As reported on Lifehacker, Microsoft have released Outlook as a sort of successor to hotmail.
The link for the new service is at:
http://outlook.com
If, like me, you were wondering if you can migrate your existing hotmail account to the new system/interface then the answer is ‘yes.’ There are two methods that i know of:
1. You can do it when logged into to hotmail and then clicking “Options” in the upper-right corner and choosing “Upgrade to Outlook.com.”
2. Personally I just went to http://outlook.com and logged in with my hotmail/Live! account. The browser then just sat there loading/thinking for a few minutes before I gave up and closed the window. i then tried logging into hotmail.com and it looked part-migrated (but still fully usable). I then logged out and back in and the migration was complete.
First impressions:
I like that with a reading pane at the bottom it feels just like the fully-loaded MS Outlook.
However, I’m not sold on the side-bar that seems to dominate the right-side of the screen. I think the idea is that you choose from various panels/widgets to do with social networking, contacts and so on.