New and Improved Hotmail on show

Yesterday at an event in San Francisco, Microsoft has showcased the upcoming summer update for Windows Live Hotmail, an update which is aimed at making the email service more efficient, secure, more social-friendly and easier to access via mobile devices like smartphones.

The Live Hotmail revamp is set to include a new home page which will bring together a heap of content from multiple sources - emails from contacts, social network updates, shipping notices, appointments, and birthday reminders. The inbox is also being refreshed so that it makes it easier to see/focus on emails coming from friends, subscription services, mails with attachments, and, again, social updates.

Microsoft is also adding a slide show-style photo preview function, and will enable users to send up to 200 photos, each up to 50 MB in size, all in a single email. The new Hotmail will also be include SkyDrive integration and will make use of the Office Web Apps to help with accessing documents and presentations. Other updates include enhanced account protection, full-session SSL, multiple email accounts, subfolders, contact management, and ever-growing storage, so it's safe to say Microsoft is going all-out this summer to bring Live Hotmail back into the spotlight.

The 'new' Hotmail will start its global roll-out in the coming weeks.









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