Windows Live

This morning I happened to stumble upon Microsoft’s new Windows Live application. If you are not familiar with Windows Live, it is a collection of online software apps similar to those of Google and others. As with all Microsoft online applications, it is integrated into the Internet Explorer Browser and so you might not even be aware you have it. If you use Windows Messenger you have a Live Account.
Like other online apps, Windows Live attempts to put photo sharing, instant messaging and your email into one easy to navigate application. In the latest version, two things have been added which deserve mentioning and I will try them out and report back to you.
1) Windows Live Mail – This new app puts Microsoft Vista’s Windows Mail on your desktop. Of course, it integrates Windows Messenger into it, so if you are an IM user, I think this is a nice addition. I like Vista’s mail application much better than Outlook Express, even though it is essentially the same thing. It does seem to integrate better into the OS than does Outlook Express. Live Mail is an actual mail program rather than browser based. It operates just like Windows Mail and you can set it to download your home email while at work or work email at home. Overall, a nice feature and if you run XP and you like the aesthetics of Vista, Live Mail has the Vista menus. Initial Grade A
2) Windows SkyDrive – While still in the beta stage, Microsoft now offers online storage. Amazingly enough though, they chose to do it within a browser application. So you physically have to logon to the site and then navigate through a somewhat clumsy webpage, although to their credit, they did make it look like a folder. It does have drag and drop capability, but you have to download an additional program and once you do that, it still does not appear that you can drag and drop a folder. Instead, you have to drag individual files. And with only a gigabyte of storage, this won’t last very long. But it is at least something. I have struggled to find some site to store files on that works well. I have tried XDrive from AOL and have been less than impressed so I am hoping that Microsoft can get this right before the final version is released. Initial Grade C
I’ll continue to review the programs and will place any other thoughts at http://digitopeka.blogspot.com or you can email me at digitopeka@gmail.com with questions.

Zune 2.0

I have been a Zune user for about a year. Before that, I was into Napster (the legal version). The thing that has turned me on to these services is the subscription service. For $15, some will argue this is too high, you can pretty much download onto your device any of the roughly 3 million songs the service has. For me, I listen to music of all genres and eras so it doesn't make sense for me to have paid $3123.45 (3155 songs) for the music that I carry with me. At $15 a month for a subscription, it would take me 208 months or 17 years to spend that amount. Now that podcasts are available on the new Zune service, the online marketplace is slowly building to Itunes. Once they get there (television, movies and audio books) I look for this to really take off. I just don't understand why Microsoft hasn't been more agressive about advertising the relatively inexpensive subscroption content.

The New York Times has more.