Microsoft Tool "Steals" Yahoo and Google Email Accounts and Brings Them to Windows Live Hotmail

Microsoft unveiled a new online-based tool designed to "steal" email accounts from rivals Yahoo and Google and converted them to its own Windows Live Hotmail. But TrueSwitch is by no means limited just to Yahoo and Gmail. The fact of the matter is that TrueSwitch also supports accounts from the following providers: AOL, Comcast, Juno, Mac, Netzero, sbcglobal, Verizon, and Q. Additionally, Microsoft has not left out its own email services, offering support for Hotmail, MSN and Windows Live Hotmail accounts. Essentially, TrueSwitch will enable any new user of Windows Live Hotmail to move all of his data from an account with one of the providers supported to the newly overhauled Microsoft email service. According to the Redmond company, the web utility was introduced as a consequence of customer feedback.
"We’ve listened to our customers who told us that switching e-mail accounts isn’t easy. Say you’ve recently opened a new account with Windows Live Hotmail. Chances are you’ve got a ton of contacts and old e-mails sitting in another account that you wish you could easily move over. You also want to give your contacts a shout to let them know that they should reach you at your new Hotmail address. All this sounds like a bunch of work," explained Grace Wardhana, Windows Live Hotmail Senior Product Manager. TrueSwitch even supports the migration of Yahoo and Gmail bookmarks to Windows Live Hpotmail.
TrueSwitch will move all your email addresses from the old account to the new Windows Live Hotmail location, and will even provide the users with the option of notifying everyone of the fact that they switched providers. Wardhana revealed that you can "copy your e-mail history, copy your address book, notify contacts of your e-mail address [and that] all you need is a Windows Live Hotmail account. You can even use this for Hotmail to Hotmail account transfers as well as the upcoming live.com accounts when they become available. I used it to consolidate my accounts – it’s great to see all my e-mail and contacts in one place now! The TrueSwitch service is now live in the US, with more countries to follow in the next couple of months."

Link- https://secure5.trueswitch.com/winlive/navigate.serv

source- Softpedia

Windows Live/Hot Mail Migration tool

It takes just three quick steps to copy all your important e-mail and addresses from your other e-mail accounts into your Windows Live™ Hotmail® account. You can even select to notify everyone about your new e-mail address.

We’ve listened to our customers who told us that switching e-mail accounts isn’t easy. Say you’ve recently opened a new account with Windows Live Hotmail. Chances are you’ve got a ton of contacts and old e-mails sitting in another account that you wish you could easily move over.
You also want to give your contacts a shout to let them know that they should reach you at your new Hotmail address. All this sounds like a bunch of work. Well, we’ve got good news. With TrueSwitch, you can now do all of these time-consuming tasks with just a few easy clicks.
1.      Copy your e-mail history
2.      Copy your address book
3.      Notify contacts of your e-mail address All you need is a Windows Live Hotmail account.
Please try TrueSwitch and let us know what you think. You can even use this for Hotmail to Hotmail account transfers as well as the upcoming live.com accounts when they become available. I used it to consolidate my accounts – it’s great to see all my e-mail and contacts in one place now! The TrueSwitch service is now live in the US, with more countries to follow in the next couple of months.  
Supports accounts from the following providers: Gmail, Yahoo, AOL, Comcast, Juno, Mac, Netzero, sbcglobal, Verizon, and Q.
Try it now! https://secure5.trueswitch.com/winlive/
Source: mailcall.spaces.live.com

@Live.com e-mail Addresses Information

Looks like we finally have heard some news on when @live.com e-mail addresses will be released. Jacky Mok, another Product Manager for Windows Live in Toronto, has posted some information saying when they will be released, he says will be available "in the fall", along with "a rich family of products" around the same time.
According to the blog entry on livechronicles.spaces.live.com, there will be no migration of address names from current hotmail addresses, so if you have blank@hotmail.com, there's no guarantee you will get blank@live.cam. It's still on a first come, first served basis like every other e-mail services. Apparently country code addresses will only be available in countries outside the US, so that a Canadian will be able to get an @live.ca address, but not an @live.com one.
 source: MicroTechXP

Windows Live Mail, Live Writer & Messenger 8.5 Beta

Microsoft has announced the availability of 3 Windows Live products today, all of which are beta.

Windows Live Mail is the free consumer client Microsoft will invest in moving forward. It is a superset of existing free clients and will replace Outlook Express, Windows Mail and Windows Live Mail desktop beta. While it used to be a paid feature, Hotmail customers can now access their account for free in Outlook 2003 and Windows Live Mail.

Windows Live Writer is a blogging tool that has been available in the US since August of last year. The tool was very well received by US bloggers at launch since it provides increased product functionality for Windows Live Spaces users and it also allows publishing to many of the largest blogging products in the world.

Windows Live Messenger 8.5 will also go out with a largely back-end update, but includes feature updates such as new look and feel in sign-in and conversation window, new emoticons, and integration with Windows Live OneCare Family Safety.

For full information and download just visit the Microsoft Latest Releases section of the Tech Today or just click here

Windows Live Mail hits the next milestone

As we were expected, Windows Live Mail was upgraded to M9 (Milestone 9) last night. Some changes include:
Much faster loading and advanced Firefox compatibiity (works fully in Firefox 2)
The Classic Mode will be the default view from Hotmail users - brand new users won’t be taken to the fully AJAX’d page but to the Classic interface for “ease-of-use” purposes.
A new Today page rolls out, including what would be on your Today page in Windows Live Messenger.
Recent Updates now added as a tabbed page on the Today page allowing you to switch to what’s changed (blogs, contacts and newsletters etc.)
Search bar at the top of the page updated and tweaked slightly for the other themes.
New icons added to the right click menus, and generally the right click menus have been added and updated.
In Classic view, the top menu bar with “New, Reply, Forward and Delete” have been added to the bottom of each message for ease-of-use for longer messages.
Check the new interface here at Windows Live Mail .

Windows Live Mail Plus to offer 4GB storage

As more Windows Live services launch out of beta in the next few months, one of the unanswered questions still remains around premium subscribers. Some good news for Hotmail Plus users comes in the form of Windows Live Mail Plus, which is currently only marketed in Holland.

Features:

• 4GB inboxes from Spring 2007 *New*
• Attachments upto 20MB
• No advertisements (across several Windows Live services, including Mail, Mail desktop and Spaces)
• Microsoft Outlook access
• No disabling of your account due to inactivity
• Yearly cost remains at €19.99, expected £14.99 and $19.99 when launched in other regions

While the addition of 4GB storage may seem like overkill for email, Gmail is currently on ~2.8GB, it makes more sense if you can share it between services. While Live Drive is not yet released, this would seem like an appropriate place for it to integrate with Windows Live.

Windows Live Mail desktop Updated

Build 1172 of Windows Live Mail desktop just went live on Ideas.Live.com. This is the first publically available update for WLMd in about a month and a half, so needless to say there have been a lot of improvements since the last build. Alright, let's just jump right into it.

New in this build
- Migration from Windows Mail in Vista (Bug fixes and more support.)
- Minimize to the System Tray (Apparently they have made some sort of update to this based on user feedback. Still not sure what was changed.)
- Windows Desktop Search 3.0 Integration (Pretty much self explanatory.)
- Improved Sorting
- Synchronization Improvements (Thank you!)
- Performance Updates (Obviously crucial to WLMd's success, although the last build was pretty tight as far as performance goes)
- Hundreds of bug fixes since the last build.

Go and grab the new build here.

Also:
Windows Live Mail desktop Team Blog post