I’m in Redmond, Seattle attending a meeting.   It’s 6:30am now and I’m on a call with some Toronto folks and my meeting is going to run till like 7pm tonight.  I’m foreseeing today is one of those hellish days. 

Before I start rushing into the fire and absorbing information like a sponge, just wanna share a light hearted moment last night before/after we went into the bar :)  A colleague of mine (no it’s not me, I swear!) got dressed up in a messenger buddy suit.  Now don’t you get scared 2am at night when you see a green dude walking around with no eyes and nose, it’s probably just my colleague.

Guest post from Maggie, PM for Live Maps in Canada.

Our major release this Fall – “Helios” was released last night!  Check it out – we now have multi-way point (where you can add multiple stops for your driving directions – a popular feature that our users ask for), route based on traffic information, 3D weather, localized FR-CA map labels and an improved 3D installer!

Multi-way point:

User Clearflow to route based on traffic:

Localized FR-CA map label:

3D weather:

This feature shows up in 3D mode when you’re close to the ground. (There is a setting in the 3D options to switch it on and off.)

Check it out today at http://maps.live.ca

As some of you already know, our US friends are running a pretty interesting ad campaign.  I’m sure different people will have different opinions towards the campaign, but as a MS employee myself, I’ll call it ‘inspirational’ :)

The official site is here: http://www.windows.com.  If you want to join this campaign with a video of yourself, go ahead!

Oh and by the way, I wear glasses :)

Actually, I should broaden up my scope and say, a new set of Windows Live clients has arrived in Canada! I’m super excited myself, not only because the products are so hot and sexy right now, but also because I worked so hard on it for the past few months :) :)

I’m excited to announce that the latest client betas have just arrived in Canada.   The beta release aim to test new functionality and technology from Windows Live as part of our ongoing development to help complete the Windows experience for consumers and provide communication services that help people stay in touch, share their experiences and keep their lives in sync.  In this beta, not only you will find many new and exciting feature upgrades in all products, you will also find our UX is drastically improved which provides a consistent look and feel across all our client programs.  Please feel help to spread the word to your family and friends so all of them can help us make improvements to our Windows Live experience.

The beta includes Windows Live Messenger beta, Windows Live Mail beta, Windows Live Photo Gallery beta, Windows Live Movie Maker beta, Windows Live Writer beta, Windows Live Toolbar beta, Windows Live Family Safety beta, Microsoft Office Outlook® Connector beta .

To download all in one shot –>

If you prefer to install them individually, scroll down!