As of 11:55pm (July 15) EDT, I (a lowly non-mesh invitee) can access the live desktop and have installed the mesh software bits.  Alas, I can't actually add my computer to the device ring; when I try to sign in from installing the mesh app I get a 401 permission denied error.

Still, thanks for the great tip-off.

Update: Just tried with my other Live ID account (an "@hotmail.com" address) and I now have full access. Huzzah!  And I thought I'd have to wait till the broader beta at PDC...

Nice! Everyone deserves access to this. I've been using it for a while now, it's fantastic. I can't wait to see it rolled out to other devices & applications.

Nice, but why US only? The trend of making things on the *world wide* web US-only is sickening.

I think related announcement done at Live mesh Forum. (At present the Live Mesh forum not opening)

Yup, it's confirmed at the Live Mesh forums ( forums.community.microsoft.com/.../threads ):

"Live Mesh is now openly available to anyone in the U.S.

The Live Mesh team is pleased to announce that anyone in the U.S. can now use Live Mesh just by signing in to www.mesh.com with a valid Windows Live ID. No sign up needed to participate!

International Customers

With Live Mesh open to anyone in the US, our international friends can join in the fun early as well - with one caveat: you must be willing to change your Windows operating system region and language setting to EN-US. Once you do this you will be able to immediately sign in to Live Mesh with a valid Windows Live ID. Please be aware that this may cause other applications that specifically require your native country region and language settings to encounter problems.

Feedback

Once you've begun using Live Mesh, we'd love to hear from you! We are working hard to create the best experience and appreciate any feedback you have. Please send us feedback using our online form. You can also submit (and view others’) feedback and bugs here on the Microsoft Connect website.

Thank you,

The Live Mesh team "