Microsoft Opens Door Wider On Live Mesh

Unveiled in April at the Web 2.0 conference, Live Mesh automatically synchronizes users' data across desktop PCs, mobile devices, and the Internet using a combination of client software and Web services. Live Mesh is an example of the technological milkshake Microsoft calls Software Plus Services, which blends on-premise software with cloud computing power.

Microsoft made the announcement on its Live Mesh forums and said it would be open to anyone with a valid Windows Live ID. The enthusiast blog Liveside.net subsequently noticed that the Live Mesh team had edited the post to indicate Microsoft is only doubling the maximum number of users it'll allow to access the preview.

In a blog post, Angus Logan, technical product manager for the Windows Live platform, explained that the Live Mesh preview isn't quite ready for the general public to start kicking its tires.

"One clarification is we aren't quite opening up to the 303 million people on the Internet in the US yet...but we have doubled the number of participants who can sign up for the technology preview and are going to open more slots in the next couple of months," Logan wrote.

Microsoft also threw international users a bone by explaining that they can access the Live Mesh preview by changing their Windows operating system and language settings to U.S. English, although the company warned that this could have unforeseen effects on other language-sensitive applications.