As was announced yesterday - the Windows Live Calendar Beta was to be upgraded today starting at 3pm Pacific Time. And it seems the upgrade is almost complete as folks are beginning to take notice when they log in to Windows Live Calendar it looks different!

The Windows Live Calendar Team says the following changes will appear in the Windows Live Calendar Beta update tonight:

• To Dos: Now you can manage personal and shared task lists with our new To Do functionality.
• Design and Usability Enhancements: A lighter weight user interface allows your calendar data shine through. Lots more room for your calendar data!

Definitely check out the new To Do functionality. I've created a task for me as you can see here:

I've got a ton of tasks to be added!

And remember - you can sync your calendars to your PC with the Windows Live

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Right now as I write this everyone should be enjoying the shiny new Windows Live Betas - available for download at download.live.com. I'd like to take a moment to highlight several blog posts from the Windows Live Product Teams I think folks will be interested in reading.

Tanja, Program Manager for Windows Live Mail, is back on the Windows Live Mail Blog talking about today's Windows Live Mail Beta release. We all know that Windows Live Mail is sporting calendar sync with Windows Live Calendar (currently in Beta at calendar.live.com) but Tanja sheds some light on some specific calendaring features such as the "Add to Calendar" button. When you're reading an email with important information about an event or related to an event all you need to do is click "Add to Calendar" and you can take that information within the email and turn it into an Event in one of your Calendars. She also discusses the Event window where you can set the event to reoccurring, set a start and stop time and more.

Speaking of Windows Live Calendar - tomorrow Thursday Sept. 18 starting around 3PM Pacific Time the Windows Live Calendar

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Want to check out what's next for Windows Live? Chris Jones, Corporate Vice President for Windows Live Experience Program Management, has announced today the availability of new Betas for the Windows Live client applications on the Windows Live Wire blog. These Betas showcase significant updates to the client applications in the Windows Live suite introducing the next wave of Windows Live products and services. Chris does a fantastic job explaining the term "wave" and how it's used to describe Windows Live releases.  Definitely give his post a read as it discusses some background for Windows Live as it's progressed from 2006 to 2007 to today. Expect regular posts on the Windows Live Wire blog from members of the Windows Live Engineering Team discussing in greater detail specifics on the new stuff coming up for Windows Live.

To download the new Windows Live Betas - just head on over to download.live.com later today and install the betas.

When we talk about the Windows Live suite - we are talking about the following desktop client applications that sit on the user's PC that tap in to the Windows Live services in the "cloud" (the web). These applications are only part

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Today we announced 2 new Microsoft LifeCams that will be entering the LifeCam Family - the LifeCam Show and LifeCam VX-5500. We also have something to go along with the new LifeCams that extend the LifeCam experience...

People leave friends and family personalized voice mails or send them emails all the time. What about sending them a customized video message with all the benefits of voice mail and email but with video instead? Today, we're launching Video Messages to do just that!   Video Messages lets users enjoy the combination of what they get with voice mail and email with video to send personalized video messages to friends and family (or whoever they want).

You can visit Windows Live Video Messages at videomessages.live.com.

How about we check out what Windows Live Video Messages is all about?

When users sign into the Windows Live Video Messages website, they will notice it is set up quite a bit like a mailbox is for email. And that's how users should treat their Video Messages - like voicemail but better.

Note: Silverlight is required for Windows Live Video Messages.

On the top left hand corner, users will see

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Today, the brand new WindowsLive.com website has launched sporting an all-new look and feel and lots of great content such as neat tips and tricks and show-and-tell stories on how people are using Windows Live in their lives. The goal for WindowsLive.com is simple: give people a place to discover the benefits of Windows Live. What better than to use content from excited Windows Live users to highlight those benefits?

The content on WindowsLive.com is driven from the community of passionate Windows Live users through the Windows Live Clubhouse. The Windows Live Clubhouse is a special Windows Live Space that brings other Windows Live users together in talking about Windows Live on their own Windows Live Space. Using Windows Live Writer and using special tags designed for the Windows Live Clubhouse, users can have content written on their Windows Live Space aggregated to WindowsLive.com and shared with the world!

Windows Live Clubhouse: Click here to request access and take part in providing awesome Windows Live Content for WindowsLive.com!

The community decides what content goes up on WindowsLive.com based on how pieces of content (posts) are rated. In someone writes about something

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The Windows Live Calendar Team has announced the availability of the Microsoft Office Outlook Connector 12.1 Beta - which allows you to sync your calendars on Windows Live Calendar (calendar.live.com).

Download: Microsoft Office Outlook Connector 12.1 Beta

The Microsoft Office Outlook Connector is designed to sync your Windows Live Hotmail mailbox, Windows Live Contacts, and calendars in Windows Live Calendar to Microsoft Office 2007 (or 2003). The Microsoft Office Outlook Connector will work with any Windows Live Hotmail account - as well as Office Live accounts or Windows Live Custom Domain accounts (domains.live.com). Not only do I have a Windows Live Hotmail account - I also have a custom domain that uses Windows Live Hotmail as well.

When I installed the Microsoft Outlook Connector Beta - my calendars that I have in Windows Live Calendar appeared in Outlook 2007 under "My Calendars". I could check each calendar that I want to view (whether it be all or just 3 as you see in my screenshot). I can add and remove events and those changes are then synced back into Windows Live Calendar and then synced to any other machine running Outlook and the Microsoft Office Outlook

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