RSSWindows Live Mail Beta Refreshed
By Nate Mook | Published November 30, 2005, 2:45 PM
Microsoft on Wednesday began rolling out Milestone 4 of its new Windows Live Mail beta, formerly known by the code-name Kahuna. The update adds support for Web browsers beyond IE6 and implements a number of new features such as spell checking and resizable window panes.
When complete, Windows Live Mail will serve as the next-generation Hotmail, offering an application-like interface for viewing and sending e-mails online. The service has been rebuilt from the ground up to be fast and safe using Microsoft's AJAX-based Atlas framework and a new architecture known as FireAnt.
According to program manager Imran Qureshi, M4 is a substantial upgrade to the product. "We listened to what you, our beta users, told us. We fixed many of your issues, improved reliability, made Kahuna even faster and added some great features that will improve your mail experience," he said.
One of the biggest additions is support for Firefox, Netscape and Opera Web browsers. "We're still a bit of a work in progress here, so apologies if there are still some glitches," explained Qureshi, noting that core mail features should work fine on alternative browsers.
To help customers stay safe, Windows Live Mail M4 implements a new safety level for incoming messages. The three safety levels are: Known sender, Unknown sender, and Unsafe. "You can always click on 'Why?' to find out why a mail was marked as such and what you can do to change the safety level of this sender," says Qureshi.
In addition, e-mails routed to Junk Mail are no longer displayed automatically. This feature is intended to keep questionable content hidden until explicitly requested.
The spell check addition to M4 works much like writing a document in Word. "Just start typing in Compose and we'll check spelling in the background and put red squiggles under words that are misspelled. You can then right-click them and choose from our suggestions," said Qureshi.
Usability improvements beyond resizable panes include right-click options for emptying the trash, clickable sender e-mail addresses, scrollable message and contact lists, along with clearer error messages. M4 should be available to all beta testers before the end of the week.
For now, Windows Live Mail remains a private beta, however users can apply to join through the new Windows Live Ideas Web site. A Microsoft spokesperson would not say when the company expected to open the service to all users.
"Keep using Kahuna and keep the feedback coming," said Qureshi. "We're not joking when we say that you're now part of our development team."
Just a coupla questions about Live Mail:
1) Will old accounts be transferred over to the new mail service from the old?
2) Will users @msn.com still be at the @msn.com domain, or will most accounts be aggregated into domain (e.g. Hotmail)?
Also, please send a Live Mail invite to grunge_rocker@msn.com! Thank you!
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How can I register for live mail beta?do I need an invitaion for that?If so,can ne one pls send me an invitaion to joaopr_@hotmail.com
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How can I register for live mail beta?do I need an invitaion for that?If so,can ne one pls send me an invitaion to sunil_vvce@yahoo.co.in
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What is it that everyone is talking about? I am a Live beta user for a little over 5 months now, and the new features are already in place. Actually, they have been for a week, I just never thought too much about them until I seen this acticle.
And so far, it works great! I cannot wait until it is released to public.
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How about some news on the Yahoo! Mail Beta!
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Umm... did you not see the story posted yesterday almost 3 hours before this one?
http://www.betanews.com/...nto_Web_Mail/1133369844
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bugger. their idea of adding support for other browsers is just basically reskinning hotmail. ah well ... i wonder if it's even possible to get some of the features the ie version sports to work in another browser. ah well.
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>their idea of adding support for other browsers is just basically reskinning hotmail.
Ha. That's proof you have NO IDEA what you are talking about. This is DEFINITELY NOT Hotmail reskinned. This is Hotmail completely and totally rewritten. It's uses tons of AJAX, it's got drag and drop capabilities, and it's much better at caching and performance. This is a HUGE step for MS.
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>Ha. That's proof you have NO IDEA what you are talking about. This is DEFINITELY NOT Hotmail reskinned. This is Hotmail completely and totally rewritten. It's uses tons of AJAX, it's got drag and drop capabilities, and it's much better at caching and performance. This is a HUGE step for MS.
A huge step that Google took with Gmail over 1.5 years ago.
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Was that before or after google figured out how to block spam?
Yahoo account: zero spam, zero false positives, it's been open 4 years, too.
google account: hundreds of spam messages after first month of use.
hotmail account: Long since abandoned due to hundreds of spam messages a day getting through.
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I've had my gmail account since April 04. It does NOT have drag and drop. It is not multi-paned. It does not look like a desktop app.
I love Gmail, but Gmail is not the goal of MS and Y!'s new webmail pages. They are looking to exceed it.
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of course, YMMV but:
Yahoo account: 10-15 spam messages per day, several false positives per week
Google account: NO spam messages (ever)
hotmail account: set to "exclusive" so no spam received
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"google account: hundreds of spam messages after first month of use."
rofl, what did you do? go out and post your gmail addy on every forum you could find? Been using gmail for over a year now...no spam at all.
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well if you want to stop spam in your g-mail account you got to stop subscribing to all those porn newsletters :). benn with a gmail account almost more than a year now and no spam at all :)
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Ok, let me elaborate some more. The main revolutionary aspect of these "new" webmail interfaces is AJAX. Besides dragging and dropping (who really cares anyway. It's not like Google can't do that, it's just not piority) and "looking like a desktop app" (Again, who cares???)
Both of these are simply GMail in a new shiny box. Yes Yahoo and Microsoft are looking to exceed Gmail by taking what they did and "doing it better" (adding bells and whistles). Point is, Google never made a fuss about bells and whistles and dragging and dropping. Their goal is technology advancement.
And I'm still willing to be that GMail will (maybe even before MS and Y are out) come up with something better.
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HAHAHAHAHAHAHA.
This is sort of off-topic, but I just went to the Windows Live Ideas website (linked from the story) again to see all the different services.
I opened up Windows Live Safety Center, and it was identified by IE7's phishing filter as a suspicious website.
Oh the irony.
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You're kidding, right?
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Nope =)
I double-checked to make sure it wasn't a fluke.
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I'm just tring to get an invitation to the beta. I've been signed up for awhile now.
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Same here =((
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i must say it has improved but its design n layout is worst then ever with this scroll n we cant resize it horizontally for 10 lines of email i have to scroll 5 times 2 lines per scroll .. i m not satisfied
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I like how I get a negative one score on my comment for telling the truth?
What's wrong with you people?
Nate Mook, where did you get this info? So far it's not true.
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The information is from Microsoft (try clicking the link in the story for screenshots of M4). The upgrade will be available shortly, have some patience.
Don't reply with silly comments like "this story is false" or you will find them modded down. Contribute, don't be a troll.
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Not a troll.
Don't post silly stories like "Windows Live Mail Beta Refreshed" when it hasn't been refreshed yet. Change the title and the content to say "soon to be..."
The link is from a blog (Microsoft or not) and I would never take it seriously until they "release" the upgraded features.
Do you use Windows Live Mail? If you do, you should confirm this befor posting a story like this.
Oh....and by all means show your childishness by marking all my posts negative. LOL. Great job.
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This entire article is false.
I'm running Windows Live Mail beta and is has NONE of the new features that this article states.
And I just tried it in Firefox and it still doesn't work right or look right.
Where did you get your information?
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