts are from a blog entry. Shouldn’t they be placed in the blog entry section? What exactly does People, Spaces, and Blog entries mean to the Spaces team?

This is just one of the other areas of Windows Live Spaces that makes me look and shake my head. How do you feel about the Spaces search box?

How to give HDR-like effects to photos using WLPG

Have you seen some those stunning photos, with the brilliant arrays of colors and brightness and contrast, that really seem to pop out of the photo? Yes, I’m talking about those HDR (high dynamic range) photos that are very popular around the web, especially on Flickr. You can create a similar look and feel by editing them right in Windows Live Photo Gallery. It’s really all about the exposure (in the brightness and contrast), and you could tweak it a little more.

                                                                

Here’s how:

1. Launch WLPG (Windows Live Photo Gallery)

2. Find a photo you want to HDR. Double click on it.

3. Now you should see the enlarged photo taking up the space. Click "Fix" right on the menu bar (circled in red on picture)

                                                                                              

4. Now the right pane should open up with a bunch of tools you can use. To do the HDR effects, I’m mostly going to use Adjust Exposure. And maybe a little Adjust Color. HDR is really about the exposure.

                                                                                   

5. Click on Adjust Exposure. Crank up Contrast to the highest you can. Contrast really makes the shades of color pop out more noticeably. You’ll immediately notice the image to be very colorful and vibrant all at once. You can pull the slider back slightly, if you want less effect.

                                                                 

You can also adjust the Brightness, so that the light source can appear really bright, or very dark. I generally prefer to keep the brightness the same, or a bit higher. It feels like a real capture of time. If it’s too bright or too dark, then you don’t really see all the colors, which is why keeping it in the middle is generally good.

6. You can mess around with the other sliders too if you want. If you feel like you want to go back to the original picture you had before, go to the bottom of the Fix pane, and click on the down arrow next to Undo.

                                                                        

You can either go back on a step, or undo it all. Really nifty feature. If you (accidentally) back out of the image view, and right back into the library, the picture will automatically save what you edited. Luckily, if you didn’t mean to, you can double click on the image again, click the down arrow next to Undo, and select Revert to original.

So that’s how I typically give an HDR effect to my photos. Give it a try sometime. Here’s two photos, a before and an after shot.

                                       BEFORE                                                                            AFTER

                                        

See the difference? The HDR effects in the second photo really pop out! Best of all, you don’t need a fancy photo editor or software like Photoshop. WLPG is free to use.

Give it a try. Windows Live Photo Gallery is great to use if you’re not a pro. Now if only Microsoft offered direct photo effects like Picnik does…

Windows Live Tags: Windows Live Photo Gallery, HDR, how-to, high dynamic range, WLPG, photos, editing, Clubhouse, photo fix

Running the Vista Upgrade Advisor

I don’t plan at all on upgrading my computer to Windows Vista, but I’m going to see what the Vista Upgrade Advisor says. Why not? Well because I really have doubts that this Dell desktop of mine will do the job in a smooth AERO way, and I’ve heard that it’s just more easier to get Windows Vista with a new computer instead. Also, Windows XP is still good enough for me.

So here I go. Vista I installed it, and it didn’t take long. Roughly a minute or less. Than I launched it up.

                                                                     

Now it’s scanning. While it’s scanning, I can check out the many different versions (aka SKU’s) of Windows Vista. If I wanted Windows Vista, I’m only either getting Home Premium or Ultimate. I want Windows Media Center, AERO, or have all the benefits of the best one. Personally though, I think Vista should just come in 2 forms : Home and Business.

                                                                      

And after it finished scanning, I went to next, and it said my computer was good enough for Home Premium. Not bad.

                                                                 

There’s only 6 programs that might have issues:

1. Roxio MyDVD LE
2. MSN Explorer
3. Messenger
4. Citrix ICA Client
5. Dell CinePlayer
6. ATI Desktop Component

All 6 programs are programs I never/rarely used. That’s good. Something called SigmaTel High Definition Audio CODEC didn’t have compatibility data from Microsoft though. But the other devices worked. Just press the arrow for more info on what does/doesn’t work.

Some other info: I have 1.00 GB of RAM (2GB is what I’ve heard qualifies a great Vista experience). Intel Pentium 4 CPU 3.00GHz. Also, my video card should be able to handle AERO and my computer can record DVD’s.

I still don’t plan on upgrading to Windows Vista, since I’m fine with Windows XP, and I want a more optimal computer to handle the OS. Have you tried the Windows Vista Upgrade Advisor? Good computer or no? Did you upgrade or buy Vista preinstalled? Share me your thoughts.

Photosynth is LIVE and ready to use! Try it now!

Yes! Photosynth has finally been released! You can go to Photosynth.net and download it for free. It will install a web-browser plug-in, and an application for creating them.

                                                                         

The download took me less than a minute. It was a breeze. I’m checking out the Taj Mahal synth.

                                                                                    

It’s pretty good. The controls are different though:

                                                                                       

                                                          OLD                                                     NEW

The difference? Well the e-mail a view is new on the side of the Photosynth viewer, the camera points shower is removed, the fly-around is also gone, and is now replaced with a more slideshow control, and a choice to go to the next 3D group. I like the old controls better :^(

Some other new options is the report link (to report bad photos), embed, full browser screen, and some synths have an optional web/world logo that links to a Virtual Earth map showing where the synth comes from. You should also check out the Great Pyramid and Sphinx synth. Truly remarkable.

                                                                                      

You might notice that ring right there. You can click on it, and drag it to get a full 3D pan of that point right there. Not sure what the green area is though.  Here’s an embed:

                                                    

As for the software application, I’m not really going to try it out. I don’t have enough data of my own to create a synth just yet. I might make one of my high school though. Which I’ll post later, if I do. Here’s the start prompt after you sign-in with your Windows Live ID:

                                                      

It appears you can only have 20GB worth of data at the moment. Which sounds pretty sweet, considering a free account on Flickr is only 200 photos you can upload. Which makes me wonder, will there be a Flickr and Photosynth integration anytime soon? Yahoo! and Microsoft are competing companies, but things like Y! and WLM users being able to chat with each other, makes me wonder.

So check it out yourself and go to Photosynth.net. It’s free, but you’ll need IE7+ or Firefox 2 or Firefox 3. Sorry Opera and Safari users.

Awesome Tech – Using Photographs to Enhance Videos

Some researchers of the GRAIL (Graphics and Imaging Laboratory) at the University of Washington, have made a pretty neat software that can take elements of digital photography, and embed those elements right into a video. In a way that’s super easy, and doesn’t require so much manual labor for the user.

http://www.vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=1513129&server=www.vimeo.com&show_title=1&show_byline=1&show_portrait=0&color=&fullscreen=1
Using Photographs to Enhance Videos of a Static Scene from pro on Vimeo.

For instance, you can do these things with photos of the same location where the video took place, as highlighted in the video:

• Replacing points of a location in a video, with high-res quality photographs
• Editing something in a single frame, and self-applies throughout the rest of the scene
• HDR video, where the camera can’t capture it
• Stabilize typical video-shaking, by using view interpolation
• Adding simple effects to photographs shown in picture frames in a video (black and white, reflection removal,…)
• Adding photo effects to videos (now it’s video effects!)
• Object removal (like a big ugly parking sign!

They use something called "Spacetime fusion" to make a seamless video stream, so you don’t notice the parts of the video that got fixed. It’s absolutely amazing. It’s pretty much everything an amateur video-maker would love.

The only limitation they noted, was that these fixes only works on videos with "static scenes" (i.e., videos shot with a moving camera but containing no moving objects in the scene). But they’re going to try working on fixing this limitation.

This seems like wonderful work. I really hope to see it come out soon. I’d even pay for it, if it’s really as easy to fix the videos as they claim. Which makes me wonder, how’s Microsoft doing on the upcoming Windows Live Movie Maker? Considering that both University of Washington and Microsoft HQ are both in Washington state, in or near Seattle, I wonder if Microsoft has some connections with UW. Connections enough to bring school research, into an actual product for the masses. Because that’d make WLMM (whatever it’ll be called) into a really awesome video-editing software if they include these video-fixing features, along with your typical necessities for video-editing. A real game changer for MS if it’s free, and works great.

Whatever way it comes out, I’d love to see the features in this video, in a real video-editing software sometime soon.

Here’s a link to the research page.

Windows Live Messenger : 5 Great Windows Live Agents(aka ‘bots’!) we should all know about

UPDATE: Windows Live Agents are no longer active. http://wltbot.spaces.live.com/blog/cns!60040BE340DD32B0!2826.entry?sa=587978100

Windows Live Agents are bots or specifically-made automated responses to a certain topic you pick for. They can ask questions, and your response to the questions, will bring up something. Like if you add a bot designed for chatting about sports, you could ask "How are the Denver Broncos doing?" and it will respond by giving you the latest stats from a certain website or feed it’s getting the info. It’s almost like searching the web for information, but interactive and chatty-like.

                                                                                    

Here’s a quick description on how to add a bot, or any other Messenger contact:

1. Open Windows Live Messenger
2. Click on the Add Contact button next to the search box
3. Enter in the e-mail address of the bot (you can find bots on Windows Live Gallery or Wikipedia) in the box where it asks for the address
4. Edit as much details as needed or just simply keep hitting Next until you hit OK. 
5. The bot should be available on your contacts list (might take awhile) and you can just double-click on the bot and start chatting!

So here’s the 5 best ones I like:

1. SmarterChild ( smarterchild@hotmail.com ) –  He can practically do everything. From things like giving you pretty much real simple answers, games, tools, and even gives you the latest stats on itself. All in one bot. Most people have already heard of it.

                                                                                             

2. Encarta Instant Answers ( encarta@botmetro.net ) – This is all about the encyclopedia. Ask a capital of a country, who wrote what famous books, famous people, and all that. It even loads up the Encarta Encyclopedia on the Activity pane.

                                                                                      

3. Muse ( musebot@live.com ) – If you don’t remember Muse, she was made by Windows Live to help spark some interests into doing what Live Spaces is really more about : Blogging. She’s suppose to give you some ideas to help you get jumpstarted on blogging. She looks very similar to a Where’s Waldo character. She has a 2-post blog. She’s kind of died off though, but her WLM bot still exists. She’ll help you get some ideas with the Though of the Day, and you can even make a blog post in the activity pane.

                                                                                              

4. Poynt ( poynt@live.com ) – This is one of those services you wonder why Microsoft didn’t make one. It’s basically like Live Local for Messenger. You can look up businesses and get an instant map of it. Unfortunately, when I opened the activity pane to check out the map, it wouldn’t work. It said I needed IE6+. I have IE7 and Safari installed, but I guess it doesn’t detect it. I used it before though, and it worked very good. Here’s an image from the company site:

                                                                      

5. Hacker ( hackermessenger@hotmail.co.uk ) – Hacker is yet another multi-utility bot. It can do Live Searching, games, and guides you through what you can do on WLM. Simple stuff.

                                                                        

There’s really not much to say about bots, except the basics. Overall, bots are kind of fun, but if you really want information, just do web searching in your browser. I still don’t find them too intelligent, and even SmarterChild has lost some of his luster. Some bots don’t even function right when you type in a number choice. The only bots I’m personally interested in, are actual conversational bots. I haven’t found any for WLM though. But these bots do a fine job as it is. Give them a try. Just add them.

There’s also another neat bot that recently came about called the Windows Live Translator bot ( mtbot@hotmail.com ). It will be called TBot in your contact list, and it can translate what you type as you talk to it. It takes it awhile to translate though.

Wikipedia has a great list of bots. Though some of them don’t seem to work at all, or with the latest version of WLM.

Here’s the team blog.

Windows Live Tags: Windows Live Messenger, Windows Live Agents, Clubhouse, Community, great, goodiess, how-to

5 of the most shortest lived Windows Live marketing and products

I thought I should point out some old Spaces from the Windows Live Team that are still amazingly existing, that barely had any posts, hasn’t been updating for so long (more than a year in some cases!), and how neglectful and spam-ridden they are.

1. Muse – Do you remember Muse? That girl character that the Windows Live team created to promote blogging on Live Spaces? Well she died more than a year ago. Thanks to this fairly recent blog post I just saw, I got a quick remind of this girl. Does she remind you of Waldo? You know, from Where’s Waldo? ? She still exists in Live Messenger (WLM) though. You can even create a blog entry in a Messenger window. Add musebot@live.com in WLM. Here’s her short two-post blog.

                                                                                       

2. Windows Live Messenger Phone – It was a phone that could do Windows Live Messenger, and regular phone calling. Two unit provider, Uniden and Phllips made them. Verizon was the carrier. The concept never took off. Why? It’s probably because home phones are just for calling. Not IMing, or even messing around instant messaging. There’s a reason why home phones are pretty much plain devices. They’re just not meant to be. I remember a splash page featured on MSN that was all about the phone for Verizon. It’s gone now, as far as I can figure. I’m not exactly sure, but I think Uniden still sells them. Or their site hasn’t been updated. Check it out here and here. I really like the background, btw. 1-post blog.

                                                                        

3. Windows Live Barcode – The whole concept sounds ridiculous to me, and I’m guessing it’s dead. Since the links don’t work anymore. Sharing information on a barcode chip? Why not just get an internet-accessible device? It’s suppose to be designed for Windows Mobile, where things like business card contacts can have a barcode that can be scanned onto the phone, where information like address, phone numbers, URL’s, news, and such can get transferred onto. I’d think it just be easier to give them a real contact card, or get an e-mail, and send a message. Wikipedia article.

                                                                       

4. Windows Live Shopping – It was actually pretty interesting. It had stuff like sharing list with users, drag an drop items to a car,as it had stuff like guides you could make, or . It didn’t last long either. MSN Shopping fills this void, but it’s worse.

                                                                        

5. Windows Live WiFi Center – It didn’t even live. It just went on to become MSN WiFi Hotspots, which eventually died half a year later. Compared to other services like Jiwire, Microsoft really had nothing much better to offer. I don’t see what’s the point of creating a mediocre service, when everyone wants the best there is. Or something uniquely good.

                                                                         

It’s kinda interesting to reflect back on failures, and see why they failed. I’ll post some more posts for the Clubhouse soon.

AIM is pretty crappy. Why do Americans love it?

Ok, I seriously don’t get what’s so awesome about AOL Instant Messenger (AIM). I know that practically every American teen has one, and the 20’s age group too. So what’s so great about AIM? I use AIM 6 at the moment.

                                                                                 

I really don’t like it that much. Other than having a lot of friends that use AIM (I live in Texas, USA), and just feeling only a bit snappy, I don’t like it. Not one bit. Here’s some of my reasons :

• It’s AOL – I never liked AOL. I still don’t. Other than their weblogs (some of which, are ok), I don’t really touch anything else that’s AOL. The AOL.com page is a clear copy of the Yahoo.com layout. AOL Mail is a clear copy of Live Hotmail (though it’s kinda more snappy and better in a way, to be honest) layout. AOL Search is Google Search. So AOL is practically a clone of what’s out there. Don’t forget the 90’s and early 2000’s. Remember those stupid CD’s they’d clutter up in mailboxes across the country? Awful. Just plain awful. I’m glad that better alternatives have risen up over the years.
• Ads in IM client are awful – Absolutely awful. My cursor just barely touches the ad pane, and most of the times, the stupid ad rolls out. Plus, I can hear the ad a couple of times, when I don’t even activate it. Like a little giggle or something. It’s very annoying, compared to the other clients.
• Not as many features as other clients – Like Live Messenger can do phone calls, IM games, many color schemes, handwriting support, and some other nifty features you won’t find on AIM. Yahoo! has a few legs up it too. Even if you don’t always use all the features, it’s wonderful to have options, and they don’t get in the way.
• Menu-digging – I hate digging in menus. I find it have to do this often in AIM, compared to WLM and Y!. There’s too many options that aren’t exposed well enough. It’s ridiculous.
• The user interface is a mess – Sometimes, I try to find contacts by typing into my status message input box (which they copied from WLM), instead of the find box, because they both look similar at a glance, and are pretty near each other. There’s a lot of redundant actions, where you can find 2 or 3 of the same actions somewhere else on the UI. You have to dig around the menu very often, and I just hate it.

Those are my main reasons. There’s a few, just a few useful things. Like IM logs, and tabbed messenger windows built-in. But I think WLM and even Y! Messenger heads above it.

Do you still use AIM? What reasons do you like to use AIM over any other IM client?

Microsoft goes all out on the Beijing 2008 Olympics

I’m really amazed by how much involved Microsoft is with the Olympics this year. I’m a real fan of the Olympics, and it’s cool to see the depth of coverage Microsoft is doing for the Olympics. Here’s some spots where I’ve seen this happen:

1. NBC Olympics (Silverlight player) – NBC is using Silverlight to stream it’s 2200 hours of live video feeds. Live feeds for every sport. Make sure to try the enhanced player though. It really makes the Silverlight technology shine. I did get a little stutter as I transitioned across different videos, but these are live streaming. Overall, the quality is fine (not too spectacular) and it works great. Hope they do this next year. Though maybe they could include a live chatroom overlay as you’re watching live streams.

                                                                     

       

                                                                    

2. MSN Homepage – MSN has added an Olympic ribbon bar near the top of the page. It displays the latest headlines, quick links, streaming news bulletins, and photo and video highlights. All done in Silverlight (though not for Safari). There’s no option to turn it off though.

              

3. Live Search – Microsoft has also improved Live Search’s Instant Answers to respond to Olympic-related search queries. For instance, search for a country’s Olympic medal count:

                          

Or an athlete:

                                                                                                                

Olympic 2008 News vertical:

                                                                   

And even an Olympic vertical within xRank:

                                                           

xRank is pretty sloppy though. I mean, who’s "BARBARA"? Look at the news links next to the picture (I think those headlines refer to Barbara Bush, not this athlete). And did you notice #9? Brad Pitt is in the 2008 Summer Olympics? That’s just nuts.

UPDATE : Someone named Niceshoes has nicely mentioned that the Live Search team fixed it. That’s good to hear, I thought I was going crazy or something. Here’s a better image:

                                                                                

Also, the Live Maps team didn’t prepare for the Olympics at all. The aerial imagery of Beijing is fair at most. NO birds-eye-view (though I think this is because China won’t allow it). And simple searches for ‘Olympic Green’, ‘Beijing National Aquatics Center’, or even ‘National Olympic Stadium’ pull up zilch. I got this:

                                                                                    

Maps are a very important thing, especially when you’re in a foreign country. I can’t believe Live Maps has no clue what the Olympic venues are. Live.com (for China) did get a cool photo background of the Birds Nest (a.k.a. National Olympic Stadium). Though it’s not as high resolution as the ones we’ve seen so far. It would have been great if they could have customized Live.com for every international market with a special splash of the nation’s Olympic team showing the team or cool highlights and stuff. Just a though. They could update the image every few days as the Olympics go on.

                   

4. Windows Media Center (Vista) : NBC Olympics on the Go – There is a free download service called NBC Olympics on the Go. According to Microsoft, "You can watch your selected events in up to HD quality, even when offline, and you can pause, rewind, or fast-forward the video." You just start up Windows Media Center, go the Online Media menu, and just find and select the NBC Olympics graphic button, and download. Simple as that.

What you’ll get

• An easy-to-use service that lets you watch your favorite Olympic sports

• 200+ hours of catch-up TV programming over the 17 days of the Olympics

• Coverage of approximately 24 sports, the full opening ceremony, and a closing ceremony montage

• Up to HD quality video

                     

5. Xbox : An Olympic game and wrap-up videos for $1.99 each – There’s a video game called Beijing 2008 that’s available for the Xbox 360 system, from Sega. According to Softpedia, "Xbox owners will be able to access what Microsoft referred to as NBC wrap-up content, which will come with a price tag of $1.99". It’ll probably come later.

                                           

6. Zune : Post-game content and game footage for around $0.99-$1.99 – A collection of highlights, full events, extra footage, and more. I’m not sure if this is the same exact content as the ones on Xbox 360 Live Marketplace. Which is exactly why Microsoft needs to combine both Marketplaces together. According to Zune Insider,

"Zune. On Aug. 8, Zune Marketplace will kick off a series of daily 2008 Olympic Games videos from NBC Sports, giving viewers special on-the-go access to the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games. For approximately 99 cents–$1.99 per episode (with post-Games content TBD), footage will include memorable highlights from the Opening and Closing Ceremonies, “best of” compilations, “best match” replays and a post-Games wrap-up feature. Users will be able to download each episode onto their Zune device for viewing whenever and wherever they go."

                                                

There could be more, for all I know, but that pretty much sums up all the important points where Microsoft is putting Olympic coverage on their service and products. I really love the Olympics (Winter and Summer), and it’s cool to see how Microsoft has managed to put so much Olympic content on so many services/products. Most likely because of that partnership with NBC Universal. I really can’t wait to see how digital the Winter Olympics will be.

How to Upload files to Windows Live SkyDrive

Ok, this is my first Windows Live Clubhouse community post. I don’t usually do guides, but I’ll give it a shot. Ok, so here’s a step-by-step guide on how to upload files to SkyDrive.

I’ll be honest, and say this is my first time with SkyDrive, so I’m posting everything as it is. Here we go:

1. Go to http://skydrive.live.com and sign-in with your Windows Live ID.

                                                                       

So enter in the SkyDrive URL into your browser’s address bar or press the hyperlink. Sign-in with your Windows Live ID. If you don’t have one, get one here : http://signup.live.com/ . Now you’re in the SkyDrive dashboard where you can quickly access your files, or take a look at your friend’s SkyDrive files you have access to.

2. Choose where to add files – Here’s the part where you can add files. You have 3 choices of where you can upload a file to : Personal folders, Shared folders, or Public folders. Personal is for your eyes only, Shared is for you and your contacts with Live ID’s, and Public is for anyone who comes across your SkyDrive. In this scenario, I’m going to add a file to my public folders. Just click   right at the end of which type of folders you want to upload to. Then you pick which folder in within that type you’re interested in adding on to. Or make a new folder.

                                    

3. Pick files to upload – Ok, so this is the step where you pick the file or files to upload.

                                                                                     

Purple underline – is the upload tool. You can install this onto your desktop, and anytime your want to upload files, you can just use this tool to drag-n’-drop onto SkyDrive. But I’m not going to show this one, in the scenario.

Red circle – You can just simply click on Browse… and open up a mini Windows Explorer, and find files there. That’s what I’m gonna do.

                                                                     

So you find a file, and select it. Click ‘Open’ to confirm it. You can upload 4 more files, in the other slots below the first one. You can’t upload anything bigger than 50MB. Then select   when you’re ready.

4. A little waiting… – So now it’s going to upload the file. There’s a little splash ball you can play with your cursor, while the time passes. Or you can do something else on the computer, as long as you don’t close the page. Though I wish they would do something different besides a beach ball every time, and maybe make the box bigger.

                                                                       

5. You’re done! – When it’s done uploading, that’s it. There’s your file. It didn’t take long for me, with uploading one song and having a high-speed connection.

                                                                   

So there’s a toolbar of options for this particular folder you uploaded to, or you can click on the file itself, and mess around with the options for the file.

                                                                                      

Your friends or other people you allow can access the file and take a look at it. They can also drop a comment for that file on it’s page in SkyDrive. Neat, huh? You can access these files you upload anywhere with an internet browser, and view them. You can even embed them on a webpage. Click  and choose what display icon you want it to appear. Here’s my embedded file that I walked you through:

                                                                     http://cid-01ca34b674d84900.skydrive.live.com/embedrowdetail.aspx/Public/ComingBacktoYou.mp3

Well I hope I helped make SkyDrive easier to understand, if you’re new to it. If I did a video demo, it probably shouldn’t have taken longer than 3 minutes from sign-in to file uploaded. It’s a really wonderful service from Microsoft, which I hope they’ll continually improve on. Keep in mind that currently, there’s a 5GB limit for your SkyDrive. There’s rumors that Microsoft might have a subscription option to purchase more storage space or get unlimited storage. Now that would rock.

So SkyDrive is a great and easy way to upload files onto the web, where you and people you allow can access these files with just an internet browser. Plus it’s free.

UPDATE: People have been questioning where the upload tool is. I think it’s only available if you’re using Internet Explorer. The link won’t show up if you’re using another browser. The tool uses ActiveX. Here’s a video of how a guy obtained it:

Windows Live Tags: SkyDrive, Windows Live, how-to, upload, walkthrough, guide, clubhouse