Yesterday Microsoft released a completely updated mobile web version of Windows Live. This 
is a very significant upgrade and deserves a thorough look. To understand the new mobile version you really need to look at the full-web version of Windows Live. Microsoft is in the middle of a massive roll-out of a new and revamped Live portal which they have dubbed Windows Live Wave 3. Wave 3 is all about social networking. Live users now have a Profile complete with picture, status-like "personal message" and a "What's new with your network" feed of what your Live friends and contacts are doing. The existing 30 million user Windows Live Spaces social network, which is especially strong in Asia and on mobile, is still around but it's looking a little neglected with many of it's features duplicated in the new Live portal.
The latest mobile Live has a subset of the features in the full Live Wave 3. It looks nothing like the simple page of links to other Microsoft mobile web sites that has been at mobile.live.com for the last couple of years. Design wise it's quite simple and elegant with everything new contained in just four pages; Home, People, Photos and Profile.
The Home page is the nerve center of Live Mobile, it's where most of the activity happens, with the other core functions a click away.
At the top on the home page is a profile picture, and a "personal message" which can be used as a greeting or a social networking style status. If you have any unread emails, an alert will appear in a notification area below picture and personal message. Clicking the alert will open Hotmail. New Messenger IM's do not generate an alert. It seems like Microsoft is really missing an opportunity to completely integrate Messenger into Live.
Next up is one of the core features of the new Live, the "What's New" feed which lists updates to your friend's blogs, profiles, photos etc. 
Below the feed is a prominent text box where you can update your personal message at anytime. Placing the message update on the home page emphasizes that you are expected to use it as an ever changing status.
At the bottom of the home page are links to your Profile, and to the other Live mobile services; Hotmail, Spaces, Live Search and to MSN Mobile.
The People page is Live's networking center.
People lists all your Hotmail and Messenger contacts and Spaces friends in a single list. There are links below each name to email, call or visit the Live profile of that person. Which links appear depend on what Live knows about that person. The Call link is shown only for contacts with a phone number, the Profile link only appears if the contact has a Live profile, etc. Again Messenger integration is missing, their are no "IM" links under your Messenger contacts, only an email or Profile link
Photos is a rather basic photo sharing web app.
You can view your own photos and ones shared by people in your network. You can also comment on photos and download copies to your phone. The Photos page has its own version of the "What's New" feed, which is filtered to show only photo related events.
With many phones, including most Symbian and Windows Mobile devices, you can upload photos directly from your mobile browser. The Opera Mini and UCWEB browsers can also upload photos on many Java feature phones. Or you can send photos to Live by email or MMS.
What's missing from mobile photos is any sort of editing capability. Uploaded photos wind up in a folder labeled "Mobile Photos". There is no way to rename folders or move photos to a folder using the mobile web site. It doesn't seem to be possible to delete photos either. Particularly annoying is the fact that the Mobile Photos folder is automatically marked private and
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posted by Dennis Bournique
December 12, 2008 @ 11:22 pm
7 View Comments
