Windows Live Hotmail Update

[jmc777]

22 March

M10: Choose your own adventure

When I was a kid, I used to love ?Choose Your Own Adventure? books. I liked being in control of my own destiny, and if I made a wrong choice (e.g. was eaten by a dragon), I could simply flip back a few pages and pick the better option. Well, we?re getting ready to roll out our M10 Milestone; and much of the great work we?ve done in M10 will empower our users to Choose Their Own Adventure. A few folks will start seeing M10 today and we?ll roll it out to more and more of the beta population over the coming weeks.

As you may know, we built two different views into Windows Live Hotmail: the classic version which looks and feels pretty much like MSN Hotmail (but better), and the full version which has many whiz bang features such as the reading pane, drag and drop, keyboard shortcuts, etc. Both versions are super fast, very safe, and of course simple to use. However, we realize that among our users, personal choice is very important. That?s why we let you

customize your inbox with the color that?s right for you, and let you pick your reading pane style (in the full version).

And that?s why we?ve now made it even easier for you to pick the best view for you, and choose between the classic or full version of Hotmail. In M10, you can switch between the classic and full versions on the Today page (beneath the storage meter), the inbox (bottom), and of course in options. Generally we recommend the classic version for customers using a narrowband/slower connection to access their email, and the full version for folks on broadband. Test drive both views to figure out which works best for you!

Here are a few other things we?ve done in M10:

The first and most obvious thing you might notice is that we?re now officially Windows Live Hotmail. Very exciting for us but there?s even more under the covers.

We?ve made M10 faster? especially on the classic version.

We?ve also made it more reliable!

Classic version enhancements include:

Spell check? we know you?ve missed it. Its back!

The Photo upload control which lets you edit photos and insert them inline in your email

Bi-Directional language support (for our users who read Arabic and Hebrew)

Improvements to the safety bar to make it even easier for you to make your mail safer every day

Pick your view with the version picker (classic or full) so that brand new sign ups to Windows Live Hotmail can choose which one to try first

We?ve also made our checkboxes more ?forgiving? for those of you who complained that you accidentally unchecked your messages? this one?s for you!

Again, thanks to the millions of folks who have been test driving Windows Live Hotmail and giving us your feedback. Hopefully, you?ll agree that we?ve come a long way. And yes, there is more to come (lots of great stuff I know many of you will love) so stay tuned!

- Richard Sim, Senior Product Manager

http://mailcall.spaces.live.com/Blog/cns&a...#33;34971.entry

Edited March 23, 2007 by jmc777

[pikablu0530]

Even though it seems like it hasn't rolled out to my bay yet, my Live.com Mail gadget has already been updated to show the new branding:

[BigGiantHead]

Does it work in Opera yet?

[sundayx Veteran]

I hate everything on Live Mail at the moment, i hope something is changed, including the branding, this includes speeds, aesthetics, absolutely dreadful. Yahoo beta is the best looking, and Gmail has the best performance.

[The2]

I hate everything on Live Mail at the moment, i hope something is changed, including the branding, this includes speeds, aesthetics, absolutely dreadful. Yahoo beta is the best looking, and Gmail has the best performance.

And ads are freakin' huge!

[Ant L]

Does anyone know what bays have been updated already with Windows Live Hotmail?

117 and 120 still seem to be on Windows Live Mail.

Cheers.

[Elliot B.]

Does anyone know what bays have been updated already with Windows Live Hotmail?

117 and 120 still seem to be on Windows Live Mail.

Cheers.

124 is, too.

[The_Observer]

just log into my hotmail account and notice there was a new update to it, has anyone got it too?

Edited March 29, 2007 by lfLASHl

[CPressland]

Wana post a screenshot or anything :p

[ShaneSparky_YYZ]

Yup, some bays have it, M10 rolled out early this week.

Only to Live Mail Beta testers tho, not to general Hotmail customers.

It's now Windows Live Hotmail :s

[Harper]

Yup, some bays have it, M10 rolled out early this week.

Only to Live Mail Beta testers tho, not to general Hotmail customers.

It's now Windows Live Hotmail :s

I'm on Bay 124 and I noticed I now have M10.

[Andrew Lyle Global Moderator]

some notable changes are:

Today, Mail, Contacts and Calender links are moved to the bottom left corner now

A new Junk button is added to the top menu

Renamed Windows Live Hotmail

Some minor changes to colours in the mail inbox (lines between messages is a lot fainter)

a new Text is used for folders and messages

[MetaLRasaM]

I like it, its cleaner.

I don't know about the name :s

[jordanspringer]

is the loading screen still the same as M9?

[wrack]

I have been using it since it went live to beta. Better than before.

[Moh2mmed]

I have got it too yesterday :) but it's cool !!! .

[mycoolkim]

cool, if only yu can use it for gmail

[Chaos at Dawn]

Has anyone else had the stupid popup that asks you to enter the characters from the image before you can continue using hotmail? It says it is to prevent spam but it is very annoying.

Also what is with the 'Switch to classic view' boxs all over the place that is also crap.

And while im bitching, what is with that crap advertisement they attach to the bottom of all your e-mails, talk about spam!!!!!

Edited March 29, 2007 by morgan99

[Neonix1]

cool, if only yu can use it for gmail

Why not use Gmail? Honestly, Live Hotmail (M10) is nice and all, but Gmail is so much faster, cleaner and much more responsive compared to M10/Live Hotmail. AND you can use pop3/smtp with Gmail without having to pay for it.

[mycoolkim]

Really? ow may gosh ahhas, ill stick with gmail haha

[Jojo81]

too bad gmail looks like ass though.

[Neonix1]

too bad gmail looks like ass though.

Not in my eyes. Some people like the clean and efficient gmail design. No big ads either, which will be applied to Live Hotmail once it goes "live"...

[Ambroos]

Darn, it's impossible now to choose the bay you want with just changing the url... Stupid Bay117 doesn't have M10 yet..

[Calum Veteran]

Darn, it's impossible now to choose the bay you want with just changing the url... Stupid Bay117 doesn't have M10 yet..

I noticed that too :-(

Now I gota wait ages to get it on bay 105 (I got it last the time before)

And in answer to the other person:

The loading screen is the same as M9 apart from the name change "Windows Live Hotmail", but it is very quick, much much quicker so the loading screen hardly stays on.

Also they still have that horrible old green dotted loading circle rather than the Vista loading symbol which Windows Live Mail desktop has...(pfft! inconsistencies...)

(I only know all that because my friend has it)

[Elliot B.]

124 is, too.

124 is now updated (Y)