It just got a little easier to get into Ray Ozzie's cloud.
Microsoft has opened up its Live Mesh service to anyone who has (or signs up for) a Windows Live ID. The service, announced in April, lets people share data among multiple Windows computers, as well as over the Web.
The vision for Live Mesh is broader--envisioning people sharing data among Macs, PCs, and various devices, as well as opening up the possibility for desktop applications to add online components, and Web apps to add offline components. For now, though, it's largely about file sync.
Microsoft is expected to add more features by its Professional Developer Conference in October.
In any case, Microsoft had been limiting Live Mesh sign-ups to those with an invitation, but now it's open to anyone who wants to see it in its early stages.
The change was noted by Microsoft in its Live Mesh forums and spotted by Windows Live enthusiast site Liveside.Net.
"The Live Mesh team is pleased to announce that anyone in the U.S. can now use Live Mesh just by signing in to www.mesh.com with a valid Windows Live ID," Microsoft said.
Oddly, it also told international users they could get into the act by spoofing their systems into appearing to be U.S. machines and then gave instructions on how to do so. That seems an odd choice to me. But hey, there you have it.
"Please be aware that this may cause other applications that specifically require your native country region and language settings to encounter problems," Microsoft cautioned.
CARLSBAD, Calif.--Tuesday's quick Windows 7 demo at the D6 conference here was nice, although developers who really want to get a feel for the new operating system will probably need to wait until October.
Windows 7 and its multitouch interface will be a key topic at the Professional Developers Conference, which is set for October in Los Angeles. The PDC hasn't been held since 2005 when Vista was still in development. Microsoft also plans use the conference to show where it's headed in mobile, which probably means a look at Windows Mobile 7, although the company wouldn't say that for certain.
Ray Ozzie, Microsoft's chief software architect, is giving the keynote at the event and the company is expected to have a broader beta of Live Mesh and offer a clearer picture of its overall services push.
On Tuesday, Microsoft revealed a sampling of the sessions, including several cloud services tracks such as "Developing and Deploying Your First Cloud Service" and "Scalable, Available Storage in the Cloud." That last one sounds like a pitch for a service in which Microsoft offers cloud storage to developers, now doesn't it?
There's also "Live Platform: Building Mesh Applications" and "Live Platform: Mesh Services Architecture Deep Dive" on the agenda.
The Windows 7 tracks give a few hints about that product as well. Seven-related panels include "Web services in native code," "Optimizing for energy efficiency and battery life" and "touch computing." The Windows Mobile tracks include "Location, Location, Location" and "Optimizing Web development for devices."
The event will be followed a week later by a Microsoft conference for computer makers, the Windows Hardware Engineering Conference (WinHEC), which is also set in Los Angeles.
Click here for full coverage of the D: All Things Digital conference.
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