Now that the Live Mesh team has finished rolling out their update, here’s a quick overview of the new stuff (beyond the obvious like this now being a beta with worldwide availability).

Progress meters in the Live Mesh client – this was a popular request ever since Mesh first rolled out in the CTP, as it was impossible to accurately tell how much had been uploaded or downloaded. The data was available definitely wasn’t reliable, but this appears to have changed for the better with the latest update.

Now there are both upload and download meters available for each device, and our initial tests showed they were reliable indicators of progress.

Given Long Zheng's passion for Microsoft promo videos, I thought it only fitting that we pay tribute and post about the Live Mesh one that has appeared on YouTube from the Web2.0 Expo. While I can't offer high-res stills of Mesh bringing animals back to life, there's still a few points you can take away about the high-level vision Microsoft has for Mesh.

At first glance it seems a lot like the generic Microsoft "next-generation" videos that occasionally pop up, full of ideas for the future, most of which will probably never materialise.. Then you remember that actually the products it is showing are already here and Mesh, the link between them all, has just entered initial public testing. Score +1 point for lack of vapourware.