The latest version of the Outlook Connector, which makes it easy (possible) to manage your Hotmail e-mail, calendar, and contacts from within Outlook, is now available for download.  A couple of blog posts have announced the new Connector today (May 4), although the publish date on the download is April 20.  Aside from performance and reliability upgrades, the new version of the Outlook Connector offers some additional functionality if you’re using Office 2010 (which is out in RTM to MSDN and Tech-Net subscribers, and is set for a May 12 launch).  These improvements are also available to Office 2010 beta users, so no reason to wait:

Junk filter settings. Your safe sender, blocked sender, and safe recipient lists are synchronized between Outlook and Hotmail.

Integrated Send/Receive. Send/receive works just as it does for your other Outlook accounts.

Integrated connection status. The Hotmail account status appears in the Outlook status bar.

Rule support for secondary accounts. Rules can be applied to your Hotmail account in Outlook, even if it is not your primary Outlook account.

Sync your drafts. The Outlook Drafts folder synchronizes with the Hotmail Drafts folder

Due to some issues with auto upgrading from Outlook Connector 12.1, you will need to go get the latest version.  Here’s the links:

For Outlook 2003, 2007, 2010 (32-bit):
Outlook Hotmail Connector 14.0 for Outlook 2003, 2007 and 2010 32-bit

For Outlook 2010 (64-bit):
Outlook Hotmail Connector 14.0 for Outlook 2010 64-bit

More information on Inside Windows Live and the Outlook blog