Expression Media handed off by Microsoft

I think this is great. CaptureOne makes a killer RAW converter plus two of the best medium format digital camera backs in the market - Phase One and Leaf. Plus the new Phase/Mamiya camera is fantastic.

If they can incorporate iView/Expression Media into Capture One with scripts or into the program, then there is an excellent competitor to Aperture and Lightroom.

Capture One is the preferred RAW converter for many pro shooters.

I too was an avid iView user before MSFT took over. As soon as I finished scanning, archiving and tagging 5800 photos iView was sold. I felt orphaned.

Aperture has evolved nicely though, and if Apple ever sells this to a Windows only developer I'll never take or scan another photo. Fini!

Hey this is great news. While Microsoft didn't completely mess iView Media Pro up when they acquired it they haven't really done much to improve on it either. I have been using this product line forever (seriously I used to use iView Multimedia on a Performa 600CD) and I hope that Phase One takes good care of it.

I was a long-time iView user, and when the MS acquisition was announced, there was HUGE outcry at their message boards.

Predictably, the iView and MS teams both assured us the Mac version wouldn't suffer, everything would be fine, and iView would be even awesomer and greater than ever, with MS's money and muscle behind it. Few of us believed them.

Needless to say, we were right; after one or two token "maintenance updates", iView, nee Expression, fizzled out.

Congrats on Phase One, I do hope they breathe life into this once-great app. Times have changed though, and most everyone is using either LightRoom or Aperture. Expression will most likely just be relegated to being a bundles app that's used sporadically.

It's interesting that while companies such as Apple and Google are in acquisition mode, Microsoft, in its decline, is shedding businesses.

Microsoft needs new management at the very top level in order to turn that company around before it's too late. There has been ZERO innovation from that company for too long. Nothing new out of the gate, and the current line of products just get bad updates/upgrades (Vista/Win 7, XBox, etc).

Windows Phone 7? Yeah, with their track record, it will never release. Even if it came out tomorrow, they are so far behind in that market arena, they'll never gain traction, especially in light of their track record for sub-standard quality.

Agreed ... I count two additions to my "new word" list ... agita and peripatetic. :)

Additionally, I can't recall ever seeing Microsoft sell off an app to another company. (I could be forgetting something obvious here.) KILL apps? All the time! But spin it off to another company? Never saw that before.

Where should I PayPal the $10 for your so-valued word?

Seriously though, it's nice to see a term that I actually needed Dictionary Services to handle. Learning a new word is always a welcomed event.