A look at trends in photos and videos A lot has changed in the three years since we launched the first Windows Live Photo Gallery . For starters, there are a lot more people taking photos. About 10 billion more photos will be taken in the US in 2010 than in 2007—rising from about 47 billion...

ZDNet’s Ed Bott penned a very thorough comparison of Photo Gallery 2011 and iPhoto ‘11 in The Ed Bott Report this past week. While he doesn’t go so far as to declare a winner, he highlights some clear advantages to our design approach. In a lot of ways, his experience and analysis reflects what we set...

In the past, we’ve discussed our commitment to building unique experiences and integrating with great services from across the web. With the release of Windows Live Essentials 2011 , we’ve made it easier to create and share across your sites. With the amount of photos and videos we capture and store...

Over the past few years that I’ve been on the Windows Live team, we’ve made a significant shift in the way that we think about where we want to focus Windows Live. Our priority is on giving consumers the best experience possible, which means that we are focused on both building great experiences and...

When I talk about what we’re doing in Windows Live, people often start by asking me: What is Windows Live ? Many folks know about Hotmail and Messenger , and there are millions of users of our other desktop apps and services like SkyDrive , Photo Gallery , and Movie Maker . So what people are really...

In recent posts we’ve talked about the new Messenger and the re-invention of Hotmail . Today, we’re going to spend time on the new Windows Live Essentials . You can also view this video on YouTube Windows Live Essentials – the essential software for...

This week, we will release an update to Windows Live Essentials 2011 . In addition to changes that improve performance and quality of service, the update also includes full support for SSL in Windows Live Mail , and the latest Bing bar. Here are a few of things we think you’ll find the most interesting...

Last week, Steve Lohr of the New York Times explored the evolving landscape of computer vision . Steve notes that computer vision – which broadly includes robotics, object detection and recognition, sequencing, as well as modeling and object interaction - is moving into the mainstream; what would have...

It's here! Hot on the heels of the Hotmail roll-out , the new Windows Live Essentials is now available for public beta testing. Windows Live Essentials beta requires Windows Vista or Windows 7, and is available in English, French, Dutch, Japanese, Portuguese, Simplified Chinese, or Spanish.  Get...

We are pleased to announce that Windows Live Essentials 2011 for Windows 7 and Windows Vista is now available for download! (Releasing in 48 languages over the next few hours, so if your language is not yet available, it will be very soon.) Windows Live Essentials 2011 was designed and built to connect...

If you’ve been using the Office Web Apps since our release last week and saw some of the changes to the new Hotmail that we began rolling out this week, you’ll realize why, like everyone here on the Windows Live team, I love the web. I especially love how web apps like SkyDrive and Hotmail let me work...

We’ve talked a few times about how important it is for you to be able to connect your Windows Live experiences to the other great services you use.  You can connect connect Messenger to Facebook, MySpace and LinkedIn , Hotmail lets you bring in your email from Gmail and Yahoo! Plus, and  WordPress...

If you’re using Windows Live Essentials on Windows Vista or Windows 7 and have Microsoft Update turned on , you’ll see an optional update this week in all 48 languages where Windows Live Essentials 2011 is available. After launching Windows Live Essentials 2011 last fall, we’ve been closely watching...

Today we’re releasing an update to Windows Live Essentials 2011 beta . One of the main reasons we release betas is to allow early adopters to enjoy our products and provide feedback on their experience. First, we want to say thank you for your help. For Messenger alone, we had over 3 million unique...

When we launched Windows Live SkyDrive in August of 2007, we had the clear goal to make sharing easier and better for anybody on the Internet. But offering free storage to the world is a risky proposition – the list of services that have tried to do this and failed is long. So we took it slow, starting...

We all take a lot of photos. In fact, according to data provided by InfoTrends, more than 73 billion still images were shot in the US alone in 2010. If you’re lucky enough to own a DSLR (digital single lens reflex) camera, you’re likely to take two and a half times as many photos in a given month as...