If you go to Google and search for “demo of the year” you’ll find my 2006 post about Microsoft’s Photosynth. It was that good. The demo is still among my favorite I’ve ever seen (and I’ve sat through thousands of demos).
A few minutes ago Microsoft released Photosynth for all of us to use.
What does Photosynth do? You take a bunch of photos of something, like the outside of your house. Shoot a bunch from different locations. It’s best to have between 20 and 300 photos, the Photosynth team tells me. Then it creates a 3D mesh of all the photos that you can “walk” through. There are several demo Photosynths on the site.
I am uploading some of my family room right now, will let you know how that works later tonight. Just wanted to let you know you can play with it too.
UPDATE: My images are now uploaded so you can see a Photosynth of my family room (can you find baby Milan?) and O’Reilly has a nice writeup on the release.
UPDATE2: There’s even more on TechMeme.
Scobleizer 
Windows only. Guess we Mac people are out in the cold, again. I’ll have to take your word for the fact that it’s cool.
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Windows only. Guess we Mac people are out in the cold, again. I’ll have to take your word for the fact that it’s cool.
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Is it bad I feel annoyed I have to download something?
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Is it bad I feel annoyed I have to download something?
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Switch to PC Stanton 😉
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Switch to PC Stanton 😉
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Stanton: yup, Windows only. You should get VMWare on your Mac.
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..or do like the ‘other’ rest of us and use all of the above?
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Stanton: yup, Windows only. You should get VMWare on your Mac.
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..or do like the ‘other’ rest of us and use all of the above?
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Or Microsoft knowing that a lot of photographers use macs, could have allocated the resources to make it work with macs when it launched.
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Or Microsoft knowing that a lot of photographers use macs, could have allocated the resources to make it work with macs when it launched.
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I don’t want to engage in a full on OS jihad, but why would Microsoft release this for the Mac? It’s a technology demonstration, so it’s to their advantage to restrict it to the OS they sell.
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What a bunch of arrogant, patronizing, head stuck up their asses, douches:
“Unfortunately, we’re not cool enough to run on your OS yet. We really wish we had a version of Photosynth that worked cross platform, but for now it only runs on Windows.
Trust us, as soon as we have a Mac version ready, it will be up and available on our site.”
Come on — I know this is a 2006 demo they are releasing. Surely in those two years they would have noticed IE on Windows doesn’t have a stranglehold on the web anymore.
No, I’m not bitter.
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I don’t want to engage in a full on OS jihad, but why would Microsoft release this for the Mac? It’s a technology demonstration, so it’s to their advantage to restrict it to the OS they sell.
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What a bunch of arrogant, patronizing, head stuck up their asses, douches:
“Unfortunately, we’re not cool enough to run on your OS yet. We really wish we had a version of Photosynth that worked cross platform, but for now it only runs on Windows.
Trust us, as soon as we have a Mac version ready, it will be up and available on our site.”
Come on — I know this is a 2006 demo they are releasing. Surely in those two years they would have noticed IE on Windows doesn’t have a stranglehold on the web anymore.
No, I’m not bitter.
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Hey, I’m not bitter about it. Microsoft can do whatever they want with the software they write. I’m just disappointed I won’t get to try it.
@scoble – No can do. From their site: “Running Windows on a Mac? Photosynth runs under Boot Camp only. Parallels and other VM software cannot run the viewer.”
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Hey, I’m not bitter about it. Microsoft can do whatever they want with the software they write. I’m just disappointed I won’t get to try it.
@scoble – No can do. From their site: “Running Windows on a Mac? Photosynth runs under Boot Camp only. Parallels and other VM software cannot run the viewer.”
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see comments like “Unfortunately, we’re not cool enough to run on your OS yet. We really …” make them just come across like a bunch of fkucwtz. I mean really, who treats their customers this way.
I thought they are trying to get more and more photographers to use their products. With this sort of language I don’t think they are anywhere near close.
And what’s with the use of Flash on their homepage? I guess their agency is having a little problem in finding Silverlight developers? I wonder why?
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see comments like “Unfortunately, we’re not cool enough to run on your OS yet. We really …” make them just come across like a bunch of fkucwtz. I mean really, who treats their customers this way.
I thought they are trying to get more and more photographers to use their products. With this sort of language I don’t think they are anywhere near close.
And what’s with the use of Flash on their homepage? I guess their agency is having a little problem in finding Silverlight developers? I wonder why?
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“Trust us, as soon as we have a Mac version ready, it will be up and available on our site.”
Trust me… I am already bored…
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“Trust us, as soon as we have a Mac version ready, it will be up and available on our site.”
Trust me… I am already bored…
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No linux support either!! Bummer…
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No linux support either!! Bummer…
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Well, lets face it, we know that if it’s built by Microsoft then it’s going to have bugs. I certainly wouldn’t be releasing it on Mac if it were me. And I certainly wouldn’t be installing it either… for that same problem.
On the other hand… I’m a Mac “hater” (hahahaha…) and as most of the world runs on Microsoft, why bother offering something to the competition? Rather make them create their own or force the users to move. Isn’t that what the iPhone did?
Anyhow… it looks awesome and I can see that we could certainly make use of it in the future.
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Well, lets face it, we know that if it’s built by Microsoft then it’s going to have bugs. I certainly wouldn’t be releasing it on Mac if it were me. And I certainly wouldn’t be installing it either… for that same problem.
On the other hand… I’m a Mac “hater” (hahahaha…) and as most of the world runs on Microsoft, why bother offering something to the competition? Rather make them create their own or force the users to move. Isn’t that what the iPhone did?
Anyhow… it looks awesome and I can see that we could certainly make use of it in the future.
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So the ‘synthing’ is done serverside and the app is just an uploader?
Anyhow, uploading is down because of serverload…
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So the ‘synthing’ is done serverside and the app is just an uploader?
Anyhow, uploading is down because of serverload…
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Windows only. I wonder why I even bother visiting sites that are MS related.
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Windows only. I wonder why I even bother visiting sites that are MS related.
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Downloading something from Microsoft… no way!
Last time I installed SQL Server and it screwed up my entire system…
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Downloading something from Microsoft… no way!
Last time I installed SQL Server and it screwed up my entire system…
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[fe]Yeah, we all know that releasing an app that’s cross-platform is soooo easy. I mean, all–and I mean all–of those cool Mac apps are available for Windows users, too.
Right guys?[/fe]
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[fe]Yeah, we all know that releasing an app that’s cross-platform is soooo easy. I mean, all–and I mean all–of those cool Mac apps are available for Windows users, too.
Right guys?[/fe]
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Very cool – amazing detail… looking at your collection of magazines under coffee table. I see you have Direct TV too.
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Very cool – amazing detail… looking at your collection of magazines under coffee table. I see you have Direct TV too.
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Was a gee whiz cool toy in 2006, now it’s such is a commodity. A consumerish-focused Live Labs strategy-tax novelty toy being sent to the neverneverland of MSN. It’s doomed.
Going professional Enterprise appish and releasing the darn thing, instead of “synth” MSN.com buzzword happy, would have been a better route.
Abandonware all hope.
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Was a gee whiz cool toy in 2006, now it’s such is a commodity. A consumerish-focused Live Labs strategy-tax novelty toy being sent to the neverneverland of MSN. It’s doomed.
Going professional Enterprise appish and releasing the darn thing, instead of “synth” MSN.com buzzword happy, would have been a better route.
Abandonware all hope.
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Well, ok, Microsoft Live Spaces users (can’t we just deport them all?) will be the primary and only market. Cue up Dare with another round of misleading Enronish Web statistics, to show how super popular it “really” is.
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Well, ok, Microsoft Live Spaces users (can’t we just deport them all?) will be the primary and only market. Cue up Dare with another round of misleading Enronish Web statistics, to show how super popular it “really” is.
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“Unfortunately, we’re not cool enough to run on your OS yet.”
“Trust us, as soon as we have a Mac version ready…”
But I’m running Linux you dolts!
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“Unfortunately, we’re not cool enough to run on your OS yet.”
“Trust us, as soon as we have a Mac version ready…”
But I’m running Linux you dolts!
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“I know this is a 2006 demo they are releasing. Surely in those two years they would have noticed IE on Windows doesn’t have a stranglehold on the web anymore.”
It’s not restricted to IE, so I don’t know why you brought that into it.
LOL @ the Mac whiners. Apple makes plenty of stuff that only run on Macs, yet gets no criticism for it, in fact, Apple fanboys use that as a reason to advocate Mac use. Yet you guys whine about Microsoft or some other company making stuff for Windows only?
According the System Requirements, Photosynth is a *binary* plugin that makes heavy use of DirectX, which doesn’t exist on the Mac. And don’t tell that they should’ve written it using OpenGL. OpenGL is falling behind the times (OpenGL 3 is a joke), and why shouldn’t Microsoft use its own system API?
I’ve used Macs for years (much longer than Windows), but never have I seen a group of people more whiny and yet so smug than today’s Mac fanboys.
Note that I intentionally label the smug whiners as “Mac fanboys” to distinguish them from normal “Mac users”.
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“I know this is a 2006 demo they are releasing. Surely in those two years they would have noticed IE on Windows doesn’t have a stranglehold on the web anymore.”
It’s not restricted to IE, so I don’t know why you brought that into it.
LOL @ the Mac whiners. Apple makes plenty of stuff that only run on Macs, yet gets no criticism for it, in fact, Apple fanboys use that as a reason to advocate Mac use. Yet you guys whine about Microsoft or some other company making stuff for Windows only?
According the System Requirements, Photosynth is a *binary* plugin that makes heavy use of DirectX, which doesn’t exist on the Mac. And don’t tell that they should’ve written it using OpenGL. OpenGL is falling behind the times (OpenGL 3 is a joke), and why shouldn’t Microsoft use its own system API?
I’ve used Macs for years (much longer than Windows), but never have I seen a group of people more whiny and yet so smug than today’s Mac fanboys.
Note that I intentionally label the smug whiners as “Mac fanboys” to distinguish them from normal “Mac users”.
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“So the ’synthing’ is done serverside and the app is just an uploader?”
According to the O’Reilly write up Scoble references, the synth is created on the client machine, so the app isn’t just an uploader.
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“So the ’synthing’ is done serverside and the app is just an uploader?”
According to the O’Reilly write up Scoble references, the synth is created on the client machine, so the app isn’t just an uploader.
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*commercial starts, all white set fades in, boring Vista guy on the left with laptop… groovy Apple guy on the right looking over Vista guy’s shoulder*
Apple guy: Heya Vista, what you got goin on there?
Vista guy: I’m creating a new synth of the trip I took to Bora Bora using all the money I saved buying a Vista machine instead of a Mac Book Pro.
Apple guy: [sniff] I wish *I* could create a synth…
Vista guy: Oh, sorry Apple. There there, don’t cry. [reaffirming grip on Apple guy’s shoulder] You’ll be able to create synths soon, we just need to port it to your platform and we’re working on it… [Vista guy turns to the camera] can we use Time Machine to get Apple back to being cool and smug?
*end commercial*
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*commercial starts, all white set fades in, boring Vista guy on the left with laptop… groovy Apple guy on the right looking over Vista guy’s shoulder*
Apple guy: Heya Vista, what you got goin on there?
Vista guy: I’m creating a new synth of the trip I took to Bora Bora using all the money I saved buying a Vista machine instead of a Mac Book Pro.
Apple guy: [sniff] I wish *I* could create a synth…
Vista guy: Oh, sorry Apple. There there, don’t cry. [reaffirming grip on Apple guy’s shoulder] You’ll be able to create synths soon, we just need to port it to your platform and we’re working on it… [Vista guy turns to the camera] can we use Time Machine to get Apple back to being cool and smug?
*end commercial*
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