Even as early as August 2009, Microsoft started delivering hints of the next iteration of Windows Live applications and services. At that time, the company motivated that it was introducing a
Live Services update and killing Live Framework Community Technology Preview (Services, SDK & Tools) in the process as a part of the future release of Windows Live Wave 4. Now it appears that Microsoft is gearing up to offer the first Beta development milestone of Windows Live Essentials Wave 4, possibly even by the end of this week.
“MS set to launch windows live wave 4 Essentials beta due next week.! totally rocking news.!” revealed
Nikhil Jain on Twitter, via
LiveSide and
LiveSino. Of course Microsoft has yet to confirm the availability of Beta 1 for Windows Live Essentials Wave 4. Still, the fact that the company is hard at work hammering on the release is undeniable.
Illustrative of this is the launch of
Milestone 1 features for Windows Live Hotmail Wave 4. Microsoft even offered official
confirmation of the Windows Live Hotmail Wave 4 M1 introduction, which brought to the table a variety of additions including extra keyboard shortcuts, a new buddy list for users that sign into Windows Live Messenger from within the Hotmail inbox, enhancements designed to streamline the task of picking contacts for messages, auto-save capabilities for email drafts, as well as the ability to download all files attached to a message as a .ZIP file.
Of course that Wave 4 is in no way limited to Hotmail. The move from Wave 3 would affect not only the Windows Live services, such as email, but also the applications that have been transitioned to the Windows Live Essentials umbrella brand, such as Messenger, Mail, Writer, Photo Gallery, Movie Maker, Family Safety, Toolbar.
LiveSide is also quoting a Japanese
blog that indicates September 2009 as the start of the rolling out of Windows Live Wave 4, in pre-release form. The same source is pointing to the spring and summer of 2010 for the final release of Windows Live Wave 4.
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