Although news, videos, and images have already leaked onto the web, it’s still good to see an official news on the next version of Windows Live Essentials. Before you get too excited, no no – it’s not ready yet to be downloaded. The press release said “…in coming months….” which is a bit of a let down :(
There are certainly lots of cool features, especially the new Photo Fuse tool.
Photo Fuse Tool
Basically with the tool (I’ve watched a leak presentation video about this a couple of weeks ago), you can combine similar looking photos by choosing the best bits of each one. So for example you might have taken a group photo 3-4 times on the exact spot. The best looking photo that you pick unfortunately have your eyes closed on it. With the Photo Fuse, it can grab your face with your eyes opened from the other similar photos and “inject” it there. Get the idea?
Complete press release below:
Sydney, Australia, THURSDAY 3rd June 2010:
The new version of Windows Live Essentials was unveiled today at the D: All Things Digital conference in California, showcasing new features to complement the Windows 7 experience.
Windows Live Essentials is a suite of free programs people can download to their PCs to help arrange photos, create films, access files from various PCs and organise calendars and contacts.
Commenting on today’s demonstration, Alex Parsons, Director of Marketing and MSN Products said: “The ways in which people are connecting online, sharing information and organising their information is evolving and people are increasingly shifting towards the cloud. The new Windows Live Essentials, as well as the latest versions of Hotmail and Messenger, have been designed to complement how people are using their PCs and the internet. In this way, they make it even easier for people to go about their daily tasks and communicate with the people who matter the most.”
Changes to Windows Live Essentials include new ways to edit, retouch and organise photos which helps people to create and share the best photos albums from their collections with Windows Live Photo Gallery. The Photo Fuse tool allows people to create a panoramic image from a series of photographs, or take the best parts of multiple photographs to combine them into one seamless photo. Retouch and Auto Adjust tools further improve the quality of images by removing marks or spots and adjusting sharpness, colour and clarity to images.
The Movie Maker element of Windows Live Essentials enables people to make short films from their existing images and videos. They can use the editing tools to add themes, incorporate a soundtrack and add visual effects to create a clip of their favourite memories. The video can be saved in high definition formats and then shared across the social networking sites.
Windows Live Sync also enables people to stay in touch across networks and devices, allowing them to synch folders from across multiple computers to be accessed anywhere with an internet connection through SkyDrive.
Windows Live Essentials will be available to Australians in comings months. For more information please go to windowslivepreview.com.
