In a long-overdue move, Microsoft has begun rolling out free POP3 support to Windows Live Hotmail users in the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, France, Japan, Spain, Germany, Italy, and the Netherlands - with more countries to come soon. The much requested feature was previously available for $19.95 per year as part of Windows Live Hotmail Plus, despite other email services offering it for free.
It's been speculated for a while now that Microsoft had plans to offer POP3 access to all users and finally that day has arrived. Check out the full details here. Additionally, another new feature that is rolling out is "Quick Add," an expandable or collapsible sidebar that enables users to quickly search for maps, addresses and more allowing the contextual information to be quickly transferred to an email at the click of a button.