How do people pronounce A Z U R E …….Ashure … Azyouwere ??

The Azure Services Platform was announced in front of thousands of developers at this year’s PDC, everyone saw it but, no one is sure how to pronounce it.

Check this out, what happens when one asks people to pronounce…

A Z U R E……… quite hilarious!

The Azure Services Platform … Ashure … Azyouwere ??

btw this is how you pronounce ‘azure’ according to Merriam-Webster’s Dictionary.

Another audio pronunciation link for azure.

Also on msn encarta : http://encarta.msn.com/dictionary_1861588117/azure.html

Silverlight based MSN Toolbar released

A new toolbar- MSN Toolbar, based on Silverlight has been released. It was under beta test since couple of months, and I was one of the beta testers. And I can say during this period, it kept improving and is different from regular toolbars. First of all its Silverlight based written in XAML and actually is a fully programmable platform whose SDK will be released later this year. So this makes it to add snap-ins in the form of panes coded by 3rd party developers, this will make it customisable. But this can be expected later.

Now coming to the present features :

You can see headlines from various MSN channels without leaving the page, has Windows Live Button to stay connected. Also has Live Search Box to find whatever you are searching. Get Live Search results even when you use another search engine. Also it has a sort of 'Flip' toolbar whenever doing the search. And it again 'Flips' over for he regular toolbars. So these flips are termed as 'Panes' and these can be coded on the availability of SDK. So within one toolbar you can have many by just flipping them in the form of panes.

Also there's a cool effect when any Breaking News happens, the news button gleams. Check it out , its really nice.

You also have settings option to customise where you can have toolbar color change.

I know there are many who does not like toolbars, but this is different and you should give it a try. At present it works on Silverlight 1.0 and does not support 2.0 beta. You can download it from http://toolbar.msn.com/

If you want to see all the features in action then check this video where Stefan Weitz gives a demo.

UPDATE(8June'08) : There were some XAML rendering issues that made for a poor experience with the toolbar with SilverLight2 Beta1, so it was blocked by MS.
Now with the release of SL2 Beta2 MSN Toolbar works with it. Check it out.

Zune, iPod, PSP and other formats at Channel 8, 9,10 and Edge

What I am posting is not new, it has been there for some time. Those who know about Channel8, Channel 10 and TechNet Edge know about it. I am talking of various download formats available at these sites. I am a regular at these sites and these are among my most favorite sites.

It all Started with Channel9, when it was the only site to provide such technical videos, even now its a great site providing the latest Microsoft technolgy related videos, Technical interviews with Microsoft greats talking about the latest technology and demoing it.

Channel 9 provides these videos/downloads in wmv format- High and Low res., wma and MP3 format.

And Channels like Channel10, Channel8 and TechNet Edge goes a step further and provides these videos/downloads in -

-iPod Fomat Video (MP4)

-MP3 Audio

-PSP Format Video (MP4)

-Windows Media Audio (WMA)

-Windows Media Video (WMV)

-Windows Media Video High Quality (WMV)

-Zune Format

That's great!

Watching these Crystal clear, crisp videos on Zune is a different experience, Try it. Watch it on your iPod or Zune and PSP. I am sure you will enjoy it.

Not only format wise, but content wise also they are providing the best. I almost daily visit these sites to know what's new. I have a large collection of these videos.

Teams, Well done !!

I think they are the only channels providing download content in such wide variety of formats.

Apart from that, these sites have gone Silverlight recently which makes them equally visually appealing. And one can easily embed these videos in their blogs , sites if one want to share or put it on their blog.

Earlier there were MSDN and .NET shows providing such videos where they used to provide the Transcript also, of any interviews carried out. So if such Transcript - just the text is also provided with Channel9 interview videos , that will also be very helpful. So one can just read these transcript text and can know what the interview is all about, reading the complete transcript where some people may not have provision to download large size videos due to bandwidth restriction. And by the way these transcripts can also be converted as e-books to be read on your Zune. (Read E-books on your Zune)

If one hasn't checked these sites, one should do it now.

Channel 8 goes Silverlight

Channel8 has just adopted Silverlight for playing its videos on the site. So one more reason to install Silverlight plug-in.

Channel9 , Channel10 and Now Channel 8

Coming Soon !! Channel 8
http://channel8.msdn.com/
Microsoft is readying a new channel, Channel8 after Channel9 and Channel10
(Can also check Channel9 and 10 from my favorite links list provided on the blog)
Mark Johnston, Microsoft Developer blogged

"It's going to be funky with a logo like that! And you can probably guess who it's targeted at given my new job focusing on students ;-) "

So let us wait and watch .

Update : At present it seems to be taken off the web. Getting "You are not authorized to view this page".
Update 21 July '07: Channel 8 is up and running, almost. Check out !