Toluu : Torres Talking

Torres Talking

Windows Live Blogger: Mike Torres

After some great years working on our web experiences, I realized over my parental leave that it was time for me to try something completely new; to stretch my brain in ways I haven’t before and be intimidated again by just how little I knew about something. I’ve been around these parts since the first beta version of MSN Spaces in mid-2004 – and for a year and a half before that I was working on the underlying platform still in use – and have now seen many our efforts “grow up” into amazing Windows Live functionality like the What’s New feed, our new Profile, and our new People experience (one contact list!)

I can actually remember when I was one of just a few people blogging regularly about our online services. While that has taken a backseat recently (we have great marketing and a team blog) the passion to continually improve our online story is stronger than ever. This past year was fantastic. The team is functioning on such a high level and everyone is really, really proud of the work we did. Yet as one wave comes to a close and another begins, it’s a natural time to make a move.

Now of course, there really isn’t a better group in the company to work in than Windows Live. So while my #1 priority was to do something different, inspiring, and challenging, a close #1.1 was to make sure that whatever I did was within Windows Live. So effective this week I’ve moved ove

Favorite quotes on the Windows Live updateNovember 13

As you may have heard, the new and improved Windows Live is coming your way very, very soon. We announced it last night at 9pm and so far, the feedback has been great. This is certainly the most satisfying part of this job: shipping! Shipping something you’re proud of that is. Particularly with a release like this one that was very much a “redefinition” in a lot of ways.

Long gone are the days when I was the only one blogging about our release though ;) Check out our Windows Live Wire blog for more information on Windows Live. And check out the video below for more depth:

Also – read the quotes below. FUN. Emphasis below is mine.

Hall underscored that Microsoft is trying to simplify the Web experience by bringing together people and content scattered all over the Web and across personal computers, phones and other devices. Having one central place to organize and manage information relieves some of the social networking fatigue people are experiencing, he said. To that end, Microsoft formed partnerships with a number of companies including LinkedIn, Photobucket and Twitter. – LA Times blog

Experience MattersNovember 3

If you’ve been following the news about Windows 7 and Office 14 coming from PDC, one thing should be immediately apparent: experience matters these days at Microsoft. Ever since the release of Windows Vista and Office 2007, I’ve seen a real shift for the better in the way people are approaching UI design within the company. No longer is it an afterthought – it’s baked into the product development cycle at almost every level, and people are paying particular attention to the way our software makes people feel. It’s fun to watch (and certainly has something to do with ramped up competition with Apple).

There are a number of great examples of this over the last year or so at the company – and a LOT more to come over the next few months and years. But I wanted to take a minute and highlight a few of my favorites just in case you haven’t been following all the recent news. These are very specific examples, but I think the uber-message is that you should expect (and demand) great experiences from Microsoft now and in the future. Never again should we release something as confusing as older versions of Office or Windows Media Player or as offensively colorful as Windows XP :)

Zune 3 Now Playing – Just a phenomenal visualization for your music. It uses album art and stock photography of the artist, along with text to give you a real visceral reacti

5 weeks away from the officeOctober 8

(Sorry, I accidentally posted an early draft of this earlier today)

One of the great benefits of working for Microsoft is our parental leave policy. Even though we had our baby almost a year ago, you have up to 12 months to take your leave… which really helps work around project schedules, life events, vacations, and most importantly to me, making sure you’re home with your child at the “right” time.

For me, spending time with my daughter as she approaches 1-year old was infinitely more satisfying than it would have been had I taken the time when she was born. She’s barking at dogs, giggling all the time, playing hide & seek, and is saying “Dada” now. We had a lot of fun. She’s an amazing little girl.

But my time off wasn’t all play. I had a bunch of little projects I wanted to finish around the house that I just haven’t had much dedicated time to do all year – so I used this work-less time to crank through them. Here’s the list in all its g

Windows Live Wave 3 BetaSeptember 18

The new beta is here! If you're wondering why I've been so quiet this year, this is a big part of the reason. The other one is an 11-month old squirt who likes to open dresser drawers and pull everything out over and over. This beta release is significant for a number of reasons, but I think the thing you'll really start to notice (especially as we rollout Wave 3 final with the "rest of it") is that Windows Live really stands for something now. There's just so much cool stuff happening now.

Go to http://download.live.com/ and get the newest Messenger, Mail, Photo Gallery, Movie Maker, Writer, Toolbar, and Family Safety. Photo Gallery is probably the app I use the most outside of Messenger. Just a couple weeks ago I created my first panoramic stitch out of photos of the Washington coast (yes, I know this feature has been around for a year - but I just started taking decent photos!) This feature alone is worth the price of admission (well... it's free!) But this was ONE click to create.