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Microsoft just announced that they are giving Windows Live a major face lift.  They plan to debut a whole bunch of new beta Windows Live features to help users combine all parts of their online life.  These features are not going to just be Microsoft services either.  But they will all be under the Windows Live umbrella page.

Even though they already hold the title of the most used messenger program; they obviously want to reach even farther into the online cookie jar.  Microsoft wants to offer competition with the popular social networking sites like Facebook and MySpace.  Whether or not they can actually provide any kind of competition coming into the game this much later remains to be seen.  What’s Microsoft’s plan?  Keep reading.

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Sections: Computers, Desktops, Software / Applications, Web, Downloads, Web 2.0, Web Apps, Web Browsers, Websites

Microsoft is still trying it’s hardest to compete with Google and Yahoo! for your internet searching.  It’s still trying to buy companies to do so, though it succeeded in the acquisition this time.  To help with search results, Microsoft has bought Greenfield Online, the company responsible for ciao.com.  Ciao.com is a European price comparison search engine, that is apparently quite popular.

This combined with the Microsoft Live money giving program could make for a great combination for Microsoft if they can leverage it well enough.  It should be able to actually provide links to buy products in search results now, rather than mainly links to the the manufacturers page for the product.  Sounds like a decent idea, almost like Google Shopping, but in the same page as normal search results if they implement it that way.  Now if only Microsoft can convince people to actually look at that page, that’d be quite a feat.

Read [Reuters]

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Sections: Web, Websites

Despite previous statements declaring that their online service would be offering live video streaming some time this year, a source inside now states that YouTube won’t be going live after all. There goes the business plans of several planning to make a buck off the live streaming idea, like the somewhat cult-popular lifecast justin.tv. Some outsiders have thought this was the next expected step for YouTube, being that they make a killing in the market for pre-recorded Web video. Even Steve Chen, Co-Founder of YouTube, lent plausibility to the leap to live streaming when the idea first hit the public’s ear by telling Pop 17’s Sarah Meyer’s “Live video is something we always wanted to do but haven’t had the resources to do it correctly, but now with Google, we hope to launch something this year.“  Well, that was in February, and it isn’t happening, and sources say it won’t be happening next year either.

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Sections: Web, Websites, Online Music/Video, Google

So, we saw the hands-on review come in for RIM’s first venture into the clamshell market and things continue to seem to be pretty promising, that is assuming the price is close to the rumored $49. Now to add a little more tease, the team over at CrackBerry have released a nice (and thorough) 9-minute video of the Kickstart 8220 in action.

Of course caught in the action is the heart of the handset, the OS 4.6, but they also demonstrate some other goodies to include the web browsing, trackball, display, and the large SureType keyboard. Initially, I was not all that excited to see RIM venture into the clameshell style market, but after seeing this in action and shown next to the Pearl, all I can say is that the Pearl had better watch out, because the Kickstart looks very nice.

Continue on to check out the video…

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Similar to the BlackBerry Kickstart, the upcoming Palm Treo 800w is becoming a popular handset for early live images.

The latest to show up carries on the tradition of being blurry and well that is really all we can say about it. Based on the image, it looks like it is an early tester unit, which is based on the serial number towards the top right corner that has been blurred out. We also suspect that this will not be the color of the final release.

Real? Maybe, maybe not. I guess we will know for sure if the Treo 800w is released on July 13 as expected.

Via [WMExperts]

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Some more images of the upcoming Palm Treo 800w have been making their way around the Internet, the latest however are pretty clear, well clear compared to some previous leaked images anyway, and show off both the front and back side.

The Sprint-branded Treo 800w, as if the “w” was not indication enough is clearly pictured running non other than Windows Mobile as the OS. Overall a slightly better looking Treo than previous models, but it seems that there is nothing much to get overly excited about.

Keep reading to check out the second image…

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The upcoming Palm Treo 800w, which is expected to be released in July with Sprint has begun to show up online. We saw what we believe was the first live image just a few days back and now a few more images have shown their face. A nice image of the side of the 800w, along with a slightly blurry front shot and finally a sandwich style image that show the Samsung Upstage, Treo 800w and PPC-6800.

As of now there have been a few confirmed specs which include internal Wi-Fi with an on/off switch, it will be powered by a MSM6800 Chipset and have OS 5.2.1944 (Windows Mobile 6.1). Keep reading to check out the remaining two images…

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Just surfaced is what appears to be a live image of the upcoming Palm Treo 800w, which is nice because up to now we have had plenty of blurry and junky images of the Palm’s new Treo. Of course this image, while nice and clear is simply of the prototype and not an official model to be released, it still has the generic “carrier” name instead of an actual carrier.

What we have seen is that the Treo 800w will be CDMA and have a microUSB plug. The previous rumors also placed the handset with a 320 x 320 touchscreen, having EVDO Rev.0 support, Wi-Fi and is going to be running Windows Mobile 6.1. The rumored release date is currently looking at July 22, of course that is still subject to delay.

Via [Phone Mag]

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After announcing the launch of its latest BlackBerry handset - the BlackBerry Bold, Microsoft and RIM have announced an agreement that will bring Windows Live Messenger and Live Hotmail to all BlackBerry handsets. This would allow users to access both their Windows Live Messenger and Live Hotmail using their e-mail addresses and passwords, just once.

With Windows Live Hotmail and Live Messenger on their BlackBerry devices, users will be able to the following; set an automatic message delivery and message synchronization using push technology, utilize a dedicated inbox for Windows Live Hotmail messages delivered automatically to users’ handsets, display HTML e-mail with graphics, web links and contact photos, send instant message and join group chats, see status and preferences of Windows Live Messenger contacts, customize status message, save conversations, display avatars, send and receive picture and files, and use more than 60 emoticons.

Windows Live Messenger and Live Hotmail will be available for the BlackBerry beginning summer of this year in multiple languages.

Read [Microsoft Press Pass]

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Sections: Communications, Cellphones, Smartphones, Mobile, Web, Web Apps, Websites

eBay will be shutting down its live auction service by the end of 2008. The move is part of eBay’s latest move to try and recreate its own business model. For those who are not familiar with eBay Live Auctions, the service is similar to your traditional auctions but the Live Auctions last until there are no longer any people bidding for the item. Unlike eBay’s regular online auction which has a set time frame before the auction expires. Winning bidders also paid a premium of 12.5 or 15-percent based on the final bid. The decision to shut down Live Auctions was announced amidst the cry of several hundreds of eBay sellers who participate in the Live Auctions. Well, at least they can always go back to putting their items up for bid at eBay’s regular online auction service.

Via [The Register]

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Sections: Web, Websites