Windows Live Dashboard

Windows Live Dashboard, which is part of Windows Live Essentials. Its nothing more than a small program that displays what you have installed. And Microsoft invited me to download this program.


Apple updates: the news about iTV and the iPod Nano remastered is all over the web. But don't forget to check out the presentation itself.

Windows Live Mail Desktop Beta

Windows Live Mail Desktop Beta - a program with an ultra long name, is Microsoft's live solution, or rather replacement, for Outlook Express. Among Microsoft's claim is that the program gives you "a massive 2GB* of online inbox storage." This, unfortunately, only applies to those who are in Windows Live Mail Beta.

Currently, Windows Live Mail Desktop Beta, has nothing special. It sprouts a search bar at the top (more like Google's idea), a 3 column interface (one for folder treeview, another for listing of message and viewing messages like in Outlook Express), and one column proudly labelled Advertisement. Other than that, you can view feeds (but this feature requires IE 7 to be installed), and there is a puzzling "Messenger Contacts" button at the bottom of the page, which when clicked, opens up Windows Live Messenger (notice that thanks to Microsoft's ingenuity, I have managed to mention 3 WLMs in this post).

And WLM Desktop Beta comes with a "photo email" feature...
so we decided to play with it...

Technorati: Microsoft, Windows Live

Steve Ballmer doesn't matter

Business 2.0 have released a list of 50 people whom they think are important (i.e. matters) and 10 people who who don't matter.

Surprisingly, they list Steve Ballmer and Jonathan Schwartz as people who don't matter... I don't really agree with that, because Microsoft is starting to take note of all these ajax stuff... but they can't seem to get their Live.com right.

My two cents worth on Live.com:

1. The live.com products and services have such long and confusing names. The newest's product - Windows Live Mail Desktop Beta (WLM Desktop) is easily confused with another WLM (Live Messenger) and also Windows Live Mail.

2. Their Live Search looks cool, feels cool, but something is just not right. Traditionally, search engines always have page numbers below, listing an approximate 10 results for every page. Any user looking for data will have a sense of 'search', a sense of how deep he has searched. E.g. I can skip to page 10 or 15 or go back to the previous page. On the other hand, Live.com presents an unorthodox method of presenting search results - by listing results infinitely using ajax into a small portion of the window. Though innovation, this makes searching a pain in the neck. [Trivia: Search for 'microsoft' in their live image search and the second first image is a penguin!]

3. Firefox 2.0 when it comes out, will be better than IE 7. More and more people will use Firefox..


But of course, I agree that Linus Torvalds don't really matter... Yes, and I do back the argument that "commercial businesses like Red Hat and Novell increasingly steer its future." (i.e. the future of Linux). Admittedly, I don't see Torvalds playing a big role in desktop software for linux (like multimedia programs or even web related programs like Firefox).


Conventional wisdom says that technological companies rise and fall with the tides of innovations that lash the shores of the technological business. According to Business 2.0, the most important person is the consumer. That reflects the wisdom of the crowd.


Update: Jonathan Schwartz has replied regarding his 'award'.

Windows Live Messenger

I have got some Windows Live Messenger invites...
so if you want to beta-test Windows Live Messenger for Microsoft or try it for your own personal use, kindly contact HanWorks Research.

Notes: Windows Live Messenger is not compatible with the current version of Messenger Plus. Windows Live Messenger is still buggy in some aspects but stable in other aspects. Read their blog carefully. Some new features in Windows Live Messenger include expanding your contact list up to 600 contacts, renaming and searching of contacts, and dynamic grouping of contacts.

Technorati: WLM

Windows Live Ideas

What is Windows Live?
Your online world gets better when everything works simply and effortlessly together. That's the basic idea behind Windows Live. So the things you care about - your friends, the latest information, your e-mails, powerful search, your PC files, everything – comes together in one place. This is a brand new Internet experience designed to put you in control. And this is just the beginning – you'll see many more new services in the coming months.

What is Windows Live Ideas?
Windows Live Ideas (the page you're looking at right now) is where you can check out the very latest Windows Live products—so new that they're not even finished yet. So give them a try and then tell us exactly what you think. And don't hold back. We need your help to make these products the best they can be.

(Highlighting not available on Live.com)

Consists of Live.com beta, Windows Live Mail Beta, Windows Live Safety Center beta, Windows Live Favorites beta, Windows Live Messenger beta, Windows OneCare Live beta, Windows Live Search beta-mobile.

I guess I'm only looking forward to Mail and Messenger... Mail looks cleaner than Hotmail currently, but hope there are no ads in this new version. :) Messenger is supposedly going to be the latest incarnation of MSN Messenger, where else can we get the same Messenger?

Safety Center seems a bit dangerous, seems like it can run Windows programs from within IE, technique may be used by attackers huh? (Anyway Microsoft Updates does that too, guess its only a matter of time before something like this appears)

http://ideas.live.com/