Their newest version of Windows Live Messenger has some pretty cool audio and video every bit as comparable to Skype and that is really saying something as you may remember that I have regularly promoted Skype.  Their Windows Live Photo Gallery allows you to edit, catalog, and share your photos online to Windows Live Photos, or even Flickr. Windows Live Maps has become just as good as Google Maps and has sharing capabilities now where you can save your favorite sites, group them and share them. 

There is also a new Windows Live Mail, both online and a downloadable application.  The former Hotmail, is now Windows Live Mail though if you still have a Hotmail address you can still use it.  It now allows an ever growing storage space where you can archive your mails into another folder sort of like Gmail.  This way you never have to delete an email again and you can search for old emails.  Also there is a downloadable version that takes the place of the Outlook Express if you are using Windows XP, or older version.  If you are using Vista, it replaces Windows Mail.  The Vista version of Windows Mail no longer supports http mail support so downloading the Windows Live Mail application allows you to still use http mail, and IMAP, as well as POP mail.  I am very pleased with the new web based Windows Live Mail as well as the downloadable version as well.

The Windows Live Writer is probably the most amazing blogging program ever designed.  In fact I am posting this using Live Writer and I absolutely love it.  I just love how it is a What You See Is What You Get (WYSIWG) appearance using the same themes as your actual blog so you can see it exactly how it will appear.  It has tagging features and categorizing.  It is very easy to post pictures, and videos to your blog.  It will let you post on your own blog whether it be on your own domain or any of the free blogging sites like Blogger.com, WordPress, or Typepad, or even your own Windows Live Spaces page.  I have not even mentioned the Windows Live Skydrive.  This is absolutely amazing how they give you 25 gigabytes (GB) of free space to store and share your own files online.  I love this feature as I can upload my Internet Radio Linking Project (IRLP) Files into a central location so the other club officers can all have access to them.  The best part about all these features is they are free!

It has been tough getting my friends to try it because there are so many social sites out there like Myspace, Tumblr, and Facebook.  Just as it has been difficult to get people to try Skype because there are so many choices and people do not see the need to join another one.  I really believe that if people gave Windows Live a chance they would be hooked.  I am pretty excited about how useful the site is and I want to tell others about it so they will know and use it.  I want others to know there are other people using this site so that Windows Live will be a success.  They really do have a lot of features that are totally free to the user and there are no strings attached that users are required to get people to give up their privacy.

“Twitter!”

This post was though meant to be a joke, actually made it on Techmeme, along with about every other tech hobbyist’s site including mine.  I wasn’t sure exactly what it was about until I read his Twitter page.  I would not have posted about it myself except that I love Twitter.  This Memorial Day weekend was a perfect example of how wonderful Twitter is.  We went to Lake Eufaula this weekend to visit with my father in-law.  Although I did have a great time, I was missing my connected life with the Internet.  Even on the third floor of his house, I could not receive any wifi at all.  I felt like a smoker trying to survive the first day of no smoking.  At least I could send and receive Twitter messages through SMS on my cell phone.  Even at the water I could stay in touch with those friends that I have online.  Call me an Internet Junkie but this started way before the Internet.  As a ham radio operator of 25 years, I have been accustomed to communicating to remote places.  Now that the Internet has so many communication tools, it fits right in with me.

As always, you can follow me and my happenings by following my Twitter page.  These tools are becoming so widespread that more and more aggregate readers are coming along.  The newest one that seems to be the rage is Friendfeed.  With this new toy, it creates a news feed with all your Twitter, Pownce, Facebook, Youtube, Flicker, Tumblr, among others.  It is pretty nice as you can see my Friendfeed page here.  With Friendfeed, you can keep in touch with all the social actions a person makes on the Internet.  It seems to be pretty cool.  My favorite is still Twitter because of the SMS (text messaging) capability and it automatically updates my Facebook status.  I like that I can get messages through Skype, Flock, Google Talk (ughh).  If you get tired of all my new toys, you can just follow me on my Friendfeed page because it shows them all.  I guess I have sold out for these new toys and love to be able to communicate while mobile.  I just wish I could settle on just one.

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Tags: socialnetworking, Twitter, Pownce, Flickr, Friendfeed, Tumblr, Skype, Flock, Google Talk, Facebook, SMS