Microsoft has released a new technical preview of Windows Live Writer, the company's desktop blogging client. Windows Live Writer lets you create, edit, and post blog entries using popular blog services including WordPress, Blogger, and Windows Live Spaces.

The latest version has a revised toolbar, tabs for switching views and word count features. But probably the most notable change is the addition of basic image editing support. You can now crop, tilt, or rotate images in Windows live Writer. There are also additional border styles including reflection and rounded corners.

You can also upload videos directly to Soapbox, MSN's answer to YouTube, for easy embedding in posts. We'd be happier if you could upload videos to YouTube and other sites as well, but this is still just a technical preview, so perhaps support for other sites will come in a future release.

[via Digital Inspiration]

Have you ever found yourself reading an item in your RSS reader, only to think, "wow, I should really write about this on my blog?" Well if the reason you didn't follow through is because you were too lazy to open up a second application or web site, YeahReader can help. It's a feed reader and blog client all wrapped up in one.

Neither the feed reader nor the blog client are anything to write home about. You can import OPML files, arrange feeds by category. And you can post entries to your LiveJournal, Blogger, or any application that uses the MetaWeblog API, including WordPress.

The cool part is the way the feed reader and the blog client work together. In addition to the usual feed reader tools that let you mark items as read or unread, you can also click a "blog this" button to copy feed items into the blog client. Just be careful to use this power for good and not evil. In other words, if you're going to say, write about an article you found on Download Squad, please don't copy the whole article and pass it off as your own work. That's what we like to call copyright infringement. On the other hand, you can use YeahReader to copy quotations and other tidbits to your clipboard while writing up your 100% original content inspired by an item you found on another site.

[via AppScout]