Darren Straight's Blog

Great news for those of you who have been wanting an add this feed to live.com button, as the team have now released one, I would have posted this earlier but I’ve been out all day and have only just got back so if you’ve already seen this somewhere else, then I hope you’ve tried it out and love it, but if you haven’t tried it out yet, here’s how to do it:

1. First save one of these images below and upload to your server.

2. Then edit your template sidebar or area where you would like to add the button to by adding the following line of html code:

<a href="http://www.live.com/?add=http://yoursiteurlfeed.com/"><img src="addtolive.gif" border="0" /></a>

Just remember to make sure that when you do this that you change the url “http://yoursiteurlfeed.com/” to your website url feed and that you also change “addtolive.gif” to the actual filename and location of the image on you uploaded to your server.

So both Microsoft-Watch and Cnet News are reporting that Microsoft Office 2007 has falled behind schedule. As it will now be delivered later in the year along with Windows Vista. But the question I guess now is, will this delay Windows Vistas schedule to be available for January 2007, will Windows Vistas now sleep again another year?

Well here’s what Mary Jo has to say:

On June 29, a Vista spokeswoman reiterated: “The (Office 20007) announcement today does not impact Windows Vista timing.”

Developer and partner sources have been skeptical whether Microsoft can meet the Vista targets it outlined in March. Some said they were encouraged by the improvements in the latest Vista test build, Number 5456, which Microsoft released on June 23. But others said they were doubtful that Microsoft could make all the fixes required to release Vista to manufacturing this fall.

“If it (Vista) is delayed another month, they can still get it to OEMs to be out by January,” said one Windows tester, who requested anonymity. “If it is longer than that… well, they already missed the holiday season. I just want it to be rock solid, and if that means January – March 2007, well so be it.”

Internet Explorer 7 Beta 3 is now Released for download.

• New Icons
• Tab Reordering
• Authenticated FTP
• Easy Access to Email
• Magnifigy Images
• Refresh All Feeds
• Control Marking a Feed as Read
• Keyboard Shortcuts
• And more…

Via: IE Team Blog | RSS Team Blog

Are you ready for Windows Live Spaces the next generation of MSN Spaces, well you better be, because it’s getting closer than ever as you can see from demonstration sites like this one which are intended to show you what Windows Live Spaces will offer us in terms of features when it goes live very soon!

Update: Could this be what the main portal of Windows Live Spaces Will look like when launched?

Via: Satoshi | starkraker

Windows Live Custom Domains V1 is now released out of Beta, but what does Windows Live Custom Domains do for you, well it provides you with free hosted e-mail from Microsoft for your own domain name.

Here are some of the enhancements and features Windows Live Custom Domains offer you:

• E-mail accounts for everyone. Create an unlimited number of accounts in your domain.
• New e-mail features. Everyone at your domain will get an MSN Hotmail account. These accounts can upgrade for free to the new Windows Live Mail beta, which offers 2GB of storage and enhanced security features.
• Use it for Windows Live Messenger and more. E-mail addresses at your domain can also be used for instant messaging and other services on the MSN and Windows Live network.
• No hassle or fuss. Your e-mail is hosted by Microsoft, so there is no need to buy or manage e-mail servers.
• Flexibility. The optional software development kit lets you choose how Custom Domains works with your website or application.

And if everybody’s worrying about the cost, don’t!

Because it’s still free, and will be for life!.

Ohh and by the way a big congratulations to the Windows Live Custom Domain Team on launching this out of beta so it can be up there with Windows Live OneCare, Windows Live Favorites and Windows Live Messenger which are all out of Beta too!

Farecast the airline fare prediction tool is launched in public beta today, enabling travelers to leverage more than 60 billion records of past airfare prices to predict whether prices will rise or fall over the next 7 days. The beta still only covers flights departing from Seattle and Boston, but the company plans to roll out US-wide coverage through the end of this year and then at some point worldwide.

The only main upgrade that I can see from the private beta is the addition of ajax, making the functionality all the smoother, but thats a pretty good upgrade anyway so why not go ahead and check it out, also don’t forget to vote for your next US city to be included though I really do wish it was UK as well, oh well.

Via: TechCrunch

Last week the world heard that the much anticipated MSN Spaces update to Windows Live Spaces would be coming soon but with this news came no definitive date, and as of yet we still don’t have a definitive date for the Windows Live Spaces release.

However rumor has it that on the 15th of July 2006 we will see MSN Spaces rebranded to Windows Live Spaces, now though this news comes from BetaNews a major technology news site, I believe it to just be a rumor for now, as dates like this change all the time!

Via: BetaNews

Remember the Windows Live Insider Club promotion site for the UK?

That offerd 50.000 sets of free Windows Live contact cards, 3000 USB memory sticks (200 available per week), tickets to a World Cup Football screening in London (including dinner & disco afterwards) and VIP tickets for the Wimbledon finals (including champagne & strawberries).

Well I just got my Windows Live Insider Club USB Memory Stick in the post, it’s only 128MB but looks very stylish!

Following my very recent post about the Windows Live Promotion site for Japan I’ve just noticed that Kris Hoet from Microsoft has let me know in my blog comments about a Windows Live Promotion site for Russia which can be found here, thanks for that Kris.

Join MSN and Dish Diva for the exclusive Webcast of the premiere of “Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest” and opening of the enhanced “Pirates of the Caribbean” attraction at Disneyland Resort. See Johnny, Keira and Orlando walk the red carpet and much more.

Click here to watch the replay!