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Messenger in Windows Live Hotmail is now available for customers in Brazil, Canada, China, Germany, the Netherlands, Norway, and the US. If you are living in one of these countries, you will now be able to chat with your Messenger contacts directly from your Hotmail inbox. The Hotmail team states:
You are wondering if your country is not supported? Windows Live Wire comments:
Note: This also works if you don’t use Hotmail, but have your own e-mail provider.
It is a bit strange to see that Messenger in Hotmail is not realized with the new Windows Live Messenger Web Toolkit, which seems to be predestined for such an implementation. You might also notice that the Web Messenger does not support all of Messenger’s core features. Here’s a list of what might be interesting to have:
What do you think of Messenger in Hotmail? Is there anything you miss or would like to have changed?
We’re happy to announce that Windows Live Hotmail is integrating instant messaging capabilities within its web interface. With this functionality, you can get your email and IM all in one place! This feature lets you IM your Windows Live Messenger contacts from within your Hotmail inbox or People page without having to switch over to the Messenger client. […]
Send an instant message from anywhere – With this new feature, you’ll now have instant messaging capabilities when you use a public or otherwise shared computer, without having to download a client program. Already logged in to Messenger elsewhere? Not a problem – you have the option to sign-in (or sign-out) from Hotmail through the “Messenger” drop down menu even if you are signed into the client elsewhere.
You are wondering if your country is not supported? Windows Live Wire comments:
Customers in Brazil, Canada, China, Germany, the Netherlands, Norway, and USA will see this feature for the first time today (as usual, rollout to different individuals is gradual, so if you don’t see it yet, please be patient). This feature rolled out to users in France, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Spain, and the UK last month. Not in your area yet? We will be rolling out web-based Messenger to more locations in the coming months.
Getting started with Messenger in Hotmail
Note: This also works if you don’t use Hotmail, but have your own e-mail provider.
- Just browse your Messenger contacts.
- At the top right, you see an entry “
Messenger”. - Click it, and choose “Sign in to Messenger (Web)”.
- Then click any of your contact’s display pictures and choose “Send an instant message”.
- A popup window opens, and you can start your conversation.
Some thoughts about the new service
It is a bit strange to see that Messenger in Hotmail is not realized with the new Windows Live Messenger Web Toolkit, which seems to be predestined for such an implementation. You might also notice that the Web Messenger does not support all of Messenger’s core features. Here’s a list of what might be interesting to have:
- Send and receive Offline messages.
- Set your display picture easily.
(I know, you can set it via your Windows Live profile, but that’s a bit complicated.) - Change your display name and your personal message easily.
(Same applies here.) - See your contact’s Messenger scenes, and set your own.
They might get integrated with the Windows Live headers? - Send and receive files.
- Access chat logs.
What do you think of Messenger in Hotmail? Is there anything you miss or would like to have changed?
Windows Live Hotmail now with free POP access everywhere
on Tue 17 Mar 2009 (08:49 GMT) (6099 views)
on Tue 17 Mar 2009 (08:49 GMT) (6099 views)
The Windows Live Hotmail team has announced that POP access is now available for all Hotmail users. POP access allows you to use any mail client program to access your e-mail, unlike Outlook Connector, which is only working with Microsoft Outlook.
POP settings to use for Hotmail
How to enable POP access in Outlook 2007
More recently added Hotmail updates
Additionally, with the recent updates, we have seen the following changes:
Open Windows Live Hotmail
View the official Hotmail team announcement
POP settings to use for Hotmail
- POP server: pop3.live.com
- POP SSL required? Yes
- User name: Your Windows Live ID, for example yourname@hotmail.com
- Password: The password you usually use to sign in to Hotmail or Windows Live
- SMTP server: smtp.live.com
- Authentication required? Yes (this matches your POP username and password)
- TLS/SSL required? Yes
How to enable POP access in Outlook 2007
- Click “Tools”, “Account Settings...”.
- On the “E-mail” tab, click “New...”.
- If you are prompted to “Choose E-mail Service”, select “Microsoft Exchange, POP3, IMAP, or HTTP”, and click “Next”.
- Check the checkbox at “Manually configure server settings or additional server types”, and click “Next”.
- Select “Internet e-mail” and click “Next”.
- In the section “User Information”, enter your name and your Hotmail address.
- In the section “Server Information”, select “POP3” as “Account Type”, enter “pop3.live.com” as “Incoming mail server” and “smtp.live.com” as “Outgoing mail server”.
- “Logon Information” are your Hotmail address (including @hotmail.com or @live.com), along with your password.
- Now click the button “More Settings...”, and switch to the “Outgoing Server” tab.
- Check the checkbox “My outgoing server (SMTP) requires authentication”.
- On the “Advanced” tab, at “Incoming server (POP3)”, check the checkbox “This server requires an encrypted connection (SSL)”.
- At “Outgoing server (SMTP)”, open the select box “Use the following type of encrypted connection”, and choose “TLS”.
- Now click “OK”, “Next” and “Finish”. You're done!
More recently added Hotmail updates
Additionally, with the recent updates, we have seen the following changes:
- Room for all your mails
Hotmail now offers 5 GB room for your e-mails. What if you need more? Your storage capacity will automatically increase as you need it. - Changed position for advertisements
The top ad banner is gone, now we see a banner on the right side, stealing less room on smaller screen resolutions like 1024x768. - Quick Add
For example, you're abroad and want to meet some friends there, but they don't know the location well. Now what you do is open Hotmail and type a message, then you open Quick Add.
When you found a nice restaurant to invite your friends to, simply click "Insert" to add its information to your e-mail draft. - What's New feed in Today
After adding the What's New feed in the Windows Live Home and Profile, you have it now directly at your fingertips when opening Hotmail - it's part of your Windows Live Hotmail Today page.
Open Windows Live Hotmail View the official Hotmail team announcementHot from Neowin.net: the andyman no longer writes here, so below is a post he has created elsewhere
In the coming weeks Microsoft will release more updates to its Windows Live Hotmail email service. Recent updates have included POP access, an increase in speed and performance, a Windows Live Calendar update, an interface update, better spam protection, bug fixes, and other changes in response to feedback. On top of that, we can expect to see an integrated web messenger, access to other email accounts through POP aggregation, what's new feed integration, and unlimited storage.
Some of us have been waiting a long time for a Windows Live web messenger, a much needed update to Microsoft's current MSN Web Messenger offering [...]
Read the rest of this post, featuring a comprehensive preview and screenshots, at NeowinAs Wave 3 news starts to trickle out, we are learning more and more about updates to Windows Live products. LiveSide have the scoop on the new Wave 3 version of Windows Live Hotmail, with new details about the (finally) included built in web messenger:
So some interesting news there, but could this be the time that we finally see an official Windows Live Messenger online client and that Windows Live beats Google's mail service?
Source: LiveSide - Windows Live Hotmail Wave 3: What's New
Windows Live Hotmail 'coming soon' promotional page
- Speed: The coming soon page says that for broadband users, the new Hotmail will be up to 70% faster on sign in (50% for non-broadband users). That's a pretty big claim, and one which should provide for some interesting testing once the beta is open to the public.
- Ever-increasing storage: Microsoft have carefully avoided using the phrase "unlimited storage", as Yahoo has done, but in a sense this is what is being offered. The figures we last heard for this were the the existing 5GB free accounts would be getting growth of 250MB per month, but this is pre-beta and could have changed and so our usual disclaimer applies. Obviously the PR definitely looks better leaving the figures out, but a free inbox of 8GB by the end of year 1 gives us a warm feeling. (For comparison, Gmail is currently on 7GB and still growing.)
- New UI: Along with the new Wave 3 UI, in particular the new header and themes available shown below, the new promotion site suggests that the classic and full versions of Hotmail will be combined together. This potentially means that full functionality could be available across all browsers. Also worth mentioning here are improvements around dealing with spam.
- WebIM built-in: This feature doesn't really need much explaining and should be a popular addition. From what we've heard it'll support most of the basic needs such as presence, notifications and chat via the WebMessenger dogfood. Yes its been a while since we've spoken about that!
- Integrated Calendar: No surprise if you're on the new Windows Live Calendar beta to hear there will be integration between the two services.
- Easier to send group emails: Thanks to the new Windows Live Groups service (go ABCH!) it'll be easier to email all those contacts in one go.
So some interesting news there, but could this be the time that we finally see an official Windows Live Messenger online client and that Windows Live beats Google's mail service?
Source: LiveSide - Windows Live Hotmail Wave 3: What's New Windows Live Hotmail 'coming soon' promotional pageJust a quick post here summing up 3 small pieces of news.
Pidgin beta released
The long awaited Gaim 2.0 beta 7 (now known as Pidgin) has been released to the public. This is hopefully going to be the last public beta before the official release. It is the first we have seen of the newly re-named software. Click here to view the announcement, or click here to download Pidgin.
Video coming to Google Talk?
Read more on the subject here, here and here.
Windows Live Hotmail finally ready (for US and UK)?
LiveSide have reported about an email certain US testers recently received containing details of a few rewards for beta testers to thank them for testing Windows Live Hotmail. Could this finally mean Windows Live Hotmail is ready for release in the main worldwide markets? (PS from the andyman: UK users might want to keep an eye on this site)
Pidgin beta released
The long awaited Gaim 2.0 beta 7 (now known as Pidgin) has been released to the public. This is hopefully going to be the last public beta before the official release. It is the first we have seen of the newly re-named software. Click here to view the announcement, or click here to download Pidgin.
Video coming to Google Talk?
According to an article at PCWorld, 'Google Inc. has bought video conferencing software from Marratech AB', 'The client software runs on Windows 2000 or XP, Mac OS X 10.4, or versions of Linux'. Could this provide a cross-platform video conferencing boost to gTalk?
Read more on the subject here, here and here.
Windows Live Hotmail finally ready (for US and UK)?
LiveSide have reported about an email certain US testers recently received containing details of a few rewards for beta testers to thank them for testing Windows Live Hotmail. Could this finally mean Windows Live Hotmail is ready for release in the main worldwide markets? (PS from the andyman: UK users might want to keep an eye on this site)
A couple of weeks ago some testers of Windows Live Hotmail (beta) were sent an email saying that:
This was not a huge shock, especially if you think about the amount of time it has been in beta for, how far it has come, and the release schedules of other Windows Live products.
Now the release seems to have edged even closer. French users subscribed to the monthly Hotmail email newsletter received the April edition recently, which contained a little surprise. For those of you who don't speak French here is a rough translation of the text:
So could we soon see the first release of Windows Live Hotmail - over one and a half years since testing began? It seems increasingly likely and would provide much needed 'advertising' for the Windows Live brand, along with lots of confusing from existing MSN Hotmail users no doubt.
However several questions still remain, including:
Windows Live Hotmail is currently in its last phase of beta testing and we are looking to launch the new and improved Windows Live Hotmail in the next few weeks.
This was not a huge shock, especially if you think about the amount of time it has been in beta for, how far it has come, and the release schedules of other Windows Live products.
Now the release seems to have edged even closer. French users subscribed to the monthly Hotmail email newsletter received the April edition recently, which contained a little surprise. For those of you who don't speak French here is a rough translation of the text:
Just over few days before it's available to everyone!
The official launch of Windows Live Hotmail will take place in a few days! Therefore very little time remains for you to test before everyone has the new version...
The launch is nearly here!
So could we soon see the first release of Windows Live Hotmail - over one and a half years since testing began? It seems increasingly likely and would provide much needed 'advertising' for the Windows Live brand, along with lots of confusing from existing MSN Hotmail users no doubt.
However several questions still remain, including:
- will the upgrade be compulsory for existing MSN Hotmail users?
- how long will it take to transfer everyone over (considering that it has taken days to upgrade mail beta versions for just the existing beta testers in the past)?
- will there be a new version or will the release be the current M10 version?
- and will the @live addresses (first talked about in June last year) finally be officially available? (along with a migration tool to switch info from @hotmail accounts to new @live accounts?)
Finally, after one and a half years of open development, Windows Live Hotmail looks close to release. Chris from LiveSide has posted his views about the current situation of the huge mail program. He also quotes an email sent to testers a few weeks ago, hinting at a time of release:
However I can't help but wonder what is the difference? Using my Hotmail account now I find it a vast mix between MSN Hotmail and Windows Live services. Windows Live has made it extermely confusing for me. A lot of people use and love Hotmail, it's a huge service, and a wide range of people with variable computer skills use it.
Some things are also frustrating in places. The pages are scattered with ad's, the images look odd, and people who don't use Internet Explorer seem to be punished for it. Using Live Mail is still difficult to get to grips of for me, and despite Hotmail being around for years now, Gmail and Yahoo! Mail are clearly adding to their game. More storage, advanced features and the fact they are so much easier to use means they get gold stars in my books.
New features have been added, but it has made the program even more complicated, it needs a total re-design, breaking away from the clutter. Other Windows Live pages are so much cleaner, the mail page should look like them.
That being said it is an improvement. In fact it's a major improvement, and changing too much would make it harder for current users to get used to. Let's hope the release goes smooth for current Hotmail fans. Windows Live Hotmail will change online mail, all we can hope is, it goes down well for everyone.
LiveSide: Where is Windows Live Hotmail going?
Windows Live Hotmail is currently in its last phase of beta testing and we are looking to launch the new and improved Windows Live Hotmail in the next few weeks.
However I can't help but wonder what is the difference? Using my Hotmail account now I find it a vast mix between MSN Hotmail and Windows Live services. Windows Live has made it extermely confusing for me. A lot of people use and love Hotmail, it's a huge service, and a wide range of people with variable computer skills use it.
Some things are also frustrating in places. The pages are scattered with ad's, the images look odd, and people who don't use Internet Explorer seem to be punished for it. Using Live Mail is still difficult to get to grips of for me, and despite Hotmail being around for years now, Gmail and Yahoo! Mail are clearly adding to their game. More storage, advanced features and the fact they are so much easier to use means they get gold stars in my books.
New features have been added, but it has made the program even more complicated, it needs a total re-design, breaking away from the clutter. Other Windows Live pages are so much cleaner, the mail page should look like them.
That being said it is an improvement. In fact it's a major improvement, and changing too much would make it harder for current users to get used to. Let's hope the release goes smooth for current Hotmail fans. Windows Live Hotmail will change online mail, all we can hope is, it goes down well for everyone.
LiveSide: Where is Windows Live Hotmail going?Microsoft have decided to change the name of "Windows Live Mail" to use the older branding of Hotmail in its new name, Windows Live Hotmail.
A blog post at the Windows LiveMail Hotmail team blog says that they hope by changing the name it is 'ensuring that our 260+ million existing customers come over to the new service smoothly and without confusion'.
I didn't expect this at all, after all it has been promoted as Windows Live Mail for a while now, but as it is a beta there is a chance of stuff being changed.
Windows Live Mail: Blog post
A blog post at the Windows Live
I didn't expect this at all, after all it has been promoted as Windows Live Mail for a while now, but as it is a beta there is a chance of stuff being changed.
Windows Live Mail: Blog postThe Windows Live Mail team have updated their product to M8 (Milestone 8), included in this release is the updated 'flare' design that nearly all Windows Live products share.
This update includes:
- "Send email as ..." feature allowing users to send mail from other email addresses
- More contact display options
- A contact importer
- Better and quicker navigating using your browser's back and forward buttons
- Choose skins not just colours
Not all servers are running M8 yet as it is being rolled out over a few weeks to make the update smoother, so to see it in action sign in and head over to http://by117w.bay117.mail.live.com which it is already running on.
It is thought that this will be the final version of Windows Live Mail before it's release which is set for around the end of October or the start of November. With the release, the @live email addresses should finally be available. It is now known that these new email addresses should be available at most local domains (e.g. @live.co.uk, and possibly @livemail.fr) as well as @live.com and @windowslive.com.
Source: LiveSide
Windows Live Mail team blog post
This update includes:
- "Send email as ..." feature allowing users to send mail from other email addresses
- More contact display options
- A contact importer
- Better and quicker navigating using your browser's back and forward buttons
- Choose skins not just colours
Not all servers are running M8 yet as it is being rolled out over a few weeks to make the update smoother, so to see it in action sign in and head over to http://by117w.bay117.mail.live.com which it is already running on.
It is thought that this will be the final version of Windows Live Mail before it's release which is set for around the end of October or the start of November. With the release, the @live email addresses should finally be available. It is now known that these new email addresses should be available at most local domains (e.g. @live.co.uk, and possibly @livemail.fr) as well as @live.com and @windowslive.com.
Source: LiveSide Windows Live Mail team blog postAs you may or may not know, most beta testers of Windows Live Mail Desktop were recently given some invites to give away to invite their friends and other people to use the beta.
We've managed to gather together a lot of invites and have decided to give them away to anyone who wants one!
There is no catch, just post a comment to this news post and make sure you enter your name and (valid) email address in the boxes provided below (your email address will not be shown to other visitors). Then we'll email an invite out to you (whilst they last) as soon as we can.
We currently have about 0 invites left!The giveaway is now over, thanks to everyone who visited the site to request an invite. We believe that everyone who requested below received an invite apart from the last 3 requests who we will be sending invites to soon.
We've managed to gather together a lot of invites and have decided to give them away to anyone who wants one!
There is no catch, just post a comment to this news post and make sure you enter your name and (valid) email address in the boxes provided below (your email address will not be shown to other visitors). Then we'll email an invite out to you (whilst they last) as soon as we can.
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Messenger Stuff