We told you last week about some upcoming changes to Hotmail, all part of “Wave 4 M1” (M1 refers to Milestone 1, a development marker.  Wave 4 development is currently well into M2).  Well after some hurried changes to some of the wording in the post we showed you, those changes are beginning to roll out.  The post on windowslivehelp.com has been changed (to remove references to Wave 4 and M1) and to update the timing, which now promises these upgrades “by the end of September”.  One of our Windows Live friends, Vasudev, tweeted today that he’s been upgraded, and we’ve heard from others as well.

A post on Windows Live Wire verifies that the changes are indeed coming to Hotmail, including keyboard shortcuts, “view online contacts” for Web Messenger, a download all attachments as .zip feature, and auto-save improvements for email drafts.

This isn’t “Wave 4” complete by any means, if anything it’s just the tip of the iceberg (along with our first look at Office Web Apps on SkyDrive earlier today), but it’s a good indication that the ice is beginning to thaw and we should see a lot more from Windows Live in the near future.

Are you seeing this latest version of Hotmail?  Let us know in the comments.