Windows Live Photos Update Makes More Room for Panoramas

Microsoft has presented an update to Windows Live Photo in order to “make room” for panoramas but also to introduce additional touchups to the service. The refresh was delivered on September 10th, 2009, and is currently available to users of Windows Live Photos. The Redmond-based company noted that it was simply working to keep up with the rapid pace of innovation and competition on the digital camera market. Manufacturers have constantly been improving the number of megapixels in consumer-level cameras, and there are specialized features, as well as editing solutions that have made the process of putting together panoramas nothing short of mainstream.

“In the past, if you tried to upload your beautiful new panoramas to Windows Live Photos in their original size, you couldn’t view them right on the site. Today we’re rolling out a new release of Photos that bumps our limit on photo size up way up. You are now able to get thumbnails and easily viewable versions of photos all the way up to 25 megapixels,” revealed a member of the Windows Live Photos team.

But the update is not limited to boosting the megapixel limit for panorama thumbnails. In fact, Microsoft noted that it introduced enhancements designed to increase the user experience when viewing images. The software giant promised that the refresh would improve the quality of thumbnails but also that of images that are viewed as a part of a slideshow. In addition, the company has also kicked up a notch the image embedding capabilities, as well as the photo album features of Windows Live Photo.

“We’re super excited about those improvements, but we know that if moving through a photo album takes forever, it may not matter how beautiful your photos are. We’ve also put a lot of work into making photo albums faster to browse through - you no longer have to wait for the entire page to refresh when you move between photos. Plus, you can browse through your photos using the left and right arrow keys on your keyboard,” the Windows Live Photo team member added.