Looks like it's
blowhard season up in Redmond these days, as the latest word from Microsoft on its Live Essentials suite of apps has been accompanied by the brash pronouncement that it's now markedly superior to Apple's efforts in Mac OS X -- at least when it comes to photos. This verdict was delivered by Brian Hall, General Manager for Windows Live, and is backed by a laundry list of new features we can expect by the holiday season of this year. Windows Live Photo Gallery and Movie Maker will soon be able to link up directly to sites like Flickr, Facebook and YouTube -- which will allow for painless uploads as well as pulling in any additional tagging done on Facebook. New photo stitching and retouching abilities, along with face recognition (rather than mere detection) are also being touted, but the ultimate arbiter of the new software's utility will obviously be the real hands-on experience for users. We shouldn't have to wait too long for that, as a beta version of the freely downloadable (on Vista and 7, XP holdouts are no longer being served) suite should be making the rounds in the coming weeks.
posted June 3rd 2010 6:57AM
Im using my Windows PC to do image AND video editing right now
@SteveyAyo Doing the same here, I'm actually fairly impressed with this new gallery updated it just now and checked it out, now all i need is some friends and a camera
@The Geek i need to stop being in school this quarter so i can sleep... one more day...
@The Geek its available now? where did you download it?
@SteveyAyo
Apple blew it.
This is Majical! oops, hope that word has not been patented by Cupertino?
@SteveyAyo
Didn't Microsoft already have photo stitching in Windows 7?
Which I have to say I love. Nikon didn't provide a panorama stitching app with the last camera I got from them, but the one in Windows 7 is better than the old program anyway.
@SteveyAyo
most nimrods who buy windows typically install whatever garbage program that comes with their digital camera.
@SteveyAyo
congrats on almost being done school. Good luck with your 8th grade graduation - planning on taking any AP classes in senior high?
@TomSawyer wow go figure TomSawyer doesnt have anything legit to say so he just insults people... congrats on continuing your worthless existence on Engadget until youre banned like the rest of the trolls...
And hey thanks im finishing up my first senior year in college actually only one more to go and then 3 years for my masters... PhD undecided, but i might get it just to have it... really not necessary in my field
@TomSawyer
But what abou...Or no, wait you are in love with your mac and Mr. Jobs, that doens't make you a reasonable human being anymore.
@TomSawyer also ... what is senior high?
@TomSawyer
Just enjoy iPhoto (lol) and unplug your internet connection please. Please!
@SteveyAyo
Great, its got many features.
But where is the simplicity in all of that?
*for all those arguing (for/against) how this compares to Apple is somewhat mislead, Apple makes it simpler whereas MS adds more features, apples and oranges people (no pun intended)!!
@Kangal did you not watch the video? its extremely easy and intuitive... if thats too much for you then you have no business on a computer
@SteveyAyo
same here, the now that adobe bought that color company. Premiere Pro CS5 blows final cut. Oh and btw premiere has been able to do exports while remaining on since... ever. Im sticking to lightroom for photo management.
@SteveyAyo
I've used Picasa for some years and I simply love it (I've used cime Linux exclusive solutions too which are almost as good). Still, this looks great! I'm downloading it.
But the new movie maker sucks. The old one was unstable but it gave the user so many options to edit.
@SteveyAyo
You mean you can edit photos and video on Windows? But my friend from 1996 told me only Macs can do that! *mind blown*
@Kangal
A genuinely usable UI should not be hampered by more features. If your UI needs to castrate the user experience then it really can't be in any way considered superior. First and foremost, the basics need to be addressed and iPhoto simply doesn't do that very well.
It's a really poor choice to hold up as the posterboy of Apple design.
@SteveyAyo
THAT video up there? You serious? That video is essentially presenting a list of features. All the animation serves no purpose.
@SteveyAyo If this will have a geo-tagging capability with bing maps. Why not? http://j.mp/bing-maps-amazing-features
@dagetz mine was available on windows update
@tonamyla Oh have you seen the augmented reality integration in Bing Maps? its pretty exciting and cool to watch
http://www.bing.com/videos/watch/video/microsofts-bing-maps-augmented-reality-ted-talk/80649744cb99e505336180649744cb99e5053361-35084894365
@SteveyAyo
So basically:
Microsoft copied Places, Faces, Tags, and the built-in image editing in iPhoto. Then they copied iPhoto's and iMovie's export/share functionality to YouTube, Flickr, and Facebook. OMG they copied Mail's STATIONARY emails too?? They also copied MobileMe! Niiice, Microsoft's on a roll!!
This sounds like a no-brainer excellent upgrade for Windows-only users, who don't realise Mac has had all these features for a couple years now.
I do like the semi-auto panorama stitching though (like PS and DoubleTake do), iPhoto isn't capable of that yet.
'Will be getting this for my Win7 PC and Win7 partition on my MBP, but it certainly will never be primary over OS X.
@Schmerzlichtod yeah yeah yeah we get it "microsoft steals everything from apple and is a totally lame company of doo doo heads"
Get over yourself, were talking about the same company whose CEO and Founder once said : "Good Artists Copy, Great Artists Steal"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CW0DUg63lqU
This is how the design field works, they work off of each other and implement the good parts of something while replacing the bad parts, you think you would have your iPhone today if HTC didnt create a Full Color touch screen phone in 2003? NO FING WAY, Apple saw the potential stole the idea and refined the hardware...
@SteveyAyo Amen brother.
@SteveyAyo
Did you watch a different video than the one with the animated comics? How can you tell what it looks like IRL? Kind of reminds me of fanboys' reaction to "Courier" ;-)
Back to topic: Apple builds stuff and sells it. MS watches, copies most of the features a couple of years later and then has to give it away for free. Nice strategy Mr. Ballmer. Doesn't hurt your market cap at all ;-)
@AceMcLoud so the same thing Apple does... no one cares dude get off your high horse... original ideas do not come around on their own, they evolve from current trends and styles. If Microsoft or Apple or Google see a trend and get in on it and develop the best tools then guess what, they won... its not about who is first its about who is BEST
@SteveyAyo
OK - that was cool
@Schmerzlichtod
I'm glad Microsoft has recognized this is important. I use my Mac, but my mother's still on a Dell with Windows XP. It'd be nice to upgrade her to something "Mac-like" so that she doesn't have to deal with the piss poor user experience she has now. I've avoided Vista, but if this works well with Windows 7, I'd be willing to upgrade her just so that she can view her photos in a natural way... instead of the awkward insta-slideshow in the Windows XP desktop.
--She's getting an iPad for her birthday anyway, so this may all be a moot point, as she'll rarely be turning her PC on again.
Yep, the first thing that crosses my mind when I think of Microsoft is photos. Yep, photos.
@Don Corleone if you are pro then you at least should be heard of it, Expression Media. Microsoft bought iview in 2006, but now sold to Phase One.
flick? flickr?
@jay8ee
eh?
@coolblue2000 The good gentleman was correcting my failure to add the 'r' on the end of Flickr. An error that has since been corrected.
Aye, maybe I should have been more specific :P
@Vlad Savov
Jeez!
Bravo Microsoft. *slow clap*
@Shadow
It'll never be simple enough to use or better than iPhoto as long as we PC users have to navigate to microsoft's website and download it. And most won't as they will automatically believe that MS Paint IS microsoft's photo program. MS should really just replace paint or merge the two programs. But who am I kidding... MS loves redundancy in programs.
@Luxury Guy hey maybe you havent heard but paint isnt a photo editing program
@Luxury Guy
Paint doesn't have a mac equivalent. Period. I had to do some really minor image editing (pixel level) on a mac without Photoshop, and I had to download a third-party program to do it. Removing Paint would be a huge mistake.
@Luxury Guy I believe the live essentials has to be a separate download, due to anti-trust hawks circling the MS camp. They can't even bundle a single web browser in Europe anymore because of that.
Now only if Apple can pull a Virus ad on this.
amazing, windows will finally be able to do something approaching iPhoto.. just in time for the next update of iPhoto!!!
amazing these people, amazing!
@ecobore no...because iphoto is crap. It doesn't handle libraries with even a few hundred photos well at all.
@ecobore Yeah sorry. Talking about how great iPhoto is... not such a good idea. iMovie is damned impressive... but iPhoto is basically garbage. Want to sort your photos so that you see the newest ones first? Sorry, can't do that in iPhoto. Want to email photos using a web email account without the ridiculous requirement of setting it up in the horrible Apple Mail application? Nope, sorry, can't do that with iPhoto. Picasa for Mac owns iPhoto. The new stuff from MSFT doesn't even have to be great to be better than iPhoto.
@ecobore
Yeah, as a Mac user, I hate iPhoto. It's so annoying to use.
If there's one thing I miss from Windows, it's that the apps automatically update when I add new content to folder in Windows Media Player, or Windows Live Photo Gallery.
I know they won't, but if Microsoft ported the Windows Live Suite to Mac, I'd totally use it.
@everyone People use iPhoto. Sure it isn't Aperture or Lightroom. But let's see how much better Microsoft's thing will be.
iMovie is crap by any standard.
@ecobore
It doesn't have cutting edge features like iPhoto's ability to make an exact copy of your library on the same HDD!
Some how Apple think that is useful and not just a huge waste of HDD space.
I've used Macs for years and always end up using similar freeware apps to what I use on Windows, never had to be stuck with bundled crap on either platform. Open your eyes fanboys bundled crap is bundled crap no matter who supplies it.
@ajwoodhouse Um, except that I have thousands of photos in my library and never had any slowdowns... maybe you should actually get a mac before you spout your BS.
@Peter Moore Both iPhoto and iTunes will do this on the Mac. You can use the "automatically add to iTunes" folder http://support.apple.com/kb/ht3832
iPhoto has a similar but more obscure folder:
http://www.macworld.co.uk/macsoftware/masterclass/index.cfm?articleid=379&pagtype=samecat
I just set this up over the weekend to work with EyeFi and it's great.