LiveSide - News blog : Voicemail

Microsoft announces new Windows Live hardware

Chris — Thu, 14 Sep 2006 03:20:00 GMT

Microsoft has today announced the expansion of its Windows Live hardware line, both with the new range of voip headsets (LifeChat) and a wider range of webcams (LifeCam).

- The Microsoft LifeCam NX-6000 will be widely available in November 2006 for an estimated retail price of $99.95 (U.S.). This is a laptop only webcam.

- The Microsoft LifeCam VX-1000 will be widely available in September 2006 for an estimated retail price of $29.95. Readers have told us that this is already in the shops.

- The Microsoft LifeChat products introduced today will be widely available in January 2007 for the following estimated retail prices:

Microsoft LifeChat ZX-6000: $69.95 (U.S.)
Microsoft LifeChat LX-3000: $39.95(U.S.)

With these new LifeChat devices launching soon, it's a shame that Microsoft's voip product currently falls well behind the likes of Skype in terms of features and extensibility, something which no amount of attractive hardware can rectify. Maybe the upcoming VoiceMail service, to be integrated in Live Mail (and the desktop version) v2, will remedy some of these deficiencies.

Microsoft Press Release

Update: Pictures of these devices are available here.

Windows Live to manage your VoiceMail

Harrison Hoffman — Fri, 21 Apr 2006 04:32:00 GMT

Are you tired of checking your voice mail from home, your office, AND your mobile phone? Do you want to be able to manage all of your voice mail from one central location? Well, believe it or not Windows Live will offer the solution: a VoiceMail Aggregation...(read more)

More Messenger updates

Chris — Mon, 17 Apr 2006 10:03:00 GMT

After Brandon posted a few of the updates we can expect to see in the Messenger refresh, Michael Sun went and posted some screenshots of the currently internal only, April refresh build 683. Two extra things worth noting: - Firstly the installer now mentions...(read more)