Windows Live Groups appears on MS internal sites
I was just looking through some of the sites and finally saw this page-http://groups.live-int.com/ though earlier I had posted about it but their wasn’t any confirmation.This site is probably the Windows Live team’s internal site.
Though the site doesn’t have any graphics or so but it pretty much confirms that Windows Live Groups is coming. So probably it would replace the old MSN groups.
Here is what the page reads-
Get a group going on Windows Live
Bring your team, club, or any group of people together online.
Your group’s webpage
Create a custom webpage where everyone can see the latest group activities.
Easy planning
The shared calendar makes it easy to see who’s busy when, and plan your next group event.
Staying in touch
Share photos, start discussions, send e-mail, or IM with the whole group at once.
Update:We were able to signup and look deeply in the Windows Live Group
Just sign up here- https://signup.live-int.com/ (Windows Live Wave 3 looks indeed,and thing to note the usual Windows Live mail address does not work so you have to create a new one) if you are more eager to have a look at the Windows Live Groups page
After signing up just enter the following link http://groups.live-int.com/ and you would be taken to the page as shown below
After playing a bit more with the site we were able to reach the Groups creation page(though the link in the above image doesn’t work.Here is how the page looks
The create option wasn’t working so we weren’t able to go further but one thing to note they have added some new themes.
We would be posting more info whenever available
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Windows Live Messenger release date confirmed
According to an email sent out tonight to users of MSN Direct Spot watches, which will not support the new Wave 3 version, Windows Live Messenger is set to be released on February 10, “2008” (sic). The email gives the correct start date for the beta (Sept 17, 2008). Of course it remains to be seen whether or not the release schedule is met, but this gives us some indication of the timetable for Wave 3 final releases.
Source- Liveside
Microsoft Launches MSNBC News Beta
Today Microsoft officially launched their MSNBC News beta in Media Center to the world (err, I mean US and Canada). This was actually something that popped up on one of my beta machines a few months ago, but when I asked about it Microsoft said I wasn’t even supposed to have it, and thus I didn’t blog about it. Much like the Internet TV Beta, access the new application can be found on the TV + Movies strip.
Ian Dixon and Brandon LeBlanc have some screenshots up on their respective blogs. These out-of-band “feature” plug-ins might be Microsoft’s hope to keep the Media Center platform moving between Windows releases, so I’m hoping this isn’t the last one that we will see.
- Access the latest U.S. Election 08 videos
- Editor Picks and Most Popular videos, as selected by viewers
- Five-day weather forecast for any zip code in the U.S.
- Customize your own news video playlists
- Ability to browse by category, such as Business, Sports, and Entertainment
- Search for stories using keywords
- Related videos for each story
Source- MSMVPS Blog
Encarta Comes To MSN Mobile
MSN Mobile, available from on any phone at mobile.msn.com, delivers news, email, sports, search, weather, entertainment links like movie listings and horoscopes, and even videos right to your mobile phone. Now you can add one more option to that extensive list: Encarta. The Encarta option is now available from the “All” menu, which is where you’ll find all of the items not listed directly on the main MSN Mobile homepage. From within the new Encarta feature you can check out a quote of the day, read three editorially-selected articles each day, take a quiz, and try to guess the Mystery Picture of the day. However, the most important feature in the mobilized version of Encarta is the article search feature. How many times have you had to whip out your phone and look something up in order settle an argument? I don’t know about you, but this is almost a near-daily occurrence in my house. With Encarta, searching for the answers to those questions is easy - just enter the term in the search box and go. You can rest assured that the answers you find are accurate, too, since it’s coming from the Encarta Encyclopedia. (This is especially good for settling bets where money was involved, too. Not that I would do that, of course).
If you don’t have a smartphone, you can check out the Encarta app here. Otherwise, you can go to the MSN Mobile homepage and have MSN sent to your phone via text message.
Source- Channel 10 Blog
Hotmail update coming soon
It’s late September already, and time for that inevitable question: what did you do on your summer vacation? Well, this summer, the Hotmail team and I were hard at work on a new version of Hotmail, and we’re super excited to start rolling it out to you very soon.
Here’s a sneak peak at some of the changes.
- A great new look – We’ve done a little remodeling, and we think Hotmail looks much, much nicer and is easier to use. We did a lot of testing around the world to see what people liked and didn’t like. We’re really excited about the final results, and we hope you like it too! There’s also a whole new set of vibrant themes that replace our old color schemes.
- Classic & Full, together at last! – Our clever developers figured out how to take the performance of the Classic version of Hotmail, and combine it with features of the Full version, in a single experience. Now everyone gets the same features. You don’t have to trade off speed for functionality or decide which version is better for you. If you have been using the Full version, you’ll see much faster page load times, and if you have been using Classic, you now get to use the reading pane, drag & drop, and other features formerly limited to the Full version.
- A contact list that’s more than just contacts – Our contact list is now much more useful. Besides a new layout and improved look, we added features that are both fun and time-saving.
- Fun - If your Messenger contacts have a display picture, that picture will appear in your list.
- Time-saving - When you view a contact, you can see recent e-mail they’ve sent you, send them a message from right in the contact page, and view items from across Windows Live that you’ve shared together.
- Now THAT’s something to write home about! – We completely redesigned the experience of composing a new message. We have brand new auto-complete functionality for e-mail addresses, and a new contact picker that even detects commonly misspelled addresses. There is a new way to attach files and a new spell-checker that we think are much easier to use (especially if you were using Classic – no need to go to a new page to attach files anymore!). The text editor is completely rewritten, and we fixed a bunch of bugs – right-click now works!
- Updated Calendar beta – If you aren’t using the Calendar beta yet, now’s a great time to try it. Calendar sharing, an automatically generated birthday calendar for people in your contact list, a holiday calendar, iCal subscriptions to public calendars, to-do lists, and much, much more await you. Go to http://calendar.live.com, or go to Hotmail and click Calendar under “Related places” to sign up.
There is more to this release that I haven’t yet mentioned, including greater speed and more powerful spam fighting, and even more improvements coming soon (but I’ll save those for a later post that my boss is going to do.)
If you haven’t used your Hotmail account in a while, check out the changes at http://mail.live.com. You can also sign up for a new account from there.
Source- Windows Live Wire Blog
Hearst Magazines Digital Media and MSN Launch Delish.com
Hearst Magazines Digital Media, a unit of Hearst Magazines, and MSN today announced the launch of Delish.com (http://www.delish.com), a new online food destination. Delish.com, also available at http://www.msn.delish.com, features thousands of quick and easy food and cocktail recipes from Hearst Magazines and other sources, as well as fan blogs on the most popular food television shows, and the latest on food events and festivals worldwide. With an authoritative point of view that is simultaneously fun and informative, the site’s content will provide everyday chefs and busy individuals with the tools to expand their cooking and entertaining skills and knowledge of what is happening in and around the world of food. MSN and Hearst anticipate that Delish.com’s traffic numbers will immediately place the site into the top 10 food-related destinations on the Internet.
“Delish.com is very serious about the subject of food, but our writers, bloggers and overall editorial slant also look at the cultural and whimsical side of what we’re all eating,” said Chuck Cordray, vice president and general manager of Hearst Magazines Digital Media. “Together with MSN, we developed Delish.com to go way beyond a typical recipe site. We are confident that consumers will come to us for both information and entertainment.”
Delish.com will be accessible through the MSN home page and in editorial programming across its network, including on the MSN Lifestyle Channel and other relevant channels. In addition, all the advertising inventory for Delish.com will be sold by Microsoft Advertising. As part of the deal, MSN will sell targeted inventory in the food category on four Hearst properties: Countryliving.com, Goodhousekeeping.com, Quickandsimple.com and Redbookmag.com.
Source- Microsoft Press Release
Wallpapers from MSN - Beta
Well worth looking at, even if it is just to grab some great images to go on your wallpaper. Also love the random options 
Using the tool, you can
- download over a 100 great wallpapers
- Crop, rotate and resize images. Add text and speech bubbles to create your own wallpaper
- Set your wallpaper by time or create a slide show of images as your wallpaper
If you would like to learn more about customising your desktop, themes, tips and tricks, start menu and the Windows Sidebar try this great article from the Windows Help and How-to site
Source- MSDN Blog
Adding Live Search Maps As An Internet Explorer Search Provider
If you have Internet Explorer 7, you may be aware of the ability to add custom search providers to your browser. This allows you to add not just Live, Google and Yahoo!, but the likes of specific web site searches such as ESPN, Facebook or Target (yes, the retailer)! I figured there’s enough map lovers out there who may just want to search the Virtual Earth-based consumer site Live Search Maps right from the comfort of their own browser. So, how do you do it?
Well, first make sure you have IE 7. It might work on IE 8, but I’ve yet to return to it since Beta 1 when Virtual Earth 3D didn’t work right - I AM the team’s evangelist and this stuff MUST work right when I demo it! Well, in the browser search box, click the down arrow and you’ll see a list of the currently installed providers. It’s important to clarify that you need to select the Internet Explorer Search Box and not the Live Toolbar, MSN Toolbar, Google Toolbar, Yahoo! Toolbar, etc, etc. Only the Internet Explorer Search Box does this write up pertain to.
Next, click the "Find More Providers" link from the list. This will transport you to the Windows "Add Search Providers to Internet Explorer" list page. You’ll see a list of providers you can just click to add to your Internet Explorer Search Box. We’ll be creating our own, so after you’ve added your favorites continue reading.
Source- Virtual Earth Blog
