We will release one more public update of IE8 in the first quarter of 2009, and then follow that up with the final release. Our next public release of IE (typically called a “release candidate”) indicates the end of the beta period. We want the technical community of people and organizations interested in web browsers to take this update as a strong signal that IE8 is effectively complete and done. They should expect the final product to behave as this update does. We want them to test their sites and services with IE8, make any changes they feel are necessary for the best possible customer experience using IE8, and report any critical issues (e.g., issues impacting robustness, security, backwards compatibility, or completeness with respect to planned standards work). Our plan is to deliver the final product after listening for feedback about critical issues.

If you haven’t already – download Internet Explorer 8 Beta 2 today and let the IE Team know what you think. You can also read my in-depth post on IE8 Beta 2 here.

You should also check out these 15 awesome IE8 demo videos as well to see some of IE8’s features in action such as the Favorites Bar, Web Slices, and Accelerators.

Download: LiveUpload to Facebook

What’s even better about the LiveUpload to Facebook plug-in is that it takes advantage of Windows Live Photo Gallery’s new People Tags feature. That means if you tag a person you are also friends with on Facebook – once you upload the photo to Facebook that tag will automatically appear on the published photo.

You can download the Windows Live Photo Gallery Beta, along with Betas for the rest of the Windows Live Essentials suite, at download.live.com today. The plug-in only works with the Beta.

For a list of other plug-ins for Windows Live Photo Gallery Beta – click here!

I know here on our blog many of our readers are not in the United States and international support is super important. Zazzle.com provides shipping to 84 countries worldwide. So even if you're not in the U.S. you can still order from the "I'm a PC" store on Zazzle.com. 

Remember - you can also upload yourself to the "I'm a PC" website as well as download the Windows Live Messenger "I'm a PC" Theme Pack.

The Windows Blog:  Hi James, thanks for joining us.  Tell us a bit about yourself.

James Osteen: I'm James Osteen, an Assistant Director with the City of Miami's IT Department with Infrastructure responsibility.  I work with all aspects of our IT infrastructure, including desktops and mainframe, networking, storage, security, and the web.  The best part of my job is that it is ever changing...the pace of change in IT allows us to constantly provide more and better services to our citizens and internal clients- and at a lower cost.  Let's put it this way, we certainly never get bored!

The Windows Blog: From an IT perspective, what are the top three challenges you face?

James Osteen: That's easy: First is the security of our infrastructure - this isn't something we've had issues with before, but it's always something we're thinking about.  We want to be sure our system is secure...our motto is that being prepared before an issue reduces the chance of it happening.

Next would be cost effectiveness of solutions.  IT departments can be the first place funding is scaled back, so when we invest in technology, it has to be top notch and show immediate value.

Finally, I'm concerned about the reliability and robustness of service.  This is pretty self explanatory, but our job becomes easier if the products we're using are reliable.

The Windows Blog: How do you think Windows Vista can help advance your IT mission and address the challenges you described before?

James Osteen: The mission of the City's IT Department is "to deliver high-quality, focused, aggressive business solutions to the City of Miami by offering consumer-centric services and cost-efficient communications and information technologies."   

So to break it down, the security enhancements in Windows Vista have made the operating system one of the most secure options available today, with response times to new security threats that are some of the best in the industry.  For us, the deployment of Windows Vista is translating into direct savings for the City and our citizens: it's enabling us to save approximately $80K in power savings through the deployment of GPOs available in Windows Vista, and by migrating from our current mainframe environment to a Windows Server infrastructure, its helping us eliminate approximately $1M in annual costs.  That's just the start...these savings are projected to grow to $190K annually within 4 years!  And, we expect to see productivity gains through the use of new tools available in Windows Vista, such as desktop search and the snipping tool.

As far as reliability and robustness of service, I have been using the Windows Vista OS in a production environment for 10 months with zero reliability issues.  The OS has proven to be highly stable and reliable and one of the side benefits to us from a support standpoint is the "built-in protection of system files."  From a robustness of service perspective, we are migrating to a centralized storage platform for our enterprise data. The depth provided by the Offline Files implementation in Windows Vista, including the bitmap differential transfer, makes this goal achievable - it would have been more of a challenge for our clients previously.

The Windows Blog: How many desktop and mobile PCs are you deploying on Windows Vista? In what timeframe? 

James Osteen: We plan on migrating approximately 900 desktops/laptops to Vista by end of August 2009.

The Windows Blog: In our current economy, what role does cost savings play in your IT strategy?   

James Osteen: Cost savings are becoming increasingly important to our operations with the current economic downturn.  We are constantly asked to perform higher levels of service with fewer dollars, and in today's economy this has become even more important.  The $1M in mainframe cost savings plus the $80K in power savings alone make this project a no-brainer (not to mention that reducing our carbon footprint is extremely important to us in Florida).

The Windows Blog: Did knowing Microsoft is working on Windows 7 affect your choice to deploy Windows Vista? 

James Osteen: The impact of Windows 7 on our decision to move forward was zero.  We replace 20% of our desktop/laptop inventory on an annual basis, so that means that desktops we place in production today could have a production life of 5 years... we can't afford to stand still and be rooted in the past.  In making our decision to deploy Windows Vista now, we looked more at the immediate benefits that Windows Vista can currently provide our environment - such as cost savings, security, reliability - those factors made the decision an easy one.

The Windows Blog: Would you recommend that other businesses take a look at Windows Vista and consider upgrading? 

James Osteen: Absolutely! Any organization concerned with delivering cost effective, secure and reliable services to their clients would be well served taking a hard look at the benefits that Windows Vista can provide to them. 

We’re selling all of our products at a one-stop-shop: www.MicrosoftStore.com. 

The Microsoft Store offers the largest selection of Microsoft software, devices and hardware in one place.  You will find many reasons to visit the store:

Immediate software download option with the largest download catalog of Microsoft titles.

Most up-to-date selection of and information on everyone’s favorite Microsoft products including Windows, Office, Xbox, Zune and more!

Simple and secure purchases with full Microsoft support both before and after purchase.

We’re not just launching the Microsoft Store for US customers. In addition to the US Microsoft Store, there are also online stores for customers in the UK, Germany and Korea.  Japan, France, Spain and the Netherlands are coming soon.  More countries will be coming onboard throughout the year.

I’ll be picking myself up one of the new Microsoft LifeCam Show webcams from the Microsoft Store as I had been looking to pick one up for a while now.

Download photos directed to your to Windows Live Photo Gallery.

Download as a .zip file. Download an entire folder in one compressed file (initially available only in the United States, Denmark, and Ireland).

Move files between folders.

Copy files to multiple folders.

Sharing photos is huge these days. They’ve added almost 20 new features to make the photo experience on Windows Live SkyDrive even better such as supporting People Tags, bigger thumbnails, and a new online slideshow using Microsoft Silverlight.

You will be able to also keep your Internet Explorer favorites synced up with multiple PCs using Windows Live SkyDrive and Windows Live SkyDrive.

There is a lot coming to Windows Live SkyDrive! Check out their blog post for more details on what’s coming up.

In September, we talked a bit about the new Windows Live products and services and released client betas for the Windows Live suite of applications – now known as the Windows Live Essentials. Those betas are still available for you to try out today at download.live.com. The Windows Live Team is working hard to ship the Windows Live Essentials out of Beta soon.

The Windows Live Hotmail Team has also recently rolled out a new update to Windows Live Hotmail as well.

On top of the Windows Live Essentials, we’ll be shipping updated versions of the Windows Live web services.

Windows Live Calendar, Windows Live Spaces, and Windows Live SkyDrive will all be updated.

We’re will also be updating the main homepage for Windows Live. The redesigned homepage for Windows Live will serve as your gateway to the Windows Live services - with a strong emphasis on the What’s New feature which consists of activities from your friends on Windows Live. You will be able to add friends to your “network” and see what they are doing via Personal Message updates from Windows Live Messenger, recent blog posts on their Windows Live Spaces, or photos uploaded to Windows Live.

What’s New also lets you pull in updates from partners such as Twitter, Flickr, LinkedIn, WordPress, and more. If you have friends on Windows Live pulling in their Twitter updates into their profiles, it will appear in What’s New.

And remember – Windows Live Messenger will now pull in What’s New directly into the client for quick access to what’s going on with your friends on Windows Live. You will be able to access What’s New through Windows Live Toolbar as well.

(Pssst… What’s New is my favorite Windows Live feature!)

A brand new Windows Live Profile page will let you update your Personal Message directly from the web, view your Network, and add “Favorite things” such as books, movies and music. Your friends can leave you Notes on your profile too.

We’re also introducing a new Photos experience for Windows Live utilizing Windows Live SkyDrive as well as Windows Live Groups.

On the mobile side – there will be new points of access to Windows Live on any mobile device with a browser. You will be able to use your mobile phone to access What’s New and see what your friends are doing, update your Personal Message, upload photos to Windows Live, and manage your email and calendar.

I’m pretty excited for what’s being done with Windows Live and I think you will be too. For all the latest and great news and information on Windows Live, you should bookmark and subscribe to the Windows Live Wire blog. You can also follow Windows Live Wire via Twitter as well.

As mentioned at PDC this year – Windows + Windows Live will complete the Windows experience as they work together hand-in-hand.

Unfortunately I’ve packed my Games for Windows – LIVE games away as I’m in the middle of moving. But I’m thinking of picking up the new James Bond game Quantum of Solace (I’m anxious to give the new Live Guide a try myself). Feel free to recommend other Games for Windows – Live titles for me. I already own Halo 2 for Windows Vista and Shadowrun.

Microsoft BlueTrack Technology is a brand new technology for mice designed to work on more surfaces than both optical and laser mice. So how does BlueTrack Technology work? It uses a Microsoft-designed image sensor to generate a high contract image of the surface in which the mouse is on. This allows for greatly improved tracking accuracy. The BlueTrack “light beam” from the bottom of the mice is 4 times as large as the lasers used in today’s laser mice. Because of this, mice using BlueTrack Technology can be used on difficult surfaces such as granite, carpet, or wood.

The Microsoft Explorer Mini Mouse package come with of course the mouse and USB transceiver as well as a neat cloth carrier and a disc with the Microsoft IntelliPoint 6.3 software. The cloth carrier has the BlueTrack logo on it.

The design for the mouse is comfortable with 2 customizable buttons on the left side. The USB transceiver “snaps” into the bottom of the mouse and when it’s snapped in, it turns off the mouse so it doesn't use battery life when not in use.  Here are a few shots of the mouse.

I also compared the Explorer Mini Mouse with the Wireless Notebook Optical Mouse 3000 and Arc Mouse.

The Microsoft Explorer Mini Mouse is certainly a mouse you should look at if you’re looking for one especially with the advantages of BlueTrack Technology.

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