Brandon LeBlanc's Personal Space

Windows Live on your Mobile Device

Tue, 15 Jul 2008 08:22:16 GMT

Regardless of what device you are using – if your Mobile Device has a web browser and Internet access you can check out several of your Windows Live services on your phone by going to http://mobile.live.com.

Here you can see what http://mobile.live.com looks like on my Samsung BlackJack II running Windows Mobile 6.1:

Here you can access your Windows Live Hotmail Mailbox where you can read and reply to email. You can check your Windows Live Space, Search the Web with Live Search, and check out MSN!

Windows Live Tags: Clubhouse, Hotmail, Spaces, Mobile, How-To

BETA ALERT: For a preview on what’s coming next with mobile access for Windows Live click here to view my post on the Windows Experience Blog on the new Windows Live Home website!

Comparison: Windows Live SkyDrive and Windows Live FolderShare

Tue, 15 Jul 2008 07:53:34 GMT

I get this question a lot from folks: what is the difference between Windows Live SkyDrive and Windows Live FolderShare?

Windows Live SkyDrive is your personal harddrive “in the sky”. The Internet is commonly referred to as “the cloud” so you will often here Windows Live SkyDrive referred to as “cloud storage”. With Windows Live SkyDrive you get 5GB of storage for your files for FREE. You can store any file you want (that is under 50MB in size). Your files are private unless you implicitly choose to make the folder you are putting the file in public. You can also customize who has access to certain folders and it’s files by contacts as well.

Windows Live FolderShare is a service that lets you create Libraries for PC-to-PC sync. You add PCs you want to sync with to the Library and Windows Live FolderShare will sync the files within that Library to any PCs that has the FolderShare client installed and configured for that Library. A Library can be a single folder of files on your PC or a folder with multiple folders with files within them. Unlike with Windows Live SkyDrive – no files are stored in the “cloud”. Files within the Libraries are synced to PCs and sit on the individual PCs.

So essentially you have one service for storing files on the Internet and another service for syncing files with multiple PCs. Two different scenarios. Now might we see integration between these two services? Maybe one day! The same Team at Microsoft is responsible for both Windows Live SkyDrive and Windows Live FolderShare so you can expect them to be looking at how both services can work together. However many users simply like having a simple way to upload files to the web or a simple tool to sync files with multiple PCs.

Today I use Windows Live SkyDrive myself to store photos and share files with friends and family. When a friend wants me to share a file with them (like say a Word Document or Photo) – I add the file to a folder I’ve shared out and my friend logs in with their Windows Live ID to download the file. I can make them a editor of the folder and allow them to also upload their own files too. And I use Windows Live FolderShare to sync several Libraries with almost 6 different PCs! My Libraries are mostly single folders. I have several friends who use Windows Live FolderShare to sync their Internet Explorer Favorites with multiple PCs. This allows them to have the same Favorites on their desktop PC at home and on the road with their Laptop. Together – these two Windows Live services really make my life a lot easier with managing files on multiple PCs and getting files to people.

There is much more to these services than what I’m saying here. But at the risk of this post running REALLY long winded – I’ll save specific deep dives for both Windows Live SkyDrive and Windows Live FolderShare for a later date!

Windows Live Tags: Clubhouse, SkyDrive, FolderShare, Story

NOTE: Undoubtedly someone will ask or leave a comment about Live Mesh. Live Mesh is a new platform (key word here) currently being tested by Microsoft and is not currently a consumer-facing product like Windows Live SkyDrive and Windows Live FolderShare is today. It isn’t a Windows Live service currently. It’s a platform that one day the Windows Live services might take advantage of. Currently, Live Mesh is a very early Tech Preview (Pre-Beta) at www.mesh.com to a limited amount of people.

Keeping Life Balanced with Windows Live

Mon, 23 Jun 2008 08:22:32 GMT

For work, I have a Microsoft Exchange account that I use for all-worked related email, events, tasks and contacts. For my own personal “life” stuff I use Windows Live. I use Outlook 2007 for work and Windows Live Mail and Messenger for personal email and contact management. In some cases (such as with Windows Live Messenger) there is some crossover between the two.

Sometimes on my PC I have two email clients running on my PC (Outlook 2007 and Windows Live Mail) – because I like keeping things separate. I know I could use the Outlook Connector (which many people use such as my father) and use one single application but I really like what Windows Live Mail gives me for email capabilities as well as its connection to Windows Live Messenger. With Windows Live Mail, I get multiple email accounts, newsgroups, RSS – all in a single application. w00t!

I live in Windows Live Messenger for both work and personal communication with co-workers, friends or family. Windows Live Messenger is great as it serves as a single point of communication for everyone.

On my Windows Mobile device (BlackJack II running Windows Mobile 6.1) – I use Windows Live for Windows Mobile to *sync* my email and contacts to my phone. I have my phone syncing email from Microsoft Exchange AND Windows Live Hotmail. I’ve subscribed to my contacts updates to their contact cards via Windows Live Messenger so that their phone numbers for work, home, and mobile are automatically updated and synced to my phone.

With Windows Live – I have anywhere access on any PC (with web access) as well as my mobile phone. No matter if I am sitting at my home PC, on my work PC, or on my mobile phone – I get the same information (contacts, email, Spaces, etc). Not a lot of people understand the full scenario that Windows Live provides TODAY.

Note: I also use Windows Live Calendar to manage my important events but is currently accessible via the web only and does not provide any sort of client or mobile phone sync. I’ve also used Windows Live Events for certain events.

Windows Live Tags: Challenge: Balance, Mail, Messenger, Hotmail, Mobile, Calendar, Events, Spaces, Clubhouse, Story

The What’s New Page in Windows Live Spaces

Mon, 23 Jun 2008 08:02:22 GMT

I am loving the “What’s New” Page for Windows Live Spaces (aka the “Spaces Home” page). This page allows you to keep tabs on everything your friends are doing in your Windows Live social network. If they upload files to Public folders in Windows Live SkyDrive they appear in the What’s New feed, so does any post you make on Windows Live Spaces, when your friends become friends with other people (and people you might know!), and when people upload images to Windows Live Spaces.

So how can the “What’s New” page in Windows Live Spaces get better? Simple. Let me import RSS (xml) from other web services I take part in. I want whenever I post to Twitter – for my “tweets” to appear in my What’s New feed where all my friends in Windows Live can see them. If I upload to Flickr – I want my friends to see those images I’ve uploaded. I’d like to see a more “open” functionality of What’s New – not entirely different than say FriendFeed.

The Windows Live Spaces Team should also look to the developer-side by creating API’s for the What’s New feed in Windows Live Spaces where other web services can take advantage of linking to the What’s New page – perhaps in the way of plug-ins that are published to Windows Live Gallery?

The possibilities are endless with the What’s New page in Windows Live Spaces and I want to see it grow. I check my What’s New page a few times a day and its often great to see some of the stuff my friends are writing on their Spaces or photos they’ve uploaded.

Windows Live Tags: Clubhouse, Spaces, Story

Remember: Introduce yourself when sending me a Friend Invite

Mon, 23 Jun 2008 03:25:16 GMT

Please remember: I will not accept a Friend Invite if I do not know who you are.

If you would like to be "friends" on Windows Live - please introduce yourself either by sending me a message here via Spaces or leaving a comment. Not trying to be a douche but the whole concept of social networking (in my opinion at least) is making friends by introductions etc not by blindly sending invites to people all over the place. Being someone's friend in real life means you know them - the same applies here on the Web.

I've received 4 requests by people wanting to be friends in the last two weeks and I unfortunately declined them because I didn't know who you are.

Sending me messages...

Thu, 29 May 2008 18:35:11 GMT

When you are sending me a message via Windows Live Spaces - be sure to make sure that your Communication Preferences allow me to reply to your message. Several people have sent me messages but I am unable to rely due to their Communcations Preferences not allowing me to do so.

Thanks!

Talking about No Space. No Profile Picture. No Communication. No being Friends with me.

Tue, 27 May 2008 08:50:18 GMT

I agree with Michael here and adopt the same policy when adding friends here on Windows Live Spaces. Another thing I do is I need to know who you are to add you as a friend. I don't accept random Friend Requests. I'm not trying to be a douche bag here but part of social networking (in my opinion) is interacting with friends and people you know. If I don't know you I simply won't accept the request. Windows Live Spaces has the feature where you can send me a private message - please do so and introduce yourself and then perhaps I'll accept your Friend Request.

Quote

This is something personal I want to issue. And this might not apply to everyone. But if your one of my "friends" that I've added, I ask that you either have a real Live Space I can look at, a simple profile picture, and have commented or communicate with me sometime.

I honestly do not want a list of "friends" that have none of these. Your more like a ghost or invisible person if you don't have these. I don't know why you would want to be friends with me, if I can't even try with you. It's really creepy, and I'm already starting to crack down on the friend issue.

You can read Michael's entire post here.

Windows Live Spaces a "second-rate" service?

Fri, 02 May 2008 22:17:18 GMT

Robert Scoble says Windows Live Spaces sucks and pretty much calls it a second-rate service.

"So why am I wasting my time talking at 1:30 a.m. to a few billionaires and a bunch of arrogant coders who think they built something of value when, in fact, they’ve just built second-rate Web sites (Windows Live Spaces anyone, sorry, it sucks even if there are 100 million of them) who don’t have a clue about how to get back into the search game and who are never going to have a clue?"

What do you think?

At the 2008 Microsoft MVP Summit

Wed, 16 Apr 2008 18:39:19 GMT

I am at the 2008 Microsoft MVP Summit this week in Seattle, WA.

Should be fun!

Windows Live Spaces CAN be Social Networking Awesomeness

Thu, 10 Apr 2008 06:13:52 GMT

I’d like to take a moment to respond to some very insightful comments left on my previous post saying I prefer Windows Live Spaces to Facebook. Again – I *do* prefer Windows Live Spaces to Facebook and you might think I am absolutely crazy (I might be)… hear me out.

Statement: Windows Live Spaces is more of a site or blog to share information but doesn’t have much for social networking.

I don’t quite believe this to be true. You can add friends in Windows Live Spaces. The basic foundation for social networking is being able to interact with your friends. The first step in interacting with friends is adding them *as* friends right? You can even tag your friends into different groups in Windows Live Spaces for management of friends.

Statement: Windows Live Spaces doesn’t offer much in interaction with friends just as a social network should like Facebook.

This might be true but see my above answer to the previous statement. The first steps in creating a social network or built in to Windows Live Spaces today. Basic foundations for interacting with your friends are there too. You can send friends messages via Windows Live Spaces just like you would say in Facebook in sending messages to friends there. You can also set permissions in Windows Live Spaces specifically for you friends – give them access to photos and what not. True – Windows Live Spaces lacks the groups and networks features of Facebook today but because the basic social networking features are here in Spaces now – the future is wide open.

Statement: Windows Live Spaces is restricted to Windows Live ID accounts. Facebook is open up to any e-mail account.

Malarky! There are *huge* benefits to having Windows Live Spaces tied to a Windows Live ID. And because it is – Windows Live is intertwined with the rest of Windows Live (Windows Live Events, Windows Live SkyDrive, Windows Live Messenger, etc). I sign in to Windows Live and have access to everything. Its a pretty good experience in my opinion. By the way – you CAN register for a Windows Live ID with ANY email address. So, like Facebook, you can create a Windows Live Space with any email address.

Statement: Facebook has a lot more features than Windows Live Spaces.

So? I don’t use all the features of Facebook. Just because on service has more features than the other doesn’t mean much in my opinion. Windows Live Spaces has the “right” features today with quite a bit of possibilities in the future.

Statement: Windows Live Spaces has a blogging feature. Facebook doesn't.

Bah! This means nothing. This only means Windows Live Spaces has a feature Facebook doesn’t have. w00t. I actually think Windows Live Spaces needs less emphasis on the blogging and more on the social networking.

Ok so I understand that Facebook has everything you need today for social networking. The question of why you should wait around for the Spaces Team to develop the social networking aspect of Windows Live Spaces when you have services such as Facebook is a very valid question. The advantage with Windows Live Spaces is how it brings in other Windows Live services. You can share files on Windows Live SkyDrive or set up events on Windows Live Events. Your friends are synced to your Windows Live Contact list which exists on Windows Live Messenger and in Windows Live Hotmail. Microsoft is investing a lot in building up the Windows Live platform and that’s what is exciting.

Oh and Windows Live Spaces doesn’t have all those damn annoying “application” invites everyone sends you in Facebook that irritates me to no end.

I might develop the statements here into a blog post for the Windows Experience Blog in a few weeks but am interested to see what others say.

I can't even cook biscuits...

Tue, 01 Apr 2008 04:22:02 GMT

I can't cook. I can cook hot dogs and maybe some chicken. Or put on a pot of rice in a rice cooker but everything else is useless. I tried making some cheese biscuits tonight and this is what I got:

Ugh. I am not sure these biscuits turned into pancakes.

And yes - I ate them.

I prefer Windows Live Spaces to Facebook

Mon, 17 Mar 2008 01:08:54 GMT

I've gotten a lot of great feedback to my previous post about trying to leverage both Windows Live Spaces and Facebook. It comes down to a single thing for me: I prefer Windows Live Spaces to Facebook. Why? I use mostly all the Windows Live services (Spaces, Hotmail, SkyDrive, Events) along with the suite apps (Messenger, Mail, Photo Gallery) and everything works together with an underlying shared platform which to me is REALLY exciting.

Facebook on the other hand - is just Facebook. And if I get yet another pointless stupid application invite I will totally flip out. ;-) Facebook doesn't excite me like Spaces does... Spaces has some really awesome potential.

Unfortunately Windows Live Spaces has mainstream "image" working against it.

Rob Dolin suggests I recommend all my friends use Spaces and add me as a friend on Spaces and use the Facebook "notes" feature to import the stuff I say here to Facebook. Well that's easier said than done. Its "cool" to use Facebook. Everyone is using Facebook. You ditch Facebook and go to Spaces - you leave that mainstream image. You leave behind "everyone". People aren't going to just up and ditch Facebook. Spaces is not quite ready yet either to be a comparable social networking platform.

But let me tell you - I am waiting for the day where I can completely ditch Facebook and use Windows Live Spaces only.

How can I leverage Windows Live Spaces across the board?

Sat, 12 Jan 2008 21:53:29 GMT

I have my work blog (Windows Experience Blog), my personal blog (www.brandonleblanc.com), and of course Facebook.

The question for me is this: how can I leverage Windows Live Spaces across my blogs and Facebook?

As you may note - I'm having a hard time updating my Space. I upload photos to Flickr using Windows Live Photo Gallery and have two other blogs as my focus. Everyone is using Facebook so I am using that to social-network. I wanted to treat Spaces like Facebook but its hard to treat Spaces like a serious social-networking platform when no one I know uses it. Everyone I know uses Spaces as a blog.

I'm up for any ideas anyone might have (my 9 readers LOL) on leveraging Windows Live Spaces a bit more.

Photo Album: 2008-07-04 4th of July

Tue, 08 Jul 2008 08:07:02 GMT

2008-07-04 4th of July

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Photo Album: 2008-04-14 MVP Summit

Wed, 16 Apr 2008 18:38:50 GMT

2008-04-14 MVP Summit

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Photo Album: 2008-03-31 Biscuits

Tue, 01 Apr 2008 04:20:11 GMT

2008-03-31 Biscuits

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Photo Album: 2008-03-13 Canon Test Pictures

Fri, 14 Mar 2008 05:05:54 GMT

2008-03-13 Canon Test Pictures

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Photo Album: The Dark Knight

Sat, 08 Dec 2007 22:30:38 GMT

The Dark Knight

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Photo Album: My Bird

Thu, 22 Nov 2007 22:24:40 GMT

My Bird

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Photo Album: Toys

Thu, 22 Nov 2007 22:21:52 GMT

Toys

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Back to the Future Minimates 003

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Photo Album: 2007-11-05 Car Accident

Tue, 06 Nov 2007 07:36:59 GMT

2007-11-05 Car Accident

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Photo Album: 2002 ER Set Visit at WB

Sat, 13 Oct 2007 18:21:29 GMT

2002 ER Set Visit at WB

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Photo Album: Letterman Digital Arts Center

Fri, 12 Oct 2007 03:27:58 GMT

Letterman Digital Arts Center