HTC Unveils Beautiful Touch Diamond Phone
HTC announced the latest phone in its growing high quality Touch series, the Touch Diamond, which comes with a pretty piano black finish, some cool new interface elements on top of Windows Mobile, like “lets users sort and view e-mail like stacks of letters, receive animated weather forecast graphics, and look at pictures as though they’re in a roll of film”, as well as a 3.2 megapixel camera, GPS and HSDPA.
Live Messenger Facebook Application
Microsoft has released an official Facebook application that lets you access Windows Live Messenger and chat with your Live IM contacts on Facebook. Visitors to your Facebook profile can send you IMs right from the page.
MS’s Greg Linden on News Personalization
I always find what Greg Linden has to say interesting, but now that he works on god-knows-what at Live Labs at Microsoft, it takes on even more importance. Read his paper on personalizing and customizing the news.
New Zune Probably Won’t Block Downloaded TV Shows
There was a rumor going around that Microsoft was planning on an agreement with NBC that would put NBC’s shows on the Zune in return for a form of active DRM that actually blocked non-copyprotected downloaded copies of NBC shows from being loaded and watched on a Zune. It was a pretty horrible idea, and Microsoft is making it very clear that they had no such plans.
Microsoft Discontinues SPOT Watches
Microsoft’s technology push to get smart watches with MSN Direct updates delivered by radio frequencies has ended, with MS discontinuing the product due to it never catching on with consumers. I always wanted one, though the large size and limited selection whenever I shopped for them kept me putting it off.
Grand Theft Auto IV Breaks Sales Records
GTA IV broke Halo 3’s sales record, selling 3.6 million units on day one, totaling $310 million in revenue in a single day (compared to Halo’s $300 million). That of course, is double what the highest opening weekendrecord for the film industry is. First week sales were $500 million.
Zune Video Store Starts Rolling Out Microsoft started delivering a video store for Zune owners, releasing a version 2.5 Zune store update that allows users to download TV shows for now, and later movies.
Do you really have any idea how big Yahoo is, or hell, how big MSN is? There’s a lot of overlap between the two, and Long Zheng & Josh Philips have been kind enough to generate a nice chart to show the two. The chart is reproduced below, with some notes added by me regarding what I think about which service will be rolled into the other.
Both sides have some great, well-developed portal sites. There’s no need for both, so the only way sites like Yahoo Autos and MSN Autos survive is if the companies waffle and keep both Yahoo and MSN alive, competing with each other.
Here’s part of the beauty of the acquisition. Yahoo and MSN have many international portals. In some countries, Yahoo is king, in others, MSN. Together, they combine to have #1 market share in almost every single market.
Account Management
Yahoo ID
Live ID
Yahoo’s ID system, while good, is nowhere near as powerful or versatile as Microsoft’s. Microsoft’s multi-account switching and Windows Live Sign-In assistant would win anyday. Either way, Microsoft sticks with its own technology, so Yahoo IDs are dead.
MyYahoo is bigger and has more users, and a big history. The technology developed for Live.com will likely be rolled into MyYahoo, or exist as a more advanced option for MyYahoo users, but MyYahoo is king here.
Both are big dogs, and both are struggling to catch Google. Both will survive, at least for a while, with Microsoft trying to find a way to combine the market share of the two eventually. Most likely, the search engine will fall under the Yahoo brand, but itcould go either way.
Not even a question. Microsoft loves Live Maps, and has invested heavily in it. Yahoo Maps is dead, but its engineers and some of its code may work for Live in the future.
Yahoo Messenger and Live Messenger already work together, making the path for the future easier. Live Messenger is more popular, and will almost definitely be the only client in the future, with added support for the Yahoo services and features it can take over from the Yahoo client.
Live Hotmail is one of Microsoft’s most important, strongest projects. Microsoft will avoid killing Yahoo at first, but development on Yahoo Mail will cease. Microsoft will offer Yahoo users the option to migrate their accounts to the ever-improving Hotmail, and eventually Yahoo Mail will phase out and die.
Yahoo Answers is the amazing success story of 2007, while Live QnA never got enough traction. Live QnA is dead, and there’s even a chance Microsoft will not bother to integrate.
Flickr will become tied to Live Spaces, with the millions of Live Spaces photos becoming part of Flickr. The two will thrive on each other and grow exponentially more successful. This will be the immediate crown jewel of the acquisition.
Yahoo Widgets is strong and has a nice library of Gadgets. The first post-acquisition release of Sidebar will add support for Yahoo Widgets, which will live side-by-side in Windows Vista.
The hardest part of the acquisition. It took Yahoo years to integrate Overture into its own ad systems, and if that happens to Microsoft, this entire acquisition will have been a waste. Luckily, Microsoft is very talented at integrating, at least when compared to Yahoo. Expect hundreds of employees to work on combining the two products, with a deadline of under 12 months, maybe even six months.
Live Mobile isn’t fully developed, but an important part of Microsoft’s mobile strategy. Yahoo Go for Mobile is a great piece of software. There will be a fight inside Microsoft, but if the company is smart, it will continue to develop Yahoo Go as the iPhone-killer content browser.
Yahoo’s offering is dead. Office Live is much better, and important to Microsoft’s Office division. Yahoo’s customers will hopefully like Microsoft’s technology, which has been well invested in and is cheaper (or free).
Tough call. Live Events is really knew, and we don’t know how important it is to Microsoft. If they aren’t desperately attached to it, Upcoming could win.
Microsoft killed MSN Music for Zune, and it will kill Yahoo Music, too. Microsoft will integrate or transition, and kill it off. Hopefully, Launchcast will survive, but don’t count on it.
Microsoft has decided to be the market-breaker, working on a version of Windows Live Messenger that will be able to communicate with Google Talk, AOL Instant Messenger and ICQ. They’ve already completed the GTalk portion of the integration, and are working on AIM and ICQ. Considering that LiveIM already interoperates with Yahoo Messenger, Microsoft would be the first mainstream free client to connect all the major network protocols. How exciting!
How will the rest of the market react? Considering how long it takes Yahoo Messenger to release anything, and how Google Talk is being mismanaged by Google, Microsoft could be at the top of the heap for many months. I know that the second GTalk interoperation is released, I’ll stop using GTalk, and I suspect I’m not the only one.
UPDATE: Apparently, the article Mashable linked to is based on a LiveSide post from two months ago. I suggest reading the post, which does talk about possible Google Talk/AIM integration, though not as definitively, and several other very interesting things.
MSN Messenger’s mobile version has been upgraded to Windows Live Messenger Mobile, adding some new faetures and updating the branding. Head to mobile.msn.com from almost any phone’s web browser to sign into the new version. It adds rich emoticon images, the ability to manage five simultaneous conversations, lets you change your display name and status (and use I’M charity names), access and search Live Contacts, and hide offline contacts.
One problem: If you are signed into Live Messenger on your computer on your computer, even the new beta that supports being signed into more than one place, you will be signed out when signing into Windows Live Messenger Mobile, because it doesn’t support multiple sign-ons. This means that the multiple sign-on feature is limited to computers with the specific version installed, and it means you can’t leave your phone signed in all the time.
Microsoft has this Windows Live Messenger bot, northpole@live.com, that is supposed to let kids chat with Santa Claus, and The Register is claiming that there’s a glitch in the system. They have a screenshot that is supposed to be of a conversation with SantaBot, where Santa lets the conversation turn to fellatio.
El Reg says: Eat it
Santa says: See if you can get someone else to eat it!
El Reg says: Eat it
Santa says: You want me to eat what?!? It’s fun to talk about oral sex, but I want to chat about something else…
El Reg says: You dirty bastard!
Santa says: I think you’re dirty bastard.
On the one hand, I don’t trust The Register, and no one ever should. Plus their screenshot looks Photoshopped and no one can reproduce it. On the other hand, Microsoft has apparently taken the bot offline, so there’s a good chance something was wrong. You can never tell when The Register’s being serious or not.
Windows Live Messenger 9’s beta has begun, with beta testers getting access to the software on Microsoft Connect. If you applied for the beta, check your email or check Connect to see if you’ve been accepted. Here are some screenshots of it someone leaked out:
The middle screenshots show off the new feature, which allows you to be signed in to your account on multiple computers at the same time. You can even click to sign yourself out of a remote computer from any computer, which is very convenient.
The last screenshot shows off another new feature, which lets you import custom sounds to associate with each of your friends when they log in. Not only can you choose from a list of sounds, you can select a five second sample from any music file on your computer to use that as the sound. The interface for choosing the sample is so clean and simple, I feel it should be integrated into the operating system for all programs to use to manipulate music and video clips.
Microsoft has confirmed that a new version of its Messenger instant messaging software will ship with and when Mac Office 2008 hits stores. While we don’t know anything about features, or even if it’ll be named Windows Live Messenger or MSN Messenger (presumably the new name, though), at least Mac fans are getting a new version. Not only that, but work is already going on for Messenger 7, which will be the first Mac version with audio/video capabilities.
(via Digg)
You can now get the code for Windows Live Messenger IM Control for your website. This lets you include Live Messenger on your blog, so your readers can send you IMs without needing a screen name, or your customers can ask support questions on any website. The code is extremely simple, will run in any blog that can take a YouTube embed (using a simple IFRAME, rather than SCRIPT tags), and it doesn’t reveal your IM screen name to potential spammers.
Here it is, embedded in this post after the break:
It’s after the break, because it seems to break my site template in both IE and Opera, and doesn’t seem to be working. I’ll try to figure out why and fix it. If it does work for you, send me a message to let me know.
Windows Live Calendar, available within Live Hotmail, should also be available today to all users. Just sign into your Live ID account, then go to calendar.live.com, and you should be set. Adding events is easy, just double-click on a date, and you can set the basic details (or click to edit advanced options). You can create multiple calendars, with multiple options for sharing or setting co-owners of calendars. I’m enjoying playing around with it the last half hour, and it even sort of/almost works in Opera.
The news you need to know right now: Live.com email addresses are available right now. Not just Live.com, but Live.at, live.be, windowslive.com, live.co.uk and many more. Here is the whole list, courtesy LiveSide:
Country Domain
ARGENTINA LIVE.COM.AR
AUSTRALIA LIVE.COM.AU
AUSTRIA LIVE.AT
BELGIUM LIVE.BE
CANADA LIVE.CA
CHILE LIVE.CL
CHINA LIVE.CN
DENMARK LIVE.DK
FINLAND WINDOWSLIVE.COM
FRANCE LIVE.FR
GERMANY LIVE.DE
HONG KONG LIVE.HK
INDONESIA WINDOWSLIVE.COM
IRELAND LIVE.IE
ITALY LIVE.IT
JAPAN LIVE.JP
KOREA LIVE.CO.KR
MALAYSIA LIVE.COM.MY
MEXICO LIVE.COM.MX
NETHERLANDS LIVE.NL
NORWAY LIVE.NO
PAKISTAN LVE.COM.PK
PERU LIVE.COM.PE
PORTUGAL LIVE.COM.PT
RUSSIA LIVE.RU
SINGAPORE LIVE.COM.SG
SOUTH AFRICA LIVE.CO.ZA
SWEDEN LIVE.SE
SWITZERLAND WINDOWSLIVE.COM
THAILAND WINDOWSLIVE.COM
TURKEY WINDOWSLIVE.COM
UK LIVE.CO.UK
USA LIVE.COM
VIETNAM WINDOWSLIVE.COM
Head to get.live.com/getlive/overview for all the domains or this link for Live.com email addresses. Now that Live.com email addresses can be linked, you can get the Hotmail.com and Live.com versions of your email, or a better Live.com version, and switch between Hotmail inboxes with a simple click.
If you’d like to make it easier for people to contact you via your blog (or MySpace or whereever you can post code), Windows Live Messenger has a site where you can create a nice-looking button in seconds that will get them in touch with your Live Messenger screen name. You could even add the button to your email or forum signature, and there are multiple button designs, colors and taglines available to customize it for your needs.
I don’t like that the button’s source code exposes your Live ID, and thus your Hotmail email address, with no effort by Microsoft to obfuscate the email. That’s the kind of mistake Google makes every time it launches a product, and I expect smarter moves from Microsoft. As a result, clicking the button up there will launch an IM window, but you’ll be talking to my good friend joeyjoejoejunior5@hotmail.com, not me.
(via LiveSide)
After discovering a particular security vulnerability, Microsoft has decided to force all users of MSN Messenger and Windows Live Messenger on Windows Vista and XP to upgrade to the latest version, Windows Live Messenger 8.1. Many users are holdouts, sticking with older version like 6.2, 7.0, 7.5 and 8.0, but on trying to sign in they will be forced to upgrade or not use the software. Get ready for a lot of angry users.
LiveSide details a service coming called Messenger Presence, which will allow users on your website/blog to send you messages from a Messenger window. They’ll be able to see when you’re online, send you anonymous messages, and even hold two-way IM conversations all from the web browser. If the service features your Live Messenger status messages, it can present a serious challenge to Twitter, if you ask me.
Microsoft finally delivered the first Windows Live Suite, a single installer that allows you to install a number of Windows Live programs as a single download that updates regularly. Go to this site and configure your 1.8 megabyte download, picking from these products:
Windows Live Mail - the ad-supported desktop email client that integrates well with Windows Live Hotmail, but lets you add any regular email account, plus RSS feeds, spell checking, PhotoMail and Windows Live Contacts. Replaces Outlook Express in Windows XP and Windows Mail in Windows Vista.
Windows Live Photo Gallery - software for managing, finding, sharing, tagging and editing photos. Replaces Windows Photo Gallery in Vista and is a completely new feature for XP.
Windows Live Writer - blog posting tool, supporting almost all popular blogging software. Considered one of the best products in its category.
Windows Live Messenger - instant messaging, compatible with Yahoo Messenger. By getting it as part of the Suite, you don’t have to worry as much about installing new versions.
Windows Live Sign-In assistant - required install, helps you sign in to Windows Live ID. When you visit a Windows Live ID site in your browser, the sign-in assistant can help out by displaying large buttons for various Live IDs and, in some cases, letting you just click on the account you want to sign in.
Windows Live OneCare Family Safety - parental control software, allows parents to monitor and restrict a child’s internet access
Windows Live Toolbar - Internet Explorer toolbar, very powerful toolbar for accessing Windows Live sites and services.
All the software included features newer updated versions. Live Messenger has some bugs fixed. Live Mail has a new List View for contacts, contacts import/export improvements, toolbar customization, Quick Views, improved Layout Dialog options, changing your sign in account, Photo E-Mail updates and Newsgroup updates.
Live Writer is hugely improved. The new version has video insertion (from Soapbox, including your own account, and other video websites), image uploading to Blogger/PicasaWeb, the ability to publish XHTML-style markup, 28 new languages, printing blog posts, justifying and aligning post text, and better image handling, including a fix for the blurry images problem, in addition to bug fixes and installation issues.
Live Photo Gallery gets improved color adjustment and cropping capabilities, image sharpening, shadow and highlight levels, image resizing, batch image resizing, a picture import tool that grabs pictures from your camera in a much better way than Vista or XP do, publishing photos to Windows Live Spaces and videos to MSN Soapbox. This is the first public beta of this software, also.
One complaint: The Suite is not yet available for 64-bit systems.
Curiously, the Suite offers to set your homepage to MSN.com, not Live.com, which probably indicates the change in strategy away from the personalized homepage.
Microsoft and Nokia announced an agreement bring Windows Live applications to the Nokia S60 phones in 11 countries. Customers will have the Windows Live Suite available on their phone, including Windows Live Hotmail, Messenger, Contacts and Spaces. LiveSide has some details and screenshots, including that Live Hotmail will not feature push email (it does have that on Windows Mobile phones), but that the phone’s camera can take pictures and video and attach them to emails.
Live Contacts. Once you sign in for the first time your Live Contacts is auto-magically synchronized within the address book of the Nokia device. As well as names, address’s, email and the other usual stuff what’s nice about this, and I think pretty unique is that the online presence and status of your contacts show up within the phone list. So now from within the device address book you can find whoever you want to communicate with and leverage the presence/status to determine the best way to reach them.
Messenger. At sign-in you can change your online picture and your status. Once online you obviously can browse your messenger contacts and take part in multiple conversations as you would expect. What I love is that the services integrate features from within the phone, so when you are within a conversation you can send a voice clip, file or picture - either from the gallery or snap one with the camera. When I think about how powerful voice and pictures are this enables a great scenario for traveling: sign-in, find your friend and start conversation, then speak “hey honey, I just got into the hotel in Sydney, look at my amazing view” and then take a picture out of your hotel room of the Opera House.
Hotmail. So here there is good integration with the Nokia email client and your Hotmail gets loaded into a separate folder within the client. Because the emails are downloaded they are available when you are offline. Right now your email isn’t synchronized auto-magically, but its a simple process to goto options, select sync etc. When you are composing an email, just like messenger the phone features are integrated so that you can insert a picture, voice clip, video or other phone right into the email message.
Spaces. Not surprisingly there is good Spaces support. On Nokia devices there is an application called ‘online share’ which comes with plug-in’s for Flickr and Vox and now we added Spaces support. There is a simple process to activate the service by adding your Live ID and once that is done the Gallery is now Live enabled. It’s super easy, select the photo you want, goto options, open online service and it will promote you to add a title and text and the the image is load up to your blog.
My Opera web browser, normally the king of stability, crashed and completely screwed up my saved tabs, so I’m posting everything old right now, in order to set things right.
Windows Live Messenger is now blocking users from receiving messages containing .info web addresses, in order to thwart spammers. They were already blocking files with a .pif extension and addresses with download.php and staff.php. Someone finally got a hand on the complete Messenger ban list, which you can see below:
Windows Live Messenger’s I’m Initiative, which allows Messenger users to add an icon directing a portion of advertising revenue to the charity of their choice, has contributed to the growth of Live Messenger. Over the four months of the program for which data is available, Messenger has been outpacing its rivals, enjoying growth of up to 8.7% a month, while Yahoo and AOL have combined for no more than 3.8% growth, according to ComScore numbers.
In the 5 months so far over $35,000 has been raised, which is a pretty good total considering that only users in the US are able to raise money. However as each of the ten charities is guaranteed to received $100,000 at the end of the first year, this potentially leaves Microsoft another $900,000 or so to meet (based on the current rates).
Here’s the second video blog for InsideMicrosoft, fourth overall, and the last before my stiches came out (about two hours ago). Typing is still a pain, but expect new blog posts as the weekend dies down.
I think this is the best camera angle so far. I had to tape my camera to a lamp to get it, though. I need a tripod, bad.
Here’s my second video blog post since tearing up my hand, the first for InsideMicrosoft. The highlight is definitely the demo of the new New York buildings in Windows Live Maps 3D, so I think you are really going to enjoy it.
UPDATE: Since I filmed this, a new version of Windows Live Messenger has been released. I’ll be talking about that in my next video, which I will film today.
