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Office Live Workspace Due Out This Year

Justin Kerr — Sat, 06 Sep 2008 15:56:09 -0500

ZDNet’s Mary Jo Foley has apparently learned that Microsoft’s online alternative to Google Docs will emerge from beta before the end of this year. Office Live Workspace is a service that is geared to work as either a standalone product, or in tandem with Office 2003-2007. It has been suggested that the current public beta is fairly close to the final version, and the primary issue outstanding is language support. Microsoft wishes to expand the 11 languages it currently supports to 37 before it officially lifts the beta tag later this year. Spokesmen Kirk Gregersen from Microsoft has also reportedly commented on the surprising trends they have identified during the public beta. It was originally assumed that casual users such as students would use Live Workspace as a means to author and remotely access documents. Instead, the service is being used mostly as a single access point for collaborative efforts involving multiple users. Insiders have suggested that this only further demonstrates why desktop versions of Microsoft Office won’t be leaving us anytime soon.

For those who haven’t been following the development of Office Live Workspace, hit the jump to learn more about the services currently being offered.

Windows Live Hotmail Wave 3: New Features Revealed

Justin Kerr — Sun, 31 Aug 2008 21:56:57 -0500

Windows Live Hotmail’s 260 million users worldwide can look forward to a multitude of new features that were recently unveiled by Microsoft. Hotmail wave 3 promises a speed boost of over 70% during sign in, and will enable dynamic storage that will grow at a rate of 250 MB per month. Microsoft is also reportedly working to address the user interface problems which have plagued the service since the roll out of wave 2. Hotmail users currently have the option of picking between the well loved “classic” or the “full” user interface which reportedly suffers from a low adoption rate. This low adoption rate has kept the classic version alive, and made it difficult for Microsoft to roll out new features. Hotmail wave 3 looks to merge the layout of the “classic” with the functionality of the “full”, an approach they are hoping will finally please everyone. This is something that is desperately needed to help attract and retain users currently considering competing services such as Gmail or Yahoo. Improved integration of Live contacts, calendar, and instant messaging help to round out the initial batch of leaked features. The press release doesn’t make any mention of the long rumored POP support or any Skydrive integration, but hopefully these features are still in the works. No public beta has been announced yet, but the “coming soon” headline suggests it probably isn’t that far off.

Are you a former or current Hotmail user? Will these new features keep you with the service or send you running back? Hit the jump and let us know what you think.

Windows News, Friday the 13th Edition

Mark Soper — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 20:55:14 -0500

It may be Friday the 13th, but there's good luck in the air for 64-bit Windows, Hotmail, antiphishing, and Windows XP fans. Read on for all the details.

Take 5! Microsoft Introduces SkyDrive

Mark Soper — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 23:48:58 -0600

Could you use 5GB of online storage - free? Of course! Microsoft is now offering it with SkyDrive. We take it for a test flight.

Bye, Bye Betas - Windows Live Suite Goes Live!

Mark 'Marcus Soperus' Soper — Wed, 07 Nov 2007 22:13:03 -0600

Microsoft rolls out production versions of its Windows Live Suite and adds new features. Find out what's new - and who's still waiting for an invitation to the party.

Windows Live Adds Photo Editing, Blogging Tools and More

Mark 'Marcus Soperus' Soper — Fri, 07 Sep 2007 21:40:23 -0500

Microsoft makes new Windows Live features available in a public beta, and Maximum PC's brave Windows blogger takes a couple of them for a spin. Are they worth trying?

Free Hotmail and Windows Live Mail, Meet Microsoft Outlook

Mark Soper — Thu, 16 Aug 2007 00:57:30 -0500

Using Hotmail or Windows Live Mail? Whether you use free or paid versions, Microsoft Outlook 2003 and 2007 can now access your web-based email.