A new version of Windows Live for Windows Phone has been released:

New Year, New Version . . .

We have  released a new version of Windows Live for Windows Phone, working in Standard or Professional phones.

Now  you can stay connected to those that matter most with Windows Live™ for Windows® phone. Windows Live Messenger, Hotmail®, Photos and the “What’s New” feed are now all available on your 6.x Windows® phone. Windows Live™ for Windows® phone (Pro) is for use with a touch phone.

Alternatively you can browse to http://wl.windowsmobile.com using Internet Explorer on your device to install using direct download.

Version: 10.7.0061.0500

Windows Live for Windows® phone (Pro)
Windows Live for Windows® phone (Std)

We don’t know if there is anything new in this version or if it’s just bug fixes. If you know, please post it in the comments below.

Many of you let us know how disappointed you were at being unable to arrange photos in your Windows Live online photo albums. We appreciate your feedback – it helps us keep improving Windows Live.

Today we’ve released a couple of quick and easy ways to arrange your photos to better tell your stories. Now you can arrange them by dragging and dropping them or by numbering the photos in the order you’d like them to appear.

Arranging photos in an album

We’ve also just released a few other small changes, including a new link from each profile that allows you to view all the photos tagged with that person’s name, and changes to Windows Live Favorites. You can read more about it on the SkyDrive team blog.

While at  MIX09 I got a chance to run into Angus Logan And James Senior and we got chat about what's new in Windows Live. They have some really exciting bits that have come out regarding a brand new messenger bar site wide integration and Windows Live Messenger Web Toolkit  for even more customization all this and more in the video below.

The following usage scenarios are given as examples:

• Extend your site's functionality with real-time presence and instant messaging. Users of your site can send messages to one another.
• Allow users to update their Windows Live Messenger personal message to link to content on your site. This will be seen by the users' contacts and connections across Windows Live, both on the Web and in the Windows Live Messenger client.
• Use Windows Live Messenger profile data on your site. All Windows Live Messenger users have a friendly display name and profile picture that can be used to personalize and customize user profile data on your site.
• Allow users to sign in to your blog site and leave comments by using their Windows Live ID and Windows Live Messenger profile.
• Allow users to invite their contacts in Windows Live Messenger to chat and play a casual game together in real-time.

Further information about the Windows Live Web Messenger Toolkit is available at messenger.mslivelabs.com, which explains how it can be used after you've got your Application ID for Delegated Authentication from MSDN.

Angus just posted another great blog post on how easy it is to skin the messenger bar using standard css

http://blogs.msdn.com/angus_logan/

OK I know this is a bit of a strech here, This product was released last year but I think the new plug ins is what really make it powerful.

The Office Live Workspace Team has just introduced new features into the Office Live Workspace service – a free service which serves as sort of a “SharePoint-Light” repository for saving, sharing, commenting on, and organizing your files. In addition to the service’s expansion to Eastern Europe, they’ve also added in some useful features which make document management a bit easier. I have used this before but this is where it really hit home.

The the best upgrade of them all is the upgrade in storage capacity. With 5 GB of free storage, I can safely say that I’m able to archive my entire collection of personal documents to the cloud. Which really hit home this weak. When I re-imaged my moms computer and she didn't have a backup startegy for her docs. I simply installed the office live add-in to here office sweet and bam she was rock and rollin.

You can store almost any files on Office Live, not just Microsoft Office docs – the only blocked files are those that could act as executables (see exception list) – a decision made to protect users. I cant wait for office 14.

Have fun and for gods sake start a back up plan.

if you were using MSN Calender and I dont know anyone who was you should take note there  moving the service over to live calender and you will have to do some work for the migration..

Q: What is happening?
A: MSN Calendar will be retired soon, as it is being replaced by Windows Live Calendar. If you have not already started using Windows Live Calendar, your calendar information will be moved from the original (MSN) calendar to the new Windows Live Calendar. As soon as everyone has moved over, the original (MSN) calendar will retire.

Q: When is this happening?
A: Your calendar data may be moved as early as March 1, 2009, after which you will no longer be able to access your original (MSN) calendar. The original (MSN) calendar is estimated to close on July 1, 2009, at which date we anticipate that all users will have moved to Windows Live Calendar. NOTE: the final close date is subject to change.

Q: What do I need to do?
A: We’ll do most of the moving for you; we’ll move over your appointments, meeting requests, tasks, and notes. However, if you have attachments in your original (MSN) web calendar, please save the files from your calendar to your computer by March 1, 2009. After March 1, 2009, you may no longer be able to access your attachments.

Q: What data will not be automatically moved over to my new calendar?
A: Deleted items (such as items you deleted from your original (MSN) calendar and items older than 3 months, which are automatically deleted from the original calendar) will not be moved over automatically. Additionally, if you have added attachments (like presentations, documents, and spreadsheets) to your calendar through Microsoft Outlook Connector or the MSN® Premium desktop client, your attachments will not be moved to your new calendar. If you have attachments in your original web calendar, please save the files from your calendar to your computer by March 1st, 2009. After March 1, 2009 you may no longer be able to access your attachments.

If you use the Outlook Connector to access your MSN Calendar, please see important update information here: Outlook Connector and migration to Windows Live Calendar

There is some really cool things happening around live calendar stay tune.

I have to admit. I used this product for awhile before blogs became big to keep in touch with my family and friends when I traveled, but all things must come to a end

Besides this reminder the team also answers some of the most frequent questions they received about this.

Why are you closing MSN Groups ?

It is our goal to always provide the most current and user-friendly technology to our users, and over the past few years our research and user feedback indicate that MSN Groups fell short of that goal. At the same time, we have been making huge investments in the Windows Live suite of services. In the long term, closing MSN Groups helps us move users to new group experiences that over time will give them more ways to stay in touch with the people they care about. In December we released a brand new service for groups on Windows Live, building it from the ground up to provide great value for our customers.

Since the new Windows Live Groups service was built on a new platform with a different mix of features, we weren’t able to retrofit it to use the data contained in MSN Groups. However, it is very important to us that you can keep the data you’ve created using MSN Groups and can continue to enjoy those experiences. So we have partnered with Multiply to provide you with a way to transfer all of your MSN Groups data and keep your groups going into the future on Multiply.

Why Multiply?

Multiply is an online group and media sharing service that PCWorld recently called one of the ten most underrated tech products. Multiply has worked diligently with us to understand all the ways our customers use MSN Groups, and has prepared its service to receive and host MSN Groups and their data. Multiply prepared a special opt-in migration method that puts group managers in control of moving a group to Multiply and inviting members to rejoin the group in its new location.

Why not allow current MSN Groups to migrate to Windows Live Groups?

Windows Live Groups was built on a new platform with a different mix of features from MSN Groups. The features in Windows Live Groups are optimized for smaller groups of up to 20 people, like clubs or families, whereas MSN Groups caters to a wide variety of group sizes and types, including large public groups. Because the two services differ in their intent and features, they were built using different technologies, and a direct migration from MSN Groups to Windows Live Groups wasn’t possible. Multiply offers a similar set of features to MSN Groups and therefore can more effectively receive all of the MSN Groups data at this time.

You can read the full post here.

The Live Framework Tools team has released an update to their Community Technical Preview (CTP). This release was focused on addressing top customer issues,

From the team’s announcement:

The Live Framework Tools team is pleased to announce the January CTP update. This update contains a number of fixes.  Please see below for details. And as always, thank you for using Live Framework.

New in this release

The Live Framework Tools January CTP includes a number of bug fixes.  A few of the most notable fixes are listed below:

• Debugging or running a Mesh-enabled Web Application which contains no changes from previous versions immediately launches the application instead of re-uploading the files.
• Mesh-enabled Web Applications created by the Live Framework Tools now have identical offers to those created through the Azure Services Developer Portal, which are generally less restrictive.  This change removes the need for the workaround mentioned in this thread.
• Projects created by the Live Framework Tools may now contain periods fixing the issue reported in this bug.
• Changes to the application's logo.png file will now be reflected in the icon that appears on the Live Desktop fixing the issue reported in this thread.
• Error messages and diagnostics have been improved.  In certain error situations additional information can now be located in the application event log.

In addition to the fixes listed above, the January CTP includes a feature that will  offer to notify you of any future updates to the Live Framework Tools. 

The Live Web Sandbox, is a project aimed at securing Web 2.0. The Sandbox applies techniques from programming languages to inject an interception layer that in effect virtualizes the execution of untrusted code in the browser. Among other interesting things the interception layer also gives us an opportunity to normalize the DOM API exposed to developers

What does that even mean? Well its means that they have created a isolated enviornemtn to secure web applications from hackers.

Today web gadgets, mashup components, advertisements, and other 3^rd party content on websites either run with full trust alongside your content or are isolated inside of IFrames. As a result, many modern web applications are intrinsically insecure, often with unpredictable service quality. Live Labs Web Sandbox addresses this problem.

An increasing number of Web 2.0 applications incorporate 3^rd party content. There are two common patterns: via direct script inclusion or embedded in an IFrame.

• Components that are included directly execute with full trust and can access private information elsewhere on the page and site. The site is subject to intentional or non-intentional bugs that could compromise personal information or degrade the web application’s quality of service.
• IFrames offer isolation but not complete security. Malicious code can try to install ActiveX controls, redirect users, interrogate your browser history, degrading the quality of service. IFrames also make it hard to provide an integrated experience and share data across components.

Web Sandbox from Live Labs enables developers to test their code by using the Sandbox provided here. In addition to this, they have a couple of sample codes in place for you to try and hack out.

See what is all about here at the demo from PDC

I have to admit that this is a little old on the radar, but I was gone and seemed to miss this launch. Microsoft Research began offering its own variation of social search a few months ago called U Rank. 

So what exactly is U Rank? The short version, from the service's home page, states

“U Rank is a search engine that allows people to organize, edit and annotate search results, as well as share information with others.”

It's a research prototype, so it's not available on the main Live Search page; indeed, it may never be. Microsoft says the project will help it learn more about how people use these kinds of technologies. One can only hope the information will help the company pull itself out of its distant third position in the search engine market. The project features its own blog, of course, open to any interested readers. If you want to try out U Rank itself, however, you must register.

So getting into Urank this is the open screen

So lets see how good it is..Lets search for Geoffrey Emery

Hey it found my blog #1 this thing is great!

As you can see you the search works well and then there is a side bar next to each of the side bars as you hover them. add copy move and delete.

Digging into the UI

Digging into each those UI you get Move, Copy, Add, Delete.

Move moves the ranking of the item up or down. It does effect the ranking of other searches people do. You could see people sitting around ranking themselves highest in all sorts of things?

Copy lets you copy one of the results to another search that you have if you do not have one already by that name it will create one for you

Note will let you add a little comment by the search. I am assuming that this just your notes although it does bring up a interesting idea of seeing everyone notes on the results could be interesting.

Delete removes the results from your rankings. Also makes me wonders if it makes results from that site less relevant.

It also allows for recommendations as you can see you can view only edits made by you and your friends.

Recommendations

Here is a list of all the things the research guys think it would be good for

• Organize and annotate results: write notes to summarize important information under each URL
• Lists: keep lists while you're researching ("hotels for my next trip", "DSLRs for me")
• Collaboration: Share URLs with friends ("related projects", "our reading list")
• Recommendations: Tell your friends what you like ("best books," "favorite restaurants")
• Multimedia results: Mix video and images with web results for added context
• Ego-boosting: Make sure your home page is #1 (at least for you and your friends)
• Easy to explore what your friends are sharing
• Short-cuts: Move your favorite sites up; then put an ! in front of the query and go straight to the top result

Find out more At http://www.microsoft.com/azure/URank.mspx

FYI Google launched something straight away to its real search last month as well after Microsoft launched this.