Windows Live Wave 3 services launch today (Updated)

By Chris on December 2, 2008 8:13 PM

30 comments

As we hinted at yesterday, today marks the update for most of the Windows Live services to Wave 3. This release (Codename Peloton for those keeping track), is expected to mainly take place from 4pm PST onwards, and will include the release of new services such as Windows Live Groups, Photos and Profile as well as the significantly updated Home and Mobile offerings. No this doesn’t include the release of Windows Live Essentials, the desktop applications.

Note, Hotmail and Calendar are both on a different release schedule, and as such will remain at their Wave 3 Milestone 2 builds until a later update. So no WebMessenger integration just yet :(

Of course while you’re waiting, you can read all about the updates in our previous posts, and Jamie Thomson also has a great Top 10 post of the new Wave 3 applications and services.

Once things start rolling out, let us know your thoughts in the comments!

UPDATE STATUS:

10.30am PST: Windows Live People is already out at http://people.live.com if you’re on the Wave 3 Hotmail build – Check out our Windows Live People Review as this is one of the killer new part to Wave 3 (or will be when WebMessenger integration is included!)

Updates on the products launching later coming soon!

4pm PST: All the new services are available, so check them out + our reviews!

Windows Live Photos (http://photos.live.com) – Windows Live Wave 3: Photos
Windows Live SkyDrive (http://skydrive.live.com) – Windows Live Wave 3: SkyDrive
Windows Live Groups (http://groups.live.com) – Windows Live update ships: After years of waiting, we create a Group :)
Windows Live Home (http://home.live.com) – Windows Live Wave 3: Homepage

Posted in Featured, News, Timeline | Tags: Wave 3, Windows Live

Comments

http://www.liveside.net/members/DN2004/default.aspx DN2004

Excellent, just read another site who seem to think updates will be rolled out within 24 hours to all users, which is great news and that everyone will have it by week end.
http://www.liveside.net/members/Khristopher/default.aspx Khristopher

People isn’t really it’s own thing. It’s just part of Mail. That’s really nothing special at all lol.
http://www.liveside.net/members/bkvalheim/default.aspx bkvalheim

I thought People was new. I thought it was an enhanced universal contact list that is supposed to carry over into EVERY Live service finally?

Or am I wrong?

Also, if that page is new, why am I still seeing the banner ad on top instead of the bottom.
http://www.liveside.net/members/alsiladka/default.aspx alsiladka

Any idea as to how long till the updates are available?
http://www.liveside.net/members/Chris/default.aspx Chris

@bkvalheim, you are correct

@alsiladka, later today for most of them
http://www.liveside.net/members/JSYOUNG571/default.aspx JSYOUNG571

lol @ Khristopher. I said the same thing when I clicked on the link. This is nothing special. It will be special once they intergrate Web messenger in it, which seems to be taking forever. Why is Microsoft (Windows Live) always last on making improvements to services? It always Google, Yahoo and AOL making improvements, but Microsoft (Windows Live) is always the last rotten egg. I have been observing this for years.
http://www.liveside.net/members/derviskemal/default.aspx derviskemal

take a look at http://windowslivewire.spaces.live.com/ and look at the favicon lol
damaster

Windows Live Wire has just updated their blog about this:
http://windowslivewire.spaces.live.com/blog/cns!2F7EB29B42641D59!26304.entry

Also did anyone notice http://support.live.com just got updated to Wave 3 too? Even though it’s a poorly done version…..
http://liveside.net/members/senthil/default.aspx senthil

I am able to see the new updates…
http://www.liveside.net/members/brianm76/default.aspx brianm76

Looks like the upgrade to the 25GB Skydrive is done…at least for me….also able to get to http://photos.live.com but nothing there yet but a placeholder showing files must be missing ;)
damaster

It has been launched! All services working =)
http://www.liveside.net/members/Tony-T/default.aspx Tony T

YES!! I see my new stuff. Home, profile, people, skydrive!!
http://www.liveside.net/members/ChaosAngelic/default.aspx ChaosAngelic

The new Spaces is up… SWEET!
http://liveside.net/members/nathanscott/default.aspx nathanscott

I love the different Favicons for each page.
http://www.liveside.net/members/Khristopher/default.aspx Khristopher

Photos is working for me. It seems to just be the photos you upload to Skydrive. It looks good though.
http://liveside.net/members/surilamin/default.aspx surilamin

About 7:50 Eastern time, I’ve gotten the full wave 3 update…
http://liveside.net/members/senthil/default.aspx senthil

Live Groups Rocks!!!
http://www.liveside.net/members/ChaosAngelic/default.aspx ChaosAngelic

Isn’t there supposed to be a Facebook web activity though?
http://www.liveside.net/members/Khristopher/default.aspx Khristopher

Profile is working for me now. It’s pretty sweet! A much better improvement over what it was.
http://www.liveside.net/members/JSYOUNG571/default.aspx JSYOUNG571

Yeah! What a difference. Now all we have to do is wait on Windows Live Hotmail and Messenger to follow suit when they decide to update.
http://www.liveside.net/members/Ryan/default.aspx Ryan

I just got the update! YIPPEE!
http://www.liveside.net/members/MCD/default.aspx MCD

Just two issues so far with Live Photo:

1- I don’t know what’s the maximum resolution but two files don’t have thumbnails and can’t be viewed via slidshow but can be viewed normally and downloaded just fine.

here are the two files resolution:
8578 x 5361 PNG file and 10242 x 3100 JPG file.

2- wish it support img tags for forums like this: [img]INSERT IMAGE[/img]

otherwise it’s perfect, if anyone interested here are the pictures i uploaded:

http://cid-83e0745f1acf960d.skydrive.live.com/browse.aspx/MCD

i made it available for everyone so no need to login to view them.
http://liveside.net/members/senthil/default.aspx senthil

my outlook connector shows 500GB for hotmail, has anyone seeing this?
http://www.liveside.net/members/MCD/default.aspx MCD

also i have noticed that it uses silverlight for slideshow in IE and it doesn’t for FF.

which results in missing functions for FF like full screen button and the quick image icons on the right.
http://www.liveside.net/members/Ryan/default.aspx Ryan

I like the slideshow option in WL Photos. One eye-candy effect I like is how the glow uses colors from the image. A greenish image would give a green glow, a yellow a yellow, and so on. Its pretty fantastic! It reminds me of what Long Zheng posted on in Win7 http://tinyurl.com/6nftkw .
http://www.liveside.net/members/Ogden2k/default.aspx Ogden2k

Does anyone know if these dynamic themes will eventually carry over to Live Mail?
http://www.liveside.net/members/calum_2D00_r_2D00_/default.aspx calum-r-

They should carry over, although it is worth noting that Windows Live Admin Center, the Windows Live Mobile website and Windows Live People are among some which don’t have dynamic themes yet :(

Windows Live Alerts (alerts,live,com) still has the Wave 1 design :O Windows Live Safety Center still has the wave 2 design :O and the old Windows Live Favorites website still works and has the old wave 1 design :/

Whyyyyyyyy?
http://fakesteveballmer.blogspot.com SteveBallmer

You people are gonna love this!
http://www.liveside.net/members/lbastie/default.aspx lbastie

If you’re interested to give your views on internet search, have a look at the following survey conducted by live:
http://survey-k1.surveysavvy.com/survey6/html.pro?ID=168
http://www.liveside.net/members/Nacho3891/default.aspx Nacho3891

Hey… now the links in http://download.live.com contain the new version… I’m already downloading them. It must be the Wave3 RC, as I read somewhere.

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