This article needs to be read after reading my Windows Live Wave 4: Video article.
I found the other day that Microsoft Hardware had released drivers and software to get their LifeCams to work on Windows 7, something that was long over due. For quite a few months of the year I couldn’t use my webcam on my pc because Microsoft, yes the maker of both the operating system and the hardware, had not got the two working together properly. This puzzled me as nearly all the competitors were able to have their hardware working on Windows 7.
I wondered why it has taken Microsoft so long to get their own webcams working with the new operating system but then when I was installing the LifeCam software I noticed it needs to install Windows Live Essentials at the same time, then it dawned on me. Perhaps it took Microsoft so long to get their webcams working because they were waiting on other software to be complete and not just Windows 7, they were waiting for Windows Live Wave 4.
Another piece of information that support my theory of tight integration between Microsoft’s LifeCams and Windows Live is that today the first HD webcam is being launched by Microsoft and so I had a look on its website. There it states that it is optimised for Windows Live Messenger, not something new, but that it also works with Movie Maker and Photo Gallery, obviously the Movie Maker integration is something only a few weeks old. It doesn’t specify if you can record yourself and then use Windows Movie Maker to upload the video or if you can directly record yourself in the Windows Live application (I have had a look in both applications to see if you can capture Videos or Photos inside the applications but I can’t see how to get it too work, might be my camera or that it doesn’t mean a users can use the applications to capture videos and photos). There is already some integration between Windows Live and Microsoft LifeCams but I think there could and should be more to come.
There is already a lesser known Windows Live service called Video Messages, it is currently in beta and has been for some time, that works with webcams in a browser and I think this service could well be part of Windows Live Video. What I see happening is that when Wave 4 hits and if there is a new Video service, which is looking increasingly more likely, there will be the option to record and upload videos from a users webcam straight to the service. If this is implemented then I would expect to see a similar thing for the Photos service where pictures are taken in the browser and instantly in the user’s SkyDrive (a similar system is already used by Facebook to use a Webcam for a user’s profile picture). To really make the suite work well with webcams users should be to capture video, audio and photos using a webcam in the Windows Live applications and not have to use the LifeCam software to do the same thing as it only slows the process down, especially if people only want to publish them to an online album like Facebook.
I don’t often use my webcam but I know of lots of people who do, it would good for Microsoft to allow users to capture pictures, video and audio using their webcams, then edit them in the applications from the Essential Suite and then upload them for the world to see with new Windows Live services. As always this could all be circumstantial and we wont see any kind of implementation like this, it would be a shame to miss out on such integration though.
