Windows messenger has been hassling me for about a week to download the latest version and I finally gave in and started the download today.

Incredible! The new version of Messenger is even more shiny than before but the most exciting things are Live Writer and Live Mail.

Now, I've been using Windows Mail (the default mail program with Vista) for some time now and it's done the job nicely but Live Mail lets me view my POP3 and Live mail all in the same program (which is equally as shiny as Messenger). This is the kind of thing I've always wanted.

Second up is Live Writer. I've heard of this before and apparently it's nothing new but I'm writing this post from it. Thanks to the wonderful new CMS BlogEngine the API for Live Writer exists and all my categories and tags can be viewed from here. I can write draft posts locally and upload them whenever I want too. Well done to BlogEngine and to Live Writer - it's a great tool.

I have to say, I'm genuinely excited by all this stuff. At last tools that integrate with each other to do all the things that matter to me.