Windows Live services and applications released into earlier of Q4 of the year 2008. As of December 15, 2008, Windows Live made yet another step forward, loosed the Beta tag. At the start of this week, Microsoft introduced the Windows Live Essentials Beta Refresh.
A number of Windows Live applications, including Live Messenger, Live mail,Photo Gallery, Live Writer, Movie Maker (still handing on beta tag) clients are now available for download as Beta Refresh builds.
Windows Live Messenger Build 14.0.8050.1202
Full Offline Setup & Web Setup
Uncategorized, Windows Live
Microsoft announced the next generation of Windows Live, an integrated set of online services that make it easier and more fun for consumers to communicate and share with the people they care about most. The new generation of Windows Live includes updated experiences for photo sharing, e-mail, instant messaging, as well as integration with multiple third-party sites. The release also includes Windows Live Essentials, free downloadable software that enhances consumers’ Windows experience by helping them simplify and enjoy digital content scattered across their PC, phone and on Web sites. For more information about windows live go to http://www.windowslive.com.
The changes to Windows Live announced make it easier for consumers to manage their digital life and keep their life in sync. Highlights include these:
- Windows Live is making new social features available to all customers, including an updated profile, a “what’s new” feed of activities across the network and Web, photo sharing, and on-the-go access from virtually any device with Windows Live SkyDrive. Online storage is increasing from 5 GB to 25 GB.
- Windows Live Messenger, the No. 1 instant messaging service worldwide with more than 330 million active customers, now includes more personalization, a “what’s new” feed with updates from contacts across the Web, drag-and-drop photo sharing in the conversation window, a favorites list to designate the most important contacts, and group IM to chat simultaneously with up to 20 people at the same time.
- Windows Live Hotmail, one of the largest e-mail services worldwide with more than 375 million active customers, is getting a significant upgrade. It is now much faster and has 80 percent more effective spam filtering1 compared with previous versions of Hotmail. Upcoming changes include the ability to bring multiple e-mail accounts together, the ability to put multiple e-mail addresses onto almost any device, increased storage, and a revamped calendar that makes it easier to share calendars with others, subscribe to multiple calendars and use your calendar with Microsoft Outlook.
- Windows Live Groups, a place for groups to collaborate online, includes a shared calendar, shared storage, a shared e-mail address, and shared instant messaging.
All of these services work with Windows Live Essentials, a suite of applications for communication and sharing that also works with leading e-mail, photo and blogging services worldwide.
Source: Microsoft
Windows Live
With the release of Windows Live Wave 3 Beta suite of applications, Microsoft introduced not only optimizations, new facial appearance and capabilities, but also a design revamp the UI of Windows Live products. The revamping of the visual style ranges from the graphical user interface of the client and Cloud services, to the icons representing the various components of Windows Live Wave 3. As you can see from the images included in this article, the new designs associated with Windows Live Wave 3 deliver a unified style across both the Windows client and the Cloud components.
As scheduled, with ending in early 2009, Microsoft will introduce Windows Live Wave 3 incrementally around the world. The end purpose for Microsoft is to have all Windows Live components, and the digital lives of end users synchronized. At the same time, Microsoft is attempting to increase the social networking capabilities of Windows Live Wave 3 applications and services by connecting users with a range of third-parties.
Download: Windows Live Wave 3 Beta software
So here are few snapshots of Windows Live Wave 3!
Windows Live Wave 3 Icons
Windows Live Hotmail
Windows Live Profile
Windows Live Spaces
Windows Live
So finally Microsoft has launched new wave of Windows Live Hotmail. I just noticed it when I signed-in Hotmail. The wave 3 includes lots of changes over last version. Here is the summary:
Liveside.net says:
Speed: The coming soon page says that for broadband users, the new Hotmail will be up to 70% faster on sign in (50% for non-broadband users). That’s a pretty big claim, and one which should provide for some interesting testing once the beta is open to the public.
Ever-increasing storage: Microsoft have carefully avoided using the phrase “unlimited storage”, as Yahoo has done, but in a sense this is what is being offered. The figures we last heard for this were the the existing 5GB free accounts would be getting growth of 250MB per month, but this is pre-beta and could have changed and so our usual disclaimer applies. Obviously the PR definitely looks better leaving the figures out, but a free inbox of 8GB by the end of year 1 gives us a warm feeling. (For comparison, Gmail is currently on 7GB and still growing.)
New UI: Along with the new Wave 3 UI, in particular the new header and themes available shown below, the new promotion site suggests that the classic and full versions of Hotmail will be combined together. This potentially means that full functionality could be available across all browsers. Also worth mentioning here are improvements around deadling with spam.
In terms of Hotmail integrating with other Windows Live services, there’s also some details on that:
WebIM built-in: This feature doesn’t really need much explaining and should be a popular addition. From what we’ve heard it’ll support most of the basic needs such as presence, notifications and chat via the WebMessenger dogfood. Yes its been a while since we’ve spoken about that!
Integrated Calendar: No surprise if you’re on the new Windows Live Calendar beta to hear there will be integration between the two services.
Easier to send group emails: Thanks to the new Windows Live Groups service (go ABCH!) it’ll be easier to email all those contacts in one go.
And of course there is stuff not on the PR site that we’ve heard about, including the long-rumoured POP support for other mail clients and using Skydrive for storing photos sent via Photo Mail.
Unfortunately if you’re now excited about giving the new Hotmail a try, we haven’t seen any links to sign up for a public beta. As soon as we do though, we’ll let you know. Keep those tips coming, either in the comments or via email.
Download beta release of Windows Live Programs
Windows Live
With the Windows Live Wave 3 beta due to start yesterday, we thought we’d provide our readers with a small headstart on the rest of the world. Here’s the download links for the new Wave 3 suite of applications, including Messenger v9, Windows Live Movie Maker, Mail with Calendar synchronisation, Writer, Photo Gallery, Family Safety and the Outlook Connector. For the paranoid amongst you, yes the files are hosted on download.microsoft.com.
Enjoy, and stay tuned for our reviews of the Windows Live Wave 3 beta application coming soon.
PS: If you have the Writer CTP or any other Wave 3 products installed, you should uninstall them first.
English Downloads
Web Installer
Full Installer
Source: LiveSide.net
Windows Live
What we love about this site is that it has gone public with some of the changes for Windows Live Hotmail that are coming up in the Wave 3 beta. Here’s the summary:
Speed: The coming soon page says that for broadband users, the new Hotmail will be up to 70% faster on sign in (50% for non-broadband users). That’s a pretty big claim, and one which should provide for some interesting testing once the beta is open to the public.
Ever-increasing storage: Microsoft have carefully avoided using the phrase “unlimited storage”, as Yahoo has done, but in a sense this is what is being offered. The figures we last heard for this were the the existing 5GB free accounts would be getting growth of 250MB per month, but this is pre-beta and could have changed and so our usual disclaimer applies. Obviously the PR definitely looks better leaving the figures out, but a free inbox of 8GB by the end of year 1 gives us a warm feeling. (For comparison, Gmail is currently on 7GB and still growing.)
New UI: Along with the new Wave 3 UI, in particular the new header and themes available shown below, the new promotion site suggests that the classic and full versions of Hotmail will be combined together. This potentially means that full functionality could be available across all browsers. Also worth mentioning here are improvements around deadling with spam.
In terms of Hotmail integrating with other Windows Live services, there’s also some details on that:
WebIM built-in: This feature doesn’t really need much explaining and should be a popular addition. From what we’ve heard it’ll support most of the basic needs such as presence, notifications and chat via the WebMessenger dogfood. Yes its been a while since we’ve spoken about that!
Integrated Calendar: No surprise if you’re on the new Windows Live Calendar beta to hear there will be integration between the two services.
Easier to send group emails: Thanks to the new Windows Live Groups service (go ABCH!) it’ll be easier to email all those contacts in one go
Source
Windows Live
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