Log in

View Full Version : Microsoft Launches Digital Image Software Suite


Jason Dunn
07-29-2003, 10:00 PM
<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://www.internetnews.com/bus-news/article.php/2241711' target='_blank'>http://www.internetnews.com/bus-new...cle.php/2241711</a><br /><br /></div>Microsoft is shipping a new version of their Picture It! suite, re-named Digital Image Suite 9 (gosh, where did the previous eight versions go?). I've never been a huge fan of Microsoft's imaging products (give me <a href="http://www.picasa.net">Picasa</a> any day!), but this one looks like it might be a winner - especially with the mobile device integration mentioned below. I hope it's something vaguely cool, not just "Oh, you can do a SAVE AS and resize your JPEG images to 320 x 240".<br /><br />"Microsoft also says the new software will enable users to locate, organize and search for in new ways. Microsoft clearly aims to integrate imaging into other forms of multimedia. The company says with what it calls "Photo Story Lite" consumers will be able to combine edited images, motion, text and even their own voice into a unique and personal photo story or video that can be burned onto CD-ROM and viewed in most consumer DVD players or sent via e-mail, Microsoft said in a press release. The digital imaging software suite is designed for mobile applications too, which enables users to instantly resize digital photos to the correct display size for a mobile device. Photos can be resized to fit on most popular mobile phones, Pocket PC or Palm devices, Microsoft said."

Godsongz
07-29-2003, 10:10 PM
I've tried many of these digital imaging suites, and still keep coming back to Adobe, and wondering why I ever went away in the first place. Would be interesting to hear more about what "designed for mobile applications" means though.

Peter Foot
07-29-2003, 10:28 PM
Would be interesting to know just how powerful the device features are - wonder if they are any better than the image resizer powertoy for Windows XP:-
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/pro/downloads/powertoys.asp
Which is adequate (and free)

Perry Reed
07-29-2003, 10:31 PM
I saw this package at Costco over the weekend and wondered why I hadn't heard of it before.

It was pricy, though. As I recall, $109 with a $40 mail-in rebate.

As for the PhotoStory Lite, I believe the full PhotoStory is in the Plus! for Digital Media package, and they're soon rolling out version 2.0 (free to Plus! owners).

bleeman
07-29-2003, 11:51 PM
The really irritating part about this release is how quickly they brought it out. They just released Digital Image Pro 7 last Oct/Nov at $99 and I asked "Santa" for it for Christmas. Now 7 months later they suddenly come out with Digital Image Pro 9 and the suite version (I too wonder where version 8 went) and they want another $129 for it minus a $30 rebate (Oh yeah, make it $60 if you buy a digital camera at the same time). Generally speaking I like the product as I'm not that much of a power user, and I usually have a tendency to buy MS products, but I'm getting so tired of having to shell out my $'s for new versions of the products in such short time periods &lt;sigh>.

qmrq
07-30-2003, 12:38 AM
Microsoft is shipping a new version of their Picture It! suite, re-named Digital Image Suite 9 (gosh, where did the previous eight versions go?).

Hrm... version 8 is probably hanging out with NT 1 and NT 2.

Gremmie
07-30-2003, 12:54 AM
Would be interesting to know just how powerful the device features are - wonder if they are any better than the image resizer powertoy for Windows XP:-
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/pro/downloads/powertoys.asp
Which is adequate (and free)

Good link

sambeckett
07-30-2003, 01:29 AM
This is the year Adobe dies.

Bye bye acrobat, photoshop, and premeir.

All too expensive anyway.

qmrq
07-30-2003, 02:38 AM
Ehm... I don't see Acrobat kicking the bucket anytime soon.

Why would you want them to? I'm certainly not a fan of Adobe for various reasons, but I don't want to see them put out of business. The more competitors there are in the market, the better.

XmanHP548
07-30-2003, 04:02 AM
Yawn - MS pathetically still tries to catch up to Apple's iPhoto amd iMovie. Combine iPhoto/iMovie with Photoshop Elements and you can smoke any lame MS offering.
Wake me up when MS photo blah blah version 10 comes out and we'll see if they've caught up. :roll:

Kevin Daly
07-30-2003, 07:07 AM
Yawn - MS pathetically still tries to catch up to Apple's iPhoto amd iMovie. Combine iPhoto/iMovie with Photoshop Elements and you can smoke any lame MS offering.

Er, possibly true, but is it fair to prejudge (note link with "prejudice") an application we haven't seen yet?
And while iPhoto is I'm sure just wonderful and that's very nice for the Apple owners, then unless Apple have published a version for Windows (and I'm not excluding this possibility, I just don't know) then that's not particularly relevant for any Windows users who would not consider it to be sufficient motivation to buy an Apple machine, and who therefore might be quite interested in whatever er, lame offerings Microsoft might have.

Of course if I had to guess I'd say that a lot of the Pocket PC support will turn out to consist of the Photo Story support built into Windows Mobile 2003, but I'm always willing and able to be pleasantly surprised. 0X

Perry Reed
07-30-2003, 02:53 PM
Yawn - MS pathetically still tries to catch up to Apple's iPhoto amd iMovie. Combine iPhoto/iMovie with Photoshop Elements and you can smoke any lame MS offering.
Wake me up when MS photo blah blah version 10 comes out and we'll see if they've caught up. :roll:

iPhoto is definitely very nice and I haven't seen anything quite as good on the PC. Plus, it's integration with iMusic, iPhoto and iDVD is outstanding.

But Microsoft Movie Maker 2 is easily as good as iMovie. Both are very easy to use and make great quality movies. Microsoft has definitely caught up with Apple on that one.

Jason Dunn
07-30-2003, 04:57 PM
iPhoto is definitely very nice and I haven't seen anything quite as good on the PC.

Whaaazaaa?? Did you follow the Picasa link? Picasa is AWESOME! :mrgreen:

Perry Reed
07-30-2003, 05:03 PM
iPhoto is definitely very nice and I haven't seen anything quite as good on the PC.

Whaaazaaa?? Did you follow the Picasa link? Picasa is AWESOME! :mrgreen:

Ok, I'll give it a try. Although iPhoto is free, which means a lot to a cheapskate like me! :)

Jason Dunn
07-30-2003, 05:27 PM
Ok, I'll give it a try. Although iPhoto is free, which means a lot to a cheapskate like me! :)

Ok, so what you really mean to say is "I haven't seen anything as nice as iPhoto for the PC platform that is free." I wouldn't have had a response to that one - no independent (non-OS) developer can afford to give away a killer application for free. Picasa is a killer photo application.

Guess how big of a photo viewer/catalogging application market there is on the Mac platform? I'd guess basically none. It's a very dangerous thing for the platform when you start bundling applications, but Apple failed to capture any significant market share for so many years they figured "Screw it, let's just go ahead and make our platform as feature-rich and stand-alone as possible". If Apple had 90% market share everyone would be screaming "unfair monopoly practices!!!", but because they don't, they only damage the smaller Apple developers who were making photo apps, DVD apps, and anything else Apple squashed.

Ok, that was a little off-topic of me. :roll:

Perry Reed
07-30-2003, 05:51 PM
Ok, I'll give it a try. Although iPhoto is free, which means a lot to a cheapskate like me! :)

Ok, so what you really mean to say is "I haven't seen anything as nice as iPhoto for the PC platform that is free." I wouldn't have had a response to that one - no independent (non-OS) developer can afford to give away a killer application for free. Picasa is a killer photo application.

Guess how big of a photo viewer/catalogging application market there is on the Mac platform? I'd guess basically none. It's a very dangerous thing for the platform when you start bundling applications, but Apple failed to capture any significant market share for so many years they figured "Screw it, let's just go ahead and make our platform as feature-rich and stand-alone as possible". If Apple had 90% market share everyone would be screaming "unfair monopoly practices!!!", but because they don't, they only damage the smaller Apple developers who were making photo apps, DVD apps, and anything else Apple squashed.

Ok, that was a little off-topic of me. :roll:

Not only free, but incredibly easy to use. I've just never gotten the hang of Photoshop.

But you're absolutely correct that it is dangerous to start bundling applications for the platform, something I'm sure Microsoft is well aware of every time they put something new into Windows. Apple is pushing away developers left and right with all their bundling. Look at Adobe, for example that has been a long time Mac powerhouse but is now basically abandoning the platform. Same thing with Microsoft and IE for Mac. No need to keep working on it if Apple is going to include Safari with the OS.

XmanHP548
07-30-2003, 07:03 PM
Actually, I do conceed that you guys make good points about Apple messing with 3rd party software developers. I am still sore with the way that they backstabbed Kariela (sp?), makers of the great program Watson, with Sherlock 3...

And Jason, I have demoed Picasa on my Win 2000 system at work...It is pretty good software. If I had a PC at home, I definently would be using it as my primary photo software. However, I still don't find it to be as slick as iPhoto is...

Philip Colmer
07-31-2003, 07:17 AM
Microsoft have licensed AuthorScript from Sonic in order to help with CD, VCD & DVD burning:

http://www.digitalproducer.com/cgi-bin/getframeletter.cgi?/2003/07_jul/news/07_28/dlmsdvd72903.htm

--Philip