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Microsoft's desktop package of net-related goodies, Windows Live, is no longer in beta. The package which consists of Windows Live Mail, Live Messenger, Windows Live Toolbar photo sharing and blogging apps, is now officially touted as a free "upgrade" to Windows. Don't get your hopes up for novelties, though, as the removal of "beta" tag has not brought many new features.
If you haven't tried it out yet, Windows Live Mail is basically the new, better Outlook Express which enables you to access multiple e-mail accounts from one place (like, you know, all desktop e-mail clients). Yes, this includes web based accounts like Gmail, Hotmail and AOL. Windows Live Photo Gallery lets you edit and organize photos and upload them to Flickr or Windows Live Spaces, whichever you fancy. Oh yes, and you can now get those fancy [email protected] style e-mail addresses.
Live Writer is a desktop blog editing program which we've covered in one of our toolboxes, and came to the conclusion that it's quite good. Finally, Live Messenger is a continuation of the well known MSN Messenger, while One Care Family Safety enables you to protect your young family members from all the evil stuff on your computer and on the internet.
One thing we can expect for certain is lot of advertising. Microsoft is planning a huge online advertising campaign for Windows Live; according to Brian Hall, general manager of Windows Live at Microsoft, it will include 10 billion ad impressions on MSN and other sites.