We wanted to notify you the Office 2010 Beta will be available for you to download next month (November 2009).

The Beta release of Office 2010 marks the end of the Technical Preview program you currently belong to. We will release the Beta on public download sites, where you can download and install a newer build of Office 2010 client software. At that time, you will also get your first look at the exciting new features we have added to server products such as SharePoint.

What this means to you as a Technical Preview Program participant is that the Office 2010 Connect site that you have been using will essentially be shut down and you will be directed to the Beta site (location to be announced) for Beta downloads, product information, links to forums, and more. We will provide you with links to the new Beta site on the current Office 2010 Connect site, but product downloads, articles, product information, and newsgroups currently found there will no longer be available on Connect.

I will notify you as soon as there is more information about the upcoming public Office 2010 Beta.

• End of Life reached
• What people think
• Technical reasons
• Get Messenger 2009
• In case of problems

End of Life reached

Starting September 15, 2009, users are required to have the latest version of Messenger installed on their computer in order to sign in and continue using the Messenger service. To download the latest version of Messenger, go to the Windows Live Messenger website.

—help.live.com

Messenger 2008, introduced in late 2007, has many friends. Easy to use, clean glossy design. However, now has come the time to say good-bye to this version that was replaced by Messenger 2009 in January, as the Messenger servers will no longer accept clients using Messenger 8.1—Messenger 8.5 will follow shortly.

What people think about Messenger 2008

I have asked some people what they think of Messenger 2008. Here is what they said:

WLM 8.5 was user-friendly and efficient, while Messenger 2009 is more efficient and comes with a much sleeker design.

—Gregory Sampson, Messenger user

When Messenger 2008 came out, I was very enthusiastic, but then Messenger 2009 has topped this.

—Dennis Ziolkowski, Messenger user

It has now been a while since I used Messenger 8.5. I have completely switched to version 14, except for development purposes.

—Yousef El-Dardiry, BuddyFuse developer

Messenger 8.5 was the first sign of Microsoft maturing in how they designed the client itself. It was good while it lasted, but people really need to move on now…

—Will Ingles, interface and graphic designer

I miss the shared folders, otherwise I am very happy with 2009. I never had problems with it up to now.

—Max Messenger, Community evangelist

I always like the new Messenger versions when they are released, so I also liked Messenger 8.5 when it came out. With the current version in mind, though, I don’t like Messenger 2008 anymore…

—Frank Mänz, Product Manager Windows Live, Microsoft Germany

Messenger has been updated a lot, but it is not enough. Features such as contact card, what’s new, groups feature… need a complete update.

—Zhu Yan, Editor LiveSino.net

Technical reasons to upgrade Messenger

There is a security issue found in the Microsoft’s Active Template Library, which is only fixed in the latest version of Messenger.

Get Messenger 2009

You can get Messenger 2009 by downloading its installer from http://download.live.com/messenger.

In case of problems…

Several people have informed me about various error codes when trying to sign in to Messenger with the new version. Here are some troubleshooting tips if you cannot sign in properly:

• Reboot your computer and retry.
• Check for Windows Updates. For example, Messenger 2009 requires at least Windows XP Service Pack 2. To install the latest available updates, visit http://windowsupdate.microsoft.com/, using Internet Explorer (even if you are using a different browser normally).
• In the error window, click on and take note of the displayed Error code. Then paste this error code into a web search engine (like Bing), type a space, the word “Messenger”, and submit your query.
• Visit http://people.live.com/ and try using the Web Messenger embedded there.
• I will make more information about solving Messenger sign-in problems available shortly—stay tuned!

mynetx: Technogran, it is nice to welcome you as my guest! Please tell me a bit about yourself. How is your life involved with Windows Live?

Technogran: Thank you very much mynetx, it’s nice of you to invite me! I am very flattered to be asked, especially following others such as Angus!
I am on Windows Live and also use all of the Live Essentials Suite of programs on my desktop.

mynetx: Since when are you using Live? Tell me a bit about your history.

Technogran: Oh, I have been using all of the Windows Live applications and also the site itself since it was first thought of, although it doesn’t show that via my Space because I kept deleting it and starting from scratch. When the applications began appearing, they were all in beta, but I downloaded and tested them, and I loved them all.

mynetx: Do you think the Windows Live team cares for their users’ demands? Why?

Technogran: Tricky one this to answer, but I will be as frank as possible. I think that like a lot of Microsoft, the Live teams tend to listen to the wrong users. They take notice of the feedback from the more able user, such as the MVP’s, their ‘in-house’ users, and the more technically able, and the more ‘ordinary’ users views don’t tend to get heard. Microsoft isn’t alone in this, I hasten to add, lots of ordinary users just don’t know how to get their views across, because they are not as computer savvy as the more proficient user is. I am neither. I’m a sort of in-between user if you like, an ordinary user, but capable of making my views known on behalf of the ‘little everyday user’.

mynetx: You like posting tips and tricks in your Space using Live Writer. Do you think the software does its job correctly? Why did you choose Writer?

Technogran: LOL. What else is there? I love Writer, and in my opinion, Microsoft should be shouting from the rooftops about it! I have done my homework and tried to find an equivalent program that does everything that Writer does, and come up with zilch, so I consider it unique and for blogging (which let’s face it, every man, woman and their dog does these days) it’s a must have. I also like it because it’s on my desktop. I am a desktop person, that’s where I spend most of my computer time, and I love the way I can start a post, change it, save it to draft, and work on it at my leisure, only posting it when I feel it’s perfect.

mynetx: Any tip about Writer that you want to share with us?

Technogran: Hmm. Hard one because Brandon has been doing some great tips for Writer lately. My tip to anyone using it (because it annoys me more than anything that more users don’t make use of it) is to use the Margins feature to put a gap between a picture and their text. It tends to look so unsightly when the text ‘butts’ up to the edge of a photo or picture, and it’s so easy to do!

mynetx: Within the next five years, where could you picture Windows Live?

Technogran: I think it all depends on where the Live Teams want to take it, and which direction. There does seem to be a ‘mis-match’ between how they view Windows Live and how the majority of users view it, as was ably illustrated after the Wave 3 updates. Lots of users saw Windows Live first and foremost as a blogging platform and site which then produced a ‘blogging’ community, but it seems that the teams don’t quite see it as such, and to be honest, have never ever referred to it as such.

mynetx: Please provide two positive and negative comments about any outstanding Windows Live product.

Technogran: Hmm, you ask some difficult questions mynetx! Let me see…
Positives. Windows Live Mail, its ability to set up your e-mail accounts quickly and easily. The way it can fetch down all your e-mails, RSS feeds, and Newsgroups all to one place! Love it.
Negatives. Live Calendar. Wish it had incorporated into it a ‘to-do’ feature. I’m not too keen on having all those different calendars either. And Live Photo Gallery, wish it let me ‘geo-tag’ my pics.

mynetx: Do you run Windows Live Mail 24/7? Do you have some kind of a routine with Mail and the other parts of Windows Live?

Technogran: Yes I do. Windows Live Mail is the first program I open in a morning to check my e-mails, then I check all my RSS feeds and read them all. Also most of the newsgroups (about Windows Live natch). Obviously I only open Gallery if I am doing something with my photos, and Writer is open when I am constructing a blog post.

mynetx: Use your fantasy: how do you think Mail will look like within the next five years? What new features could it present?

Technogran: Hmm. Again a toughie because I think a lot will hinge on Google Wave, and whether or not us ‘ordinary users’ take to that or not. Mail has been around for a long time without really changing its format, and it IS based on the letters arriving on your doorstep. IF Google Wave does take off, especially with the ordinary user, then it’s ‘all change’ as they say, and Mail as we all know it will wither and die. It all changes so quickly these days, and change is speeding up, so who knows, but obviously as we have all seen with Windows XP and IE6, there are loads and loads of users who will resist change to the end, no matter how good the replacement is!

mynetx: Comparing these ideas with Mail’s current features, which of these might be added in the next release, Wave 4?

Technogran: Well, we know that Calendar is getting Alerts added—and hopefully for Gran, reminders or even better ‘pop up on your taskbar’ to-do’s. (to aid lousy memories! You’ll all get there some day!) I think the team will want to keep the clean interface, and I know that I am one of its fans, though many don’t like it and think it looks ‘washed out’. I would personally LOVE to see the return of Active Search which was in the old incarnation of Windows Live Mail when it was better known as Windows Live Mail Desktop (and was a pig to type each time you mentioned it!). I loved it but again, lots didn’t and it was eventually removed from the completed product, despite the fact that the team made it ‘choosable’.

mynetx: Windows Live Movie Maker—does its release, only some 24 hours ago, contain any surprises? What do you feel when thinking about it?

Technogran: I love the way the guys were brave enough to take Movie Maker (which was already well liked) and just begin again from scratch. I also love the fact that their new ideas all hinge around making Movie Maker easier to use for a newbie! This is an attitude that this Gran is all for, then everyone benefits! Sure if you are more technically able, there is all the features that you want, but for anyone who has never used a Movie making application before, I applaud their use of the ‘Ribbon’ interface, lovely large easy to see icons, etc. Bet you it won’t be long before we see the video out of a seven year old who has single handedly created a movie with his/her pictures! (Mind you, less of the youngsters, they should show one of a 80 year old Granny or Granddad using their apps as well!)

mynetx: Nice that you already tried the new version of Movie Maker and that you blogged about it.
—Are you satisfied with the Windows Live services that are provided to you? Why?

Technogran: Yes I am. However, I wish their was an easier way to give feedback, and to get feedback back. When the Essentials programs were first in beta all those years ago, I can remember conversing with the teams responsible for all of them via e-mail! Yes it’s true! And you really felt that your feedback was actually not only being read, but also being acted upon. I know it can be time consuming to sift through, but it just makes users feel closer to contributing to a program or application.

mynetx: What is your favorite feature in Photo Gallery?

Technogran: The fact it’s free! LOL. No, that’s difficult because I love all of it. As different features have been added over the course of time, it has become a really powerful photo manipulation program, and I just hope that this continues in the future. I love using the Panoramic Photo feature for example, I love how easy it is to edit your pictures and improve them as well. I would love it if Photosynth and DeepZoomPix were also added as well. That would make Photo Gallery really one of the most awesome free photo programs out there (although it already is in my book!).

mynetx: Ever heard of Live Mesh? What was your first impression of it? Could it be a new diverse method of file sharing among peers, or could it improve the current system at hand?

Technogran: Yes I am beta testing Live Mesh and have it on my computer at all times. Trouble is, I don’t really have any other computer to sync with, but I tend to use it to allow my eldest son to access my files that I need to share with him. I have also used it with a few others who I needed to see a video for example.

mynetx: Do you wish one of the Live Services/Essentials would have a feature that a third-party service/software already has?

Technogran: Yes! I wish Windows Live Mail had a reminder feature such as the one for Thunderbird/Firefox called Reminderfox! I love that program, and found it almost indispensable but no one has ever made one similar for IE or Live Mail. Drat!

mynetx: What is your intention behind talking with everyday users in your section “Living with Live”? What inspires you?

Technogran: Why the newbies of course! It has always annoyed me that we ‘ordinary users’ don’t get heard. Especially this applies to what has become known as ‘silver surfers’ meaning us users who are now retired and now beginning to get to grips with using computers for the very first time. All of the coders, engineers, and those who work in Information Technology as a whole tend to forget that we didn’t have computers at school, no one taught us how to use them, we don’t know you can ‘right click’ to find another menu list, we are of a different mindset and age where we have always used pen and paper, and full words, not all this ‘messenger speak’ that the younger end use today! (I have to often ask my grandchildren to interpret most of what they send in a messenger conversation! In fact my messages usually consist of ‘what does that mean?’) So getting back to your question about what inspires me, it’s that someone has to try and help those users in an easy to understand manner, and as it’s not all that long ago since I was in that position of not knowing anything about using a computer, it’s still all pretty fresh in my mind. Besides, they might listen more to someone who is just an ordinary user like themselves. My ‘how-to’s’ on the Clubhouse are often posted in response to someone on my Network having trouble with either the Windows Live site OR one of the desktop applications.
When Wave 3 was launched I was at my busiest, trying to do posts to help users find their friends, or find their Space etc.

mynetx: Are you working on any project related to Windows Live currently?

Technogran: Not at the moment, although it’s the ‘lull before the storm’ of course, as we all wait for the Wave 4 updates to arrive. I shall most likely be glued to the keyboard night and day when all that occurs as users post up with ‘can’t find this’ or ‘can’t find that’. I would rather do a post to help than give an answer in a forum, simply because you can illustrate the steps to take with pictures and it’s easier then for a user to follow. Also they can always print it out to follow it as well. It’s time consuming doing them, as I like to get my ‘how-to’s’ just right, and make them as easy as possible, but I love doing it and being helpful to other users on here. After all, the last thing we want is users getting so frustrated that they either don’t bother joining and using Windows Live or they just give up because it’s all too much trouble.

mynetx: Technogran, seeing Windows Live from your point of view was very interesting. Thank you for sharing this all with us!

Technogran: No problem!

You liked this interview?

Technogran and me have started a cooperation—look forward to regular rant conversations about the most recent news and happenings in the world of Windows Live!

More about Technogran

• Follow her on Twitter
• Read her Windows Live Space

mynetx: Please tell me a bit about yourself. Is your life directly or indirectly involved with Windows Live?

Lance: I go by the name of Salem. I’m 22 right now, originally from South Africa (the country, not Southern Africa); however I am currently residing in the Cambridgeshire in the UK. My life doesn’t directly involve Windows Live actually—in fact, I consider myself rather new to the whole MSN/Windows Live community.

mynetx: New? Since when are you in the Live business? Tell me a bit about your history with it…

Lance: Okay, maybe not “New”; I just see myself as new to the whole community when I compare how long some people have been involved. I first started using MSN software in 2003 when I first moved to the UK from South Africa. As can be expected, the first MSN software application I used was MSN Messenger, that’s when I first became a regular user at least. I tried a couple of times before that back in South Africa to chat to my relatives in the UK, but due to terrible internet access (high cost and unreliable) I was only ever able to sign-in twice. (OK, maybe it wasn’t a South Africa-wide internet issue, maybe just our budget ISP. [laughes])

But yeah, I really got into it in 2003. Don’t ask me what version I used, I can’t remember if it was MSN Messenger 6.2 or 6.5, but somewhere around there. I applied to take part in MSN Messenger Beta testing (thinking I’d never get in) back in, I think, 2004. To my surprise, I got in…

mynetx: Do you think the Windows Live team cares for their users’ demands? Why?

Lance: I think people (Messenger users) can be very demanding. Well, Windows Live users can, too; but I’m saying Messenger users as it is by far the most used Windows Live product. Users can be very demanding: wanting things, and expecting to get a feature, just because they ask for it. Yet again, it can be kind of frustrating when specific suggestions/demands get made over and over and over again, and they are just dismissed by the developers.

I think it is easy for the casual users to demand things and not fully understanding the behind-the-scenes work that needs to be done to satisfy that demand.

mynetx: What might be the motivation behind dismissing user’s suggestions, especially when they are made really frequently (example: tabs)?

Lance: Haha, yes, tabs was one of the suggestions I was thinking about. I honestly don’t know, but I think the most likely reason would be, as I mentioned before, the scale of the work involved in getting it to work. However, considering that even a third-party developer (like Patchou) can get it working well enough in an add-on, surely Microsoft can get it working in their own software.

mynetx: Well, the Messenger Plus! creator, Patchou, is just one person and is able to implement it…

Lance: Yes, it is certainly possible. I think of the most frequent suggestions, tabs would be one of the easiest to reliably implement (compared to something like polygamy, the ability to sign-in to multiple accounts from one client).

mynetx: Use your fantasy: how do you think Messenger will look like within the next five years? What new features could it present?

Lance: Wow, really difficult question! I would like to see Silverlight/WPF used more. I mean it is Microsoft’s own technology, yet they are not using it.

mynetx: Like in the Twitter desktop client “blu”, you mean?

Lance: I have not heard of blu myself, will need to look it up!

mynetx:

Lance: I just mean, Messenger needs a total visual overhaul. I like the different look they introduced in the first beta of the renamed Messenger (from MSN to Windows Live), the orange one. I think many people complained at first about it because it was so “different” (people don’t like changes) so Microsoft reverted back to a GUI similar to previous versions.

View Full Album

mynetx: Wasn’t Wave 3 (2009) visually overhauled enough?

Lance: Apart from the new colors etc., there is not that much difference in Windows Live Messenger from MSN Messenger 6.x. Maybe I’m wanting to much but: think of the visual overhaul from Windows 9x to Windows XP, XP to Vista, and Vista to Windows 7—big changes, not these minor “tweaks” we are getting.

mynetx: I see… Apart from the user interface, what new features could Messenger present in five years?

Lance: Well… I don’t know what it could have, but I do know some things I’d like to see. Among the top items on my wish list are (in no particular order):

1. Official Polygamy Support — The ability to sign-in to multiple Messenger accounts from one Windows Live Messenger client, and have separate statuses/personal status messages/display names/display pictures for each account.
2. Tabs (although this can be done in add-ons like Messenger Plus! Live, so not that important to me).
3. Multi-party audio (or even better, video) chats.
4. The ability to export your whole WLM Contact List including the structure (groups, categories, favorites etc.). It’s a real pain when you try and migrate to a new account, as you can now only export and import the contacts, you then have to manually re-sort them in the new account.

mynetx: True, I have recently experienced the need for that, when I changed my Live ID.

Lance: It has taken me 2 years to migrate to a new account for this very reason. I just cant resort/rearrange them all; it’s a pain.

Oh, and “Bring back the MSN video carousel in the UK”, lol.

mynetx: I have always wondered that the “Video Carousel” was in 8.5? *-)

Lance: We had it in the UK when it was introduced in Windows Live Messenger, but it did not last long. It is gone now…

In fact I don’t even know if it made it past WLM 8’s beta.

mynetx: Any bugs that need fixing?

Lance: Yes, here is a “bug” I want fixed: Try adding a Yahoo! contact to your contact list (a localized one, not Yahoo.com) as a buddy. Messenger changes it to Yahoo.com even though you enter the localized one (in my case, Yahoo.co.uk). Thus, you cant add Yahoo! Messenger users who have a localized Yahoo address to your contact list. I have requested this a number of times, still not fixed.

Suggestion No. 2: Get rid of the bloody roll-over flash ads in the contact list! (That’s not a “feature” though.)

mynetx: Interoperability with other IM networks is a great field to improve, in my opinion. Yahoo looks like “hacked” into Messenger, instead of implemented correctly…

Lance: Yes, they need to add support for other Chat / instant messaging clients / protocols: Facebook Chat (as they have a stake in Facebook), definitely Jabber support please. Jabber is an open protocol, so an agreement should not be needed. I could then dump Google Talk for chatting to my MXit contacts.

mynetx: A propos Yahoo, what is your opinion on the final deal to use the Bing engine on Yahoo! websites, after all those never-ending ramblings about a cooperation, search deal, whatsoever?

Lance: Well, Microsoft needs to do something especially in search/online advertising, as Google is way ahead in market share.

mynetx: How does Bing relate?

Lance: I have tried Bing a few times. It is definitely much better than MSN Search/Windows Live Search/Live Search (whatever the last time was, lol). It also seems to be improving Microsoft’s market share. Though, I am wondering if this is because people like it, or if people are just “trying it out” as it is new—only time will tell.

mynetx: Mentioning the word “Butterfly”, what comes into your mind?

Lance: A colorful insect that flies!

mynetx: And adding “Windows Live…”?

Lance: Ahh, lol, I knew what you meant.

mynetx: What comes into your mind? What was so special about this group of exclusive people?

Lance: The Windows Live Butterfly program/group goes way back to the MSN days (hence the groups name being “Butterfly”). It was a group of beta testers who have “excelled” in Beta testing Windows Live products. Participants of the group were chosen by Microsoft and in some cases by those who were already butterflies from testers of Windows Live (and previously MSN) products/services. The group had a private discussion “area” on the Microsoft newsgroups. That’s just one of the benefits of being a member of the group. You can think of it as something similar to the MVP program, although only for MSN/Windows Live products, and lower down the hierarchy.

mynetx: Did you like being a butterfly?

Lance: I certainly did enjoy most of my time being a butterfly. It was a really good experience, not only testing, but also socializing and getting to know those with similar interests as yourself. As with any “cyber-community”, the group had its ups and downs but generally it was a good experience. It’s a shame to see the community go!

I think also what made the community so good was the way main person who managed it as he really helped things out.

mynetx: Let’s bring out a toast on Eric Chen!

Lance: Haha indeed.

mynetx: Please provide two positive and negative comments about any outstanding Windows Live product.

Lance: Hm… I choose Windows Live Mail.

Positives: Contact list/Address book synchronized with Live Messenger—that is my main reason for choosing it over other applications.

Negative: Slow (!), especially in IMAP mail downloading; furthermore it can only synchronize/use Contact list of one Windows Live ID even if you add a different Windows Live ID as account to Live Mail.

— Look how easy it was to think of negatives, and how hard it was to think of positives: it makes Live Mail not look good at all…

mynetx: OK, thanks for these.

Let’s talk a bit about your personal customs. Do you run Windows Live Messenger 24/7? Do you have some kind of a routine with Messenger and the other parts of Windows Live?

Lance: Yes, Windows Live Messenger is on 24/7—as long a PC is on it is running and signed in. Routine? Not really. I usually check if any people I chat to often are online (Messenger Plus! Live Desktop Contacts), see if I want to talk to them. I may then open Live Mail, but as it doesn’t auto-run on startup/login nor auto-run in system tray, I have to do this manually, so I often forget. However, as these are the Windows Live applications I use most, that is usually the order I would do things.

mynetx: Comparing your ideas we talked about before (like UI enhancements, tabs, multiple accounts per endpoint, more IM networks, etc), with Messenger’s current features, which of these might be added in the next release, Wave 4?

Lance: I think more IM network interoperability may be the most likely, especially as we heard rumblings about it for this version (although unconfirmed). Like I said also, Jabber could come as it is an open standard and wouldn’t need any agreements (as with other IMs like AIM).

I’d say UI change is next—but not likely. (Again, by UI change I mean a big change, not minor tweaks/changes.) Tabs would be next, and polygamy last, as I foresee this to be more work.

mynetx: Are you satisfied with the Windows Live services that are provided to you? Why?

Lance: Mostly yes. They just satisfy my communications needs, whether it be IM, social networking or e-mail. They are things I think that can be worked on (as mentioned earlier); but yes, overall I am satisfied.

mynetx: Will Windows Live be able to fill the position as overall Windows (and Office) add-on, especially when looking at Windows 7?

Lance: I think so, it is a good suite of applications for the average computer user. I think it would be better to be just integrated with Windows, but the European Union will not be happy.

mynetx: Windows Live and Office Live, along with cloud power in behind—is this the solution? Better than legacy software?

Lance: That depends on the market, in my opinion. In markets where a decent (that is, broadband) Internet connection is easily available/accessible, it is good; but otherwise it isn’t, no. I think people in Europe/the US forget about computer users in places without broadband Internet connections, not to mention those with no Internet at all.

mynetx: So, is the gap between industry lands (high-tech nations) and economically less strong areas increasing?

Lance: I don’t know whether it is increasing, but I don’t think it’s getting smaller. Take my home country for example, South Africa. Broadband Internet (ADSL) access has only become available to the general public (that is, not business) in the last 3-4 years. Here though (in the UK), it was already very common. Now, in South Africa citizens can get a broadband connection, but at a price: for example, they pay the ISP and phone line (as we do), but they also pay a charge for the phone line to be used for broadband/ADSL. So it costs at least three times as much there, plus they still have ridiculous caps/quotas making only basic net usage possible; whereas here, we are using it for much more. Just imagine cloud computing in places like that…

mynetx: To summarize: using cloud web applications is problematic for regions where no broadband web access is available.

Lance: Exactly! I’m all for it, but I wouldn’t want everything to go “to the cloud” soon as it will leave such nations behind.

mynetx: What is your favorite feature in Messenger?

Lance: Video chat is got to be.

mynetx: Why?

Lance: Being someone that lives in a different country than family and friends he grew up with, it’s good to be able to see and hear them.

mynetx: What was your first impression of Live Mesh? Could it be a new diverse method of file sharing among peers, or could it improve the current system at hand?

Lance: I loved it as soon as I tried it, and I am using it all the time now. It is what Windows Live Messenger Sharing Folders should have been. Well, apparently Mesh is intended to be more than just a file sharing service. I’m yet to see the others though, but it makes file sharing/synchronization available to the masses, for free.

mynetx: We can expect some Mesh love in Windows Live Wave 4, as it will play an important role in the upcoming “Windows Live Devices” service. How could it be connected tighter with the other services? What might we see?

Lance: No idea actually; though, I am excited and looking forward to see what they have planned.

mynetx: Me too. I will tell you as soon as I know more details…

Lance: It looks like Wave 4 will be a better release than Wave 3 (I honestly wasn’t happy with Wave 3 at all.)

mynetx: What was wrong or missing in Wave 3, the 2008-2009 release of Windows Live?

Lance: The beta ran extremely long to me—too long for what we saw as changes. Sure, Movie Maker joined Windows Live; but apart from that and minor visual changes, there wasn’t much. I don’t know, maybe I just expected too much.

mynetx: Do you wish Messenger would have a feature that a third-party IM software already has?

Lance: Well, I don’t use any other IM apps (apart from Google Talk, which is crap considering its features; the only reason I use it is for communicating with MXit people), so I don’t really know what other IM applications offer.

mynetx: Ahh, so you are a loyal Windows Live user?

Lance: (laughes) Not loyal; there is just no real need to use anything else. Most of my contacts are on WLM or Skype, but Skype doesn’t offer anything different that I want in Messenger.

mynetx: As Messenger user, I’m sure you’ve got a good tip that not everybody might know about yet—any tweak, counsel, suggestion, whatever comes into your mind.

Lance: One good tip is allowing two WLM instances to run at the same time. It is a registry setting that needs modifying; the only thing is it won’t auto sign-in to a second account (Live ID). [Read more about this tip soon.]

mynetx: How would you summarize your overall experience with Windows Live in a brief sentence?

Lance: Windows Live services help me keep in touch and share my views/stories.

mynetx: Lance, I found it very interesting to talk with you about all of this!

Lance: I enjoyed it too; thanks for thinking of me as some to interview and for taking the time to do so.

Thanks to thirteen23 labs, Alto Voltaje Design, Bram Vandeperre, Messenger Stuff, BuddyFuse and LiveSino for the images.

Once upon a time, web servers were invented. These used to serve first static, then dynamic content to clients, to us. The basis was simple: a small group of people, the providers, created web content, while the vast majority of us were consumers, readers, downloaders—users. Web servers and clients were designed to suit just these needs.

Then, Web 2.0 came up, along with the idea of contributing to form the web. The idea behind it changed from producers and consumers to “Everybody is a contributor”; the web starts to become a huge whiteboard. Web servers and client browsers do not match the idea anymore—if everybody can be a contributor, every web browser should be able to be a web server.

This is where Opera Unite kicks in. Once Opera runs and once you are connected to Unite with your Opera ID, everybody can access the services you launch. Of course, you can define which people can access which services.

Opera Unite features

• File Sharing of any folder you choose,
• Whiteboard messaging (“Fridge”),
• Media Player streaming any music you choose from your disk,
• Photo Sharing of your newest albums,
• integrated chat room module (“The Lounge”),
• and a small Web Server for your convenience.

Opera Unite and Windows Live Wave 4—what are we going to see?

Could Opera Unite get a competition to Windows Live?

Sharing your own content easily was the goal behind Opera Unite. Sharing your content easily, and access it from anywhere—that’s the goal behind Windows Live Mesh, that will get integrated into the next release of Windows Live programs for your computer, called “Essentials”. What are the differences between Opera Unite and Windows Live Wave 4?

*) Please note: Windows Live Wave 4 is the code name of the next release that the Windows Live Team is currently working on. As it is a product in development, the information might be incomplete or erroneous and is subject to change.

mynetx: Please tell me a bit about yourself. Is your life directly or indirectly involved with Windows Live?

Kip: I’ve been writing for LiveSide for almost 3 ½ years, since it started in Jan. 2006. Before that I was a beta tester for MSN and Microsoft products, was an original “MSN Butterfly”, and a 3 time MVP for MSN and Windows Live.

I use Windows Live products daily, mostly mail and messenger, and of course Windows Live Writer.

mynetx: Do you think the Windows Live team cares for their users’ demands? Why?

Kip: I think they are as responsive as you can be when your customer base is in the hundreds of millions of users. In some respects that many users makes it more difficult to make changes, as they affect so many people in so many different ways. I do think that Windows Live could do more to be a more agile team. Both the structure of Microsoft and the sheer numbers of users contribute to… make it very difficult to react quickly to market trends.

mynetx: Like a big vehicle is slow in turning around, unlike a small car?

Kip: yes exactly. Steven Sinofsky, Senior Vice President for Windows and Windows Live Engineering, is often said to “make the trains run on time”. Problem is, when everyone has cars and has already left, waiting for the next train, even if it is on schedule, might not matter.

mynetx: Though I think that Microsoft has had its big awakening sometime 2 years ago.

Suddenly Internet Explorer development was “restarted”, and the overall Corporate Identity was renewed, and I think this has also had consequences on Windows Live.

Kip: Yes. Ray Ozzie is working hard to change the culture, but Windows Live is still to slow to react sometimes. That being said, I use Windows Live products every day, and generally like them a lot.

mynetx: If Microsoft took over Facebook, would you be using it then?

Kip: I don’t see why not. I have no problem using Microsoft products.

mynetx: How do you think Yahoo!’s future would have been affected, if the Big Deal would have happened last summer?

Kip: If anything, Yahoo! had an even worse culture for quick reaction than did Microsoft. I think the combined market share would have shaken up the market a bit, but just getting the two companies to work together as one would have been a monumental task, and I think it would have caused a lot of problems.

The new CEO at Yahoo!, Carol Bartz, is working to change their culture too.

mynetx: Within the next five years, where could you picture Windows Live?

Kip: Windows Live is going to benefit from its relationship to Windows 7. But in 5 years I doubt that there will be so much emphasis on which platform you use: are you in the MSFT camp, the Apple camp, the Google camp, etc. Within 5 years the barriers to communicating with some one because you don’t have the same Messenger client should be gone.

mynetx: How?

Kip: Mobile will be much more prevalent; smartphones, data access on phones, etc. Just like now how ridiculous it would be if a Nokia phone couldn’t call an iPhone, it will be much easier to communicate between devices than it is now.

mynetx: Please provide two positive and negative comments about any outstanding Windows Live product.

Kip: Windows Live Mail is a great product, I think. I currently have 9 email accounts loaded, including non-Hotmail accounts and even a Gmail account. It loads them all quickly, presents them handsomely, and handles calendar, contacts, and newsgroups. I struggled before with trying to get Outlook to handle multiple Hotmail accounts (although the new Outlook Connector is better), but now I don’t worry about it.

As for a negative, while I understand the thinking behind Windows Live Essentials, I think tying the updates of all the Windows Live products together was a big mistake. In the last Messenger upgrade, in order to fix a small but somewhat important bug, users had to go through the whole Essentials installer “experience”. It sucked, and it’s stopping some Windows Live products from getting updates they need because of having to update everything at once.

mynetx: Do you run Windows Live Messenger 24/7? Do you have some kind of a routine with Messenger and the other parts of Windows Live?

Kip: Messenger is on when my computer is on, yes. I have the main messenger window open all the time, positioned as a right hand sidebar (where the Vista sidebar would be, which is the first thing I turn off when I set up a computer). Messenger auto loads when the computer is turned on.

mynetx: You don’t like Sidebar?

Kip: no

mynetx: Use your fantasy: how do you think Messenger will look like within the next five years? What new features could it present?

Kip: Well hopefully a much better interface for multiple conversations (tabs!). Also I would like to see the user interface around contacts improve: a better interface than a contact list that you have to scroll down to find someone, click on it, open a window to start a conversation, etc. And you should be able to start conversations with people not in your contact list, in some public areas… similar to what you can do in Twitter now, or even in the new Messenger web toolkit.

I expect that Messenger in general will get to be more phone-like, and phones will get to be more Messenger-like.

mynetx: Comparing these ideas with Messenger’s current features, which of these might be added in the next release, Wave 4?

Kip: I think we’ll see some improvements in Contacts. Somehow I doubt we’ll see tabs, although I could be wrong. Msgr users have been calling for tabs for years without success. Mostly I think you’ll see Messenger and the other Windows Live desktop apps continue to work toward sharing a common interface, and to share common parts.

mynetx: Why is the Windows Live team just ignoring the loud shout for tabs that tons of Messenger users shout since years?

Kip: I wish I knew, but I don’t.

mynetx: Are you satisfied with the Windows Live services that are provided to you?

Kip: Yes. I use multiple Live ID accounts (to separate the work I do on LiveSide from my personal stuff), and it is very easy to manage now. We use Custom Domains for our LiveSide accounts, and it’s great. I really like Windows Live Mail, and Live Writer. Of course I think there could be improvements, but overall I’m happy.

mynetx: What is your favorite feature in Messenger?

Kip: I will tell you about one feature I really miss, and that is the Live Maps activity. It was very useful to be able to share maps, to plan meetings etc. MSN China has recently re-released a version of it in China, so hopefully we’ll see it again.

mynetx: What was your first impression of Live Mesh? Could it be a new diverse method of file sharing among peers, or could it improve the current system at hand?

Kip: I use Live Mesh daily also. I think you will see Live Mesh integrated into Windows Live, and the plan is to introduce some of that in Wave 4. Could Live Mesh become a sort of torrent? I don’t know about that, I think that architecturally maybe it could, but I doubt that Microsoft would allow it to be used as a free form file share.

mynetx: Do you wish Messenger would have a feature that a third-party IM software already has? Besides tabs, that is.

Kip: I don’t use other clients much if at all, so I’m not one to comment.

mynetx: However, as Messenger user, I’m sure you’ve got a good tip that not everybody might know about yet.

Kip: Lol, to me Messenger is like the phone, I don’t think about it much, I just use it. I sure hope photo sharing is improved in Wave 4 though, I find the new way to share photos very cumbersome.

mynetx: And finally, are you working on any project related to Windows Live currently?

Kip: Well we are hoping to be able to integrate the Messenger toolkit into LiveSide. I am not a developer, but we have someone working on it for his site (also Community Server), and we will be working together to see if we can make it happen. Unfortunately Community Server is kind of complicated, and we want the experience for our readers to be a good one, so it’s going kind of slow at the moment.

mynetx: Who works at LiveSide?

Kip: LiveSide is run by myself, Chris Overd, and Harrison Hoffman. We get regular contributions from Sunshine (Cornelia Koopmans), and have a few other contributors as well.

mynetx: LiveSide is a very good news source when you want to be on top of the latest developments and Windows Live news. I want to thank you and the other contributors for the great amount of time, knowledge and research that you put into the site each day, regardless of vacations, making LiveSide what it is today—a must-read!

Is it the same fun for you people running the site as it is for us reading it?

Kip: Yes we have a lot of fun with it

mynetx: I hope the site will continue to do its best to inform us about anything interesting in the Windows Live world. Great that you took your time to discuss “Windows Live and You” with me!

Kip: Happy to do it!

mynetx: Nice to see you! Windows Live and You—that includes some personal questions as well. You could start with describing yourself and your connection with Windows Live, in one sentence.

Jonathan Kay: I am Jonathan Kay and currently a Microsoft MVP for Windows Live Messenger (aka MSN Messenger/Windows Messenger), assisting in Microsoft Messenger related newsgroups since 2001. I also run my own Messenger blog.—Gah, two sentences!

mynetx: An MVP?

Jonathan Kay: [Microsoft] Most Valuable Professional. It’s a yearly award given to people who’ve been identified by Microsoft as making a significant contribution to their community.

mynetx: Ah. So they consider you making significant contributions to the Windows community?

Jonathan Kay: Well, Windows Live community. Prior to their being a “Windows Live” MVP category, it was all bunched in with Windows, but right now it’s separate.

mynetx: Helping other, inexperienced users to get their, for example, Messenger working is interesting work, isn’t it.

Jonathan Kay: It is, not to mention quite satisfying. You also gain a lot of knowledge and experience in other related areas by doing it.

mynetx: Since when are you in the Live business? Tell me a bit about your history.

Jonathan Kay: Well, when I got my first modem 1992-ish, text-based real-time communication attracted me pretty quickly. I spent many hours dialed up to local bulletin board systems just chatting to people in my own city. This fascination carried over to Internet Relay Chat (IRC) when I got Internet access a few years later and then gave way to what we would consider modern instant messaging with ICQ in 1996. In that time span, I met some really extraordinary people which led my interests to obtaining my first MVP award in 98 for Internet Explorer. As IM has evolved, so have I, which brought me to being given the MVP award as a top contributor in the Messenger community in 2001. This has carried on since, all the way to Windows Live Messenger and I’ve continued to meet some exceptionally brilliant people.

mynetx: Like?

Jonathan Kay: I won’t name names because it’s far too easy to forget one and the whole community is just filled with them. Yourself included naturally…

mynetx:

What is your favourite feature in Messenger?

Jonathan Kay: If you mean favourite feature of all time, that would be really difficult to answer since there’s a lot to choose from. Earlier this year, In the brief webcast that was done at the MVP Summit, I mentioned What’s New as my favourite new feature, which is still true, but I had forgotten that MPOP (Multiple Points of Presence) was also an option so I think I’ll go with that here. MPOP is a really well implemented feature and being able to seamlessly move from one client/device/location to another is just excellent. It will be even better once more software/devices support it.

mynetx: What devices are you using MPOP from?

Jonathan Kay: Myself personally, just my desktop, server or laptop. Conversations can just continue as you go off to do something else, or need to reboot one machine, it’s great. But there’s lots of other scenarios that would be very nice too that I know people are just waiting for (like Xbox for instance).

mynetx: And what do you like most in Windows Live at all?

Jonathan Kay: Obviously I need to say Messenger as it’s my “first love” as it were, but there are certainly lots of awesome products under the brand. I think what I like most about everything in general is just how everything works together. For example, if you’re logged into a Hotmail-enabled account in Messenger and the same account in Live Mail, when you receive an e-mail to that account, you’ll be notified in Messenger, Live Mail will immediately have the message ready and if you log into the Hotmail website, it will all be synchronized with the desktop application. Photo Gallery is able to make use of your existing contacts’ information and can publish photos to Live Photos or third party sites (Flickr, Facebook, etc.). There are similar functions across all the products and I’m looking forward to more of this in the future. I certainly don’t believe anyone else has offered this sort of integration story previously, especially not with third party sites and for no cost.

mynetx: True, Windows Live offers unique features—for free. However, I think there are still many good ideas for new features to be implemented into Messenger. What is one thing you’d love most to be added to Messenger?

Jonathan Kay: Oh, most definitely. I have yet to meet anyone who didn’t have their own personal Messenger feature wish list.

Personally, I’d like to see some resources allotted to revisiting and enhancing some of older well used features in Messenger. There is a lot of functionality that has remained relatively unchanged since first introduced that is really in need of updating. A lot of these—custom emoticons, message history, and other core features originally showed up in MSN Messenger 6 (circa 2003) and are really due for some upgrades. Also, because there’s no way I can limit myself to one here, I’d also like to see some options to explicitly control parts of Messenger’s interface. For instance, I would love to be able to decide who and what sign in events specifically generate a toast on my screen.

Of course, the Messenger community provides some great options for overcoming both of these today.

Oh also, I’d like to see group and multi-person functionality continue to evolve more, such as multi-person voice conversations. Okay I’ll stop now!

mynetx: Lol, seems like there is much to do. Do you think any of these will be added in Windows Live Wave 4? If so, which are most likely, in your opinion?

Jonathan Kay: Really hard to say as they’re certainly tight lipped. However I would love to be pleasantly surprised.

mynetx: On to your personal habits… Running Messenger 24/7? Maybe you’ve got kind of a daily routine with Windows Live.

Jonathan Kay: For the most part I leave Messenger running all the time. I have no specific routine, but I certainly make use of a variety of the Live services every day (Messenger, Mail, Spaces, and so on).

mynetx: When you’re using Messenger intensively, I’m sure you’ve got a breaking tip for an “aha” effect. Give me a tip you consider precious

Jonathan Kay: Let’s see, there’s probably better ones, but one unobvious thing is you can drag (the icon of) completed files in the conversation window elsewhere to your desktop, to other conversation windows to resend, or to another application, such as a music player’s playlist to queue up a just transferred song.

mynetx: Hey, great tip! Didn’t know that myself either.

And finally, are you currently working on any Live-related project?

Jonathan Kay: I have a few ideas rattling around in my brain, but I’m not working on anything specifically that’s Live-related presently.

mynetx: Fine! Your last small project you made with PatchWise, was a good idea as well. Did you start right away on the tool for preventing automatic PhotoShare in Messenger, when you read about the patch?

Jonathan Kay: Well I checked to see if someone else had done made anything yet, and they hadn’t, so I thought I would make it easy for everyone.

mynetx: And you did! What download counter do you currently have?

Jonathan Kay: I just let the data accumulate in web logs and use a PowerShell script to extract and do the sum calculations. I haven’t felt the need to do much more than that, as the real reason for my redirect links is just so I can easily move it to another hosting location if I needed to.

mynetx: True… Have anything else to tell my readers?

Jonathan Kay: Yes, if they’ve made it this far, then I appreciate their time going through all this and hopefully it was at least somewhat interesting. And thank you for the opportunity to be on here.

mynetx: No problem—thank you for taking the time to talk with me about Windows Live and You!

Jonathan Kay: You’re very welcome

mynetx: Nice that I may talk with you a bit about Windows Live and You. Would you mind introducing yourself and your Windows Live relation in one sentence?

Siebe: I’m Siebe Tolsma, and I work as a Software Development Engineer at Microsoft in Canada. I’m with the Windows Live Platform team, who ship the Windows Live Messenger Web Toolkit

mynetx: What’s that?

Siebe: It’s a toolkit which helps developers add Messenger functionality to their own websites. It consists of two parts — The first is a set of fully skinnable UI controls. The second is a javascript library that can be used to build similar functionality from the ground up.

mynetx: Ah – like custom Messengers running from the Web?

Siebe: Yes, exactly. Developers can add Messenger to their website, so their visitors can now interact with their buddies right from the web… and of course bring new visitors to your website that way.

mynetx: Competition to traditional Web Messengers, like eBuddy or Meebo, in your opinion?

Siebe: No, I think of it more of a way to provide additional functionality to developers, whereas Meebo and eBuddy only have the core web messenger functionality. For example, with our toolkit, you can very quickly and easily set up some controls and code to enable sharing of content between the visitors of your website and their buddies. I like to think of our toolkit as web messenger plus the cool and exciting features of your own website.

mynetx: Your job in the Windows Live Platform team must be a great one, true?

Siebe: Absolutely, I get to work with some very smart people and develop great new products for Windows Live. Being on top of the latest and greatest web stuff is a great way to spend my day It’s a dream come true, haha.

mynetx: . By the way, since when are you in the Live business? Tell me a bit about your history and how you came to that job.

Siebe: Ah, it’s a bit of a long story, but interesting nevertheless. Back in 2003 (I think it was), I started a new bot (or Windows Live Agent, as they are called now) called BOT2K3. For those who don’t remember or don’t know it, it was a bot you could add to your contact list and play games with and so on.

From there I got to know a lot of people from the Windows Live (and MSN) community, and eventually a few people from Microsoft. After a few informal meet-ups with them and a few others from the community, I was invited to submit my resumé to do an internship in Redmond. Eventually I did two internships and ended up here in Canada as a full-time employee.

mynetx: I start understanding your dream came true, lol. When I first got to know you a bit, that was when I read some news on mess.be and noticed that they had been brought to them by “Inky”

Siebe: Yes! During those days I was known under the nickname Inky. I got to know Dwergs and I did some news posts for his popular news website Mess.be.

mynetx: As an MS worker in the Live team, are you running Messenger 24/7? Maybe you’ve got kind of a daily routine with Windows Live.

Siebe: Yeah, my life pretty much revolves around Messenger. I love the new MPOP feature (signing on at work and at home). I talk to my friends and parents back home on Messenger, as well as the rest of my team. Being up in Canada away from my manager and the rest of my team is a bit of a challenge, but using Messenger all day to communicate makes things a lot easier

The first thing I do every day is check any IMs I got overnight, and last thing is usually saying good night to all the rest of my friends across the globe.

mynetx: What is your favorite feature in Messenger?

Siebe: There’s so many to chose from! But if I had to pick, it would be the categories and groups in the contact list and MPOP as a close second.

mynetx: Why?

Siebe: Being able to sort and categories all my contacts is very important to me, even when there is a search feature. I have gotten so many contacts over the years. Being able to sort them out helps me remember where I know them from

As for MPOP, it is very useful to be able to read back things I said during the day when I get home in the evening.. And now I can just leave my computer signed in all day

mynetx: May I ask how many categories you have?

Siebe: I have about 12 categories with about 150 online contacts (plus a similar amount of offline contacts).

mynetx: Hmhmm. Not many for a Softie, hm?

Siebe: Haha, perhaps not. But I think it’s more than enough

mynetx: And how many Live IDs do you run?

Siebe: I currently only actively use two Live IDs — One for Messenger, and one for my XBOX and Zune (which is tied to a single country).

mynetx: Ahh. Looking at the rest of the Windows Live bubble, what do you like most in Windows Live at all?

Siebe: Well, Messenger obviously, haha. But aside from that, I think Writer and Mail are great products. I also use Spaces, but I feel that it could use some work

mynetx: When you’re using Messenger intensively, I’m sure you’ve got a breaking tip for an “aha” effect. Give me a tip you consider precious

Siebe: I really like being able to drag new pictures onto the “me area” to update my display picture. It saves a lot of time rummaging around in the various dialogs.

mynetx: What is the thing you’d love most to be added to Messenger?

Siebe: A few minor things at this point. First would be “inline chat”, quickly sending messages from the contact list itself. Second is better mark-up support (similar to what Messenger Plus! already does) and finally the ability to disable Photo Sharing without regedit hacks

mynetx: Are you using Messenger Plus!, by the way?

Siebe: No, I don’t.

mynetx: Do you think the features you mentioned, will be added in Windows Live Wave 4?

Siebe: I can’t really say. Planning is underway, but I think we’ll all have to be patient and see what cool stuff the client team comes up with this time around

mynetx: Are we going to see any interesting changes or additions to the Web Toolkit? I can’t wait to see…

Siebe: Definitely! We will be releasing an update very shortly with a bunch of fixes and support for IE6. [Editor's Note: This update has been released on 30 April 2009.] In the near future we’re going to add localization, and for our next major release we plan on adding a bunch of new and exciting features!

mynetx: Like?

Siebe: Haha, I don’t want to spoil the surprise

mynetx: Not even a small hint? (A)

Siebe: Okay, but a really small one: Flexibility. Make of it what you want (-;

mynetx: And finally, what’s the Live-related project you’re currently working on?

Siebe: Outside of work you mean, or?

mynetx: Yes!

Siebe: Haha, um, currently I (unfortunately) don’t really have a project going on.. But I hope to come up with some crazy new cool idea soon

mynetx: Okay, be sure to ping me then…

Siebe: Certainly will do.

mynetx: Anyways, thanks that you took these minutes to discuss Windows Live and You with me!

Siebe: No problem, I’m looking forward to the remaining interviews you have in store for us

Recently Microsoft came out with the new Windows Live Groups, and I have found a similar service to compare with it from http://groups.im/. Both of them are used by people all around the world and both came out to the market at 2008, Groups.im is a third party platform for group chat. There are differences and some similarities in both of them.Windows Live Groups support up to 48 different languages, Groups.im has only 8 different language packs. Groups.im have a great advantage, which is being able to work with various instant messengers, but the Windows Live Groups only run with Windows Live Messenger. So the advantage of Groups.im is that it will support all mainstream instant messengers on the market, so far it allows users to sign up with their Windows Live ID or Yahoo account for free and soon most of other instant messengers like Google Talk, AIM, ICQ, etc. will also be able to sign in with their account and use the service for free.

Groups.im allows a revolutionary new chat experience. It will have the ability to let people chat through the platform and actually have a boundary-less communication between different instant messengers.

• Das Design wurde auf Wave 3 aktualisiert.
  

  

• Das Design der Benachrichtigungen wurde geändert. Sie nutzen jetzt Direct3D 9.
  
• Die Einträge in Was gibt’s Neues-Feeds sind nun ordentlich verlinkt.
  
• Es gibt eine Reihe neue Szenenbilder, und auch einige neue Standard-Anzeigebilder.
  
• Du wirst nun benachrichtigt, wenn jemand mit dir vom Web aus anonym redet.
  
• Du kannst die Informationsleiste im Unterhaltungsfenster nun schließen, die dich über den Status deines Kontakts informiert (siehe das Schließen-Kreuz “x” oben im Bild).
• Die Benachrichtigung über eingegebene Nachrichten hat sich leicht geändert.
  
• Gruppen werden nun ordentlich in einer Kategorie “Gruppen” einsortiert, selbst wenn die Kontaktliste unter Vista nach Kategorien sortiert ist.
  
• Individuelle Anmeldesounds wurden entfernt.
• Gruppen zeigen Benachrichtigungen, wenn jemand kommt oder geht.
  
• Die Funktion PhotoShare erlaubt nun das Übertragen und Speichern des unkomprimierten Originalbilds.
  

Du hast etwas anderes Geändertes gefunden, das ich noch nicht aufgeführt habe? Du hasst oder liebst eine Änderung? Schreib doch einen Kommentar!

Today we’ve started releasing the first set of updates to our web services, and these will continue to roll out globally over the next 24 hours – including a new version of Windows Live Home, Spaces, Events, and SkyDrive, as well as completely new web services such as Windows Live Groups, Photos, and Profile.

Here’s a summary about the team’s thoughts.

New header for Windows Live

Our goal is to keep this consistent, so you can always find your way around easily. It includes links to all of your Windows Live services, links to great news, stories, videos, and content with MSN, a place to quickly search the web using Live Search, and the sign-in area, in the top-right corner, where you can quickly access your Windows Live account information.

New Windows Live Home

The new home page is the place to start your web browsing. It provides a simple dashboard for all of your communication and sharing activities. At the top, you can see your e-mail, local weather, any private messages that people have left for you, people you might want to add to your network, and upcoming appointments or birthdays. You can customize this area with rich themes – some of which are dynamic and change depending on the time of the day or the weather.

Windows Live Photos

The first thing you’ll notice when you start sharing a photo album is the new storage limit – 25 GB! With the way digital cameras have been growing in megapixels, we wanted to make sure you had tons of room to save and share plenty of high-resolution photos.

Windows Live Profile

The most prominent feature of the new profile is the “What’s new” list, which shows all of your own recent activities on Windows Live — this is the same information that people in your network will see about you in the “What’s new” list on the home page. […]

You can also add web activities from outside of Windows Live. This includes things like publishing updates on Twitter, adding photos to Flickr, or writing reviews on Yelp. And as you may suspect, we have many more partner updates and additions to come!

Windows Live Groups

Like individual people, groups on Windows Live have their own “What’s new” list that lets everyone know what’s been happening lately with the group.

Windows Live Spaces

• Removal of the banner ad that used to be at the top – we found that our users dislike having ads on their personal blogs and that this advertising didn’t perform particularly well for advertisers either.
• New default themes, fonts, colors, and other design elements that are now more readable and appealing, and consistent with similar changes elsewhere on Windows Live.

Windows Live Events

The new interface is based on feedback from customers like you, along with design changes that we’ve made across all of Windows Live. We’ve also added new themes and made it easier to share photos with anyone invited to your event. So after the party, all your guests can easily upload their pictures and share them with the entire party.

Windows Live SkyDrive

Beyond the storage increases, SkyDrive also has:

• An updated and enhanced design, including rich photo sharing.
• An improved file upload experience, so it’s easier for you to move files from your PC to SkyDrive.
• Flexible controls on who can access your files on SkyDrive – so you can change the permissions on a folder to private, when you want to store files just for yourself, share it with some of your contacts, or make it public, for files you want to share with the entire world.

Read the complete story at Windows Live Wire.

Update: Numerous sources confirm that the Web Services (not the Clients) will roll out from December 1st until December 8th, 2008.

What does this Wave 3 phase 3 feature?

• Applications (“Windows Live Essentials”): Full release
• Services: All released, except Windows Live Hotmail and Windows Live Calendar

Microsoft has announced details on the future, the new, Windows Live, and I am bringing them to you like I promised.

Over the coming weeks, the next generation of Windows Live will become available at www.windowslive.com. The new Windows Live experience is enhanced by Microsoft partners with feeds from third-party sites that help you stay up to date on what’s new with friends and family, and see information from other online services such as Flickr, Pandora, Photobucket, Twitter,WordPress and Yelp. Refer downwards to get some details on this.

The Windows Live Web services and applications for the PC are now called Windows Live Essentials. Also Windows Live for mobile will get a revamp.

Windows Live Web services

• Windows Live Hotmail
  • Integration of “What’s New” feed
    After you send an e-mail to a friend, Windows Live displays a page confirming that the e-mail has been sent. If the friend is part of your Windows Live network, you will also see a concise update of the friend’s online activity, on both Windows Live and third-party services.
  • POP access
    You can access your Windows Live Hotmail inbox while offline using Windows Live Mail or Outlook with POP access. Anyone can use just about any e-mail application, whether it is from Microsoft or not.
  • POP aggregation
    This feature offers one place for your e-mail. With POP access in Windows Live Hotmail, any non-Hotmail e-mail account that is POP-enabled (such as Yahoo! Mail Plus, Gmail and AOL) can be imported into Hotmail for convenient, one-stop access. There are options to see all e-mail in one inbox or have each account filtered into a separate folder that users specify and label.
  • Instant Access
    Instant Access is a tool for quickly finding and embedding Web images, restaurant reviews, maps, directions, movie times and more into e-mail messages — without having to leave the compose e-mail page.
  • Instant messaging in Windows Live Hotmail
    The Windows Live Messenger instant messaging service can be used to send and receive instant messages from the Hotmail inbox.
• Windows Live Photos
  The home to your photos on the Web is at http://photos.live.com. You can create Web slide shows and share photos through Windows Live Hotmail, Windows Live Groups, Windows Live Events, Windows Live FrameIt and Windows Live Spaces. You can even see all your photos from Windows Live Photos on most Web-enabled cell phones. Windows Live Photos includes several tools and features such as these:
  • People tagging
    You can identify and tag people in your photos, and see other photos that they are tagged in.
  • Commenting
    You can add comments to photos and see comments friends make.
  • “What’s New” feed
    You can monitor the photos that people in your network post on Windows Live.
  • Shared albums
    You can create albums on Windows Live Groups and give friends permission to add photos, tag them, and collaborate to create a shared album that combines the best photos from all group members.

  

• Windows Live SkyDrive
  Conveniently access all your files with the increased ease and storage capacity from Windows Live SkyDrive, now offering 25GB of online storage and tighter integration with other Windows Live services.
  

  

• Windows Live Profile
  Broadcast key information about yourself from Windows Live and more than 50 partner sites to your Windows Live network. Anything that you do on Windows Live or on select third-party services is automatically reflected on your profile as well as throughout most other services in Windows Live — if you choose to share with your network. You are in control to broadcast your activities to the world, share only with some friends and family, or share with no one at all. The Profile page is also the place to invite your existing friends and contacts from your favorite third-party services, such as LinkedIn, to Windows Live so that they can see your latest updates. You can also choose to publish your activity on more than 50 sites into your Windows Live feed, to allow your network to see updates from all your online activities in a single place.
• Windows Live People
  The People page is for storage and management of your Windows Live contacts. It’s a central address book that contains your contacts from Windows Live Hotmail as well as all the people in your Windows Live network (Windows Live Spaces and Messenger contacts). With Windows Live People, you can invite your contacts from third-party services such as LinkedIn (and more services will be added over time), organize contacts into categories, and assign permissions that put you in control of what your contacts can see about you online. The People page is accessible everywhere in Windows Live through the header, so you can add, invite, follow or connect with your contacts wherever you are in Windows Live. You can also chat with your IM contacts directly from the page with Windows Live Messenger for the Web.
• Windows Live Spaces
  With the newest version, Microsoft has focused on improving the experience by making the fonts easier to read, removing advertisements and generally improving the user interface.
• Windows Live Sync
  Formerly known as Windows Live FolderShare, the new Windows Live Sync enables you to keep your files and folders synchronized across PCs and Macs. The new features include Windows Live ID integration for a unified sign-on experience and functional enhancements such as Recycle Bin integration for easy file recovery and Unicode support for working with files from an even broader range of formats.

Windows Live Essentials

• Windows Live Messenger
  There are some fresh images about the new Messenger. Look here:
  

  <a href="http://video.msn.com/video.aspx?vid=c1b27998-9f2a-4795-8f87-c034ca04a963" target="_new" title="Windows Live Messenger">Video: Windows Live Messenger</a>

Windows Live for mobile

• Windows Live Hotmail for mobile
  Some of the new features, scheduled for release in early 2009, follow:
  • Mail search
    Ability to search within your e-mail
  • Rich e-mail
    HTML rendering of e-mail, including embedded images and links
• Windows Live Messenger for mobile
  Web-, client- and SMS-based IM from your mobile device
• Windows Live Photos for mobile
  Web-based photo viewing, upload and sharing. Client-based photo upload.
• Windows Live Profile for mobile
  It offers Web-based access to view and update your information and connect with others.
• Windows Live People for mobile
  Integrated contacts in mobile phone address book for supported devices. Web-based hub to access contacts. SMS-based search for contact info.
• Contact search
  Search for contacts in your contact list using your phone’s Web browser.
• Get Contact Information
  Send SMS to a Windows Live SMS shortcode to look up a contact’s information (coming early 2009).
• Windows Live Spaces for mobile
  Web-based access to personal Web page and blogging
• Windows Live Calendar for mobile
  SMS-based access to today’s and tomorrow’s appointments
• Get calendar
  Send SMS with “today” or “tomorrow” to a Windows Live SMS shortcode and get your calendar for the day (coming early 2009).

<a href="http://video.msn.com/?mkt=en-US&#038;playlist=videoByUuids:uuids:ed82b0bc-81a1-417e-8db6-cedad0d078b9&#038;showPlaylist=true&#038;from=msnvideo" target="_new" title="Windows Live">Video: Windows Live</a>

Images, Videos: LiveSide.net, Windows Live Wire

What is new/changed?

• Completely compatible with Messenger 2009

  The times when only 10% of Plus! were working with WLM2009, the times when you had to use dodgy tricks to get it plugged in at all are over. We got all features, including skins, and all interfaces – just what you were used to have in older versions of Messenger. Of course, Plus! 4.79 is also compatible with Messenger 8.5 and 8.1 (compatibility for the December 2007 build of 9.0 was removed as its users are anyways forced to update to the most recent beta these days).

  You might ask…

  “How to remove those dodgy Window frames on the contact list and chat windows? I liked the integrated style more, like 8.5 was…”

  There is no option in the Messenger Plus! preferences to revert the windows to the old style. However, skins do have the possibility to define window shapes. As soon as you apply a skin doing exactly this, Plus! will take care of the rest and remove the Aero frames properly.

  “Where is the Plus! button? I can only find 3 buttons in the toolbar.”

  Click the top toolbar expander to show the main toolbar. On its right side, next to the colorize icon, you will also find the Messenger Plus! icon. The rest of the Plus! icons are, as usual, in the formatting toolbar.

  “I would like to revert my contact list and/or chat window design to what it was like in Live Messenger 8.5.”

  Well, as the change of the user interface is a design change, there is not an option in the Plus! preferences. Nevertheless, you might consider using a skin to reconstruct the contact list and/or chat window. There is the technical possibility to create such a skin, and we will have to see who is the first to take the chance.

• Support for Groups

  Maybe you already noticed that the formerly called groups have been renamed to categories, making place for a new, more powerful feature: the Groups. Messenger Plus! 4.79 fully supports them, while displaying an appropriate icon on the tabbed chats bar and logging the contents in its own chat log file for each group.

• Enhanced display picture support

  Notifications about contact events, also known as toasts, now support the contact’s display picture. Furthermore, the Contact Info window as well as the notifications, support animated display pictures (GIF format) instead of only showing the first frame of the picture.

• Other improvements

  More new and changed things in Messenger Plus! 4.79 are not visible to the “normal” user. These include:

  • Enhanced copy/paste function lets Messenger handle images.
  • Skins: New element named “FrameCount” has been added to picture’s Metadata, allowing better animations.
  • When chatting with more than 2 people, the size of the header in chat logs is now reduced.
  • The Repair Wizard now ensures that the files in the Scripts and Skins directory have the proper security attributes.
  • Contacts from Yahoo! Messenger are now handled better by Messenger Plus!.
  • The Resource Extractor has been improved for Messenger 9.

You can read the complete Changelog for Messenger Plus! 4.79 on the Official Website.

Where can I download Messenger Plus! Live 4.79?

Plus! 4.79 is available for free download in 22 languages. Try one of the following locations:

• Download Messenger Plus! Live 4.79 (official download site), mirrored and load-balanced (4.7 MB)
• Download mirror by mynetx

Be sure to check out what additional downloads are available:

• Scripts to add even more, even specific, functions to your Messenger
• Skins, including anything from just a slight UI change up to a completely renovated Messenger look. Make sure the skin you download is compatible with your Messenger version; each download has compatibility info texts attached.

I have problems installing or using Plus! 4.79. How to solve them?

Probably it is the best to browse the Official community forums, located at www.msghelp.net. You are almost sure to get immediate help, usually within minutes, with any problem you might have. These forums are your best source for information and solutions concerning your Messenger and Plus!. And if you don’t find an answer to your problems: feel free to add me to your contact list and I will see if we find a solution together.

Have fun chatting in a whole new way!