Windows to the world

MICROSOFT wants you to live a 8216;Life Without Walls8217;, moving seamlessly between the Mobile, PC and the web.

MICROSOFT wants you to live a 8216;Life Without Walls8217;, moving seamlessly between the Mobile, PC and the web. The digital giant has created a world where your virtual identity shadow you constantly, on the move, at work and at home, even online.

Some would say this is old wine in new bottle, as the instruments for this convergence have been around for some time. With GPRS, broadband and WiFi now becoming common, accessing e-mail, using IMs, browsing photos online and even VoIP calls are within easy reach, on the move, everywhere.

Microsoft8217;s push towards total convergence is built on the next generation of Windows Live, an integrated suite of online services available for download8212;at present only in beta. The highlights of this suite include new features like the Windows Live SkyDrive, which offers 25GB of online storage and promises tighter integration with other Windows Live services.

We8217;re already familiar with Windows Live Hotmail, which has been given a makeover once again and now has a simpler and sleeker interface. It is also available on your mobile and works like a free pushmail service.
Windows Live People is another step towards total convergence and acts like a central address book, containing your contacts from your phone-book, Hotmail and all the people in your Windows Live network.

The Windows Live Messenger too has been given a makeover, with a push towards making it more 8216;personalised8217;. A 8216;what8217;s new8217; feed keeps you updated on what your friends are doing; you can drag-and-drop photos into the conversation window for easy sharing. You can compile important contacts in the 8216;favourites8217; list and group chat with up to 20 people at the same time. You can personalise it further with video display pictures.

There8217;s good news for parents too. Windows Live Family Safety lets you manage the websites your kids can access, contacts they can communicate with when accessing Messenger, Hotmail and Live Spaces. Like the rest of the suite services, Family Safety too can be accessed via phone, PC or the Internet, letting parents monitor their children8217;s online activity from literally anywhere.

Also in the beta stage is Windows Live Essentials, which basically offers a revamped version of Messenger, Photo Gallery and Toolbar among other software, much like what Google has to offer.

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The most-awaited of Microsoft8217;s new releases is no doubt Internet Explorer 8. While it promises to provide a smarter web browsing experience, what got our attention was the Accelerators feature, which will make it faster and easier to connect web services you use with any webpage you browse. The Accelerators can be used to search, map, e-mail, translate, or share content from any webpage you8217;re currently viewing with just one click.

New security features seem promising too. Web Slices, another new feature, allows you to subscribe to portions of your favourite websites.
In the end analysis, old or not, Microsoft promises a more 8216;mature8217; product, one that might be worth the while.