Last month, the Hotmail team announced that POP3 support had been rolled out to nine countries: United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, France, Japan, Spain, Germany, Italy, and the Netherlands. The plan for worldwide support was said to be progressive and the rollout deadline was a vague "later this year." An insider told me last night that the switch has now also been flipped for US and Brazil Hotmail accounts. There hasn't been any official announcement on the various Windows Live blogs yet, but I'll update this post if more details come to light today.
If you want to start using it now, there are some details you should be aware of:
- POP server: pop3.live.com
- POP SSL required? Yes
- User name: Your Windows Live ID, for example yourname@hotmail.com
- Password: The password you usually use to sign in to Hotmail or Windows Live
- SMTP server: smtp.live.com
- Authentication required? Yes (this matches your POP username and password)
- TLS/SSL required? Yes.
Full Story:
http://arstechnica.com/microsoft/news/2009/02/next-up-hotmail-pop3-support-arrives-in-the-us-brazil.ars 
