Read more about Windows Live Deepfish here at Microsoft Live Labs.
Video: iPod | MP3 | PSP | WMA | WMV | WMV (High) | Zune

Microsoft “Tahiti” is a relatively new application which runs on the back of the Windows Live ID service and works with Microsoft Office 2007.

You can share from Office, Messenger, the Start menu and even from your system tray. It allows you to collaborate with other people and getting your ideas across, in a simple, clean and productive way. It allows you to share an application or your desktop, relax and watch other people’s ideas, and even track your work by letting someone else work on the same document as yours.

Although we have Groove Server which does this and Windows Meeting Space in Vista, this is a similar but new application which works well on Windows XP and Windows Server 2003 (all editions) and allows you to work with other people in real time, no matter where in the world you are.
Check out the Microsoft “Tahiti” website
Download Microsoft “Tahiti” now

Over the last few days, the good guys at LiveSide briefly and quietly broke the news about the upcoming Windows Live Core OS (operating system). I wanted answers, so after a bit of research and digging around, I’ve got something.

Microsoft Research has a lot to play in Live OS and the people involved have extensive backgrounds in online web services, networking and server storage. I propose that Live OS will be the front-end management system for Windows Live Drive, the online  storage service being introduced later this year by Microsoft. 

Many questions arise from Live OS and not rather my fantastic idea, such as how, why, when and where. Using our knowledge from people we know and from our sources, as well as from Live Search, we have come up with what we believe to be the answers. Please note: this is not necessarily factual nor does represent the ideas from Microsoft and these answers are from our own research which we believe is honest, fair and as accurate as possible.

When will Live Drive appear?
Windows Live Drive should be rolling out between Q2 and Q3 we estimate.

When will Live OS appear?
We estimate this year, perhaps with the release of Live Drive but we cant confirm.

What will Live OS look like?
It can either be in a web AJAX interface where it is coded in HTML and other server side scripting. It could be in form of a Flash application which runs in most web browsers and is simpler to use and more compatible; or could be an actual operating system in form of a virtual machine. If it is a virtual machine, it would be in form of Windows Server 2003 which can have many users logon simultaneously and can have cast storage solutions whilst saving licenses. Any server/networking techy will most likely understand the reasoning behind this

Will Live Drive/Live OS be free?
Both of us here were at a Windows Live conference last year which stated that all the Live services would be free, but proved themselves wrong with the release of OneCare. We believe that both products will be free but Live Premium accounts (previously MSN Premium) will have extra features and will have extra storage - but this is not confirmed by a long shot.

How much space will be offered?
From internal sources, beta testers of Live Drive get between 5GB and 20GB of storage but this will most likely change in the course of the program.

Will there be a beta testing process for the public?
We expect so - the beta program is midway between Beta 1 and Beta 2 with an expected technical refresh within the month. Live OS is probably behind in the development stages of the entire service.

Will there be advertisements?
If it is a free service, expect advertisements as these are what keeps most of the Live services running.

How long has Live Drive been in development?
Windows Live Drive is essentially the first Windows Live service. It has been in planning and development stages since late 2004 before even MSN Messenger was switched over to Live. It has taken this long to build huge datacenters packed with servers, and they have only recently been developing the software solution - it’s taken that long.

Where is this datacenter, and where will my files and folders be?
Somewhere north-east of Redmond near Seattle in the United States.

How will I access my files?
Using your Windows Live ID of course

Look what I found browsing around Live Search just a minute ago - Windows Search 4 (previously known as “Windows Desktop Search”, then codenamed: Casino/OneView), and it appears to be running in Windows Vista. It’s not clear whether this is an actual screenshot or whether it’s just a concept design - but it looks really good

There is rumor going round internally that Windows Live Mail has been updated. At the moment, Windows Live Mail (and will be soon known as Live Hotmail) is currently down and nobody seems to have access to it. But is rumor true and will we get to see a new milestone of this popular web based email?

You’ll find out soon enough

Some statistics for the closing beta:

• This beta started on 27th March 2006.
• There were a total of 3080 registered users in the managed beta.
• They received 832 bugs and 358 suggestions over the entire beta
• The newsgroup has had over 3500 posts.

Feedback has closed and no more submissions are being taken on, but it’s important to stress that only the managed beta is closing - the product will still be in beta for some time yet. The newsgroups will remain active for a while, and access to the beta product will still be ongoing. There will be a next release of this product it’s important to say, as development to v2 of the product is going ahead. All current testers will be shifted across to the new beta, just as Windows Live Messenger testers will be onto 9.0.

What next? A new build is just around the corner - shouldn’t be far off at all. Maybe not the final product, but a new build isn’t far off at all.

Update: a message to the testers was the source of this entry.

We’ve seen pictures of the next version of Yahoo! Messenger, designed specifically for Windows Vista as it’s written purely in the Windows Presentation Foundation. Well, on10 has a video of it at some big conference event. What are you waiting for? Download!

 iPod
 PSP
 WMV (Low) 
 WMV (High)
 Zune

The Windows Live OneCare Family Safety product, even though a beta refresh was issued last week, will now launch in summer as opposed to over the coming few weeks. Due to organisational restructuring, most likely due to Steve Berkowitz throwing his hat down, the product is not on hold but rather extended the program for more development.

This is a surprise as the product is in effect nearly done, but due to heads rolling and people moving, there is more focus on getting new people in than getting the product finished.

You heard it here first.

Windows Live OneCare Family Safety has been updated to a Beta 2 refresh status. Current users will get a notification through asking you to update, new users will be able to download it from the website by tomorrow morning.

Check it out: https://fss.live.com.

Source: MSBLOG

Thank you for participating in the WiFi Center Beta program. Due to changing priorities we have decided not to release Beta 5 and will be closing down the WiFi Center Beta on March 15, 2007. Your comments, bugs, and suggestions have provided invaluable feedback and helped us improve the quality of our product.

So basically the Windows Live WiFi Center product has gone and will not be returning. Another one of Steve Berkowitz’s decisions to turn the Windows Live Hotspot Locator into an MSN product has prevailed, which to be honest is another stupid idea. There will be no Windows Live WiFi Center Beta 5, but all of the comments and bugs etc. are basically useless going into something else no doubt

Thanks for your hard work people… wasted time. Check out the Hotspot Locator here.