Redmond Pie

Microsoft’s open source platform - Codeplex has released two very useful plugins (LiveUpload to Facebook & Live

Our Hotmail accounts have finally been shifted over to Wave 3 now. We aren’t very fond of the very white look so far. Hopefully, it’ll become more meaningful, and less white over time. What are your opinions on the new Hotmail? Any problems that you are encountering ? Share with us!

Back in July 2008, Microsoft added background images to Live Search homepage. While it didn’t added much to the overall function of the search engine itself, what it added was a nice touch to the homepage which differentiated it with other competing search engines like Google and Yahoo.

In July, Microsoft and Facebook had made a search and advertisement deal, which meant that Live Search would be integrated into Facebook, along with advertisements. Well, the search has finally started to appear in Facebook now.

Around a week ago, our friends at LiveSide had posted about the beginning of the rollout of Hotmail wave 3. And as of now, most of us are still waiting. Word is, that the rollout has experienced some troubles as well as those who are got their Hotmail account updated are facing issues with seeing their folders. To which the Official Windows Live Hotmail blog responded:

Most of us have read by now that Microsoft is going to replace some of the most essential applications in Windows by their Windows Live alternatives. I, for one, do not welcome this change at all. Can you imagine an operating system, which after install you can’t view your images with? Or one, in which there is no email application? Do we really want to rely on an operating system that is so barebones that it requires us to first download a 100 + Mb setup to achieve all these functionalities?

Windows Live Calendar has been updated to the Wave 3 look, and is the first online Windows Live service to do so. It has the foretold new header which borrows from Windows Live Messenger’s scenes. Although apart from the 8 default themes, the ‘more themes’ link doesn’t work yet. I can only guess that they might have exclusive content as themes for more themes just like they have messenger packs for certain movies and occasions.

As we all know, Microsoft rolled out public beta’s for most of the Windows Live Wave 3 products yesterday. We have already reviewed Windows Live Messenger. Lets have a look at the Windows Live Mail Beta.

There is a huge number of new features in the new Windows live Messenger Beta which is marked as version 2009 in the about box.

Windows Live Video Messages (WLVM)is the latest service to be included in Microsoft’s web applications of Windows Live. It was opened to the general public on 9th, not too late after being announced. We decided to give it a spin and check out if this service is really worth using on a day to day basis or not.

While sending an email, you must have noticed the drop down suggestions that appear when you start typing in the email address, or even a contact’s name.

You might have always wondered why Microsoft doesn’t provide native support of contacts and file transfer from and to mobile phones in Windows. Although, Microsoft did indeed release a Windows Mobile Device Center for Vista, it only works with Windows Mobile Phones.

In June 2008, Mac BU (aka Mactopia) team released the latest version(7.0.1) of Messenger for Mac which improved support for users of the VoiceOver feature in OS X. It also fixed user interface issues that appeared when Messenger was used with some European languages. But even this latest version is a no match to its Windows counterpart, known as Windows Live Messenger.

Just fired up Windows Live Writer Technology Preview and I was greeted with this message:
“30 days remaining: This version of Windows Live Writer will expire on 10/1/2008. Please download and install a newer version.”

Microsoft is going a step further with their Live Search cashback offer. They are doubling the rewards just in time as part of their back to school deal.
Here is an excerpt from Microsoft PressPass:
For a limited time starting today, Microsoft is offering big savings to consumers, in some cases up to double the cashback rewards [...]

MSN/Windows Live team has silently updated their Silverlight based toolbar for Internet Explorer.
The new version is:
MSN Toolbar: 3.0.426.0
Application Version: 3.0.0619.0
With just three days left in Olympic games to start, this new version with Olympics tab is going to keep us all updated with what’s going on in & around the[...]

A couple of weeks ago LiveSide reported about the new Live Search update which added a nice background image touch to the current bland look. At that time Microsoft confirmed that they were testing the new feature so it didn’t work for everyone around the world. But today it seems that this new update has [...]

This years Disney’s blockbuster WALL•E has made its way over to Windows Live. MSN UK has opened a WALL•E portal which consists of lots of goodies to beautify our experience with Windows & Windows Live. There is lots of stuff to choose from: Windows Live Messenger Pack: Consists of winks, dynamic display pictures and backgr[...]

Our friends at LiveSide posted this very nice tutorial on how to synchronize your browser favorites using Live Mesh. I have been using this technique successfully ever since the launch(the private beta in May) of Live Mesh and I have also been using it to synchronize my RSS feeds across multiple devices.
So here at Redmond [...]

Live Mesh was due a major update since the service was first launched to a group of testers in May and here we are finally with the latest update to this popular service. Live Mesh now adds support for Peer-Peer sync which makes it possible to synch files across your devices without using any [...]