It’s been nearly two weeks since I first reported about Microsoft’s viral marketing campaign for Windows Vista called Clearification. Back then, the relationship between the campaign and Windows Vista was extremely vague and confusing. But now, Clearification has just posted the second installment of the “Demetri Martin finds Clearification” videos. Everything is clearer now.

In the second episode titled “Welcome to the I.A.P.”, we learn more about the organization which Demetri Martin has been institutionalized in. The acronym actually stands for the Institute for Advanced Person, founded “sometime in the past”. The IAP is partly funded by “money we find around” under couch cushions.

But more importantly, this episode demonstrates quite clearly how Windows Vista ties into the story. As I was partly right in my original assumptions, Windows Vista serves as a tool which the IAP uses to aid its people. There were several quite prominent placements of Vista technologies, including:

• The Momento digital picture frame (I just reported yesterday)
• A desktop PC running Windows Vista
• A slideable Tablet PC running Windows Vista
• Aero’s Live Thumbnails
• Wireless network projector

And of course, mentioned in the episode, Microsoft is one of the corporations which fund the IAP, along with International Handles, Indisposable Camera Company and Eric.

The episode almost reminded me of LOST, showing a video describing the origins of the IAP in-place of the Dharma Initiative. The jokes were once again fairly ‘in-your-face’ which didn’t make you laugh out loud, but at least gave you a smirk on your face. I don’t know how Demetri Martin can pull off such a straight face, but he is truly the star.

Here’s some screencaps of the most memorable moments. I want that “person” shirt!

Check out what the Sydney Morning Herald, one of the most respected newspaper medias in Austraila, said about Windows Vista.

Aero is Vista’s new graphical user interface that promises to brighten up your desktop, and will include a highly stylised Start button, redesigned program menus, intricately detailed icons and various other visual cues.

Do not buy Vista for the new kernel and framework, improved security, enhanced shell, better searching, new bundled games, new Media Center, speech recognition, better networking, and every other new feature in Windows Vista. But please, do try out the new Start button. Microsoft thinks it is their best ever. It makes a compelling sell.

This is why mainstream media and technology news does not mix.

Microsoft’s Sean Alexander sent in this tip about the Momento by A Living Picture, a digital picture frame that has been certified and enhanced for Windows Vista. A lot of progress has been made since its original WinHEC May 2006 debut, it’s available for pre-order for shipping in early December of 2006.

Digital picture frames aren’t new concepts, for example, Philips has already shipped a digital photo display device in September of last year. But there’s still a lot of improvements to be made until these devices becomes a mass-market consumer product. For example, some of the limitations of the Philips device includes limited storage capacity and a manual photo management process. But this is where Momento and Windows Vista comes in.

The most obvious is wireless connectivity using 802.11 b/g. And not being limited to only photos stored on a computer in the household, the Momento can access photos from memory cards, mobile phones, digital cameras or even someone across the globe with the integrated Momento Live service. No points for guessing where the inspiration for the name came from. This could make a great way to share family photos to far-away relatives and family straight to the most appropriate device for viewing photos.

There’s also other neat functions including a clock and calendar, which can all be accessible through the remote control supplied. But possibly the most interesting and undocumented feature for the Momento is the support for Windows Sideshow. Using SideShow, users could run gadgets to deliver information such as emails, stock quotes, weather and meeting schedules. And the possibilities are endless. Someone could code a gadget to provide a secondary display screen for games similar to the Nintendo DS, color palettes for an artist or visualizers to accompany music. It’s almost like having a ‘smart’ mini-display. Sadly there’s no touch interface.

As for the design of the device, I’m not too sure about the inches of white border surrounded the actual display which comes in sizes of 7″ or 10″. But apparently the frames are changeable.

The device is powered by Windows CE and uses a 800×480-resolution TFT display. Supports audio, video, and obviously images from SD/MMC/xD/SmartMedia/Memory Stick/USB/Wifi. Is compatible with Windows XP, but ‘enhanced’ for Windows Vista.

It is currently priced at US$200 for the 7″ and $300 for the 10″, still way too expensive for the consumer market. Expect to see it on your manager’s desk soon, and when you do, you can praise them on how much more beautiful their siblings look in a digital picture frame compared to passé framed prints.

Images credit: Amazon.

Ever wanted to hack your friends’ Hotmail to uncover his or her darkest newsletter subscriptions? Or maybe you want to see what great medical offers they have been receiving? Whatever satisfies your desires, “hackurfriendshotmail” is the answer.

I’ve had the privilege of being referred to this service by an unfamiliar and strange person ([email protected]) who added me to MSN and then quickly disconnected. What a kind fellar. I checked out the site, and I thought, “WOW, I’ve got to tell everyone about this unique service.”

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One of the most influential technology writers according to Wikipedia, Walter Mossberg, has forgotten about the majority 55% of the world’s internet users.

In an article giving a brief overview of the recently released Internet Explorer 7, Mr. Mossberg labeled IE7 as “Not Much Is New”. As much as I respect his success, but that is extremely selfish of himself to say that. Why? Because he assumes everyone in the world has used either Firefox or another web browser.

Not much is new. Except to the 600 or so million people in the world which make up at least 55% of the world’s population browsing the internet using Internet Explorer 6. Tabbing, integrated search, security and anti-phishing are features I’d never expect anyone at a bus-spot to know about let alone used before.

It might not be new to me, users who reads this blog or anyone else reading blogs in general. But it is new to the hundreds millions of people out there, and it shouldn’t be labeled as “not new” just because the writer of the article thinks differently. There is a clear digital divide amongst society today between those who get technology and those who don’t. As technology writers continue to separate themselves from the average consumers, the digital divide widens.

At this rate, one day, ineffective use of technology might be considered a disability.

Disclaimer: I use and support both Internet Explorer 7 and Firefox 2.0. Firefox on the desktop, and IE on the laptop with better mobile/tablet support.

Normally, a monopoly abuses this right, but Microsoft can’t even get this right. Thanks to Robert Banghart for sending this in.

A survey sent by Microsoft’s own employees (Windows Live team) to gather feedback about their own product (Windows Live) to their own email client (Live Mail) viewed by their own browser (Internet Explorer 7) doesn’t work.

This is only days after the previous Microsoft survey stuff-up. Go figure how much money third-party survey organisers (in this case, Global Market Insight) are robbing from Microsoft, and ruining their reputation in the process.