“Sooner or later comes a crisis in our affairs, and how we meet it determines our future happiness and success. Since the beginning of time, every form of life has been called upon to meet such crisis.”

-Robert Collier

No!! We are not turning philosophic!! . That was rather a quote to show that no matter how smoothly life goes on, we face a crisis at some point of life. Crisis at Human level, well we can’t help about it, but the guys at Microsoft have come up with an innovative feature called Microsoft Vine to help you in times of Crisis like Natural Disasters.

Microsoft Vine

Microsoft Vine is a tool designed to let you stay in touch with your family and friends during Emergency Crisis when all other medium of communications break down. The Idea for the tool came up when US witnessed Hurricane Katrina. Microsoft started working on the project development after around 5 years. We at Blogsolute received a Microsoft Vine Invite (Invite season, it seems: P) and we immediately laid our hands on it.

Once you register at www.vine.net , you need to download the file and install it on your PC. Log in with your Windows ID and provide your Vital Information. Also you will be asked to put in a pin for security reasons. Once you are done with it. This is how the application looks like when you log in. Your current location is shown on the Map and People who matter to you; their location is shown on the map below.

Peoples and Places

Microsoft Vine currently runs on Windows Operating System and can be accessed by Email or text messaging. You can add people to your list and make a group who you would like to contact in case of Emergencies. Besides Emergency Situation, you can also see what their current Facebook or Twitter Status says. That makes it an everyday use application.

Security Issues - Pin Code

Vine Vitals

You can read Local News and also be alerted about a Worldwide or a local calamity through these news sources. Microsoft claims it will be picking up feeds from around 20,000 local and national news sources, plus public safety announcements from the United States National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). You can filter the types of news like sports, fun as per your convenience using the tool. You can invite people to use Vine by clicking on ” Add People ” as shown in the screenshot below.

People

You can post an alert to a group or at the same time add recipients to it. Once you post an alert, people in the group can receive the alerts on whatever media they choose. The same goes for updating. You can update your Alert using your mobile or Email Id. Vine will allocate an Email Id or a Number to you to which when you send an Email or a Text Message, it will be sent to everyone.

Emergency Alert

You can also post a report that will either indicate “Check in safe and well”, “General Information”, and “Report Upcoming Plans” as well as “Report a Situation”. They will be indicated to your contacts too.Once someone replies to an alert, the alert will pop up on your desktop screen or you will get a message which is a useful feature.

General Status Report

Blogsolute Verdict: Although in Beta testing, Microsoft Vine is a different type of application. Certain features are available only for US and we hope this will open up worldwide. It can be summed as a tool that will let you connected with your friends and family but at the same time lets you locate them in a time of calamity and post alerts. A Thumbs-Up for the concept but the application still has a long way to go.