Download the final version of Windows Live Essentials 2011.

However I have found some issues with the final version of Essentials, first I noticed that in WL Mail there appears to be a formatting issue when an email arrives from an unknown sender.

Second when I Messenger I immediately added the Beta badge, I’m not sure why I did but shortly after it was brought to my attention that it looked like I was using the beta version. I’m not. So it begs the question why is the Beta badge still in the final version of the software and why isn’t there a new one for the final release of Messenger? Also why are they not a hoard of available badges to add to one’s name, I can only add the Beta badge or have no badges at all.

Do you think I have missed a major new feature or have you seen any other issues with the final version? Do let me know. Also let me know if you really like the suite of great applications. It would also be good if people in contact with the Windows Live team let them know about some of these issues.

On top of Windows Live Essentials 2011 being released Microsoft also had some other Windows Live news in the week. The company has announced that it is rolling out Facebook Chat integration for Messenger to a further 7 countries (Canada, Australia, Netherlands, Italy, Spain, India and Turkey) in addition to those that already had access (US, UK,France, Brazil, Germany and Russia).

Microsoft also made available Windows Live Messenger for the Zune HD allowing users to keep up the date with their friend’s social activities and chat to them through Messenger and Facebook Chat.

In generally you will immediately notice that Microsoft have brought the ribbon interface to many of the applications which I find to be absolutely excellent. There are two applications that don’t use this interface though, Messenger and Sync, both of which appear to use a Metro inspired interface, that isn’t to say it is completely like the Zune software.

Messenger

When first starting Messenger you will notice some different things from previous versions, a greater focus on social interactions through other social networks like Facebook. By connecting you Windows Live account with your Facebook one you are able to have a single contact list from various social networks and have updates from them appear in the social pane in Messenger allowing you to see what your friends are doing across the web in a single place. The social stream can be customised somewhat by choosing who your favourite contacts are which then makes their updates appear in the highlights section.

Another great new feature of Messenger is tabbed conversations which has been a long time coming but is finally here. Its surprising how useful this is until you come to use it quite a lot.

Then there are some less obvious features of Messenger such as high definition video chat which, providing you have a HD web cam, allows you to chat with friends in more detail than ever before, its even possible to leave someone a video message if they aren’t online. Integration of Bing results within conversation windows to allow users to quickly add images, videos etc into a conversation.

Mail

Aside from the Ribbon interface in Mail there are some obvious changes in the way of emails being sorted with a conversation view which groups all the emails from a contact into a single group which makes following a conversation much easier, its possible to turn this off; emails now support flagging too. On the right hand side of the window is a new “slim cal” which brings the calendar functionality of the Mail program into the inbox.

Microsoft have worked hard on making sharing media much easier in the new version of Essentials and in Mail it’s now possible to create a photo email which stores up to 200 images on SkyDrive rather than sending them and clogging up people’s inboxes. The photos can then be viewed or downloaded by the recipient from a very nicely formatted email.

Writer

I, like many others, think that the new version of Writer got the least amount of attention from Microsoft compared to the other applications in the suite. However it is now possible to embed photos in new ways, one mimicking the photo email look of Mail and results from Bing searches can be easily embedded into blog posts. Perhaps the best update to the application is extremely tiny but brilliant, when adding a link to a post the address is auto-filled from the clipboard.

Movie Maker

You might remember that the current version of Movie Maker is not even a year old and features the ribbon interface so this wont appear too different for many users. Microsoft have added quite a few more transition effects, auto movie themes, greater editing functionality and more options for publishing and sharing.

Photo Gallery

There are many new features and improvements in Photo Gallery with the major ones being facial recognition and auto tagging which gets smarter as more faces are tagged. There is a new find tab that introduces several filters and tags that can all be used together to allow any photo to be found.

The application now features some new ways to edit photos including batch edit, Photo Fuse which allows users to merge the bits from several photos of the same thing to create one perfect photo and retouch which allows users to edit small blemishes etc on photos.

Other additions to the application include multitouch support and Windows 7 Libraries integration.

Sync

Sync features in the Wave 3 version of Windows Live but it has undergone a massive transformation in Wave 4. The application now replaces Live Mesh making use of the technologies of the synchronisation program which allows users to sync files and folders across many PCs and even storing them in the cloud on Windows Live SkyDrive; however only 2GB of data can be stored in SkyDrive and it is a separate section of the online storage service. Sync also features Live Mesh’s remote desktop functionality but also brings a new feature that syncs program settings across a user’s PC, this currently only shares program settings for Office and Internet Explorer.

Windows Live Wave 4 is an excellent, if overdue, update the suite of applications and when combined with the online Windows Live services there is very little competition for the Windows Live service. I have found these applications to be quicker on my PC and the images on the Messenger social pane look stunning.

I will be interested to know what you think of these updates and your experiences with them applications.

Well then I guess we should now start to look for Windows Live Wave 5 news…

Current images are from the Windows Live Preview site not my own.

There isn’t much more to announce other than Microsoft will obviously be touting how good the new applications work on Windows 7 and how easy it to share the files edited and created in the apps with services in the cloud. Microsoft will also be keen to emphasize the importance of Messenger, Photo Gallery, Movie Maker, Mail and Sync.

You might want to keep an eye on http://essentials.live.com and http://messengerdownload.live.com tomorrow, both are currently not allowing downloads.

Update: Microsoft have announced the beta, just like I said they would, keep checking the sites above for the download.

The video focuses on the taking, editing and sharing of photos, what I imagine most people do so many should be able to easily relate to some or all of the content and actions within the video. Check out the Liveside article, linked above, if the video isn’t working.

I, as you know and I’ve said many a time, am really looking forward to Wave 4 and it seems that with each new piece of information we get the suite gets better. I believe the public beta will be upon us soon (June 7th was first talked about in the timeline and has recently been mentioned as the date) with the rollout of the new services starting a week later (June 15th will see the Office Web Apps and more added to Windows Live) so not long to wait at all now.

Photo Gallery and Movie Maker

• Facial Recognition
  Facial Recognition technology allows Photo Gallery to find pictures that have
  people in them and deduce who is in those pictures based on whom you’ve
  tagged in the past. The more you tag, the smarter it gets! Tags made in Photo
  Gallery travel with the photo wherever it goes, and any tags you or your friends
  make on sites such as Facebook also sync back down to your Photo Gallery.
• Photo Fuse
  Allows you to take the best parts of multiple photos to combine them into one
  “perfect” photo with an easy-to-use editing tool.
• Retouch
  Whether it’s a blemish, scratch, bruise or stain, Photo Gallery’s Retouch feature
  enables you to make it look like it never happened, employing the same
  technology that professional agencies use to polish photos.

Mail

• Efficient inbox management tools
  Tools such as conversation threading give you the convenience of viewing your
  messages in the way that you choose. Quick views organize and find selected
  types of mail (unread mail from contacts only, flagged email, all mail across
  inboxes, etc.) across your email accounts, newsgroups and feeds.
• Slim Cal
  Instantly view your calendar without navigating away from the context
  of your inbox.
• Photo email
  Send photos in email without worrying about size restrictions. Add captions and
  layouts and edit your photos from within Windows Live Mail.

Sync

With Windows Live Sync, your photos, movies, music and other files are synchronized
across your PCs, and they automatically remain updated with the latest changes so you
have access to your most current stuff when you need it. Set up Remote Desktop through
Windows Live Sync and you can access your PC when you’re away from it, from any
internet-enabled computer.

And with Sync, you can share settings for your favorite programs across your PCs, so
programs work the same way on every PC in your home.

• Sync folders across all your PCs (and Macs)
  Windows Live Sync keeps your files and folders, such as Documents, Pictures and
  Music, in sync across your computers so you can work or play wherever you want.
  Update a file on one computer, and it will automatically sync to the rest. Once
  your folders are synchronized, your files are available even when you don’t have
  internet access.
• Remote Desktop
  Leave your PC online and you can access it from devices.live.com. Find your PC
  among the list of devices on the website, and click Connect to remotely control
  your PC.

I am very excited to hear more about Essentials, the final piece in the Windows Live Wave 4 puzzle and to read that Sync is just like Live Mesh is very encouraging; incidentally http://devices.live.com/ currently redirects to SkyDrive.

Thanks for the info Francisco and I look forward to part 2.

You can find new features to applications and services in bold and my expectations and thoughts in italics.

Applications

Microsoft have focussed on refining the interface of many applications in Wave 4 by adding the Ribbon to the applications.

They are also working on separating Messenger from the rest of the Essentials suite, possibly because Messenger will become more than just an application but a platform for sharing and consuming content from across the web both on and offline.

New:

Messenger

Microsoft have provided lots of information about the new version of Messenger with videos and images, a full list of new features and more at http://www.windowslivepreview.com/messenger/.

The best features of Messenger Wave 4 are:

• Tabbed Conversations
  You can manage all your chats in one location so you can juggle multiple conversations in one place rather than having multiple windows popping up.
• High-definition video chat
  Meaningful conversations are enhanced by allowing you to see and hear your friends. The new Messenger now provides high-definition video chat, helping you experience video chats so you can share photos while chatting and see your friends’ reactions in real time and in full screen.
• Messenger for the Windows® Phone, iPhone and Blackberry
  Get the best mobile experience on these smartphones including access to all your contacts, seeing your social updates, starting a chat conversation, sharing photos and updating your status. Messenger often comes pre-installed on smartphones, but if it’s not on yours, just head over to the phone’s application marketplace.
• Ultimate Social Dashboard for Staying in Touch While Eliminating the Noise
  Because most people today use a variety of social networks and content sharing sites, with different sets of friends and acquaintances dispersed throughout these disparate networks, it can be challenging — and exhausting — to visit different websites and create different accounts just to keep abreast of your friends’ updates. But it isn’t just about bringing all that data together. What’s really valuable is helping you filter through the clutter and get to those updates you really care about — the ones from those people who you communicate with most frequently. There are a lot of intelligent algorithms and machine learning that can help in this, but we’ve found one of the best ways is to simply ask people. So, Windows Live Messenger will come right to the source — YOU — and ask you to specify your favorites.

And here’s a video showing some of the new features of Messenger in action.

I have had the fortune of using a version of Wave 4 Messenger and I have to say I found it very good. I was concerned that the “social” pane would take up too much room but I actually found it to be a very useful and efficient way to see what my contacts were up too. I can’t wait for Microsoft to release the final version of Messenger. 

Mail

Microsoft have yet to share with us publically anything about Mail but from the leaked version of Windows Live Essentials we do know that it will support Conversation View and flagging, just like the new Hotmail. The user interface has also been refined with the application now featuring the Ribbon interface and a few quick access functions such as the calendar down the right hand side of the program.

From a leaked document it is expected Microsoft will also point out these new features when they announce Windows Live Mail:

• Efficient inbox management tools
  Tools such as conversation threading give you the convenience of viewing your
  messages in the way that you choose. Quick views organize and find selected
  types of mail (unread mail from contacts only, flagged email, all mail across
  inboxes, etc.) across your email accounts, newsgroups and feeds.
• Slim Cal
  Instantly view your calendar without navigating away from the context
  of your inbox.
• Photo email
  Send photos in email without worrying about size restrictions. Add captions and
  layouts and edit your photos from within Windows Live Mail.

I wouldn’t be surprised if, like Hotmail, Mail features Active View which allows users to see videos, photo slideshows etc when there is a link embedded in an email without having to leave the email.

Writer

Writer has received the Ribbon makeover and fins its self with lots of great UI tweaks but nothing major to speak of.

Movie Maker

Similarly to Writer there don’t appear to be any major new features just tweaks and additional options to edit, save and upload finished movies.

Both Movie Maker and Photo Gallery will see Facial Recognition which allows Photo Gallery to find pictures that have people in them and deduce who is in those pictures based on whom you’ve tagged in the past. The more you tag, the smarter it gets! Tags made in Photo
Gallery travel with the photo wherever it goes, and any tags you or your friends
make on sites such as Facebook also sync back down to your Photo Gallery.

Photo Gallery

Like the other Essentials applications Photo Galley is now equipped with the Ribbon interface but this application also has a few new features such as allowing users to Geo-tag photos and easily share them on social networking sites.

Photo Gallery will also feature:

• Multitouch Support  Photos can be adjusted using touch on any touch-enabled Windows 7-based PC.
• Libraries support  Photo Gallery now supports Windows 7 Libraries so you don’t have to manually import photos and videos again, it’s all done automatically.
• Photo Fuse
  Allows you to take the best parts of multiple photos to combine them into one
  “perfect” photo with an easy-to-use editing tool.
• Retouch
  Whether it’s a blemish, scratch, bruise or stain, Photo Gallery’s Retouch feature
  enables you to make it look like it never happened, employing the same
  technology that professional agencies use to polish photos.

Interestingly Photo Gallery and Movie Maker look to be treated as a “double act” when installing them as you have to have both or neither of them. I wouldn’t be surprised to see a single application in Wave 5 for these two application that would allow users to create, view and edit photos and movies.

Sync

Sync is getting a much more prominent position within the Windows Live family as it will be the new Live Mesh which will allow files and folders to be synced across multiple devices and the cloud, remote access and and for program settings to be shared across a user’s connected PCs.

The below text has come from, what is thought to be, the official information about Sync.

With Windows Live Sync, your photos, movies, music and other files are synchronized across your PCs, and they automatically remain updated with the latest changes so you have access to your most current stuff when you need it. Set up Remote Desktop through Windows Live Sync and you can access your PC when you’re away from it, from any internet-enabled computer.

And with Sync, you can share settings for your favorite programs across your PCs, so programs work the same way on every PC in your home.

Some of the major features of Sync are likely to be:

• Sync folders across all your PCs (and Macs)
  Windows Live Sync keeps your files and folders, such as Documents, Pictures and
  Music, in sync across your computers so you can work or play wherever you want.
  Update a file on one computer, and it will automatically sync to the rest. Once
  your folders are synchronized, your files are available even when you don’t have
  internet access.
• Remote Desktop
  Leave your PC online and you can access it from devices.live.com. Find your PC
  among the list of devices on the website, and click Connect to remotely control
  your PC.

New: It would seem that Sync will now use SkyDrive for the online storage aspect however it is thought that there will only be 2GB of storage and its unclear if it will integrate with other folders in SkyDrive.

New:

New: The remote desktop mode will look very similar to how it currently looks in Live Mesh, remote access will be accessed through the new Windows Live Devices service. The technologies of Live Mesh that were available through the Live Framework are thought to be forming a basis to the new Messenger Connect set of APIs.

I like the sound of Sync, I currently couldn’t live without Live Mesh and think it a great shame that nothing has happened with it for so long, however Sync looks set to trump in a few areas by being able to sync more than just files but also my settings on my PC. I hope this allows me to log into any PC which has Sync and quickly use applications that are configures to just the way I like them to be, something I have been waiting for for some time.

Companion

Companion is a brand new application to Windows Live but is only a small one that will make it easier for users to share online content with their friends from within their internet browser.

This piece of software looks to me to be like sharing something on Facebook but rather than having a share button on certain pages this will make it easy for any page to be shared. This application might actually be short lived if Messenger Connect takes off in the way I hope it will.

Bing Bar

Microsoft also plan to include the Bing Bar with the Windows Live installer which will allow people to keep an eye on their emails, the news and weather and other content quickly and easily.

I do not like toolbars in browsers and the Bing Bar hasn’t changed my opinion but I am aware that many other people do like this toolbar.

Services

Again with the services side of Windows Live Microsoft has worked hard on refining the user interface which now sees a revised, dynamic header with access to all the services and “glanceable”  information about new emails and contacts.

Hotmail

Microsoft have provided lots of information about the new version of Hotmail with videos and images, a full list of new features and more at http://www.windowslivepreview.com/hotmail/.

The best features of Messenger Wave 4 are:

• Conversation View
  We know how having a "conversation" with someone — or several people — via email over an extended period can leave pieces of that conversation haphazardly spread throughout the inbox in individual snippets. The new Hotmail brings all those snippets together so you can view the entire conversation in one place. (Note: Conversation view is an option that you can turn on or off because not everyone prefers to view their email in conversation view. This is flexibility that Gmail does not offer — Gmail has conversation threading permanently on — no way to turn it off, which many people told us they prefer.)
• Sweep 
  Finally a tool that makes it super easy to get rid of the junk mail cluttering up your inbox — the No. 1 email annoyance — at least according to the thousands of people we’ve asked. Sweep is a virtual broom that lets you super easily "sweep" the mail you don’t want out of your inbox into either folders or oblivion, leaving your inbox clean. We’ll even offer to auto-sweep email you don’t want or want archived in the future if you’d like. Just leave the box checked when we offer to do that for you. No need to set up and manage rules (unless you’d prefer to do that).
• Exchange instant messages and text messaging (SMS) with your Windows Live Messenger friends
  With the new Hotmail, you can see who’s online and chat with your Messenger friends or even send an SMS message to their phone — all without ever leaving your inbox.
• Send up to 10 GB of photos per message
  Send virtually all the photos you want to without having to worry about attachment limits or clogged inboxes, either at your end or on the recipient’s end. Hotmail works with Windows Live SkyDrive, your free online storage space from Windows Live, so you can send up to 200 photos of up to 50 MB each (10 GB total) in a single message. It’s as easy as sending regular attachments, but we give you the option of uploading them to SkyDrive. This means the people you’re sending photos to get an email containing a preview of the photos, along with links to launch a slide show or download the photos to their hard drives — all in a single .zip file instead of painstakingly downloading them individually. Or they can even import them straight into Windows Live Photo Gallery. Sharing lots of large photo attachments has never been more easy or painless.
• Exchange ActiveSync
  Hotmail supports push email on the web, PC and now on mobile phones. Using Exchange ActiveSync, available on nearly 300 million phones, with the new Hotmail you can not only seamlessly synchronize email between your phone and the web, but also synchronize your calendar and contacts. This is a significant improvement over IMAP alternatives that support sync’ing of email only (not calendar and contacts).

And here’s a video showing some of the new features of Hotmail in action.

Messenger

As I pointed out earlier Microsoft are keen to take Messenger to the cloud and this can easily be seen in the Messenger service. Messenger in the cloud appears to be very much like the Home page today with a refined Hotmail highlights section showing interesting emails grouped by filters, Messenger social which is the latest social news and information from a user’s connected services and a list of a user’s online Messenger contacts on the right hand side.

Just like the Messenger application it is possible to add comments to the social updates.

By hovering over the Messenger name in the header a drop down list appears with all the online contacts, a search box and a few links to other Windows Live services. One major thing with the contacts list with Wave 4 is that it is a unified contacts list made up of all the contacts in both Hotmail and Messenger but also all the friends a user has on Facebook, Zune Social etc just by connecting their profile with other “activities”. As seen in the below image the Web Messenger also supports tabbed conversations just like the application version.

I think the fact that Microsoft are taking Messenger to the browser in such a strong way will be great, the current implementation of Web Messenger is pitiful but useful. However by being able to access Messenger in any Windows Live service rather than just Hotmail will be great and by having Messenger more social in the browser as well as the application should make for a better experience wherever someone is. 

Photos

There doesn’t appear to be much changing with Photos in Wave 4 but it will be possible to watch videos in the service and not just photos.

Microsoft are also planning to tweak the great slideshow feature of Photos with controls in the top of slideshow to allow users to do more with the photo whilst viewing it. Another great feature of photo will be the ability to comment on a photo which will be seen on the service the photo has come from.

It doesn’t appear that Microsoft are planning to compete with YouTube with the addition of videos to the service but simply to just allow people to share and store their own personal videos. I think photos will now be appearing in Photos from across all the connected social networks providing users with a single place to view all their friends’ photos.

Office (formerly Docs)

Office is coming to Windows Live in a big way with a lot of integration across the service and the Office Web Apps. Users will be able to create Office documents by hovering over the Office section in the header and access their documents and groups. When creating a new Office document the corresponding Web App will launch that gives users a scaled back version of Office in their browser with only basic functionality, this document will then be saved on SkyDrive.

The Office page on Windows Live will allow users to access folders on their SkyDrive, quickly see recent documents, see what documents have been shared/edited by their contacts using a filtered Messenger Social feed and create new documents. Windows Live Office will also allow versioning support to allow users to quickly return to a previous version of a document.

Uploading documents will become easier than the current method as the uploader is going to be a Silverlight one which will allow it to be more functional and for it to work on a wider number of browsers.

Another way in which Office is being integrated with Windows Live is in Hotmail where users will be able to view and edit Office documents without having to have Office installed on their computer. By using the Active View in Hotmail it will be possible to quickly edit and save a document and then quickly return to the user’s inbox to reply to the original email containing the document with the newly edited one already embedded.

One final point to note is that Office Live Workspace will be moving to the new Windows Live Office service which should incorporate the Windows Live Groups seen in the list of items when hovering over the Office section in the header. 

I think the integration of the Office Web Apps in Windows Live could well be the most useful feature in the entire Wave 4 update, I can just see so many uses for it and know I could have used it before.

Groups

Windows Live Groups are being slightly repositioned within the suite of services to make it more focused on collaboration. At launch it appears that only the Office OneNote Web App will available for the group collaboration with more Web Apps added over time. The limit to how many people can be in a group Messenger conversation will be upped to 40.

Windows Live Groups are an alright part of Windows Live and that’s about it, there are some good aspects to them and some weak areas, I hope that these subtle changes will make them more useful and its likely more people will use them for the Office integration alone.

Other Services

Obviously there are other services to Windows Live however very little is known about how they are changing in the next update, we will just have to wait and see for those.

Misc

Branding

As I mentioned near the beginning of this post Microsoft seem to be differentiating Messenger from the rest of the Windows Live Essentials package and the same is true of Hotmail from the other Windows Live Services. The reasoning for this is unknown but I think Microsoft are keen to keep its most popular services separate from any negative perception of the other Windows Live offerings and to try and create well known brands (which they are already) that the rest of Windows Live can built around.

This is most obviously seen in the new logo for Hotmail, before Wave 4 Hotmail’s logo was the same as the Windows Live Mail.

Microsoft may be separating the branding of Messenger, Hotmail and Essentials because Essentials are released in versions where as (Web) Messenger and Hotmail can be updated whenever with no real versioning involved. It would then go some way to explain why Windows Live Essentials’ branding is though to carry a version number in the way of “2011”. Why 2011? I don’t know.

Some of the Application logos will be:

Icons for applications and services within the suite:

• Sync
  
• Devices
  
• Family Safety
  
• Groups
  
• Profile (Favicon)
  

Mobile

You are probably thinking this is all well and good for someone who is sitting in front of a monitor who has access to the web or is using a PC but know this, Microsoft haven’t forgotten those many, many mobile users. They plan to offer a Messenger application for the iPhone and iPod that, obviously, will allow users to chat with contacts but also browse photos shared on SkyDrive and allowing users to take, edit and upload a photo to share with their contacts.

Microsoft haven’t stopped there though as they have made mobile and touch friendly versions of many of their online services too.

Microsoft will also be providing a way to access documents on mobile devices as seen in the screenshot below.

Messenger Connect

Messenger Connect is perhaps the most intriguing part of Windows Live that Microsoft will be releasing this year. I’m not sure if its part of the Wave 4 update but it is being rolled out around the same time. Its Microsoft’s attempt to compete with Facebook and become a bigger player in the social web without competing with any service as it provides away for website developers to add Messenger functionality (contact lists, IMing and social interactions) to web pages.

New: I have been informed that Messenger Connect will be a rebranding of current Microsoft APIs with some extra new features, these APIs are going to be the Live Framework ones, the technologies of Live Mesh which were opened up to all to use.

An image of what is thought to be Messenger Connect in action.

I am very interested to see how this can and will be implemented across the web and if it really will be a compliment to current social networks and a true platform to share anything with anyone.

I am excited for the beta and roll out of the applications and services, there is just so much to look forward to in Windows Live Wave 4 and still we don’t know everything. Clearly this is, without doubt, the largest update to the Windows Live suite ever.

It depends how much new information there is about Windows Live as to whether or not I update this post or create an entirely new one. If you think I have missed any major news or features of Windows Live out from this article please let me know.

Thanks to many sites for the info and images including LiveSide.net, LiveSino.net, Neowin.net and @FMartin_MS

First thing to note is that most Windows Live services haven’t had a prominently place logo before, yes SkyDrive, Calendar etc have had them but that only appears to me for use as a favicon and not really used in branding. This, however, appears to be a a very different thing.

In this logo we see a greater emphasis on Hotmail and not so much on Windows Live, not something I would get to worked up about as I expect Microsoft people just want to refer to the service as Hotmail and drop the Windows Live name in conversation. Another interesting aspect of this logo is colour of that envelope, all logos before this have had a lot of blue on them and used pastel colours, this is bright orange and glossy, perhaps even transparent. Perhaps all services’ logos will take on this new look whilst the applications’ logos will remain the same.

One reason I can think of why Microsoft would want Hotmail to appear very different from Windows Live Mail is because Mail allows users to incorporate many different email providers into a single application where as Hotmail is more about being Microsoft’s email service. Microsoft will want to show Hotmail to be an alternative to Gmail whilst Mail is the thing to use to open up emails from any service.

I have to say I like the logo, definitely is striking and actually the slight glossy/glass look makes it feel modern. I look forward to seeing if other services receive a similar logo.

New Services

There have been very few leaks about new services but the ones we do know about are:

• Devices – Would seem to be a Live Mesh way to link and sync your various devices, whether they be PCs, Macs, Mobiles, etc, with each other and the cloud. The service may provide configuration options and remote control/use of the device.
• Documents – Seems like the Documents service will be the new way to save and store Office documents, and I guess store any file, on Windows Live; SkyDrive will probably be the backend for this service which is likely to incorporate Live Mesh like functionality.

There is one other service I think we can expect to be added to Windows Live:

• Videos – Surely Microsoft has not given up against Google with YouTube in the online video market so I am expecting some kind of Video service, it could well be an additional aspect of the Photos service.

Changes To Existing Services

• Header – although not being a real service it appears in most Windows Live services and is set to change again for Wave 4. As you can see below the header has been restructured into only 4 heading, or pillars, with the lesser services accessed by hovering over the service names. The header will also be dynamic showing users how many unread emails they have and how many of their contacts are online.
  
• Web Messenger – It appears that Microsoft will be bringing Messenger properly online by allowing users to access the service wherever they are in Windows Live, I would guess it will act similarly to Facebook Chat.
  

Changes To Existing Applications

In general all the content editing applications within Windows Live will now be receiving the ribbon interface and the other applications, Messenger, will receive a UI overhaul similar to that of the Zune software.

• Mail – The application will now have access to the calendar down the right hand side and will support a conversation mode for collecting emails together to more easily follow a conversation between a contact. It also sounds like Windows Live Mail will support various Gmail features and I can guess it will support other email clients functionality.
  
• Writer – All that is currently known is that it will have the ribbon interface.
  
• Messenger – Messenger looks to be getting quite a major make over with an additional pane to the left which we are certainly not used too. It appears as if this new pane will display a list of everything that is new with a user’s contacts. Another interesting thing to note is the “Connected to” control at the bottom right of the windows, perhaps we will be able to use other instant messaging services from Messenger. 
  Messenger 2010 will also be supporting tab conversation windows, something a lot of people have been asking for for some time, I’m not sure I really see the appeal.
  
  Users will also be able to control their online presence with the Aero thumbnails when using Windows 7.
   
  I believe the next image is only a concept image created by a fan however I think it shows what Messenger 2010 will look like.
  

Others Things To Expect With Wave 4

• Integration – I believe there will be a high level of integration of Windows Live with other Microsoft products and services, we already know the Office Web Apps will be accessed through Windows Live but I also think Windows Mobile (6.6, 7 or the “Zune Phone”) will feature Windows Live very heavily.
• Social – I think Microsoft will try and make Windows Live Wave 4 more of a social networking platform where users can share information easily to many people across various services, for exampling hitting the upload button in Photo Gallery will upload the photo to Windows Live Photo, Facebook, Flickr, Twitpic etc at the same time. I also believe we can expect to see a URL shortening service to help this sharing of information.
• TVs – It has been rumoured that Microsoft have been talking with a few TV makers so we might see some level of access to Windows Live on TVs in the future, I doubt this would be completed in time for the launch of Wave 4 but perhaps later in the year.

If you want to keep track of the latest Windows Live Wave 4 news then you might to check out this collection of posts.

The ribbon can be seen in all its glory and now access to the calendar can be found right on the main screen, definitely an improvement to me. Another obvious difference in the picture is that emails can now be shown in a “conversation view” so replies can be read much more easily. What with news yesterday of support for various Gmail features it seems that Windows Live Mail will be a good improvement over Wave 3.

There is very little else given away in the above image although there is a feedback tab and the name of the app includes “beta” so perhaps we could see a beta release of the suite soon.

Hotmail and Windows Live Mail can be configured to look very similar so I wonder if in the Wave 4 version of the online counterpart it will be possible for users to have their calendar show up right on the inbox view rather having to go to the separate service page.

Good to see there is slowly more information coming out about the new version of Windows Live, it just can’t come quickly enough for me, and I look forward to what else can be discovered by the large number of Windows Live fans and blogs out there.

Windows Live Wave 4 Mail

From Twitter it appears as though the next version of Windows Live Mail will support Gmail’s labels, archiving and stars, this comes from @fxshaw, Microsoft’s Corporate Vice President of Corporate Communications, in reply to a tweet from @joshuatopolsky, editor in chief of Engadget.

More info from Liveside.

Zune to have more formats than just XviD

It transpired about 2 weeks ago that the Zune HD would soon have XviD support and now it looks like it could well gain OGG and MOV support in an up coming update. If this is true I wonder what else could be coming soon to Zune that we don’t yet know about.

More info from Zunited.

Windows Mobile 7 Tested

Well apparently at least one person, Eldar Murtazin, outside Microsoft has used an early build of Windows Mobile 7 and found that apps from the previous versions of the mobile OS aren’t compatible with the newer OS. For me its not surprising that older apps weren’t working on the build of Windows Mobile 7 as its very likely the new OS has a completely different back end from the older versions. But because old apps didn’t work does not mean they wont, I wouldn’t be surprised either way with allowing older apps to run on the new OS. However, Microsoft would be rather silly to fracture their mobile OS ecosystem in such a way; I expect that when the mobile OS comes to market it will be possible to run older apps, maybe not all but certainly some. We know Microsoft like their compatibility modes and legacy support, through XP Mode, on Windows and I think a lesser version could well work on powerful phones with a 1 GHz processor or better.

More info from Engadget.

LG give a more precise release date for Windows Mobile 7

Again it is LG stating when Windows Mobile will be on the market, first it was by the end of 2010 and now they say they will be releasing devices in September running the new mobile OS. Of course this could well be wrong but its always interesting to hear such things, its also a surprisingly early date as I was thinking by the end of 2010 meant very late in the year.

More info from Engadget.

Windows 7 SP1 screenshots

Not sure why this made it on to quite a few sites, its only a couple of screenshots that show nothing interesting to me but such is the unquenchable thirst for tech news.

If you want to see the pictures then head over to MuyWindows.