Beyond Binary

Microsoft said on Friday that it plans next month to end support for a test version of its Live Framework, which was essentially the developer side of its Live Mesh service.

The idea of Live Framework is to give developers of Web-based applications the ability to add desktop components, while those writing traditional applications could use the Live Framework to add synchronizing and other online capabilities.

In a blog posting, Microsoft said it plans to integrate many of the concepts behind the Live Framework into the next version of Windows Live. In the mean time, though, developers will lose access to the test version of the Live Framework as of September 8.

"The Live Framework will be integrated into the next release of Windows Live. Stay tuned to Dev.live.com for more details in the future," Microsoft said in its blog. "If you are a Live Framework technology preview user, we ask you to please download any data and/or code from the service prior to September 8th as well as remove your devices from the service."

Developers can expect to hear more about where Microsoft plans to go with Live Framework at this November's Professional Developer Conference.

Microsoft rolled out the Live Framework as a community technology preview at last year's Professional Developer Conference, though its launch was somewhat overshadowed by the debut of Windows Azure. At the time, Microsoft said it was supporting both platforms, with Azure being a more basic set of building blocks and the Live Framework a collection of more finished services.

Microsoft's consumer-facing Live Mesh application is not affected by the move, Microsoft said.

Organizationally, Microsoft moved the Live Mesh effort into the Windows Live unit at the beginning of the year.

Microsoft has made the decision to ax Live Search Product Upload, a tool retailers could use to get their products into Microsoft's search database.

"Thank you for your interest in the product upload beta. Regrettably, we are discontinuing this program," Microsoft said in a message posted on the product's Web site. "Merchants located in the United States should consider participating in Live Search Cashback--an advertising program which combines the power of Live Search with a comparison shopping engine to bring consumers some of the best deals on the web."

Microsoft confirmed it is ending the product, which had been in beta testing.

"Results from the beta proved that the service was redundant with our other shopping assets," Microsoft said in a statement. "To improve the performance for merchants, we've combined product search and Cashback and we are decommissioning product upload in favor of the new integrated Cashback shopping experience."

The software maker said that retailers don't have to enroll in the Cashback program to make its product search engine, given that it also crawls the Web. However, it said "we encourage merchants to join Cashback as it enables them to provide a structured feed for their product search listings."

Microsoft announced the move to combine product search and Live Search Cashback last week.

If one cute kid can help sell products, more kids must be better, right?

After debuting its first "rookies" spot last week showing 4-year-old Kylie using Windows Live Photo Gallery to fix her goldfish picture, Microsoft is back with a new spot that shows 7-year-old Alexa using the software to create a panoramic photo.

Microsoft is clearly trying to convince us its software is so easy that a kid can master it.

It's not a bad strategy. But I'm a little surprised it's are back at it with Photo Gallery. The first ad was pretty cute, I thought, but also seemed to get the message home. I'm interested to see the approach the company will take when it moves on to other Windows products.

The 6-year-old that can fix my cellular modem networking issues, that kid I'll hire.

Microsoft's new Windows ad made its expected debut over the weekend, with a 4-year-old cutie named Kylie showing how easy it is to use Windows Live Photo Gallery to edit and share photos.

As I noted last week, Microsoft is pushing ahead with new spots in its Windows ad campaign after taking some time off following the Gates/Seinfeld and "I'm a PC" spots.

In the new spot, which debuted during the Grammy Awards Sunday (and is embedded below), Kylie shows how she uses the program to touch up her photo and then share it with her family via e-mail.

"I'm a PC and I am four and a half," she says to end the commercial.

After getting a lukewarm response with humor, is cute what Microsoft needs to sell Windows?

After a brief pause, Microsoft's Windows ad campaign will start singing a new tune.

Microsoft plans to debut a new commercial during the Grammy Awards on Sunday that focuses on its Windows Live services as part of the company's overarching Windows ad campaign that began with a short-lived series featuring Bill Gates and Jerry Seinfeld and morphed into the "I'm a PC" campaign that started in September and directly targeted Apple.

The new ad features a 4-year-old girl using Microsoft's Windows Live Photo Gallery. It's part of a new phase for the campaign, which Microsoft is calling "Rookies."

"The aim is to put a spotlight on how Windows enhances your life regardless of your age," one Microsoft representative told me.

Windows Live Photo Gallery is one of several free Windows programs that was put out by the Windows Live group. The program, along with Windows Live Mail, initially replaced similar--but less connected--programs built into Windows Vista. With Windows 7, though, Microsoft has stripped the e-mail and photo management programs out entirely, encouraging users to instead download the Windows Live programs.

Microsoft confirmed on Friday that it is pushing together its Office Live and Windows Live efforts.

The company isn't changing the development cycle or the leadership of the teams working on the products, but it is promising that consumers will be able to get to both sets of services from a common Web location.

Microsoft didn't say exactly what that spot will be, but the Windows Live branding is expected to be the one that survives the combination, I'm hearing. (But what about Officeliveworkspacecommunity.com? Does Microsoft really want to give up that prime, easy-to-remember address?)

Although it declined to clarify whether Thursday's job cuts affected the Windows Live and Office Live teams, the company said there were no changes to the top ranks of either group.

The merging was first noted on Thursday by ZDNet blogger Mary Jo Foley.

LAS VEGAS--As he takes the stage Wednesday, Steve Ballmer has a mighty big task ahead of him.

Not only is he taking over Consumer Electronics Show keynote duties from Bill Gates, he is also aiming to convince the tech world that Microsoft is serious about defending its turf on the PC as well as making headway on the Web, television and phone. Oh yeah, and then there's that whole economy-melting-down thing.

Ballmer hasn't arrived in Sin City empty handed, however. In perhaps the biggest announcement of the night, he will announce Microsoft is ready with a beta version of Windows 7 and he will show off some of its key consumer features.

Microsoft will also announce new deals for Windows Live that will see Microsoft's search engine become the default on PCs from Dell as well as touting a deal with Verizon Wireless that leaked earlier in the day. The company is also counting on two Halo game releases this year to help keep the Xbox 360 going in the right direction.

But Microsoft faces considerable competition in each of the areas Ballmer is discussing. On the PC front, a resurgent Apple has increased its share. In search, Google continues to dominate. In the phone market, Apple's iPhone has grabbed much of the spotlight, not to mention significant market share. Google also has joined the fray, while longtime competitors such as Research in Motion and Palm are trying to maintain their slices of the pie as well.

And then, of course, there's the substantial financial headwind. Ballmer is expected to express his usual optimism--despite the global financial outlook--and discuss the company's commitment to research and development in both good times and bad. That said, Microsoft is clearly not immune from the problems that led Intel Wednesday to announce that fourth-quarter revenues were down 23 percent from the same quarter a year ago.

On the PC side, Microsoft is looking to turn the page from Vista to its successor, Windows 7. Microsoft isn't talking about any new features of Windows 7, saying it talked about all of the key features at the Professional Developer Conference last year. Instead, it will attempt to demonstrate what features like improved home networking really mean for the average household.

As for the beta of Windows 7, Microsoft said it will be immediately available for technical beta testers and those in Microsoft's TechNet and MSDN developer programs and will be made publicly available on Friday. The company still isn't officially committing to a final release in time for this year's holiday season, although the company is clearly still aiming for that.

Ballmer will also discuss Windows Live. In addition to the global PC deal with Dell and the five year U.S. deal with Verizon Wireless, Microsoft has expanded its relationship with Facebook to allow users to see within their Windows Live homepage certain of their buddies' Facebook updates. The company is also stripping the beta tag off many of its Web-based and downloadable Windows Live products.

On the phone side, Ballmer is expected to talk about the improved mobile browser Microsoft released at the end of last year, but the company is not talking yet about when to expect a serious upgrade to the Windows Mobile operating system, which has grown rather long in the tooth. Microsoft has made reference to an interim Windows 6.5 release that could serve as a bridge until the more significant overhaul of the operating system--Windows Mobile 7--makes its delayed debut.

On the automotive side, Microsoft is announcing a new version of its Ford Sync entertainment system that uses voice recognition software from its Tellme acquisition.

While that's the main news of the show, check out our live blog to get some live quotes, our commentary, as well as updates on any celebrity guests or funny videos that are often the hallmark of Microsoft's keynotes.

See also: Windows 7 beta: First impressions

(Credit: The new Windows Live Home page bears more than a passing resemblance to social sites like Facebook.)

Microsoft has started to roll out a series of changes, outlined in November, that give Windows Live a more social networking-like feel.

Windows Live staples such as Spaces, Events, and the home page get a new look, while Microsoft is also putting special emphasis on group, profile, and photo pages.

"Essentially we're launching 'the new face of Windows Live' on the web today," Microsoft's Brandon LeBlanc said in a blog posting.

The changes, which are being rolled out over the next 24 hours, also include a bump in the limit for Microsoft's SkyDrive online storage, which now offers 25GB of storage and improved photo slide shows on the Web.

Also new is the ability to import contacts directly from Facebook to Windows Live.

Take a look and let me know what you think of the makeover. Does it make Windows Live look young and hip, or like an actress that's had one too many face-lifts?

Microsoft is announcing a series of changes to its Windows Live services aimed to give more of a social-networking flavor to the company's communications services.

With the update, Spaces, Windows Live Hotmail, and Windows Live Messenger will get deeper ties with one another. While stressing that it is not trying to create a new social-networking site, Microsoft is nonetheless adopting concepts like news feeds and profiles that have made such services so popular.

"The general thing people are trying to do in all of these services is keep in touch," said Brian Hall, the general manager for Windows Live.

The software maker is trying to expand the amount of time users spend in Windows Live, which Hall said already gets 11 percent of all Internet minutes, thanks largely to the popularity of Hotmail and Messenger.

On top of those, Microsoft is adding a revamped Windows Live Home page that focuses on a news feed of actions taken by one's contacts as well as new types of views that focus on what a particular person or group is up to.

To populate its news feed, users will have the option to include their activities from a variety of other sites. The company has signed up reviews sites like Amazon and Yelp, blogging sites like WordPress and Twitter, as well as some less well-known social-networking sites.

"Facebook and MySpace are not on there right now," Hall said. "We're announcing a set of partners that are deploying in December."

Photo sharing is a particular area of focus, with Microsoft offering its own storage options, as well as linking to third-party sites such as Photobucket and Yahoo's Flickr. Starting next year, HP will also bundle Microsoft's Windows Live Photo Gallery software with its consumer printers.

As for the changes to Windows Live itself, glimmers of the update are visible now, though most features are only in private testing and won't be visible to the masses until next month, Hall said. For example, the latest public beta version of Windows Live Messenger has a "What's new" feature, but for now it only shows things such as changing a profile picture within Messenger.

As part of the latest changes, Microsoft is also upping the amount of storage provided with its SkyDrive service to 25GB from 5GB.

Part of this wave of changes is also the update to Windows Live Hotmail, in which Microsoft has merged its standard and classic modes--a move that left some users grumbling.

Interestingly, Classic mode was an afterthought in the major Hotmail overhaul Microsoft did several years ago. Throughout the redesign, though, it took on added importance until it became the default mode when the revamped Web mail program ultimately launched.