The Microsoft Future Pro Photographers student photo contest which is now in its second year has announced April 30th as its the last date for submission . Targeted at university students, the contest has three categories, which are: Nature & Landscape; People & Portraits; and Sports & Photojournalism. The grand prize in each category is US$3000 cash in addition to a digital workflow prize package.
Microsoft and Nikon have signed a patent cross-licensing agreement, which lays emphasis on contributing to each company’s current and future product lines. The agreement is not just restricted to Nikon cameras and also extends to a broad range of other consumer products each company manufactures and sells.
“At Nikon, we want to continue to lead the industry in pioneering photography solutions and give our customers access to innovative technology,” said Naoki Tomino, Director, Member of the Board, General Manager of Intellectual Property Headquarters at Nikon. “This agreement is a natural extension of our longstanding relationship with Microsoft and we look forward
Microsoft Photosynth is now availablefor download. Photosynth transforms regular digital photos into a three-dimensional, 360-degree experience and with it Microsoft hopes to revolutionalise the imaging experience. This service unfortunately is not available to Mac users though MS says it’s working on it. The program runs on Windows XP SP2 or Windows Vista, and supports Firefox and Internet Explorer browsers.
Microsoft Corp. and HOYA CORPORATION PENTAX has entered into a patent cross-licensing agreement to further the development of each company’s current and future product lines. The agreement covers digital cameras made by PENTAX and according to trade pundits, Pentax is compensating Microsoft.
“When technological industry leaders collaborate through intellectual property licensing, we foster greater innovation that will benefit the customer, the consumer and the overall IT ecosystem,” said Horacio Gutierrez, vice president of intellectual property and licensing at Microsoft. “We are proud of the quality of our broad, global patent portfolio, and we are pleased that another consumer products company has recognized the value of our worldwide patent portfolio.”
Microsoft apart from announcing Expressions Media 2 also unveiled the Microsoft Pro Photo Tools. For the uninitiated, the Pro Photo Tool makes make geotagging available for all photographers and can be downloaded for free at the Microsoft Pro Photo Web site at http://www.microsoft.com/prophoto
Pro Photo Tools lets one tag their photos as one can gather location information from a variety of sources and apply it to the metadata in their images.
Microsoft released an update to Expressions Media 2 for both Mac and Windows systems. The latest version of Expression Media enables the user to edit and view a shared catalog simultaneously and also improves the image importing functionality.
Expression Media 2 will retail for US$199, or US$99 as an upgrade from Expression Media 1.x or from iView MediaPro v3.x. Upgrades from MediaPro v3.x to Expression Media 1.x will stay free till June 30th, 2008.
Microsoft recently released an update to its Expression Media v1.x application. The Expression Media Post-SP1 Rollup fixes a number of bugs in both Mac and Windows systems. Some of the fixes include:
* Nikon D3/D300 NEF RAW files crash Expression Media
* Custom fields have garbage characters appended to the end of the fields when opened in Expression Media Service Pack 1
* After upgrading to Apple QuickTime 7.4, files/folders added to a Catalog that previously existed are duplicated in the Catalog Folder pane and uses 8.3 naming instead of long file names.
Microsoft has extended the period in which licensed users of iView MediaPro 3.x can upgrade to Expression Media for free. The Expression Media 2 seeks to replace the Microsoft iView MediaPro and now supports the Microsoft Office 2007/2008 file formats DOCX, DOTX, PPTX, POTX, XLSX and XLT.
To get your hands on the free copy register it first here.
Microsoft has released a public beta of Expression Media 2, which seeks to replace the Microsoft iView MediaPro. The Beta version now according to Microsoft supports the Microsoft Office 2007/2008 file formats DOCX, DOTX, PPTX, POTX, XLSX and XLT. Expression Media 2 also now supports XAML, Design, CSS, JS, and VBS file formats.
Microsoft is also quick to point out that for now Expression Media 2 doesn’t support Nikon D3/D300 NEF files since they received an update for Nikon only last week. Some other updates include; improved network performance, the ability to create and view hierarchies of keywords for media files and support for Windows Live Virtual Earth technology.
Microsoft recently released the Pro Photo Shoot, a new add-in for Microsoft Office Outlook. Via the application, photographers can add details of the client and equipment for a photo shoot appointment in Outlook without any hassles.
Microsoft Pro Photo Shoot supports Microsoft Office Outlook 2003 and 2007 running on Windows XP and Windows Vista. Download it here
Looks like Microsoft’s HD Photo format may finally find a foothold in the imaging world. The HD format will be revamped and presented as JPEG XR, the successor to the ubiquitous JPEG image standard.
Before you start hitting the panic button, JPEG wont’ become defunct since JPEG XR will be marketed as a “high-end” version of JPEG. Now how successful this new version will be is anyone’s guess. One thing is for sure, it will be more popular than its previous avatar!
MS has gained the approval of Joint Photographic Experts Group, which created the JPEG standard.
"The country vote is done, and it passed," Bill Crow said. "That means the International JPEG committee has decided to go ahead and create the standard. Now it's just a process of doing that work," a process that will begin later this month in a meeting in Kobe, Japan.
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Microsoft Corp. and HOYA CORPORATION PENTAX has entered into a patent cross-licensing agreement to further the development of each company’s current and future product lines. The agreement covers digital cameras made by PENTAX and according to trade pundits, Pentax is compensating Microsoft.
Microsoft apart from announcing Expressions Media 2 also unveiled the Microsoft Pro Photo Tools. For the uninitiated, the Pro Photo Tool makes make geotagging available for all photographers and can be downloaded for free at the Microsoft Pro Photo Web site at 
Microsoft recently released the Pro Photo Shoot, a new add-in for Microsoft Office Outlook. Via the application, photographers can add details of the client and equipment for a photo shoot appointment in Outlook without any hassles. 
Looks like Microsoft’s HD Photo format may finally find a foothold in the imaging world. The HD format will be revamped and presented as JPEG XR, the successor to the ubiquitous JPEG image standard. 
