Outlook Connector -- Sync Outlook Desktop Calendars to Live Mail

We've been wall-to-wall Microsoft services lately and for good reason -- Microsoft's Live offerings are really maturing lately. One hassle, though, is that most people's desktop PIM manager is Outlook and Outlook hasn't (until now) fully synced calendars with Live Mail. No more, as Paul Thurrott points out: Microsoft has released a beta of Microsoft Office Outlook Connector 12.1. It's good stuff, adding calendar sync capabilities to the already existing contacts and email sync, though there is one tiny caveat that some users may need to know about:

Note to Premium Subscribers:The Outlook Connector will automatically upgrade your MSN Calendar to the new Windows Live Calendar beta. Once upgraded to Windows Live Calendar, you will be able to synchronize multiple calendars, including shared calendars to Outlook! You will no longer be able to access MSN Calendar.

...It's still not a full fledged solution for mobile (unless you're an old-school, cable-based ActiveSyncer, in which case we presume those synced calendars can be synced over USB just fine), but it's a sign that Microsoft is heading in the right direction. Those “right direction” signs are all over the place these days, now we just need some unification.

Thanks to Rene for the tip!