Windows Live Wire: New features/ new products

Changes to Windows Live Spaces

Fri, 28 Mar 2008 00:49:31 GMT

The folks who work on Windows Live Spaces just announced some new feature updates, generated by feedback from people like you who have sent in comments. Here's what they had to say:

Your feedback = Changes to Windows Live Spaces

First, thanks again for all of your feedback. There's nothing like receiving comments and ideas directly from some of our 115 million monthly Spaces users worldwide.
Based on what we've heard from you, here's the latest round of changes we've made:

You now have the ability to remove updates from specific people in the what's new area of your Spaces home page.

At the bottom of your (signed-in) Spaces home page, you now have an “Options” link.

Clicking “Options” will take you to a “What’s new Options” page where you can choose who of your Spaces friends and Messenger contacts show up on your home page.

We've added back your list descriptions for all lists when they are displayed in the narrow column
The font for custom lists is no longer bold by default
We changed the Sponsored Results module to reflect the transition of our partnership with Kanoodle
We've made some additional smaller changes which you won’t see but which will further improve the Spaces service

We hope you enjoy these changes. As always, keep the feedback coming. We are listening.
- Chris
Product Manager, Windows Live

Technorati Tags: Windows Live Spaces,Windows Live

Check out the SpaceCraft blog for more news about Spaces.

FolderShare - new beta, new blog!

Mon, 10 Mar 2008 20:52:28 GMT

The Windows Live FolderShare team launched a new beta today, along with a new blog. Here's what their first blog entry has to say:

Introducing the new FolderShare!

Hello, and welcome to the blog for Windows Live FolderShare. It's a big day for us here at Windows Live HQ, and not just because we’re launching this new blog. We also have updated FolderShare, and published an all-new FolderShare website…at last!

Today we're unveiling:

• A new website designed to makes managing your FolderShare libraries and computers even easier.
• A new FolderShare with a better setup, a better system tray menu, and better performance on Windows Vista.
• Improvements on the backend to keep FolderShare running more smoothly and reliably.

(And of course, it's still free.)
To all the users who already have fallen in love with FolderShare, we thank you! We hope all the new users equally enjoy the features FolderShare has to offer: syncing files across your computers; sharing files with friends and family; and accessing your files from anywhere on the Internet.
We’re proud of this release, and we really hope you like it. So without further ado, check out the new website, install the new FolderShare, and let us know what you think!
- The FolderShare Team

New tools for web developers

Thu, 28 Feb 2008 16:01:58 GMT

The Windows Live platform services team is releasing several updated tools and APIs today that will help web developers and Windows Live partners create new communication and sharing tools for their customers. These include the new Windows Live Messenger Library beta, an updated Windows Live Contacts API beta and other tools and APIs, all available from http://dev.live.com.

Get all the details from David Treadwell on Windows Live Dev News.

Technorati Tags: Windows Live,APIs,developers,betas

Windows Live Calendar beta goes public

Wed, 07 Nov 2007 02:06:43 GMT

Some of you have been speculating about this for months, and finally I’m allowed to tell you about it! The Windows Live Calendar beta is now live and available to the public.*

You can enroll in the new Windows Live Calendar beta by going to http://calendar.live.com, and signing in with a Windows Live ID.

What’s new?

What does Windows Live Calendar beta have that you didn’t see in the old MSN Calendar? Some of the changes may look subtle at first, but behind the scenes, a lot has changed. For one thing, it uses AJAX, a cool technology that lets you do stuff like drag and drop things on the page, or right-click for quick options. And the platform that the new Calendar runs on is completely new, which allows it to integrate better with other programs and devices (like your mobile phone).

Easier ways to organize your time

You can add an event in seconds--just click a date and start typing.
Lunch date changed? Drag it to a new spot on the calendar.
Print your calendar using the easy-to-read Agenda view.

Share your calendar (or not)

You can keep multiple calendars. Have one for your private use, one to share with family, and another to share with friends. You decide who sees what.
View several calendars together. You can color-code them, so when you have a different calendar for each family member, it’s easy to see who is going where, when.

Get reminders when and where you need them

Get calendar reminders via text message, e-mail, or Messenger.
Use RSS feeds to get information from your calendar automatically sent to Microsoft Office Outlook, or to an RSS reader.
Import schedules from a sports team or community group directly into your calendar.

You can learn more about the new release on the Windows Live Hotmail blog. Try out the new calendar and let us know what you think!

Antonia B.
Windows Live team

* For now, this beta release is available only to customers in the United States, United Kingdom, Japan, China, India, France, Germany, Spain, and Russia. We’ll let you know when it expands to other regions.

Technorati Tags: Windows Live,calendar,betas,Hotmail

Get ready for the next generation of Windows Live

Thu, 01 Nov 2007 00:01:03 GMT

We’re rolling out the next generation of Windows Live products and services and want to let you know about a few more of the cool new features you can try.

Today I’ll talk about some features that have been recently released, but keep in mind that there is lots more coming out VERY SOON!

To download and try more new stuff (some of it still in beta), go to http://get.live.com/wl/all.

Get connected on the new Spaces home page

Without downloading a thing, you can already see lots of new features when you sign in to Windows Live Spaces.

The new Spaces home page now helps you stay even more connected with your Spaces friends and Messenger contacts. Whenever you sign in to Spaces, you’ll see at a glance when your friends and contacts add new photos, blog entries, friends, lists, or SkyDrive files to their space. You'll also see upcoming birthdays, how many people have visited your space, and new comments.

Share high-resolution photos using Photo Gallery, Spaces--even Facebook!

Windows Live Photo Gallery beta makes it super easy to organize and edit your photos, and then share them on Windows Live Spaces. Now there’s also a link to share photos from your space on Facebook.

But one of the most exciting new additions to Spaces is the ability to upload high-resolution photos–which means your friends and family can watch full-screen slide shows, download your pictures, or download entire albums. There’s even a link to instantly order prints.

Of course, only people you’ve given permission to can view your pictures. And now you can set different permissions for different albums.

Send vacation auto-replies in Hotmail

Next time you go on vacation, you can set Hotmail to automatically reply to e-mail that comes in while you’re gone.

That way, nobody will think you’re ignoring them. And you’ll look organized. But if you don’t want everyone to know you’re away, you can have the auto-replies sent only to people in your contact list. It’ll make your vacation more relaxing!

To compose your reply mail, go to Options, click More options, and then click Send automated vacation replies.

More ways to access your Hotmail

Because one size doesn’t always fit all, now there are more ways to check your mail:

On the web at www.hotmail.com or mail.live.com.
Using our free downloadable program, Windows Live Mail beta, where you can manage multiple e-mail accounts in one place.
Using Outlook Connector to get your Hotmail in Microsoft Office Outlook.
On your mobile device. Find out more about Windows Live for your mobile device here.

Access Hotmail using POP3

If you’re a Hotmail Plus subscriber, you can also now access your Hotmail using a POP3 e-mail program such as Thunderbird, iPhone, or other mobile devices. This feature is currently available to:

Hotmail Plus subscribers
Members of the @Edu program
Users of our ISP partner e-mail programs such as Qwest and Verizon

Learn more about it on the Hotmail blog.

Link your Windows Live IDs

Lots of you requested this one, so we made it happen. If you have multiple Windows Live IDs, you can now link them for easier switching between accounts. Sign in once for all accounts, and quickly access information for any of your accounts. To link your IDs, go to https://account.live.com.

As always, let us know what you think!

- The Windows Live team

Windows Live Photo Gallery will soon work with Flickr

Thu, 18 Oct 2007 13:44:18 GMT

Over the next few days, Microsoft Update will be delivering an update to Windows Live Photo Gallery (2.2), with several improvements prompted by feedback from you (thanks, and keep those comments coming!).

Of the changes in this version, the most exciting is the new feature allowing you to publish your photos directly to a Flickr™ account. Just click the Publish menu, and then click Publish on Flickr. While we think Spaces is more fun to use than Flickr because of all the great sharing and customization features (such as event planning!), we think that Flickr users will find our editing and panoramic photo features fun and useful too.

If you have already installed Photo Gallery beta, you’ll eventually receive a notification from Microsoft Update that there is a critical update for Windows Live Photo Gallery, and you will get the update from there. Please bear with us; this is being rolled out over a period of several days, so you may not see it right away. If you have automatic updates disabled, you will need to go to Microsoft Update (http://update.microsoft.com) to get the latest Beta 2.2 version.

If you want to try Windows Live Photo Gallery beta for the first time today, download it from here, and then check Microsoft Update to ensure you get the latest Beta 2.2 version with all of the new functionality announced today!

Read more about this release of Windows Live Photo Gallery beta on the Microsoft Photo Blog.

Brad W.
Windows Live team

Technorati Tags: Windows Live , Photo Gallery , updates , Flickr

Home page changes

Tue, 16 Oct 2007 00:53:31 GMT

As you probably know by now, Windows Live Home is the central page for Windows Live on the Web. It provides an easy jumping-off point to all your Windows Live web services and gives you at-a-glance status for some of them. On the Home page, you can quickly check for new e-mail, new comments on your blog, or updates from your Spaces friends without having to go to each of those pages.

Today we’ve released a new version of the Windows Live Home page. We've taken off the "beta" tags, which means we're no longer just testing this page out--it's here to stay.

Here are some of the cool additions you’ll see starting today:

Personalized page: You asked for it, you got it! A direct link to your Live.com personalized page, where you can add gadgets and RSS feeds to see the latest content that YOU want to see.
Events: Our new event-planning service, Windows Live Events, now has a link on the Home page, too. Use it to help plan your next holiday party or night on the town. Read more about the Events service here.
Family Safety: If you use Family Safety to help keep your kids safer online, now you can easily access their latest activities with a direct link from the Home page.
Friends’ updates: Now you can see more specific info about your Spaces friends, like who they’ve become friends with, and what photos they’ve added recently.
Free downloads: You can get the latest Windows Live software including Messenger, Mail, Photo Gallery, Toolbar, Family Safety, and Writer from the “More Windows Live services” link on the right side of the Home page. Install just one, or get them all.

You probably already know that you can get to your space from Windows Live Home. Make sure you do that today. As we mentioned in our last blog post, Spaces has just released a bunch of new features, including improved photo sharing, more info about your friends, and easier navigation. Want to know more? Check out the long list of great new features on the Space Craft blog.

Antonia B.
Windows Live team

Technorati Tags: Windows Live , Spaces , Events , social network , Home , Family Safety

Plan your party, soiree, or casual gathering using Windows Live Events

Fri, 12 Oct 2007 07:00:14 GMT

Just in time to help you plan a Halloween party or your next holiday gathering, Windows Live Events went live today!

Whether you’re meeting friends for drinks downtown, getting together for a football game, or hosting a formal soiree, Windows Live Events makes it easy to organize just about any kind of gathering. With Events, you can quickly create a customized event website and send e-mail invitations to all your friends. There are more than 100 great templates that make it easy to add colors, fonts, and background images to your site.

Once the invites are out, you and your guests will come back to see who is coming, what they can bring, and how to get to the party.

But I think the coolest thing about Events is that you can use it as an online scrapbook for memories of the event. Your guests can go to the website before and after the party to post comments, tell stories, and share photos. Typically I’m too busy serving snacks or making drinks to remember to take photos at my own party, so the photo-sharing part of Events is great for me. Read more about Windows Live Events on the Space Craft blog.

Events is one in a series of new and updated Windows Live services rolling out between now and the end of this year.

Windows Live Spaces also released several new features today, including improved photo sharing and a new Spaces home page. For more details on the many other improvements just added to Spaces, check out the Space Craft blog.

Keep watching Windows Live Wire for more info on all the Windows Live updates as they come out. And remember to try out Windows Live Events when planning your next get-together!

Kirsten B.
Windows Live team

Technorati Tags: Spaces , Windows Live , Events , invitations , social network

Windows Live header redesign

Thu, 27 Sep 2007 00:29:09 GMT

If you use Windows Live, you may have noticed some recent changes to the header shown at the top of each page (if not, look at the top of this page). Indeed, we’ve completely redesigned the header. From now through the end of October, we will gradually roll out this new “Wave 2” header on all the Windows Live sites. You may not realize it at first glance, but we’ve actually doubled the number of features in the header!

Here’s a little bit of info about the changes.

Faster
We’ve done a ton of work to speed up the time it takes to download the header. As a result, the new header loads about 6 times faster than the old version, which means whichever page you’re trying to view on Windows Live loads faster too.

Smaller
Much as I might prefer otherwise, I know you don’t come to Windows Live to look at the header. With that in mind, we made the header about half as tall as before, leaving you more space for the content you came to see.

Easier to navigate
Perhaps the most obvious additions are the new Home, Hotmail, Spaces, and OneCare buttons. These links provide quick access to some of our most popular web services. They help you discover new services you might not be familiar with, and make it super easy to find them again later. (The Home button provides a link to the new Windows Live Home page, a great place to see the status of all your services at once, so you know when there’s anything new to check out.)

Better search
We’ve added support for site-specific searching within any Windows Live service. You already had the ability to search your own mailbox from within Hotmail. We’ve taken that concept and made it available no matter which Windows Live service you’re using. If you’re in Spaces, for example, you can now search for content on other blogs within Spaces, or anywhere on the Web.

Easier to use
We also made numerous subtle design changes for ease of use. These include changing the Windows Live button and menu interactions to work more like the Office 2007 button and menu; updating the design to look and feel more like Windows Vista; and making sure that top-level tasks like navigation, search, and sign-in are always just a click or two away.

More consistent
The previous version of the header wasn’t always consistent across services. This made it more difficult to get oriented as you moved from one service to another. Over the next few weeks, you’ll see a single new header become the standard across all of Windows Live.

So that’s the new header! Of course, there are always more ways to improve, and we’d love to hear what you have to say about it. Please let us know what you think!

Jesse Lim
Program Manager
Windows Live Team

Technorati Tags: header , Windows Live , navigation , redesign , Microsoft

Test drive the new Windows Live suite

Wed, 05 Sep 2007 16:01:22 GMT

You’ve probably already read about some changes we’re making to Windows Live, and have seen some of your services change over the past few weeks. Starting now, you can test out the new suite of Windows Live software at http://get.live.com/wl/all.

Windows Live makes it easy to store and manage your communications and information, and share what’s going on in your life with the people who mean the most to you. Many of you have already tried out new versions of our web services – Windows Live Hotmail, Windows Live Spaces, Windows Live SkyDrive beta, and the new Windows Live Home page beta. These have been designed to work together with a common navigation, so it is easy to switch between your e-mail, your space, your files, and your photos—from any browser.

Today we’re releasing beta versions of a new generation of Windows Live software designed for your Windows PC that makes it easier than ever to get connected to Windows Live or other services. This suite of software includes e-mail (Windows Live Mail), photo sharing (Windows Live Photo Gallery), a great publishing tool that lets you post directly to your blog (Windows Live Writer), parental controls (Windows Live OneCare Family Safety), a new version of Windows Live Messenger (8.5), and more.

Starting today, you’ll be able to install the entire suite of these downloadable Windows Live services at one time, from one place, instead of going through separate installations for each service. Of course, if you don’t want the entire suite, you can still get each application individually.

This new suite of applications is a new way that we can make connecting, communicating, and sharing anywhere a terrific experience on your Windows PC. Together with our web services, we have a complete suite that combines the best of the Web and the best of Windows, and works the way you want.

I really hope you’ll download the betas today at http://get.live.com/wl/all, use them, and let us know what you think. Send us feedback anytime at http://feedback.live.com.

Thanks,

Chris Jones
Vice President
Windows Live Team

The new Outlook Connector goes live

Fri, 17 Aug 2007 01:47:15 GMT

Outlook Connector is now ready for prime time. In case you don't know, Outlook Connector is a free, downloadable tool that lets you read and send Windows Live Hotmail (and Office Live) e-mail messages using Microsoft Office Outlook. Since a lot of people (OK, me) use Outlook for work e-mail and Hotmail for personal stuff, Outlook Connector is a pretty handy way to keep track of all your messages in one place.

To find out more about Outlook Connector, check out this post on the Hotmail team's blog. Or, download Outlook Connector now.

- Carla

Storage in the sky

Fri, 10 Aug 2007 22:48:27 GMT

Tired of e-mailing files to yourself or moving them from PC to PC with your thumb drive? Not up for setting up a home network? Good news! The Windows Live SkyDrive beta* gives you 500 MB of free, password-protected online storage. You can choose who has access to the files you upload, or you can keep them to yourself, and access them from anywhere online.

Before yesterday's release, this beta was known as Windows Live Folders. If you already tried out Folders, you'll notice that the newly renamed product also has changes to the look and feel, and some new features like drag-and-drop uploading, and thumbnail images. Read more about it on the SkyDrive team blog. Or go directly to SkyDrive and try it out.

- Carla S.

*What's a beta?

Coming home

Fri, 10 Aug 2007 17:57:29 GMT

If you use more than one Windows Live service, you know that there hasn't been an easy way to get from one service to another. I, for example, regularly use Hotmail, Messenger, Spaces, and Maps (more on fun with Windows Live Maps in a future post), and I get mighty tired of opening all those different windows and remembering all the URLs.

But help has arrived! The new (beta*) Windows Live home page just launched: home.live.com. Check it out, but make sure you sign in, or you’ll just see a bunch of marketing blurbs. Once you’re signed in, the page provides links to all your Windows Live web services and shows what's happened since you last checked in.

My home page (see picture below) tells me how many new e-mail messages I have (zero!?), who’s recently commented on my space, and which of my friends have updated their spaces. I can also open Messenger or start writing an e-mail message from this page. If I’m feeling adventurous, I can check out a service I haven’t tried yet. (SkyDrive is next for me. No more e-mailing files to myself, or moving them from one PC to another with my USB drive.) Did I mention it has a link to Maps? We likey.

The down side: This page isn’t customizable and doesn’t allow you to get RSS feeds. If you’ve already set up feeds and gadgets on live.com, you can still use that page, but you can't easily get there from this home page. (Click the Windows Live icon on the top left. In the Other Live services menu, choose Live Search. In the top right of that page, you’ll—at long last—find a link to your personalized Live.com page.)

Not bad for a first incarnation. I think this is going to replace MSN.com as my browser home page. Guess I’ll have to IM my friend Monique to find out the latest news about Brangelina.

- Carla S.

*What's a beta?