Windows Live and the Future

Windows Live represents a huge leap forward for Windows and software integration. Currently, Windows Live Mail is integrated with calendar. Photo Gallery recognizes people from your contacts(with some training). Those same contacts are kept in the online services as well as in Windows Messenger and Windows Live Call. All of the services integrate well with Flickr, and can be extended to add Picasa support. SkyDrive, with a bit more storage, could be the online equivalent of a flash drive. Live Mesh is the new remote assistance service, allowing tech support to be handled largely remotely. The potential for these services integrating closely with Windows 7 is huge. While Windows 7 will not come with these apps, Microsoft could just provide an easy link to install them. While I don’t know much about the new Windows 7 UI(current builds just use the Vista UI), if something like a Windows Live sidebar gadget were to emerge in Windows 7, it would make the Live services amazing. Somehow I don’t think that Apple’s ads will be too successful when Microsoft can counter iLife with Live.

Windows Live Mail

For those who don’t know, this is Windows Mail:

This is Windows Live Mail:

(Photo blurred for privacy reasons)

The new big thing is email preview pane on the far right. Clicking on an email in the middle pane opens a preview in the right pane.

There is now feed reading:

(Those are the default feeds, not ones I chose)

(Photo blurred for privacy reasons)

There is now a calendar:

This calendar syncs with Windows Live Calendar in the cloud, giving windows an online and desktop calendar without an exchange server, finally.

There is also newsgroup support:

In the bottom left corner there is now a set of buttons to switch between the different options:

This can be removed, but I like the option. There is support for multiple email addresses.

Function-wise, the buttons at the top are similar to Windows Mail. The cool thing is that changing modes changes buttons, sort of like a contextual menu:

Windows Live Mail has gained the new color scheme, but unlike photo gallery, it can be customized:

Its a lot easier to setup email accounts now. In addition, you can customize which buttons appear in what context. So for instance:

Also, an update to my previous post on Windows Live Photo gallery, it also has the option to customize the toolbar.

Windows Live Call

Windows Live Call is like messenger+skype+SMS. Thats about all.

Calls are 2 cents for pc to phone, pc to pc are free. Its really more of an addon to Messenger than anything. If you use SMS, or PC to Phone, or PC to PC Calling, and don’t want to use Skype, this is for you. The only reason I can think of to use this is because the memory usage is lower than Skype’s, and it feels a lot less bloated.

Windows Live Family Safety Filter

Not the sort of thing I advocate using, parental controls on computers, but it exists and it is part of the Windows Live Package(its optional though), so I think I ought to review it.

You can then control it from the web interface.

 

Fortunately, a password can disable it, and you can uninstall it quickly….done!

So, if you use this, make sure the person you want to block stuff from doesn’t know the admin password.

Live Photo Gallery

Now Live Photo Gallery is, after Live Writer, probably my most used Live app. The only advantage I had found in the early versions was panorama stitching(I take lots of panoramas). This feature and a bit more is present in the new version.

(Yes, that is XKCD in my photo viewer)

Just as Live Writer did away with a terrible color scheme, Live Photo Gallery does away with a similar-but-not-so-bad color scheme, and changes to the same one that Live Writer has. Not much else has changed except for it being a bit speedier. The buttons on the top have been altered a bit, but no new functions that I know of.

Update:

I read through the features list, and there are some important things that I didn't notice.

1. Facial Recognition - It now can recognize a human face, and if you tell it who is who in a few photos, it can start making suggestions which are not too accurate, but narrow down the list a bit.

2.There is now an option under "Extras" to create a photosynth, which will directly open up photosynth if the plugin is installed.

Update to Windows Live Writer Post

One feature I forgot to mention, Windows Live Writer can attach videos from youtube now, which I personally am going to find immensely useful.

Windows Live Movie Maker Beta

This is Windows Movie Maker. Despite some slight changes, the interface hasn’t changed all that much since the days of Windows XP SP1. This review, however, is not about Windows Movie Maker. It is about Windows Live Movie Maker Beta, which shipped with the third wave of windows live betas.

Windows Live Movie Maker has inherited the Ribbon from Microsoft Office 2007. There is a lot of room free on the ribbon, so I expect that lots of features will be added there. For now its basic, but a lot easier to use than the non-live version. It also makes it very easy to publish videos to the web. It comes with a soapbox plugin, but you can get plugins for SmugMug and Flickr. This features is really a bit hindered by the lack of a youtube function, but hopefully this will come in time.

The other tab on the ribbon:

Expanding the Effects and Transitions boxes reveals that there are only three effects and two transitions, but more will probably be added later into the beta, and certainly by the time it leaves beta.

Its also inherited the file menu from Office 2007. Until there are more complete features, there's not much to review, but it certainly looks promising.

Windows Live Betas Wave 3

So the windows live products are getting updated, and some additions to the apps, so I'll be reviewing one per day for the next few days. At the end of it all, I'll create a review with summaries of all of the app reviews, as well as links to the full reviews.

Today's app is.....

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Windows Live Writer!

Yes, I thought I would start with the live app I use most often.

Image courtesy of the Via Windows Life blog. This is the old version. Here is the new one:

The first thing I noticed was the better color on the toolbar, the old one was very… inelegant. The next big change is the bar at the bottom.

This gives a nice way to tab between edit, preview, and source, which is very convenient. All of my old plugins still work as well. There is now a Recently posted section on the right, as well as a Drafts section.

It feels a bit faster, and seems to startup a bit faster.

Overall, this almost completes Windows Live Writer. The only thing I would like to see is a way to tab between open drafts.