Tall Mike

Browser add-ons can help personalize the way you use the Internet. The add-ons
available here have been carefully screened from the Microsoft new IE Addons website and rated by users to
help you select the ones that suit your needs and preferences. Start exploring
them today.

With so many powerful extensions to choose from for Internet
Explorer 7, it can be difficult to decide which ones to install.
To help you find what you need to
enhance your Internet experience, I have compiled a list of some of my
favorites.

Inline Search by Core Systems: Search for text within page while you type
Inline Search is an extremely useful free add-on for Internet Explorer that adds while-you-type searching within the current page, with the option to highlight all occurrences of your search term. It integrates flawlessly into IE7, giving it that little extra that makes you a lot more efficient when you are looking for a specific piece of information on a web page. 

IESpell by RedEgg Software
IESpell is a free Internet Explorer browser extension that spell-checks text-input boxes on a Web page. It will come in particularly handy for users who do a lot of Web-based text entry (Web mail, forums, blogs, diaries). Even if your Web application already includes spell-checking functionality, this utility is faster than a server-side solution. Plus, you get to store and use your personal word list across all your applications instead of having to maintain separate ones on each application.

Trailfire
Trailfire provides a unique new method of web navigation. By leaving “Trailmarks”, which are essentially electronic notes, on individual web pages, users can lead their Trailfire contacts on an interpretive trail for the web. You can use the trailmarks to express your opinions on sites you visit, to plan a vacation, or for any number of clever uses not yet invented. This add-on for IE7 makes it possible to experience the web in a far more personal way than ever before.

StumbleUpon Toolbar for Internet Explorer:One of popular Extensions for Firefox now supports IE7.
The StumbleUpon Toolbar for Internet Explorer allows you to ‘channel surf’ the
Internet and discover great websites and web content according to your
interests. Whether it’s a website, video, picture, game, blog, or wiki,
StumbleUpon helps you find interesting stuff recommended by like-minded people
with just a single click of the Stumble! button. The more you use it, the better
it gets. Join over 1.3 million users who have rated over 7 million websites.

Del.icio.us Toolbar by Del.icio.us
del.icio.us is a collection of favorites – yours and everyone else’s. You can use del.icio.us to: Keep links to your favorite articles, blogs, music, reviews, recipes, and more, and access them from any computer on the web, share favorites with friends, family, coworkers, and the del.icio.us community, and to discover new things. Everything on del.icio.us is someone’s favorite — they’ve already done the work of finding it.

Technorati Tags: IE7, Browsers, Addons, extension

Windows Live Writer just came out few weeks. It has quite a few plug-ins made for it already.

On Microsoft’s Codeplex Project site, there is a workspace for all developers who want to write their own
plugins for Microsoft
Windows Live Writer blogging client and share them with others.

Here is the list of plug-ins

• Technorati Tags 
• Winamp Currently Playing
• Windows Media Player Currently Playing 
• Code Syntax Highlighter 
• Paste Clipboard as Html 
• Rhapsody Currently Playing 
• Multiple Tags Plugin 
• Flickr Plugin
• Webcam Snapshot 

More…

Technorati Tags: Live Writer, Plugin, Codeplex

Live
Writer is a new application designed to create blog posts for Live Spaces
and a number of other services. Appearing like a slimmed down version of
Microsoft Word, the tool is available free of charge.

Users can author blog posts in a WYSIWYG environment that makes editing easy
and shows exactly how the post will look when published. An HTML source code
editing mode is included for more advanced users, as well as a Web preview
option.

Photo publishing has been integrated into Windows Live Writer, enabling users
to quickly add an image to their blog post and modify it with the application’s
built-in tools. Size, text wrapping, borders can be edited, and a variety of
graphical effects are also available.

Microsoft has additionally including mapping support with Live Writer. Users
can insert a Windows Live Local map directly into their post, and customize it
to show road, aerial or bird’s eye detail. Pushpins can also be added to
highlight a specific point.

The application currently supports Microsoft’s own Windows Live Spaces
blogging service, in addition to Blogger, LiveJournal, TypePad, WordPress and
others. Support for RSD (Really Simple Discoverability), the Metaweblog API, and
the Movable Type API are also included.

Technorati Tags: Windows
Live, Liver Writer,
Blog

Windows Live Mail M6 has just shipped, with changes including:

- Firefox
support. Doesn’t include Spell checker, resizable splitters between message list
and reading pane. Does include drag and drop and signatures.
- Policy Changes

- Performance
- Signatures
- Don’t auto select first message
-
Change colors on the fly
- Subscribe to contact updates
- Contact display
name choice
- Compose from anywhere
- More Classic Hotmail
improvements
- Read
more

Technorati Tags: Windows Live Mail, M6, Live Mail, Live Mail Beta

 Office Live opens it beta door to Americans…

Quote

Your
‘wait’ is over
Since we debuted our waitlist for the Microsoft Office
Live Beta back in November 2005 we have had over 275,000 customers sign-up in
our Beta waitlist, and we thank each and every one of them for signing up. But
what we’ve heard over and over is: please don’t
make me wait in a list; I want to try Office Live NOW!! So, good news to
everyone who hasn’t already gotten a product key, your wait is over (maybe
before it even started!)

We have dropped the requirement of a product key
from our signup! The Beta is still only open to US residents for now, but ANY US
resident with a valid credit card can sign up for the Beta and experience Office
Live! All you need to do now is pick your product (Basics, Collaboration
or Essentials)
and pick your domain. So head over to OfficeLive.com
now to get your Beta subscription started.

The fine print: Product keys
and the waitlist are off ‘for now’ but may come back again at a later date. We
may have to turn them back on if demand exceeds our expectations and capacity
for the beta… so sign up now before everyone else

– Matt Rolak, SDET Lead
Matthew.Rolak@microsoft.com

Technorati Tags: Microsoft Office Live, Office Live

According to the offlical blog of Windows Live Mail Desktop Beta, The first managed beta for  MDB (Mail Desktop Beta, our unofficial acronym to keep it short and sweet) started Wednesday March 29.

“~100 beta members will be sent a survey
link starting Wednesday, with feedback collected over the next 7 days.
If this 100-group has a good beta experience, the group will be
expanded to around 5000 within the next few weeks.”

However, the MDB team said  “We’re keeping the group small for this
beta so the feedback loop will be tight.  If you made the list,
congrats! If you didn’t, don’t despair, the next round of beta is only
a few months away. That beta will include a MUCH larger test
audience. When it comes time for the beta test to start, look for our
post here for directions on how to sign up.”

Technorati Tags: Windows Live Mail Desktop, public beta, managed beta, wlmdb , mdb

Take one part googlemaps, one part image analysis (of various
traffic maps), throw in AJAX (so that the map is auto-updated every two
minutes), and you get a traffic page that tells you where the highway
is clogged, and where it isn’t.

Useful to know if you need to take a detour.

http://toronto.ibegin.com/traffic/

Technorati Tags: ajax, map, toronto, traffic flow

Here is the new ultramobile pen machine from Microsoft—the Origami.
This shows off the thumb-oriented typing keypad.

One of the devices you could hook to the Origami was this seriously floppy keyboard that you could roll up.

Source: CeBIT

Technorati Tags: CeBIT, Origami, Microsoft , UMPC, ultramobile

However, It seems the “blog it” feature of 10 is NOT compatibile with spaces blog.

Technorati Tags: podcast, microsoft, video, 10

The new UI of Windows Live Mail – M5 came out. It comes with lots of new features plus enhancement. The new UI is more like the Outlook 2003 – the popular E-mail client.

Here’s list of new features

• Contact picker on compose
• Report & Delete for junk mail  
• Download/send/forward attachments 
• Reply to and Forward mail 
• CC/Bcc fields on compose
• Move message to folders
• Safety messaging
• Filters and auto-sort

However, if you just love the original Hotmail look and feel, you can choose the “Classic Hotmail View.�

Technorati Tags: Live mail, beta, Windows Live Mail beta