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Working the Microsoft Booth at CES

Greetings from Microsoft’s campus here in Redmond, WA. My name is Leigha Anderson and this is my first blog post on the Windows Experience Blog. Here Microsoft, I work on the OEM (Original Equipment Manufacturers) Product Marketing Team where I look after anything relating to Small and Medium Business. I joined Microsoft in July fresh out of college and I am so excited about the opportunity to share my experiences at Microsoft and provide some personal insight about being young and working in the crazy world of technology. I am blogging because I hope to bring a different perspective about PCs and technology to the table, as well as provide some personal insight about being young and working in this crazy industry. Every day I am surrounded by PC experts who love to pass along their knowledge and my hope is to combine that with my experience and share it with you.

This year, I had the privilege of being able to attend CES and had an awesome time the five whole days I was there in Las Vegas for the show. CES is unlike anything I had ever been to in my life. For me, understanding the size of CES was like trying to wrap your head around the size of the universe. It’s this crazy eclectic mix of color, devices, music, and booths of all sizes packed in to a building that seems to go on forever. The variety of everything relating to electronics was almost unbelievable.

While there, I was one of the people staffing the Microsoft booth showing off really cool PCs. This is something that I enjoyed because I love to get out of the office to talk to people about PCs. Making personal connections, hearing the thoughts and opinions of people from all walks of life is very inspirational and fuels the passion that I have for my work.

My favorite question from visitors at the Microsoft booth was “So, what’s new?” People really wanted to know more about new PCs. The two words that automatically sprinted to the front of my brain were thin and light. I am not just referring to the laptops that are getting all the attention right now. While we had an awesome assortment of thin and light laptops, the All-In-Ones were equally impressive and should not be left out of the conversation.

Another very common question I received was “which one is your favorite?” In most circumstances I am a very decisive individual (just ask anybody who has ever been shopping with me), but picking out my favorite PC among all of the awesome choices was almost impossible.

To see what I mean, I will refer you to the Microsoft booth tour video shot at CES. Take a look as Nick Parker, the Vice President of World Wide OEM Marketing here at Microsoft, showcases the wide variety of PCs available. At around the 3:26 mark he gets to the wall of thin and light PCs, my favorite category, and a huge trend this year at CES. Nick does a great job showcasing the vast differences in design that we have on display from stunning All-In-Ones that I would love to have in my kitchen, to laptops that are awesome for watching movies.

After watching the video you can see why I find it almost impossible to decide on my favorite. There are so many PCs that are great choices for everybody, from the casual Facebook stalker, to the college student who is on campus from sun set to sun down, to the finance exec who needs a TPM chip for BitLocker on a laptop that looks as sleek and great as his business is running. If you haven’t had the chance to get your hands on this awesome new wave of PCs, I would highly suggest you take them for a test drive and decide which one is your favorite.

That’s a wrap for me and CES 2012. Overall, it was one crazy, jam packed week and now I understand why it only happens once a year. Look for more blog posts from me in the upcoming months as I am constantly saving fun tidbits and stories to share from my experiences working for this crazy, awesome, company moving forward at the speed of light.

Come fiesta with us at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona

Here’s your chance to mingle with some Windows Phone big wigs, pepper us with questions, and try out our phones.

The occasion (as if you really need one) is Mobile World Congress 2012, the smartphone industry’s big annual gathering that kicks off in Barcelona at the end of the month. If you’re headed to the show, we’re handing out 50 passes to our party as a thank you to our biggest Windows Phone fans. (Sorry, we’re not offering plane tickets, hotel rooms, passes to the Sagrada Familia, or anything else—just a good time at our party.)

To enter, leave a comment below between today and Tuesday, February 21 telling us why you’re a fan of Windows Phone. On Wednesday, we’ll pick 50 winners at random to receive a pair of tickets to the event.

Good luck, and don’t forget to check back here next Wednesday to see if you’re a winner.

Find My Champ

What do you think of when you hear the word “Champ”? Someone who is the best? A sports champion? How about someone who fights for a cause? Here at Microsoft we have employees called “Developer Evangelists”. Part of their job is to help get the word out about Microsoft products and technologies. The other part of their job is to champion our developers.

Here in Windows Phone we call our evangelists “Phone Champs”.  Champs ensure our developers get exactly the help & support they need and are the voice of the developer community.  They are all experts on our platform and serve as local resources to answer questions from current or prospective developers. Champs can help you troubleshoot a problem in your app and can help you get your hands on a phone for testing. Oh, and some of our Champs are really funny and can tell you a good joke or two.

So how do you find one of our great Phone Champs? Today I’m happy to announce a new application to help you find them. We originally wanted to call the app “Champ Acquisition and Discovery 1.0 for Workgroups Windows Phone Edition.” Luckily cooler heads prevailed and we’re calling it “Find My Champ”.

The app was a team effort and I thank two of our Phone Champs for their help: Jerry Nixon and Max Zilberman.

Quick Look at Find My Champ

As you can see above, there are two main pivots: all & local. The first picture shows the “local” pivot, as someone in Paris would see it. We see that there are three Phone Champs within 250km of the phone’s current location.

Next we see what happens when the phone is rotated. A map comes up and shows all the Phone Champs as pushpins. Tapping a Phone Champ’s pushpin (or on their name in the list in the first image) reveals the contact info that a Phone Champ has chosen to share:

Get the App

Go download the app’s source code. Compile the code in our dev tools and side-load Find My Champ onto your developer device or into the emulator. The app will also be in the Marketplace soon for you to download. Find your local Phone Champ and get in touch with them. Ask them for help with your app or to let you know about events or hackathons in your area.

We’d love to get your feedback on the Find My Champ application. Tell us what we can do to make it more useful. You can also come help us improve the app on Codeplex. Additionally, I suspect that many of you will have creative ideas for how to use the Champs OData feed in other applications, mashups, etc. Please let me know what you create!

Ben

@benlower | phoneninja@microsoft.com | +1 (206) 659-NINJA (6465)

Windows 7 themes: festivity, silliness… and serenity

Here comes Fat Tuesday! It’s time to set a party mood with the new Masquerade theme, which features elegant and mysterious masks for celebrating Mardi Gras and Carnival.

In other current events, the wacky new Xbox Live game for Windows Phone, Chickens Can’t Fly, was just released. This new Windows 7 theme features colorful artwork from the game, along with fun chicken-clucking sound-effects.

Switching gears to a more serene and serious frame of mind, the rest of our new themes celebrate the beauty of widely varied landscapes.

Late last summer, my colleague Christian Kirchesch in Munich organized a German photography contest, which received 2249 submissions. A local jury of photography experts selected the best pictures, and in mid-October ten winners were announced. The winners received prizes ranging from a Sony Vaio SB Notebook to a TV tuner card and speakers. Christian invited the top 100 photographers, including winners and runners up, to participate in a Windows 7 theme project. More than twenty photographers agreed to take part, and you can see the beautiful results in four themes we published this month.

The first one, German Landscapes, features the works of many photographers, including contest winners Marco Stolle, Jens Zschekel, Andreas Bobanac, Heiko Gerlicher, and Karl Herrling, and runners-up Axel Hahn, Deryk Baumgärtner, Ive Völker, Jörg Franzen, Lutz Jänichen, Marco Müller, Markus Janse and Uschi Wolters.

The other three themes each focus on individual photographers who participated in the German photography contest.

Germany: Mountains to Sea is a journey from a rustic lakeside cabin in Berchtesgadener to the shoreline of Nordfriesland, as captured in the lens of Mathias Rehberg.

Impressions from Schleswig-Holstein showcases the varied beauty of Germany’s northernmost state – and the talents of photographer Mathias Kentrup.

Magic Landscapes features the stunning photographs of Michael Breitung, many captured during the “magic hour” at dawn or sunset when the color of the light is uniquely rich.

We also have two new themes from an American photographer, Tracy Hymas. The gorgeous sepia tone and black and white photographs in Ghost Town bring the weather-beaten textures and austere lighting of this lonely place into sharp focus.

In Tracy’s other new theme, Dark Skies, you can almost feel the distant rumble of thunder and taste the damp heaviness in the air under turbulent storm clouds.

That wraps up all the new themes we’ve published in the last two weeks. As always, more desktop-personalization goodness is on the way, so keep visiting the Windows Personalization Gallery for new Windows 7 themes and wallpapers.

Redesigning the Windows Logo

We have said that Windows 8 is a complete reimagination of the Windows operating system. Nothing has been left unexplored, including the Windows logo, to evaluate how it held up to modern PC sensibilities. The Windows logo is a strong and widely recognized mark but when we stepped back and analyzed it, we realized an evolution of our logo would better reflect our Metro style design principles and we also felt there was an opportunity to reconnect with some of the powerful characteristics of previous incarnations.

We had a very short list of agencies that we wanted to work with on the redesign of the logo and were thrilled when Pentagram agreed to join us in the project. Pentagram’s illustrious history speaks for itself, but we were particularly attracted to their sense of classic graphic design which fit well with our Metro design principles.

Early in the development cycle for Windows 8, in a conference room on the Microsoft campus, we assembled a kick off meeting with Paula Scher, Michael Beirut and Daniel Weil from Pentagram and a few designers and marketing leaders from Windows and across the company. The team spent a full day sharing some of the Metro style design philosophy; the Windows brand history and values as well as graphic design and technology industry trends.

"To see what is in front of one's nose needs a constant struggle."- George Orwell

That is the feeling we had when Paula Scher (from the renowned Pentagram design agency) showed us her sketches for the new Windows logo.

It’s a window… not a flag

Paula asked us a simple question, “your name is Windows. Why are you a flag?”

In some ways you can trace the evolution of the Windows logo in parallel with the advancements of the technology used to create logos. From the simple two color version in Windows 1.0 to the intricate and detailed renderings in Windows Vista and Windows 7, each change makes sense in the context in which it was created. As computing capabilities increased, so did the use of that horse power to render more colors, better fonts, and more detailed and life-like 3D visual effects like depth, shadows, and materiality. We have evolved from a world of rudimentary low resolution graphics to today’s rich high-resolution systems. And what started as a simple “window” to compliment the product name became a flying or waving flag.

But if you look back to the origins of the logo you see that it really was meant to be a window. "Windows" really is a beautiful metaphor for computing and with the new logo we wanted to celebrate the idea of a window, in perspective. Microsoft and Windows are all about putting technology in people's hands to empower them to find their own perspectives. And that is what the new logo was meant to be. We did less of a re-design and more to return it to its original meaning and bringing Windows back to its roots – reimagining the Windows logo as just that – a window.

Let’s look back at a few of the versions along the way.

Windows 1.0

Few remember the original Windows logo, yet we found it both refreshing and inspiring in relation to the work we have been doing on the Metro style design visuals. Using simple lines and clear straight forward concept, this logo reminded us of what a great and evocative name we have with “windows”.

Windows 3.1

For many of us this was the image in our mind when we think of past Windows logos. The now classic window shape and the introduction of the four colors were hallmarks of the Windows brand for many years to come. The introduction of the “waving effect” gives the logo a sense of motion. This logo would be the basis of the Windows versions throughout the 1990s.

Windows XP

The next major incarnation of the logo came with the release of Windows XP. What has come to be known as the “Windows flag” is a cleaner more sophisticated mark than its predecessors. The version that populated the lower left hand corner of Windows PCs next to the word “Start” also gained a sense of materiality (plastic?) and a 3D effect from the rich gradients and shadows.

Windows Vista

The Windows Vista release marked the beginning of the AERO design aesthetic in Windows with a key component of the interface being the “AERO glass” effect. Replacing the green Start button was the round glass-like button with a now flattened version of the “flag” from Windows XP. Internally, this icon became known as the “pearl”. You can see the intricate lighting effects of the faux glass. In many ways signaling just how powerful of a rendering engine the PC had become. This version of the logo was largely unchanged for Windows 7.

Windows 8

With Windows 8, we approached the logo redesign with a few key goals on mind.

1. We wanted the new logo to be both modern and classic by echoing the International Typographic Style (or Swiss design) that has been a great influence on our Metro style design philosophy. Using bold flat colors and clean lines and shapes, the new logo has the characteristics of way-finding design systems seen in airports and subways.

2. It was important that the new logo carries our Metro principle of being “Authentically Digital”. By that, we mean it does not try to emulate faux-industrial design characteristics such as materiality (glass, wood, plastic, etc.). It has motion – aligning with the fast and fluid style you’ll find throughout Windows 8.

3. Our final goal was for the new logo to be humble, yet confident. Welcoming you in with a slight tilt in perspective and when you change your color, the logo changes to reflect you. It is a “Personal” Computer after all.

We hope you enjoy our new logo.

Sam Moreau
Principal Director of User Experience for Windows

Browse Without Being Browsed

Privacy is in the news again today.  Apparently, Google has been able to track users of Apple’s Safari browser while they surf the web on their Apple iPhones, iPads and Macs.  This type of tracking by Google is not new.  The novelty here is that Google apparently circumvented the privacy protections built into Apple’s Safari browser in a deliberate, and ultimately, successful fashion.

If you find this type of behavior alarming and want to protect your confidential information and privacy while you’re online, there are alternatives for you.  Windows Internet Explorer is the browser that respects your privacy.  Through unique built in features like Tracking Protection and other privacy features in IE9, you are in control of who is tracking your actions online.  Not Google.  Not advertisers.  Just you.

The Tracking Protection in IE9 is recognized as some of the strongest privacy protection in the industry.  IE9 has been described as the “epitome of browser choice and control as far as protecting user privacy goes” and praised “for making strides towards providing users with greater control over their privacy.”

You can learn more about the privacy protections built into Internet Explorer at www.windows.com/IEprivacy.

Download IE9 today to protect your privacy online, and enjoy the safest, fastest and most reliable way to browse the Web on Windows.

Ryan Gavin,
General Manager, Internet Explorer Business and Marketing

Nokia Lumia 800 Entertainment Bundle hits the Microsoft Store

Looking to set yourself apart from the crowd? You can now get your hands on the stylish Nokia Lumia 800 Entertainment Bundle, available exclusively from Microsoft Stores, a bit ahead of its official Feb. 26 launch date. Just flag down a store rep and tell them to pull one for you from the back. Find a store near you.

Aimed at technophiles and design aficionados, this special-edition, all-Nokia package includes the company’s Lumia 800 smartphone, Purity HD Stereo Headset by Monster, Luna Bluetooth headset, and Play 360° wireless speaker.

The bundle—which costs $899 and requires no carrier contract—comes in your choice of black or magenta (shown below) and is guaranteed to turn heads.

Our Valentine’s Day contest results

A big thanks to everyone who participated in our Valentine’s Day contest and shared their love for Windows Phone on Twitter with the #ILoveWindowsPhone and #DumpingMyDroid hashtags.  I saw tons of fun (and funny) responses.

Here are our two winners, chosen at random:

@cpuzder: #Ilovewindowsphone because it provides the best way to quickly contact my wife, play a fun game and easily get the price of gas!

Glad we help make your life easier, Christian. So are you giving your new Windows Phone to your wife or keeping it for yourself?

@Ran_Jo: Dear Droid, You lag, you freeze, you've brought me to my knees, goodbye! #DumpingMyDroid #DroidRage @windowsphone FTW!

Pure poetry, Randy. Kiss that #DroidRage goodbye.

Congrats and thanks again for all the great tweets. And don’t forget to keep following twitter.com/windowsphone for more fun.

UPDATE: All the twitter love must have overwhelmed us. As a few eagle-eyed readers pointed out, we neglected to follow our own terms and conditions. (Thanks for the catch!) So we’ve randomly selected an alternate winner:

@tdoshier @windowsphone I love big, beautiful typography and slick, minimalist design. #ILoveWindowsPhone

Congrats, Tyler, and thanks for sharing the love.

We don’t want our oversight to spoil Christian’s day, so we’re still sending him a Windows Phone. (Hope your wife loves it, Christian.)

How do I love thee? Let me spell the ways.

You might not expect the creator of an app like Shoot Shag Marry to be much of a romantic.

But Patrick Long recently pulled off one of the most awww-inspiring—and technically impressive—marriage proposals we’ve seen in a while: He slipped his plea into a working lookalike of Wordament, his girlfriend’s favorite Windows Phone game, that he’d coded from scratch.

His feat came to light a few weeks ago, after he dashed off an email to the creators of the real Wordament. “I just wanted to thank you guys for a great game and being the inspiration for my marriage proposal,” he wrote. The email, in turn, inspired a brief post on Wordament’s official blog. Patrick was identified only by his game screen name: munkiiyebee.

We smelled a story. A Valentine’s Day story, to be specific. (How’d he pull that off? What did she think?) So we tracked down munkiiyebee and his new fiancée to find out what really went down that day. (It’s not the first time, by the way, that a Windows Phone has united a couple.)

“Big blue eyes”

Long, 37, and his girlfriend, Jenny Longman (yes, they know their surnames are oddly similar), share an apartment in the London suburb of Surrey. They met three years ago at a Christmas charity event for the homeless. Both had signed up as volunteers and were handed the same assignment: stand by the front door and greet homeless guests as they walk in.

Between arrivals, there wasn’t much to do. Patrick eventually “sidled up” to Jenny and said hello.

“I thought he was really funny,” Jenny remembers. His smile, 6-foot-3 frame, and “big blue eyes” also made a lasting impression. After a few days of back and forth on Facebook, they exchanged numbers and set up their first date.

The perfect proposal

Like most people, Patrick wanted his marriage proposal to be memorable, something that “felt like them.” He toyed with several ideas, including slipping a surprise into their regular grocery delivery. Nothing felt right.

One of the couple’s daily rituals is playing Wordament on Patrick’s phone. The hit game—only available on Windows Phone—presents players with a 4X4 letter board and gives them two minutes to spell out as many words as possible, by dragging a finger from tile to tile. Jenny, who owns an Android phone, frequently curls up with Patrick on the sofa just before bed to play. “His fingers are always in the way when I’m trying to put words in,” she says with mock annoyance.

Wordament, he realized, would be the perfect way to deliver his message. He decided to create a working lookalike app—an idea that also appealed to his inner geek (he’s a programmer by profession). “I wanted it to look as close to the game as possible.”

Recreating Wordament

He first tried taking a screenshot of the Wordament game board. “It looked like rubbish,” he says.

So one night when Jenny was out, he used Microsoft’s Expression Blend to recreate the Wordament board down to its countdown timer and ads. “Then I had to sit down with a piece of paper and figure out how to fit ‘Will you marry me?’ on the board.”

In Wordament, valid words glow when they’re traced. To achieve that effect, Patrick wrote down every possible combination he could find on his custom board—”same,” “sad,” “your,” “wed” (a happy accident)—and created a custom dictionary. When he finished, he had a list of about 20 words.

At first, the work went quickly. In a few hours he had something that looked like the real game. But then he hit a roadblock. No matter how hard he tried, he couldn’t get the finger detection to work. Eventually, he nailed it. But was his copycat app good enough to fool Jenny?

A “bizarre” request

On a brisk January evening, Patrick took Jenny to one of her favorite restaurants. She thought it was to celebrate her 35th birthday. “It was a lovely, lovely evening,” she says. They’d dressed up and lingered over their meals until 11, chatting and sipping champagne.

On the walk back to their car, just as they were crossing a street, Patrick suddenly dug into his pocket and pulled out his phone. “Let’s have a game of Wordament!” he announced.

Jenny thought the request was “bizarre”—right here in the street? And there was another problem.

“I was wearing really high heels. And I was thinking, ‘How can I hold onto the phone and concentrate on the pavement?’”

But she wanted to humor him, so she took the phone and saw the timer was already ticking down. She began tracing letters. The first word she spotted was D-A-R-E. But when she traced it, it didn’t light up.

Oops—Patrick realized he’d somehow missed that word in his custom dictionary. Luckily, Jenny didn’t seem to catch it.

Next she swiped W-I-L-L. Then M-E-?.

Then she froze.

Wordament boards, she knew, “normally don’t have question marks.” She squinted at the tiles. The clock ticked down. At last, she broke the silence.

“Does it say what I think it says?”

“Well, let’s see if you can find the words,” Patrick said. He quietly moved behind her and draped his arms over her shoulders. They traced the words together.

Once they’d highlighted them all, the Wedding March began to play—Patrick’s little improvised improvement on the real game.

He repeated his proposal aloud. When Jenny said yes, he reached into his overcoat pocket and said, “‘I guess this is for you then.” He held out a platinum ring with a diamond solitaire.

“My hands were shaking,” Jenny remembers. “I just said, ‘Put it on my finger.’”

The couple plan to marry in 2013. Jenny says she’ll be trading her Android phone for a Windows Phone well before then.

(Remember, you don’t need to create your own custom app to find love. Here are some great Valentine’s Day options in Marketplace for date planning and matchmaking.)

Now in Marketplace: An improved Facebook app

App updates are always welcome events. But when the app is Facebook, it’s news.

I’m happy to report that version 2.3 of the official Facebook app just showed up in Marketplace, and it features many noteworthy tweaks and upgrades.

You’ll find changes across the board: Improved panorama and profile designs, better news feed performance and navigation, new filters, and much much more.

To update the app, tap open Marketplace on your phone, then tap open the update queue. (It might take a few hours for the update notification to hit your phone.)

Don’t have Facebook yet? Download it now.

Happy Valentine’s Day from the IE team

In honor of the holiday, our engineering team decided to riff on our “Let it Snow…Faster” demo and create a Valentine’s Day version. You can read more about it here or see it for yourself. Enjoy!

Ben E. Keith Gets Rugged with Windows 7

Ben E. Keith is one of the largest beer wholesalers in the nation and the world’s second largest distributor of Anheuser-Busch products, selling more than 38 million cases of beer a year. They have always been a technology leader and strived to give their sales reps the best tools to sell and distribute more beer. As the company has continued to grow over the years, the pocket-type devices that sales reps previously used to take and send orders into the warehouse became outdated. When new Anheuser-Busch Mobility software was implemented, Ben E. Keith used the opportunity to also look for new mobile hardware that would offer their reps a more efficient user experience, which in turn, enabled them to sell more beer.

The Rugged Windows 7 Solution

Ben E. Keith needed a mobile computing solution compatible with the new Anheuser-Busch Mobility software, and a device tough enough to endure the rough demands of a beer distribution environment – as these devices get knocked, dropped and banged around, Ben E. Keith knew they needed a tough solution.

The company tested several different devices before settling on the xTablet T7000 Rugged Mini Tablet PC from MobileDemand running Windows 7. Steve Fleming, Vice President of Administration and Information for Ben E. Keith, considered many options, but says “competitor options just couldn’t get everywhere we needed to go.”

After testing the tablets, Ben E. Keith’s sales reps were so enthusiastic that Fleming knew they’d found the ideal tablet PC for their business. Replacing their outdated devices with MobileDemand’s tablets equipped with Windows 7 has allowed the sales reps to accomplish more on the job in less time - they’ve reduced the time spent completing store inventory by more than 50 percent! Ben E. Keith sales rep Aaron Nelson says store inventory updates that used to take 20-25 minutes are now complete in less than ten minutes.

Windows 7 Offers a Smooth Transition

The familiarity of Windows 7 on the tablets provided Ben E. Keith sales reps with a smooth transition. Fleming explains, “Having Windows 7 made it easy to image the tablets and make updates. And our reps were already familiar with the operating system which made implementation and training seamless. It’s all in the bottom line results. The MobileDemand tablets simply have the right combination of features and functionality to help our sales reps make better decisions at the point of customer interaction.”

Ben E. Keith is now benefiting from increased productivity, reduced on the job errors and greater customer reach. The MobileDemand tablets with Windows 7 are a dependable, long-term solution that makes Ben E. Keith sales reps secure and productive.

To learn more, visit the Microsoft New Center for a new Customer Spotlight press release on Ben E. Keith’s story.

A Few Last Minute Swoon-worthy Gifts

Are you searching for a last minute gift for your special someone this Valentine’s Day? Well lucky for you, we have a few great ideas courtesy of the folks who work in Microsoft Hardware. I asked them for a Valentine’s Day song and dance number, but alas they were too busy winning awards like the I4U Editor’s Choice Award, the 2011 Red Dot Award in product design and the PC Magazine’s Editor’s Choice Award.

Last week, I recommended the Sangria Red Arc Touch Mouse as a great gift for Valentine’s Day. It really is, as long as she isn’t expecting an engagement ring or 100lbs of chocolate. However, don’t let your imagination stop there. If you’re buying for the man in your life, why not consider the mouse that PC Magazine called “..the best touch mouse you can buy for the PC.” I mean nothing says I love you quite like giving the best.

If you are looking for a gift with a little more color pizazz, consider the Express Mouse. This award-winning mouse was developed in collaboration with a team that set out to say one thing “Wired mice are cool. They don't run out of batteries, they never lose connection, they're more environmentally friendly, and they cost less than their wireless cousins.” If you aren’t in the “I love you” stage – a cool mouse might be just the gift to say “I think you’re awesome.”

Finally, for those of you fostering long-distance love, think about a way to stay in touch this season! With the Microsoft Hardware LifeCam Studio, you can video chat with high quality graphics that make you feel like you’re right there with the people that matter the most to you. This great webcam has sharpened focus from as close as four inches away and a wide angle lens to capture your entire family in any shot.

Want more great ideas for Valentine’s Day? Ask us on Twitter @kristinalibby or @Benreedpro.

Tech Tuesday Live Twitter Chat – Happy Valentine’s Day - #win7tech

I love the stories you have all shared during this week’s Valentine’s Day contest post. From the funny nicknames, to the sweet love you have for grandparents and children, your comments have made me laugh and sigh out loud. It’s likely because I’m a bit of a sucker, but I’m willing to admit it. This week’s Tech Tuesday Live Twitter Chat is going to be all about Valentine’s Day, too.

We are going to talk about:

• Simple ways to stay in touch with your family using Windows Live Messenger, Skype, and more.
• Fast photo fixes with Windows Live Photo Gallery to ensure that your favorite photos will be perfect for life.
• The PCs you need to keep your loved ones at your fingertips no matter where you are or what you are doing.

Oh, and we’ve got some amazing relationship advice whether you are in love with your spouse of in love with your PC. Finally, we’ve picked a few PCs that are the best for your love life.

• Best PC for a Whirlwind Romance – HP Envy 14 Spectre – The next generation of the HP Envy 14 Spectre series has a glass top, sleek design and light-weight body. It’s a PC you’ll envy and want to have a least one delicious moment with if for some reason you can’t keep it for life.
• Best PC for a Long-Distance Romance – Sony VAIO S – To keep up a long distance romance, you need to have a lot of energy, lots of creativity and an ability to pick up everything on the drop of a hat. If I wasn’t describing you in the last sentence, I might have been describing the Sony VAIO S. A sleek PC with up to 15 hours of battery life, it’s ready to be your long distance companion to anywhere you or your lovers mind can think of.
• Best PC for Meeting the Parents – Lenovo IdeaCenter B520 – This all-in-one 3D entertainment PC is touch-enabled and great for parents and families. It’s one of the most stylized PCs on the market and has a 23” screen with optional remote control. With this PC, you can congregate as a family to play games, video chat, or cook up great recipes in the kitchen.
• Best PC for those on #teamsingle – Next Generation Samsung 9 Series - I just got to touch the soon to be released version of the Samsung 900x and its one of those PCs that makes you happy to not be settled down. It’s fun, it can go anywhere, and with a sandblasted aluminum body it is ready for any adventure you find.

To participate in the Tech Tuesday Live Twitter Chat:

1. Join us from 12-1 PT (3-4 ET) on Twitter
2. Follow the hashtag #win7tech
3. Follow @windows, @realitychicblog, @kristinalibby, @brandonleblanc, @benthepcguy, @daniellaycock, and @windowsblog to make sure you get the whole picture.

Note we will only be talking about the outlined topic each week and we will not be answering questions outside those topics. Questions for this week may include: What PCs come in Valentine’s Day colors? Is a PC a great Valentine’s Day present?

My favorite photos & stories from the “Smoked” tour of Southern California

I’m on a flight back to Seattle from San Diego, where yesterday we wrapped up our “Smoked by Windows Phone” tour of Southern California.  This was a really great trip; not only did we show hundreds of people why Windows Phone is simply faster than other smartphones at the real, everyday stuff that real, everyday people do on their phones, but my crew and I had the chance to meet some really cool people.  Here are some of my favorite photos – and stories – from our 3-day trip. 

See you back in Redmond!

This little girl watched our challenges for about 30 minutes before coming over to ask me “Is your phone better than my dad’s iPhone?”  She loves to play games so I showed her Kinectimals for Windows Phone.  Those cute, cuddly cubs pretty much sealed the deal for her and her dad.

These four guys came to South Coast to challenge me, but got there right as we were packing up.  But they came down to Mission Viejo to try their luck the next day!   Really nice guys who love technology.  To say thanks for their energy and for being such good sports, I upgraded all of them on the spot to Windows Phones.

This is Christopher.  He came into the Mission Viejo store to upgrade his 5-year-old HTC Windows Mobile 5 (!) device to Windows Mobile 6.5.  I saved him the trouble by upgrading him to an HTC Titan.  Really nice guy who I know will make great use of that new phone.  He also earned 100 nerd-cred bonus points for wearing a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles shirt…that matched his girlfriend’s Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles shirt.   Totally awesome.

Brian and Krystal said the most important thing they do on their phones is take pictures of their son.   As a dad of 2 (almost 3, our next little one is due soon!), I know exactly what they mean.  Since there’s no phone better (or faster) at that than a Windows Phone, so I hooked them up with a pair so they never miss a moment. 

Marion’s been a Windows Phone fan since day 1, and he’s also an aspiring Windows Phone app developer.  I got him a Samsung Focus S to use as his every day phone so he could turn his first-gen Focus into a dev/test unit.  I know he’s going to build something amazing!

I wrote this on the chalkboard in my hotel room.   I thought it pretty much summed up the trip.