Microsoft News Tracker

Last night, Microsoft rolled out 3 new Windows Live betas as Nick White reports at Microsoft’s Windows Vista Team Blog:

Today our Windows Live team is releasing new betas for several Windows Live applications:  Windows Live Messenger 8.5, Windows Live Mail and Windows Live Writer.  All three are now available for download.

White provides many more details on what is new, but in a nutshell:

• The Windows Live Messenger 8.5 beta provides a new Vista-like user interface and integration with Windows Live OneCare Safety Center, but there was also some unspecified backend work for future features including what looks like provision for Windows Live Folders, Microsoft’s rumored online storage service.
• This is the first beta of Windows Live Mail which is the new free desktop mail client revealed earlier this month and compared to its now defunct predecessor, Windows Live Mail Desktop, there has been a switch to the same new Windows Live UI as Messenger.
• The Windows Live Writer blog authoring client had been feared to be defunct but this new beta 2 allays that concern and among a variety of fixes and feature enhancements, it too got the new Windows Live UI.