Now that I have had quite some time to assess the new Wave 3 live betas, I thought that I would post my thoughts on the changes made to each of them. Some changes are good, some are not so good. So here goes……
I am going to begin with Windows Live Mail. The most obvious new feature is the inclusion of a calendar , now referred to as Windows Live Calendar. It’s inclusion is very welcome and not before time I might add, it was the most requested feature from all the beta testers way back when Windows Live Mail had the added moniker Desktop!
It is a very attractive calendar, with different coloured entries depending on where the calendar actually sourced the data from. The calendar syncs with any Hotmail calendars that the user previously set up and also inserts your contacts birthdays as well. I did encounter a problem though with this, as one of the birthdays was incorrect, and at the moment you cannot edit any data in the calendar. It emerged that because of the way that we input dates over here in the UK as date/month/year the calendar was reading a birthday entry wrongly as month/day/year as is more commonly used in the US. Funnily enough this has since corrected itself.
The next noticeable change is to the toolbar. No Icons! Just text. Actually I wasn’t particularly bothered about this change, but many other users hate it, as seen in the community newsgroups with everyone clamouring for icons to be returned, or at least the user given the option to choose either icons or text. I have to confess however that it does look neater to the eye. During actual usage I haven’t had any problems with the text but icons are regarded easier to use by many.
As for stability, well I haven’t encountered any problems so far, or felt it necessary to submit any bugs. I have had it give the message on log in, ‘Windows Live Mail did not shut down correctly’ but that has been the only hiccup so far.
Features I would like to see added? Well, a to-do and a reminder function would be welcome with this absent minded user, with the inclusion of a pop up on my desktop to remind me of the reminder and the to-do.
Also the ability to edit the calendar inside Windows Live Mail is a must in my opinion, either to enter any data or correct any incorrect data. Apart from that the new beta of Windows Live Mail is a most welcome progression to my favourite e-mail program.
TG 
