Skype is the next phenomenon from the people who brought you KaZaA. Just like KaZaA, this uses P2P (peer-to-peer) technology to connect you to other users – not to share files this time, but to talk for free with your friends. The technology is extremely advanced - but super simple to use. You’ll be making perfect quality free phone calls to your friends in no time.

View: Skype™ for Windows (BETA)
Download: Skype™ for Windows (BETA) 3.0.0.154
Screenshot:

Darren Straight has announced The new Theme for Windows Live.com

View & Add: Holiday Template for Windows Live.com
Source: Darren Straight’s Blog

Screenshot:

Windows Live Expo Team announced new Release of Windows Live Expo.

This release includes:

• Public availability in the UK and China!  Welcome to social classifieds, guys!
• Upgrades to the “Communities” feature (formerly known as Email groups) - read details here
• Streamlined account sign-up
• Upgrade to the newest Virtual Earth map viewer - check out the new 3D maps feature by clicking on the “View map” button!
• Image enhanced preview, so you can start scoping people’s profile photos
• Sharing on Facebook, so you can share your listings with your Facebook buddies
• A much needed refresh of the homepage including the slick ‘Vapor’ theme
• Tonnes of bugfixes and backend improvements

View: Windows Live Expo
Source: Live Expo Team
Screenshot:

Surf the Web, search on Google, read webmail from the palm of your hand. Get Opera Mini, a free Web browser for your mobile phone! Enter your mobile phone number to receive an Opera Mini download link by SMS instantly. Opera Mini uses a remote server to pre-process Web pages before sending them to your phone. Web content is compressed to reduce the size of data transferred, enabling handling on simpler phones and creating fast browsing at low costs.

View: Oper Mini™ Homepage

View: Opera Mini™ 3.0 Features

Download: Opera Mini™ 3.0

Windows Live Local for Outlook adds maps, routes, traffic updates, driving directions, and travel time to your Microsoft Office Outlook meeting requests. See maps in road, aerial, bird’s eye view,* and amazing 3D view*!

Download: Windows Live Local add-in for Microsoft Outlook (2.1)

Source: In-House

Screenshot:

1GB storage allocation for free Hotmail accounts is live! If you are new to Hotmail, then your account is created automatically with 1GB storage allocation. All existing accounts are at 1GB. To see that you would need sign out and sign in again.  The storage meter bar in our classic UI would show 1000 as the max number.  If your account is migrated to Windows Live Mail then your storage allocation is 2GB.

View: www.hotmail.com

Source: Team Blog

Discover NEW Nero 7 Premium Reloaded, the ultimate PC and home entertainment solution, featuring 20 applications in one attractively-priced, Windows Vista Ready media suite. Enjoy all your favorite songs with unlimited MP3 encoding support. Turn your mobile devices into full feature-rich portable media centers. Stay connected with free phone calls via the Internet. Burn all types of content onto CDs and DVDs in a wide range of formats including Blu-ray and HD DVD data recording. And as always, Nero offers free monthly updates to keep you current with state-of-the-art digital technology!

Download: Nero 7.5.9.0A | Mirrors | Product info

Screenshots:

XML Notepad 2007 provides a simple intuitive user interface for browsing and editing XML documents.

Download: XML Notepad 2007 (2.1.2522.18951) | More info | Source: In-House

Office Live is beginning to move into markets other than the US, with betas in France, Japan, Germany, and the UK. In the UK, the first 10,000 beta testers to sign up will get a free co.uk domain name.

View: www.officelive.co.uk
Source: LiveSide

The first software designed to both tweak and optimize Windows Vista.
Tweak hundreds of hidden features of Windows Vista, optimize your machine and customize it to your needs.

The best tweaking software ever!

The latest product of Totalidea’s ‘Tweak’ product line.
The main application of TweakVI together with 13 plugins is available completely for free. Additional plugins can be downloaded after subscribing.

Screenshot:

More Info: TweakVI | Change Notes

Download: TweakVI v1.0 build 1020