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Microsoft relaunches Hotmail as Outlook

Today, Microsoft unveiled the latest incarnation of its popular Hotmail service, and as then as a new look it's been given a new name, though it's one that everyone in the business world will be intimately familiar with -- Outlook.

Huge step for Microsoft

This rebranding is a huge step for Microsoft and signals the death of Windows Live, which never actually caught on in the way the company would have liked.

The new webmail service's interface is white and blue with a clear Windows 8 motif and is considerably cleaner than the old muddled design. According to Microsoft the layout has 60-percent fewer pixels in the header and allows for 30-percent more messages in your inbox. It's been created to display evenly well on desktops, tablets or phones, and work with Exchange ActiveSync.

Outlook includes free Office Web Apps -- Word, Excel, PowerPoint and OneNote --  as then as SkyDrive. It as well lets users connect their Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Google+ accounts and view the latest updates from them in their inboxes. Facebook Chat is baked-in, and Skype support is coming before long, which is hardly surprising seeing as Microsoft owns the VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) service.

More information: Betanews