Integrate Windows Phone 7 with your WHS 2011 Server with Phone Connector Add-in

The Release Candidate of the Windows Server Solutions Phone Connector for Windows Home Server 2011 has been announced. The purpose of this Add-in is to enable Remote Server Management tasks and relay Media Streams for WHS 2011 including:

Alerts :

This is the first panorama item that the application launches after you complete the authentication steps with the server .This feature brings the Alert Viewer that you know from the server, to the phone

 

 

 

 

 

 

Users:

The user-panorama item performs basic user management tasks, including:
Viewing user account details
Enable or disable a user account
Change a user account password

 

 

 

 

Devices:

Devices panorama item lets you:
View server-joined computer and Mac details.
View the backup status that every device last reported to the server.
Start or stop a backup for any computer or the server (from the contextual menu).

 

 

 

 

Media – Music , pictures and Video Panoramas

 

The Media panorama lets you discover and view streams of media elements that you stored on your server in the appropriate shared folders (such as Music, Video and Picture shares).

Music

MP3 non-Digital Rights Management-protected songs will be streamed directly from the server to your phone. Album art is also transported. Your library is searchable and can be organized in different views to help find what you want fast.

Pictures

With Pictures Panorama you can  :

Discover all .png and .jpg images that are stored in the Pictures shared folder on the server. Subfolders are recognized.
Open a picture full-screen to view it on the phone.
Save a copy of the picture to the phone, using its original dimensions and resolution  (to be viewed later in the built-in Pictures hub of any Windows Phone 7).
Take a picture with the phone’s camera and upload it to the server.
Upload any picture that is stored in the Pictures hub of the phone to the server.

Videos

The “Videos” feature allows you to discover and view videos that are stored on your server in the Videos shared folder.

 

Also there’s Live Tile Support

If you pin the application to the home screen of your Windows Phone 7, you will be able to see a variety of at-a-glance information without launching into the application. An opt-in using the settings menu is required.

The Windows Phone 7 application requires both a server sided add-in to be installed on the WHS 2011 Server, as well as Windows 7 Phone application downloadable via marketplace.

For further information, and access to the downloads to start testing today, please visit http://connect.microsoft.com/windowshomeserver. Please note this is a release candidate and as such is for testing purposes only.

(Source)

31 Microsoft Technologies demos in 40 minutes

Check out this cool compilation of 31 Microsoft Technologies in 40 minutes by Nigel Parker where he demonstrates these Technologies explaining them in simple words. Its presented in an interactive interface where you can jump from one demo to other.

Also there's a download link to download the video, if you want to (can also download it from here. ) (227 MB)

These are the technologies covered in the demo, put here with their links and timeline:

1. Microsoft Research Group Shot (00:20)
2. Sea Dragon (TED Video) (01:31)
3. Photosynth (02:45)
4. Microsoft Research HD View (Auckland, Wellington) (04:04)
5. Virtual Earth (Live Labs on the Map) (05:35)
6. Bill Buxton's Presentation from Expression around the Clock (07:27)
7. Microsoft Surface (09:40)
8. Silverlight 1.1 Alpha Surface Demonstration (Video Support) (10:17)
9. French Silverlight 1.0 Application (Script#) (10:48)
10. Tablet Features in WPF - Inking Over Video Sample, Ink Support Silverlight 1.0, Silverlight Ink SDK Sample (11:17)
11. Silverlight 1.0 Inking Search Sample (11:45)
12. Live Image Search (filters) (12:20)
13. Tafiti Search Visualization (13:05)
14. GPS location based interactive community (Where is Frank?) (14:09)
15. Silverlight 1.1 Alpha Invaders - Code (14:48)
16. Contoso Bicycle Club - Windows Live Quick Applications (16:03)
17. Live Messenger Integration Demo - Details (17:07)
18. http://backgroundmotion.com - Code/ Source Code (20:00)
19. Microsoft Popfly (22:21)
20. Windows Live Photo Gallery (26:16)
21. Windows Home Server (26:55)
22. LCI Intégrale (28:30)
23. Livestation (29:28)
24. WebGuide (30:03)
25. hsn.tv (31:25)
26. thirteen23 :: denounce (32:04)
27. How About It? (32:47)
28. the-hub.tv (33:53)
29. Glenn Conner Interview - Amazon Demo Silverlight 1.1 Alpha (34:30)
30. Building a 3D WPF Gesture Application - Code (35:24)
31. Building a Video Player in 8 mins with Silverlight 1.0 (36:42)

Sit back and enjoy the video.

UPDATE: As I found out and Nigel has also posted about it now, that when you go to the Microsoft Research Group Shot site and tries to download it, you'll get 'specified file not found ' message. This is because as Nigel points out "The Group Shot Beta period has expired. We are currently considering several options to bring Group Shot back. Please stay tuned to this site for information on future releases." (link).

HP MediaSmart Server LED Light Show Easter Egg

Everyone is excited when one come across any Easter egg. Here's one such Easter Egg, related to HP EX470/EX475 MediaSmart Home Server that allows you to change the behavior of the drive LEDs.

So those running HP MediaSmart Home Server, just follow these steps to activate the Easter Egg:

-Launch the Home Server Console by double clicking on the tray icon.

-Hold down the Ctrl + Alt + Shift keys and click on the picture of the computer next to the LED brightness control.

-The control changes to "HP MediaSmart Server LED Light Show"

You can now select from the following options:

-Default System Lights
-Holiday Lights (perfect for this time of year)
-Descending Chasers (in blue, red or purple)
-Ascending Chasers (in blue, red or purple)
-Pulsing (in all colors)
-Night Rider (in all colors)
-Morse Code Credits (Yet to be decoded)

Check out the video of the same here.

source: HP MediaSmart Home Server Easter Egg Channel10
HP EX470/EX475 MediaSmart Server Easter Egg (just in time for Xmas)

Windows Home Server to be made available on MSDN?

"It has been announced on the MSDN Subscriptions Weblog that their acquisitions team is working with the product group to include Windows Home Server in the MSDN offering. The WebLog which is run by the managers of the online and offline MSDN Subscription program stated that they expect WHS will be offered, but do not have an estimate of availability."

MSDN Subscription Weblog said: "Windows Home Server - our acquisitions team is working with the product group to include this in the MSDN offering. We expect it will be offereed, but we do not have an estimate of availability."

WebGuide Plug-In Now Free

WebGuide allows you to remotely view live and recorded TV programs and to remotely schedule and manage your recorded television programs, music, pictures and videos on your Media Center or Windows Vista PC. Install WebGuide on your Media Center PC and access it from any machine that has a web browser, including your cell phone or mobile device.

The Windows Media Center and Windows Home Server teams are excited to have Doug Berrett join Microsoft. Microsoft also revealed that as of Sept. 5, 2007, the popular third-party placeshifting plug-in application for Windows Media Center is available at no cost. (source:Windows Home server Blog)

• Live streaming TV can be viewed on any web browser
• Recordings can be scheduled from any web browser
• "Place-shifting" for your personal media library, including TV, music, pictures, videos and DVD's
• PocketPC and Smartphone enabled
• Windows Vista ready

• Installation takes only minutes
• User-friendly MCE interface
• Languages include Danish, Dutch, French, German, Hebrew, Italian, Norwegian, Spanish and Swedish

• Live scheduling without delays
• Search by show, date or time
• Quick access to recent and upcoming recordings

Now WebGuide beta for Windows Home Server also available.

Windows Home Server

On July, 16th Windows Home Server (WHS) was released to manufacturing. Announcing about this, the WHS team blog says, "Today we are announcing that Windows Home Server has been released to manufacturing (RTM).....I'd like to extend a Big tip-of-the-hat to the enormous passion and contributions from ourbeta testers and community. 100,000+ participants, high volume of forum
discussions, 1 million+ views/month on this blog, etc. all attest to the fact that Windows Home Server addresses a big need out there. The right product at the right time!" That's what GM, Windows Home Server had to say.

Check out these pictures of RTM button-pushing ceremony.Watch the video of RTM button-pushing ceremony, courtesy channel10

The Microsoft Windows Home Server operating system helps you centralize and connect your digital things, enabling you to share, store, access, and automatically protect your most important pictures, videos, music, and files.

WHS provides :

Automated backup and simple restore of your home computers,Access and share everything from anywhere, WHS grows with you to meet your needs, today and into the future.

WHS has been designed with extensibility in mind, so that software developers can develop innovative Add-Ins and there's even code2fame contest.

WHS units are being developed by a number of hardware makers such as Fujitsu-Siemens, Gateway, HP, Iomega, Lacie and Medion.

Check out some of the WHS hardware prototype which comes in various shapes :

hockeypuck - extremely small, extremely cool looking, and extremely round prototype created by Microsoft.

HP's Windows Home Server, the HP MediaSmart Server.Prototypes from Inventec
These prototypes are infact smaller than they look in these pictures.

One can see WHS has immense potential to grow, so we will be hearing a lot about it in the days to come.

To get more information on WHS , Please check,

Windows Home Server web site.

WHS documentation is available, Check out these

Windows Home Server Getting Started Guide

Windows Home Server Reviewer’s Guide

Windows Home Server SDK Documentation