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Seems as though the folks over there at Microsoft have really been busy as of late. Their Office Labs recently released the the Speed Launch Program , and now Microsoft ‘s Live Labs just released their Photosynth program for consumers.

What was once just a “oh isn’t that so pretty” tech demo, the program is now something that just about anyone can actually go on and use now. While before, the process took weeks of stitching photos together on specially configured server arrays; it is now able to be done by taking groups of photos that you’ve taken with your digital camera or even your mobile phone, and the program then stitches them into a faux 3D environment converted right onto your computer.

Users are being given 20GB of online storage for their Photosynth collections from Microsoft. This fits at least 60 or more synths made up of about 150 to 200 photos each (which is actually the higher end for what product manager Joshua Edwards calls an optimum or “synthy” experience.)  Apparently users making extra snazzy collections are being granted extra space.

Seadragon is the rendering and streaming technology behind the whole Photosynth project.  Seadragon is yet another creation of Microsoft Live Labs. Although users always had to download a special Seadragon-based plug-in to view other people’s synths, now the latest plug-in comes with a desktop uploader that can be used to add your own collection to the Photosynth universe. It works in both IE 7 and Firefox 3, however, not coming as a major surprise given the warm fuzzies between Apple and Windows as of late, if you’re a Mac user wanting to play with Photosynth; you’ll have to keep waiting. Apparently the focus on Photosynth will remain on the PC for the time being.

Read [CNet]