Hotmail has now made its POP3 email feature available worldwide to all Hotmail accounts. POP3 also called Post Office Protocol version 3 is an Internet standard protocol used by local e-mail clients to retrieve e-mail from a remote server over a TCP/IP connection.

Now with Hotmail POP3 enabled,  you can access Hotmail more conveniently by using the e-mail software on your PC or mobile device such as a Windows Mobile phone, iPhone, or BlackBerry.

To enable Hotmail POP3 for Outlook, Thunderbird or mobile devices, you need to set the following email client setting.

POP server: pop3.live.com (Port 995)  
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 (Port 25 or 587)  
Authentication required? Yes (this matches your POP username and password)
TLS/SSL required? Yes

Another good news with Hotmail POP3 enabled, is that now you can finally backup all your Hotmail email using Fetchmail or Thunderbird. [via]