If you’re a blogger and have written a blog post today using the latest Windows Live Writer Technology Preview (Wave 3 Milestone 1), then you were probably greeted with this update prompt.

This is the first time we’ve seen any of the Windows Live teams take this approach. While the obvious conclusion is that the prompt is set to popup one month before the expiry date of 1 October 2008, it still comes as somewhat of a surprise. Great news for those people who like to know exact dates for the next set of downloads, all being well it should be within the next 30 days.

Just for completeness, the “download now” button only goes to get.live.com, but we have a feeling that’ll change very soon…

(So this post bends our Manifesto a little bit, hey its not often Microsoft starts throwing out release dates into the public arena!)