SharePoint Online Fall 2011 Service Update Starts Oct 20

Today, Microsoft sent out a bulletin to SharePoint Online users notifying them that they would begin rolling out the Fall 2011 Service Update. This is the much vaunted update announced at the SharePoint Conference 2011 that includes BCS services. For those that don’t already subscribe, the list of new features can be found below (copied from the official email).

Feature	Description
*Business Connectivity Services (BCS) <WCF Connector> Enterprise plans only**	Enables connecting to external systems via web service based endpoints
External Sharing: Windows LiveID support	Allows Office 365 tenant administrators to invite external users to a site collection. They sign in with a Windows Live ID-based user name and password.
Windows Phone 7 “Mango” (official support and http:// connectivity)	Windows Phone 7.5, codenamed “Mango,” now enables both small business and enterprise Office 365 customers to access SharePoint Online lists and document libraries from their Windows Phone.
Recycle Bin: deleted site self-recovery	Self-service ability to recover sites from a site collection’s recycle bin
Browser support: Internet Explorer 9	Adds official support for the Internet Explorer 9 (IE9) browser
Browser support: Chrome	Adds official support for the Chrome browser