As some of you may know, I attended “Life Without Walls” here in the Netherlands today.

The Event was all about Windows Live Wave 3: Darren Huston kicked off with Vision on Life without Walls (PC, Mobile and Online – Windows + Windows Live = full Windows experience), followed by Joost Nienhuis who spoke about the digital behavior of consumers which led to the Windows Live demonstration given by Arnout Hemel. Here we saw how the new Windows Live will make live easier for the various consumer groups, mainly the Social web users (stay in touch with friends easier and in a more personal way), and the Functional web users (how to organize my online life better).

Most of this we already informed you about. We informed you about the services which were released in the last two days, and we also informed you about the applications already, looks to the right in the Sidebar, still there was new information too.

Some questions that might have crossed your mind are:

– When will the (RC) apps (Windows Live Essentials) be released?
The answer to that is they will be released next week at http://download.live.com/
– When will Hotmail, Calendar and People get their final update/release?
Answer: February 2009. Once this is done all Windows Live web pages will have the same header (menu):

Of course we’ll update you next week when the apps are available for download too. Stay tuned!

News source: LiveSide.net

With the Windows Live Wave 3 beta due to start today, we thought we’d provide our readers with a small headstart on the rest of the world. Here’s the download links for the new Wave 3 suite of applications, including Messenger v9, Windows Live Movie Maker, Mail with Calendar synchronisation, Writer, Photo Gallery, Family Safety and the Outlook Connector. For the paranoid amongst you, yes the files are hosted on download.microsoft.com.

http://tinyurl.com/liveside-wlwave3web (only downloads the applications you select)

http://tinyurl.com/liveside-wlwave3all (downloads all the applications, you can chose which ones to install)

Enjoy, and stay tuned for our reviews of the Windows Live Wave 3 beta application coming soon. In the meantime you can check out our previous posts tagged Wave 3 regarding the new applications or subscribe to our RSS feed to be alerted to the new posts coming later today.

Here’s some sample screenshots just to wet the appetite!

PS: If you have the Writer CTP or any other Wave 3 products installed, you should uninstall them first.

Read more LiveSide reviews:

Wave 3: Windows Live Movie Maker Beta

Wave 3: Windows Live Mail – Calendar, Calendar, Calendar (and more)

Wave 3: Windows Live Writer – A First Look

Wave 3- Windows Live Messenger 9 Beta – What’s New- A Comparison With 8.5

News source and download links: LiveSide.net

Microsoft today releases the next generation of free Windows Live services worldwide.  Consumers can now download the full Windows Live suite at once, or pick and choose their favorites, at www.windowslive.com

Microsoft is also kicking off the final launch of Windows Live with a two-day event where people can upload their photos to www.windowlive.com and share their virtual smile with the world.  Microsoft is partnering with childrens not-for-profit Operation Smile (www.operationsmile.org) to encourage people to share smiles through Windows Live to help Operation Smile make a difference in the lives of children around the world.

In addition to uploading photos to www.windowslive.com people in New York City and Los Angeles, Calif., can visit Windows Live photo booths to have their smiles photographed and sign up for Windows Live services

The full article is at Bink.nu

We know that many of you have multiple Windows Live IDs and managing and switching between them is not that easy.  That is why we are so happy to tell you that Windows Live now offers a Linked Windows Live ID service.  The service allows you to link your Windows Live accounts together and easily switch between them.

Jeff Steinbok, a member of our Spaces development team, talked about it in detail on his personal space.

Enjoy and keep the feedback coming.

– Chris

Product Manager, Windows Live Spaces

More on this story here: http://thespacecraft.spaces.live.com/Blog/cns!8AA773FE0A12B9E3!39967.entry

Create a handy button for your Windows Live Messenger contact so your friends can easily add you to their contact list.

Buttons make it easy! Use the button builder to create a button that fits your personal style or even just your mood. Add the button to your Windows Live Hotmail, Outlook and other email signatures, Windows Live Space, or blog, and your friends and family can simply click your button to add you to their contact list. Click here for Button Builder.

News source: Bink.nu

Ray Fleming and Mark A’Bear have been busy with their Education Partners blog and recently published this Windows Live @Edu brochure (using Skydrive of course). What is Live @Edu? The guys explain:

Windows Live @ Edu is a hosted email service available free of charge to colleges and universities, which is hosted on the Windows Live Hotmail platform. It allows establishments to choose their own email domain name (for example, students.oxford.ac.uk) and use that for all email provision for their students. The back-end is linked to the university’s Active Directory, so that users are actively provisioned. It gives students a 2GB mailbox and unlike Hotmail, is advertising free. There are over 20 universities or FE colleges now using this system in the UK.

Although the mail service is free, there is a partner revenue opportunity from this service – the integration and configuration services from the mail service to the institution’s Active Directory (using Identity Lifecycle Management 2007)

Good to see a UK specific document and the speaks plain English about the service and its benefits.

 Continue At Source

Microsoft has announced the availability of 3 Windows Live products today, all of which are beta.

Windows Live Mail is the free consumer client Microsoft will invest in moving forward. It is a superset of existing free clients and will replace Outlook Express, Windows Mail and Windows Live Mail desktop beta. While it used to be a paid feature, Hotmail customers can now access their account for free in Outlook 2003 and Windows Live Mail.

Windows Live Writer is a blogging tool that has been available in the US since August of last year. The tool was very well received by US bloggers at launch since it provides increased product functionality for Windows Live Spaces users and it also allows publishing to many of the largest blogging products in the world.

Windows Live Messenger 8.5 will also go out with a largely back-end update, but includes feature updates such as new look and feel in sign-in and conversation window, new emoticons, and integration with Windows Live OneCare Family Safety.

News source and download links: http://www.neowin.net/index.php?act=view&id=40634

Update: If your having installation issues with installing the Windows Live products then you will need to follow this tip http://theliveforums.com/index.php?showtopic=158

REDMOND, Wash. — May 6, 2007 — Microsoft Corp. today announced that Windows Live™ Hotmail^®, the successor to MSN^® Hotmail, is launching globally in 36 languages. The most significant upgrade for Hotmail since it pioneered the webmail industry in 1996, the new service has been built to be a vast improvement over the previous Hotmail offering, having incorporated input from more than 20 million beta testers. Windows Live Hotmail will deliver a safer, more powerful and productive e-mail experience than previous versions with flexible access via the Web, on a mobile phone or with an e-mail client. Microsoft also announced that later this month Windows Live Hotmail customers will be able to access their Windows Live Hotmail e-mail and contacts for free* using Microsoft^® Office Outlook^® 2003 or Office Outlook 2007 via the new Microsoft Office Outlook Connector beta.

As Windows Live Hotmail begins rolling out on May 7 and continues over the coming days, consumers will be able to visit http://www.hotmail.com to sign up for a new Windows Live Hotmail account. Current MSN Hotmail customers can also update their existing account to Windows Live Hotmail by logging into their account and clicking on the green Join Windows Live Hotmail button.

“We’re thrilled to deliver Windows Live Hotmail to the more than 280 million active MSN Hotmail accounts around the world,” said Steve Berkowitz, senior vice president of the Online Services Group at Microsoft. “Windows Live Hotmail represents an extremely compelling end-to-end e-mail experience that makes it easy for customers to get best-of-breed e-mail access across PCs, mobile devices and the Web. Windows Live Hotmail is a cornerstone online service for Microsoft and a critical part of our online advertising business because e-mail is a key point of influence for consumer purchases. We’re pleased to announce the launch of the service to advertisers in addition to consumers on the eve of the Microsoft Strategic Account Summit.”

News source and more on this article: http://www.microsoft.com/Presspass/press/2007/may07/05-06WLHotmailLaunchPR.mspx