We have been seeing a lot of rumors surrounding Windows 8 getting some sort of integration with Windows Live, but now Windows8Beta.com has received a picture from an anonymous source with even more evidence of such a feature.

The most revealing part of this supposed screenshot is the text: “You only need a single online ID and its password to log on to your computers that are running Windows 8.”

This is all just a rumor, so don’t give it to much thought, but this would not be a surprising move. We may finally be seeing a consolidation of Windows Live and Windows itself for once, which will be awesome.

Image Credit: windows8beta.com

The HTC Trophy on Verizon still has yet to make its debut, but it appears that should be happening very soon. The Trophy is a Windows Phone with the “NoDo” update that is required in order for Windows Phone to work on CDMA networks, like Verizon and Sprint. There are a couple of tidbits of information floating around the Internet right now which may indicate the phones release is imminent.

Credit: pocketnow.com

Pocketnow found the HTC Trophy on the Best Buy website labeled “HTC – Trophy Mobile Phone – Black (Verizon Wireless)” with a price of $600 unsubsidized, though it is likely just a placeholder price for now. While they did find the phone on Best Buy, they could not purchase it due the lack of stock (which is no surprise).

Also, Verizon now has a discussion board for Windows Phone, showing that they are getting ready to support the users who have purchased, or want to purchase, the brand new phone. There is no information on the board about when to expect the Trophy, but there is a discussion topic asking Verizon when they will be releasing a Windows Phone, but no Verizon representative has yet to reply.

Hopefully Verizon will have an announcement, or at least some details, about Windows Phone on their network. If you haven’t yet, subscribe to our feed to get the latest news about Windows, Windows Phone, and more.

A week ago I posted about a some information obtained from leaked builds of Windows 8 which would allow you to use an email account as a Windows account, which could have the possibility of logging you in on any computer running Windows 8.

Now it appears that someone has uncovered some new options in the Windows 8 Control Panel called Roaming Options, which allows you to choose what data should follow you around when you link an account to an email address. It is most likely the email address would need to be a Windows Live ID, but seeing as any email address can be a Windows Live ID, that’s not such a big deal.

The following information could be chosen to “roam” with you:

• Personalization – This would be things such as your desktop background and Aero glass color.
• Accessibility – Your options in the ease of access control panel, and magnifier, on screen keyboard and speech recognition settings.
• Language Settings – Your language profile, text prediction preferences, and IME dictionary.
• Application Settings – Application settings and search history.
• Windows Settings – Taskbar, Explorer, search and mouse settings.
• Credentials – Wireless network profiles and saved website credentials.

There are two other options under Network options, which allow you to choose whether or not your settings will roam on paid network and on networks with low bandwidth. Not too sure what the first one would be, but it might prevent syncing on 3G and 4G networks, which could cost you quite a bit of money. Then as for the low bandwidth option, Windows might detect whether or not the Internet connection is fast enough to not be a pain in the behind when syncing all the roaming data for your user account.

While this is a rumor, and nothing is set in stone, I can’t help but feel excited. After all, I use two computers: my desktop and netbook. It would be great if all my preferences and other application data would be in sync. Also, if anyone ever bought a new computer, whether it replaces an old one or not, all you would do is log in (either with your Windows Live ID, or you attach it to it) and your data is synchronized on your new computer. Wouldn’t that be nice?

One would assume for the applications themselves, a Windows Marketplace application would handle all of that, simply remembering which applications you own or have downloaded and installed, while Windows itself would sync all application settings. We know absolutely nothing of a Windows Marketplace for the next version of Windows, because what was previously thought to have been a possible “Window 8 App Store” screenshot, turned out to be a fake.

Thanks to the image by Long Zheng at istartedsomething.com

Many have been wondering what version number “Mango” will sport, ranging from Windows Phone OS 7.1 to Windows Phone OS 7.5. However, according to a page on the Microsoft Partner Network, “Mango” will be referred to as “Windows Phone OS 7.5.”

Then again, WPCentral found a tweet by Brandon Watson saying that “no version number has been officially announced.”

This really isn’t all that interesting, but seeing as it was a rather slow weekend (as always), I figured, why not? Oh, and no, you cannot get that minute of your life back, sorry!

What might be of more use to your time is to see what is actually new in the Windows Phone “Mango” update, as the version number won’t do cool things without help, with new features such as Internet Explorer 9 Mobile, Over-The-Air podcasts, custom ringtones, and more.

In a recent Windows 8 M1 leak, it appears that some new interesting information about the next version of Windows has cropped up. From some text in files, it seems as though email accounts will be able to be used as Windows accounts, allowing you to synchronize things such as settings, favorites, and other content, according to Softpedia.

Seeing as this is information coming from a leaked build of Windows 8, no one can say what it means for sure, but it would be no surprise if these features did come to Windows 8 as Microsoft is beginning to move into the cloud.

I have to wonder though, will such synchronizing services be free? Sure, currently Microsoft gives Windows Live users 25GB of online storage with SkyDrive, but right now only 5GB of that limit can be used to synchronize files with Windows Live Mesh.

Maybe Microsoft will bump up the limit to the full 25GB and offer that for free, but any more than that would cost extra. Who knows, Windows 8 could even be an operating system that you don’t pay a license fee to use Windows, but a subscription fee for your Windows 8 account. Then if you don’t pay your fee (monthly, yearly, whatever) you couldn’t log on to your account.

After all, Microsoft is moving many of their services to the cloud and having subscription fees. A couple examples would be Office 365, with which you not only get the online services, but also the full-on Office suite attached to the subscription itself, and if you fail to pay, the Office suite on the desktop turns into Office Starter (not all Office 365 subscriptions come with the Office suite for the desktop, not the cheap plans, anyways). Another example is Windows InTune, for managing Windows from the cloud, and with the service you also get upgrade rights to Windows 7 Enterprise.
The best part of using such subscription services is when a new version of Office or Windows comes out, you get to upgrade to the newest version without forking over any massive amount of money. Sure, it is covered by the subscription fee, but it is not a huge upfront cost.

All of what I just said though is complete and utter speculation with no sources, but I can dream, can’t I?

HTML5 Hotmail

Mary Jo Foley has a contact which tells her that the next version of the Windows Live service (Wave 5) would feature an HTML5 Hotmail.

This may not sound too interesting, except for what her contact had to say: “The Softies are working on an HTML5 version of Hotmail with something that few people understand the consequences of: offline storage…. They are planning on replacing the Windows Live Mail client with it.”

Now wouldn’t that be nice? No longer would you need to install the desktop application, yet you could continue to access your email even while offline. Nothing amazing or revolutionary, just evolutionary, but nice nonetheless.

Hopefully Windows Live Hotmail won’t be so ugly in the next “wave,” either.