Just moments ago, we launched a social media “hub” for Windows 7 on Windows.com in celebration of launch tomorrow. This hub is designed to highlight what our customers are saying about Windows 7. It does this by pulling content from all over the web (via tweets, blog posts, etc.) of people talking about Windows 7 and bringing it all to one central location so you can see what everyone is saying about Windows 7.

Note: To ensure the content and conversations we’re pulling from the web is relevant to Windows 7 (and of course appropriate), we moderate what gets put up there.

If you’re going to be tweeting (posting on Twitter) about Windows 7, I encourage you to use the following hashtags (if you don’t know what hashtags on Twitter are, click here):

• #Win7: Use this in place of “Windows 7” or add to the end of any tweet about Windows 7.
• #WinLive: Use this place of “Windows Live” or add to the end of any tweet about Windows Live.
• #WinWin7: For our several fun giveaways we have going for our Twitter followers (US only, employees are not eligible), tweets tagged with #winwin7 relate to the contests. See Contest Rules here.
• #win7tip: Use this in any tweet sharing a Windows 7 tip or trick.
• #igotWin7: Use this tag to share once you get a copy of Windows 7.
• #win7meetup: Use this tag when tweeting about the Launch Parties or Meetup initiatives.

We continue to look for ways to include our customers and highlight real conversations both during launch and long after GA. To learn more about how the social hub works check Marty Collins’ blog post here.

3 new Plug-ins for Windows Live Writer were recently release that I think bloggers who live and breath in Windows Live Writer (such as myself) will appreciate. These plug-ins were created by the awesome Windows Live Writer Team here at Microsoft.

DiggThis – Add a “DiggThis” badge to your blog posts so your readers can quickly “digg” your blog posts. The plug-in offers several different “styles” of badges to choose from, as well as alignment options for where its placed on your blog. Download the plug-in here.

Twitter Notify: This plug-in will automatically “tweet” the title and link to your blog to your Twitter account when you publish a blog post. Download the plug-in here.

Flickr Upload: When you insert an inline image in a blog post in Windows Live Writer it also uploads that image to Flickr you when publish your post. Download the plug-in here.

You can download the latest version of Windows Live Writer in the new Windows Live Essentials suite today at download.live.com. Some of the new features include:

• Insert and upload Windows Live photo albums
• Insert and publish video to YouTube
• Server-side tagging (support coming soon to WordPress.com and BlogEngine.NET)
• Improved blog account setup

And there is more! You can read about what’s new in the latest Windows Live Writer release via the Windows Live Writer Team Blog.

Windows Live Writer is a must-have tool for bloggers.

Last week in Redmond I had the pleasure of taking a look the PCs from Dell running Windows Vista Ultimate (PRODUCT) RED.  The line-up includes the Dell XPS M1330 and M1530 laptops, the Dell XPS One, and Dell’s 948 All-in-One printer. And all of them of course in red! Using Windows Live Photo Gallery, I’ve uploaded some shots I took of the (PRODUCT) RED line-up to Flickr to share with everyone - enjoy.

You can check out my entire (PRODUCT) RED set of photos on Flickr here. Expect more to be added in the coming days!

Being able to create panoramtic stitches in Windows Live Photo Gallery is one of my favorite features ever. I deciced while at CES, I really wanted to use the feature to show off a few locations of both CES and Las Vegas. While at CES this week, I essentially lived in Windows Live Photo Gallery uploading photos to Flickr to share with you here. But here are a few panoramic shots I created.

The above is a shot of me standing at the Microsoft Product Pavilion Tent and facing the Las Vegas Convention Center. This gives you an idea of how busy CES can get (both with people, buses, taxis, etc).

My next shot is from the Microsoft Auto Showroom. They had several cars there demostrating awesome Microsoft Auto technology - such as Ford Sync.

And the last shot I have is actually the first panoramic shot I created while at CES. Its the view from my hotel room looking out toward the strip. Not really an impressive view but certainly a neat panoramic shot (at least in my opinion) non-the-less.

I’m sitting here at McCarran International Airport and wanted to share these just before jumping on my plane. Expect another post re-capping CES coverage from myself and many others in the next day or so.

Wow what a day! This morning started off real early for Nick and I as we headed over to the Las Vegas Convention Center (where CES is taking place) to do an early walk-through of the Microsoft Product Pavilion with several of our Featured Community members and MVPs. There, we were able to preview some of the new and exciting PCs coming this year like Lenovo’s new IdeaPad laptops and the ASUS Lamborghini VX3. Folks from the Certified for Windows Vista Team were on hand to discuss new devices coming like the Samsung SPF-83V Digital Picture Frame. Many of HP’s new products were also there for us to check out. I am really excited for these new and upcoming “Fashion” PCs.

Microsoft’s Aaron Coldiron was on hand at the Microsoft Product Pavilion giving us demos of many of the Windows Live applications and services including Windows Live Mail and Windows Live Messenger. Aaron demonstrated how he was able to take photos with his Windows Mobile phone and quickly upload them to his Windows Live Space. Great demo!

On our way out, we were fortunate to get a sneak peak at Channel 10’s exclusive interview with Bill Gates. This is his last year doing the CES keynote as he transitions out of being a Microsoft employee full time to working full time at the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Also: Channel 10 also did a very neat interview with Robbie Bach, President of Microsoft’s Entertainment and Devices Division. Robbie discusses quite a few thinks like the Xbox 360, Zune, and Windows Mobile but also what we can expect in regards to the “Connected Entertainment” experience coming in 2008. Check it out.

Next we stopped by to check out the Media Center Express (aka the CES Bus). Microsoft partnered with PodTech is providing a bus for CES offering transportation to and from the Las Vegas Convention Center.

We will have more details on the Media Center Express CES Bus to share in the very near future. Look for a post from Nick.

Tomorrow will be another exciting day. You can follow me on Twitter (trying to update as much as possible) and I’ve set up a set on Flickr for CES 2008 - all photos being taken with my Certified for Windows Vista Canon PowerShot SD750 and uploaded to Flickr using Windows Live Photo Gallery.

Today the DMX Team is announcing a beta refresh for Windows Live Photo Gallery that includes the ability to publish your photos directly to Flickr. Based from direct customer feedback, the DMX Team worked with Flickr in enabling support to upload photos to your Flickr account in Windows Live Photo Gallery.

Uploading photos to Flickr through Windows Live Photo Gallery is just as easy as it is uploading to Windows Live Spaces. To upload to Flickr, all I needed to do was choose the photos I wanted to upload and hit “Publish” in the toolbar. A drop-down list will appear that allows me to either choose Windows Live Spaces or Flickr as destinations I want to publish my photos to. I of course for the sake of this post chose Flickr.  A new window appeared letting me enter options for which set I want the photo to belong to, what size I want the photo to be uploaded at, and permissions of that photo.

Windows Live Photo Gallery will notify you once your photo (or photos) have been uploaded and ask if you would like to view those uploaded photos. In choosing to view the uploaded photos, I was able to add a description and change the name of the photo.

I’d like to share one of my most favorite photos I’ve taken to-date which I’ve uploaded to Flickr using Windows Live Photo Gallery:

This is a photo I took with my Nikon D40 (which is a Certified for Windows Vista device) while camping at Timothy Lake with some friends this last summer. This is a shot of Mt. Hood here in Oregon. You can also take a look at my Windows Vista Coach Tour set. I took a bunch of photos while traveling around the East Coast last year on the Windows Vista Coach.

Program Manager Michael Palermiti has posted on the PIX Blog about today’s Windows Live Photo Gallery release which they are calling the Beta 2.2 Refresh. If you already have a version of Windows Live Photo Gallery installed, you can grab the Beta 2.2 Refresh by running Microsoft Update (the Windows Update client in Windows Vista will detect a new update is available if you have it configured to use Microsoft Update). If you don’t have Windows Live Photo Gallery installed and you want to give it a try, just head over to the Windows Live Betas page and choose Windows Live Photo Gallery.  

You can also check out the Flickr Blog where they talk about partnering up with Microsoft for Windows Live Photo Gallery.

For me, I am going to leverage both Windows Live Spaces and Flickr in publishing my digital photos to the web with Windows Live Photo Gallery. For personal photos such as family events and things I’ve gone and done with friends - I will upload those to Windows Live Spaces. For all my digital photography and traveling to events - I plan to upload to Flickr. Quite a few amateur photographers use Flickr to show off their work. I’d like to do the same. I’d also like to share memories from traveling around as well. You can follow what I upload to Flickr by going to my Flickr page.

Make sure you keep your eye on the Windows Live Wire Blog too for information on Windows Live releases.