Robert Stein (apparently nicknamed Bob) from ActiveWin (via MSTechToday) has the scoop on several new Microsoft subdomains which hints at an upcoming rebranding of the Expression design suite by Microsoft.

This comes at a little surprise since I caught glimpse of Expression Blend, formerly known as Interactive Designer, at Microsoft’s Ready Summit in Melbourne a few weeks ago. A search at the Trademarks Office also revealed that the Expression Blend name is already approved (for rejection) just two days ago. The products being rebranded include:

• Expression Web (formerly Expression Web Designer)
• Expression Design (formerly Expression Graphic Designer)
• Expression Blend (formerly Expression Interactive Designer)
• Expression Media (Robert McLaws speculates this could be the acquired photo-management tool from iView)

The Microsoft tradition for marketing products with remarkably-expressive names such as “Microsoft Internet Security and Acceleration Server” and “Visual Studio 2005 Tools for the Microsoft Office System” is making a slow but welcomed death. Even though I am reluctant on the name change, Windows Vista grew on me for the better, I’m sure these names will too.

The question remains, will all these products feature the refreshed dark-inspired interface that was seen in Expression Blend Beta 1? Dark color schemes for design applications are popular with 3D modeling tools, most featuring white-on-black interfaces. I hope this isn’t a trend for design applications in the future as I’d feel rather depressed looking at a black screen most of the time.

Mary Jo Foley asks, can Microsoft brand its way to cool? With that black UI? I think so. Is Microsoft neglecting professional white-loving users? Possibly.

With great power comes great responsibility. Windows Vista comes with an amazingly powerful search engine that finds your documents, photos, music, movies, emails, applications and even sensitive materials in milliseconds. Some documents are never meant to be found, such as private collections of Steve Jobs keynotes, Laura Foy videos or even my secret stash of Tux penguinography. But with such a powerful search engine, how will you protect your innocence in Windows Vista? Here’s a few tips.

Exclude from Search Indexer

Tackling the problem from the soul of the searching beast. By excluding folders from the search indexer, you will permanently remove any existing indexes on that folder and prevent any future indexes inside that folder. This is recommended for permanent collections that don’t move around.

1. Launch the “Indexing Options” dialog by clicking the Start pearl and search for “index options”
2. Click the “Modify” button.
3. Click the “Show all locations” button, agree to UAC prompt.
4. Expand the “Change selected locations” tree at the top. Find your appropriate inappropriate folders.
   For example: D:\Users\Long\Pictures\Tux Collection
5. Untick the folder(s) you wish to exclude from search.
6. Verify your folders have been excluded in the summary below.
7. Close appropriate dialogs.

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ZoD submitted a comment on the previous Virtual Vista post about “what kind of results would Super PI get on the Host. I think it’s important to get a sense of what you’re losing(in terms of speed, not graphics) when virtualising Vista.” I don’t know how I forgot to test such a simple concept, but I’m making up for it.

I ran SuperPI on a real Windows Vista partition with exactly the same memory allocation size to give a side-by-side comparison of the speed difference between a virtualized (VMware Server) and real OS environment.

The real Vista started off 2 seconds faster than VMware and finished 14 seconds earlier, with just a 7% margin. Considering the benefits of security, ease and accessibility virtualization offers, this nothing short of amazing. Kudos to Keith and the VMware team!

Remember, this result was tested from unoptimized hardware configurations. I bet if I had a dedicated drive for the virtual machine and defragmented the virtual disk image, the result would have been even better!

Last minute idea.

Contrary to earlier reports of a clunky looking squared Windows Vista Media Center remote showcased at Digital Life 2006 by Neowin.net (via PVRWire), the official Windows Vista Product Guide, recently updated for RTM, (via StealthPuppy) showcases a much newer and aesthetically pleasing design for the remote. Could this be the real one? It looks hooooooot, although the center “OK” button looks like if it’s straight out of OSX.

The embedded filename for this picture is clearly labeled “MCE_Vista_Remote” on page 159 of the Word document. I’m going to put my money (not that I have any) on this as the real thing!

Update: The new remote design is confirmed as only a prototype. It may/may not be the final generic Windows Vista Media Center remote.

I saw this advertisement for Nokia mobile phones on TV and I thought to myself, “did I just see Flickr on TV”? Guess what. It came around for a second commercial break, and I captured it to prove it.

No doubt Nokia is leading the way by integrating Web 2.0 services in its phones, but I think this advertisement shows off just how much Nokia is committed to Web 2.0. This ad is all about creating content, sharing content, content mash-ups and vertical markets. How cool is that? He’s even sharing music. SHARING MUSIC! Take that Zune and RIAA!

I did some digging around and found the actual Flickr profile used in the advertisement. It belongs to a person called Pille Hikinen. However the woman painting picture doesn’t exist in his gallery, probably removed immediately after the commercial was shot. But having a real Flickr user just shows how ‘real’ this is.

Oh, and did I mention, the Nokia N91 has 8 gigabytes of storage? That’s just as much as an iPod nano!