Thursday, 6 September 2007

Microsoft Launches Windows Live Suite

Microsoft has announced the beta release of new Windows Live suite of services in 58 countries around the world, allowing users to download services in development from Windows Live. Windows Live Photo Gallery beta, Windows Live Messenger 8.5 beta, Windows Live Writer beta and Windows Live OneCare Family Safety will soon be available in broader, public beta.

Microsoft Corp. also announced the roll out of a unified installer that will assist in the download of new global betas of Windows Live Photo Gallery beta, Windows Live Messenger 8.5 beta, Windows Live Writer beta, Windows Live OneCare Family Safety and Windows Live Toolbar.

Chris Jones, Corporate Vice President, Windows Live Experience Planning, will post a guest blog entry on the Windows Live team blog http://windowslivewire.spaces.live.com discussing the momentum of the current betas and the next generation of Windows Live Services.

Users can go to http://home.live.com/ and http://get.live.com/wl/all for more information on today’s beta release.

Windows Live Services Beta Updates:

Windows Live Photo Gallery beta: This release is the first broad consumer availability of Windows Live Photo Gallery beta, and includes some new functionality from prior beta versions of the service, such as the ability to:
· Share photos on Windows Live Spaces directly from Windows Live Photo Gallery beta.
· Share videos on Soapbox beta on MSN Video directly from Windows Live Photo Gallery.
· Import photos from your digital camera and the Windows Live Photo Gallery will automatically organise them into events based on date and time.
· Create cool panoramic pictures by stitching together multiple photos.
· Edit photos using the improved cropping and color adjustment tools.
· View QuickTime files in the Gallery Viewer.

Windows Live Messenger 8.5 beta: This release builds on prior beta releases of Messenger and now includes:
· Additional family safety functionality integration
· Performance and security enhancements

Windows Live Writer beta: This release expands new market availability for Writer to 32 languages and 55 countries, as well as being available worldwide in English, and now also includes:
· Easy ways to insert video from various video services into a blog entry, with an enhanced experience for Soapbox on MSN Video
· XHTML markup and justified text alignment
· Image upload for Blogger, which allows publishing images to PicasaWeb
· The ability to print out your blog posts on paper
· Support of market or language specific tag providers
· Other performance enhancements

Windows Live OneCare Family Safety:
· Family safety support in Mail, Messenger and Spaces.