Log into Windows 8 with your LiveID
Posted Wednesday, September 14, 2011 at 4:27 am by Jason CartwrightUpdate
Microsoft have just released a teaser site for the new functionality – http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windowslive/skydrive/
It may not be Bingo, but one of my predictions from last night just became a reality. Windows 8 supports LiveID login ! Once your logged in, your settings from other machines come with you. Because the user profiles are now based on your LiveID, 542 Million people already use it, this means your account storage sits on SkyDrive.
You will also be able to manage and access content on other computers you own. Seen in the screen shots below, you can see the system and dvd drive of a work machine via the web interface. Better yet, application developers can take advantage of this storage via the Live API’s. As an example, applications can expose photos from your online services like SkyDrive, but also any Live connected services like Facebook, Flickr etc.
There was no mention of the changes to storage amounts, but its clear to handle these kind of data, unlimited would make a whole lot of sense. As for Windows Live Mesh being a strange separate product and storage bucket, that just got resolved, the end result is a much better experience for end users, one that will gain instant adoption by virtue of being included in Windows.
That’s it for the Build coverage for now. There’s sure to be more over the coming days, particularly after we get the Windows 8 bits later today.
Download the developer preview of Windows 8 in a few hours from http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/home/
YouTube switches to iFrame embed, broken in WLW
Posted Saturday, January 22, 2011 at 2:22 pm by Jason Cartwright
Along with YouTube’s new front page (when logged in), they also made an important change to how the embed code is handled. Traditionally embedding YouTube videos used the <embed> tags, but now uses <iframe> instead. There’s one big problem with this, support. Not all websites enable iFrame embeds, actually some actively prevent it.
More importantly for Windows Live Writer users, the iFrame code simply doesn’t work. Pasting in the new code..
.. results in a black box being inserted (pictured above), not the video. As a workaround there is still an embed option to use the old embed code which solves the issue.. for now.
While this workaround gets the job done, it is an extra, annoying step in the process of sharing YouTube video. I’d like to see an option to use the old embed code by default, rather than have to remember each time. As for Google’s reason for making the switch in the first place, that’s all part of their push towards HTML5.
If you use the new embed code style, your viewers will be able to view your embedded video in one of our Flash or HTML5 players, depending on their viewing environment and preferences.
An additional benefit of the new embed style is that it will eventually allow embeds to work on mobile devices, which typically use a built-in player instead of Flash or HTML5.
In effect, this change has exposed the fact that even the latest 2011 version of Windows Live Writer isn’t HTML5 compatible. Admittedly a brand new standard that is yet to gain mass adoption, that said the Windows Live team need to release an update to remedy this soon and be ahead of the curve. YouTube may just be the first of many video sharing sites to make the switch and wether we like it or not, HTML5 is coming. Its disappointing the once promised <video> tag still won’t solve the embedding issue.
Windows Live Hotmail goes SSL, passes by Google*
Posted Wednesday, November 10, 2010 at 8:45 am by Jason Cartwright
Gmail users concerned with security were able to enable SSL connections to their mail for over a year now. A few months ago, Google turned this on by default for all users, problem is, this is only for gmail, not any of the other Google services. This means Calendar and Contacts are still pushed in the clear.
Microsoft have announced today that they have enabled users to turn on SSL which secures the connection between you and Microsoft servers for not only Hotmail, but also Calendar, Contacts, SkyDrive, Photo, Docs, devices.. pretty much everything. At the moment its opt-in, hopefully one the bugs are ironed out, this is in place by default.
To enable HTTPS for your Windows Live, go to https://account.live.com/ManageSSL.
Windows Live Essentials 2011 released ! XP users cry in the corner.
Posted Friday, October 1, 2010 at 5:09 pm by Jason Cartwright
The latest suite of desktop applications under the banner of Windows Live Essentials 2011. This includes Windows Live Messenger, Photo Gallery, Movie Maker, Writer, Bing Bar, Family Safety, and the renamed (again) Windows Live Mesh.
While there is a number of changes I’ve already discussed in a previous post back in March when the beta first came out. There’s been some tweaks, but essentially the final release is the same product. The products have always been stable and a great improvements on the last version.
There is one gotcha and that’s supported OS’s. Unfortunately XP users are unable to upgrade to the new version and take advantage of the new features. There’s actually a decent reason for requiring Windows Vista or 7, that is that the new apps make use of technologies only available in later operating systems. XP users should understand they are using a very old operating system and with that comes draw backs, not being able to use the latest software is one of them. While not being able to get essentials 2011 may not be enough motivation to upgrade, know that going forward, only more and more software will drop support for XP.
If your an existing Live Essentials 2011 beta user just run the installer and any existing apps will be updated to the full release.
Available from http://get.live.com
Confirmed! Windows Live Essentials 2011 beta tomorrow.
Posted Thursday, June 24, 2010 at 9:54 am by Jason Cartwright
Just confirmed on The Windows Blog, the much anticipated Live Essentials 2011 beta (or wave 4) will be released to the public tomorrow. Just to re-iterate, XP users are out of luck, the new version will only be available for Windows Vista and Windows 7 users. Time to upgrade..
The Photo Fuse feature is definitely one to look out for, new to this version of Windows Live Photo Gallery it allows you to pick the best elements from multiple photos and create one perfect photo.
More @ The Windows Blog
Windows Live Wave 4 online properties updated
Posted Tuesday, June 8, 2010 at 1:18 pm by Jason Cartwright
Those of you familiar with http://home.live.com will notice a change when you visit there today. Microsoft have updated the web properties of Live Wave 4.
Home page
This includes your Home screen which contains social updates from your contacts and their social network activities. A great feature of the update is the ability to leave comments directly from this page that will post back to Facebook and the like. To configure your site connections click on Add web activities in the top right. YouTube videos can be played in-line.
Web Messenger
The new web messenger is a big upgrade to the previous version. Instead of being relegated to a popout session, web messenger now integrated into your Windows Live experience. Those who work between multiple machines will appreciate that you can now be signed into web messenger in multiple places, including the desktop Live Messenger.
Office Web
This is a game changer. Office Web makes creating and editing Word, Excel, Powerpoint and OneNote documents a great, free experience. This really does make Google docs look like a joke. I had previously used Google docs for podcast show notes, that ends today. Office web allows anyone with a LiveID to edit Office documents, so for a lot of people this will mean they won’t even need Office desktop applications. Obviously some more advanced functionality still requires apps, but the good news is opening a document in the Web App won’t strip anything out, so when you get back to the desktop, your document is preserved.
Office web is ideal if your on the road and come across a computer that doesn’t have Office installed. I can’t speak highly enough of what Microsoft has achieved here, a rich, free, multi-browser office suite in the cloud. Try it out for yourself at http://office.live.com/
Mobile / iPad
You should also be aware that the mobile experience has also been refined and works awesomely on the iPad. All items are presented in lovely finger-sized friendlyness. There are a couple of exceptions.. Hotmail seems to still be on the to-do-list and there’s no web messenger when using it on the iPad, on the flip side you do get a nice Windows Live icon for a web shortcut.
Windows Live on an iPad
More @ Liveside
