In an effort to try and find some more information on Windows Live Events and Calendar, I looked through the Spaces help file, to see if that’s been updated with the information soon to hit the press… when I found this.

I personally think it’s a typo, and that Windows Update will not become Windows Live Update. I ran this by one of the guys at LiveSide to see what they thought - they thought pretty much the same as me. Could be something, most likely not. For a start, Windows Update is a computer based service, although runs as an online service. Now that Windows Vista has been released, the website version of Windows Update has now been ported to a Control Panel application, so it’s very doubtful that this is anything in-particular.

But just thought I’d bring it to light anyway

Brandon: Good point! In fact, if I was reading this, I couldn’t have put it better. Thanks for noting this, we’ll adjust accordingly and definately in future. We here at liveandbeyond.com listen and take heed to the blogosphere  

See this? This is the new Windows Live Home (http://home.live.com). For a while now it’s had the basic services, but now it seems to be adding icons for the Windows Live Calendar and Windows Live Events services, which are due to be launched almost imminently. 

With a bit of trickery, you can now access some parts of the new Windows Live services (Events and Calendar) from the main http://home.live.com address. Here’s how:

Make sure you are logged out from Windows Live ID. On the middle-right, you’ll see links to the different services. There’s a jump in the URL format, so obviously replace some numbers in the URL:

It’ll then ask you to sign in, and take you to an Access Denied page on Spaces, thus confirming that Windows Live Events is a Windows Live Spaces application.

Here’s the message you’ll most likely receive:

LiveSide will probably report on this soon - we’ll try and let you know what’s happening as soon as we get it.

Although I’d love to take credit for writing about SkyDrive… I’ll let Chris take it. Go check out Windows Live SkyDrive over at LiveSide.

Check out Windows Live SkyDrive
Read SkyDrive blog
LiveSide’s post

That’s right…we’ve reached another important product milestone!  The highly anticipated Windows Home Server Release Candidate is available today.  The product team has been logging long hours and doing heroic work to finalize this new and improved build.   

The community has been chomping at the bit for RC.  And while with Beta 2 and CTP we accepted applicants into the beta program in stages, we’ll make the RC software available to all 100,000+ beta program applicants asap, as well as all new sign ups. 

Source: Bink.nu

Ask.com’s recent relaunch seems to have built upon a prototype called Ask X.

If you look at the Ask X’s search field it is shockingly similar to Microsoft’s Live Search.

Mirroring the Search (Zoom) glass the other way round doesn’t really count as original design now does it?

The Windows Live Jewel button that is found across all Windows Live Services seems to have problems with the Internet Explorer 7 zoom functionality.

(IE7 Zoom at 50%)

When I zoomed out to 50% on IE7, the Jewel button did not scale back like the rest of the website and it was all pixelated. I hope Microsoft fixes this, although it is a minor annoyance it is still something they should look into as it developed both of these products.

Update:

This only occurs when you zoom from normal to 125% or higher and then zoom to 50%.

Another interesting thing…

When you zoom from normal (100%) to 50%, the button scales down as it should like the rest of the website. Then when you try to zoom to something more than the 100%, say 150% , the button does not scale and remains at the 50% zoom level.

(Zoom from 50% to 150%)

We have one beta invite for the Windows Live Suite beta (Live Messenger, Live Writer and Live Mail). Although the betas are in the public to download, if you want to be a part of the testing experience and guaranteed placing on the Windows Live Messenger 9.0 beta, then leave a comment below with your email address in the correct field and we’ll pick one out.

But to make things interesting - I’d like to know in your comment, reasons “why someone will never look at me the same way again”. These can be hilarious as a result - the best one gets the invite. Go!

LiveSide jumped on this story as soon as it broke, in the middle of the night UK time. Chris dude, please sleep. I do worry about your health at times. You’re a good bloke and I’ve known you for a good few years - please sleep once in a while

Windows Live Messenger 8.5
Nothing really new except this emoticon ““ which can be written as (’.') - oh, there seems to be some Windows Live Folders integration for when that’s out of beta, but that’s soon to come too, part of the Live Drive “cloud” of storage service. There’s a new theme as well, but that’s really all there is to it… there’s not even any added Aero support.
Download here or check out it’s beta web page.

Windows Live Mail
The new name for Windows Live Mail desktop, which will replace Outlook Express and Windows Mail in Windows Vista. It’s awfully confusing with all these mail applications that Microsoft have suddenly thrown at us all, but Windows Live Mail is meant to overtake everything that it’s previously made, allowing Hotmail accounts and Outlook accounts to be used in this new client.
Download here or check out it’s beta web page.

Windows Live Writer
The new way to blog to whichever blog site you have - whether it be Windows Live Spaces or Wordpress, you can add an entry with picture, map or video support. Fully extensible with plugins (some of the ones that Scott at LiveSide has made are brilliant), and it keeps everything in a nice tight-nit place.
Download here or check out it’s beta web page.

All of these products now have the same confluent theme, which I can only presume will eventually resonate throughout all the new versions of the Windows Live products which come out. They all have new installers which simply install and give no more than 2 shortcuts on your desktop, but they’re all new and exciting and I recommend anyone with some spare time to check them out.

spaces maps plots your blog’s visitors on a map. This is for Windows Live Spaces only as the map is added via a gadget and it also uses Windows Live Local / Virtual earth map, where your visitors are plotted as push-pins and you can zoom in/out.

With no code pasting required, you can get a map on your Space in a couple of minutes. This is still in beta and be prepared to see a lot of changes to it. Give spaces maps a try and any feedback is welcome…

I’ve just written a post on how big Windows Live is (basically my way of spreading a few links that aren’t very well documented around the web. It’s worth a look, there are at least 7 there which you might not even know exists.

View at source.