Microsoft Codename Max

Today is my birthday.  So I brought a polaroid camera here to school.  And it’s great, I suppose, except the film was expensive.  Last night, I was looking for something, and I came across in a google search Microsoft Codename Max.  If you haven’t heard of it, it is basically a photo journal to share with all your family and friends in a nice and presentable way.  It is still beta, but its great anywho.

At home, I have several photos from my travels and I thought I’d use Max as an alternative to Picasa.  First thing’s first–the download.  It takes some time and had to do the three-finger-shuffle (’cause I was burning a DVD at the same time, which luckly hadn’t started burning yet.).  After that minor glitch, I think it was smooth sailing….after a reboot for WinFX and downloading the actual software, which took another couple of minutes.

First experience?  I liked the animated startup splash–real classy.  The interface is very cluttered, however, I forgot all about the splash.  Too unorganized, mashing my San Francisco pictures with my Costa Rica pictures and pictures from Christmas.  I quickly created a new list and sorted.  The sideshows are nice to look at, but no transitions, but I’d expect that I suppose.  The lightbox annotation window is Vista-like, which is okay as well.

Overall, I give the product a 2.5 outta 5.  I haven’t begun to use all the controls for it, but hopeful I’ll get into it and like it a little better.