Yes, it's the same horrid installer. It has obviously undergone some changes, though, and isn't quite as bad as the previous version. My apps downloaded and installed on the first try, a stark contrast to my numerous failures with the last Live Installer.
Live Messenger's UI has received a lot of attention, including a much improved chat window. Display pictures and the chat toolbar slide in and out of view, and the conversation styling is clean and readable. I'd like to see tabbed conversation windows, but there's still no sign of that.
RIM and Microsoft have announced a deal that will officially bring Windows Live Services -- specifically Hotmail and Messenger -- to Blackberry handsets. Has hell frozen over? We wouldn't know. What we do know is the two companies have been rivals in the mobile industry up until now, but they both gain significantly from agreement.
Microsoft is no stranger to the idea of playing in a competitor's sandbox (remember Office for Mac?). By making Windows Live Messenger and Hotmail more accessible on the Crackberry, the company further pushes its communications services towards mass standardization especially in the business world. RIM also benefits from the agreement in the same way Apple benefits from Office for Mac: an OS is only as good as the software on it.
Messenger on Blackberry should retain most of its functions. It looks like users will be able to do the usual: IM, set status, pull up buddy lists, save conversations, use emoticons, and even send and receive files. While it looks like users can join group chats, creating group chats seems to be absent from the feature list.
With the latest version of Messenger for the Mac, users can make free PC-to-PC calls (yes, a Mac is a PC too) to other Messenger buddies. You can also sign up for a Phone Out account to make calls to landlines and mobile phones. Or, if you want to go all the way, you can sign up for a Phone In account, which assigns you a number so people can call you on your PC.
In other words: picture Skype, but with a big yellow smiley face instead of a cool blue talk bubble.
Check out the Yahoo! Messenger blog for a complete rundown of the new features and a handy screencast.
We broke the news the beginning of this year that Yahoo! was busy preparing a complete rebuild of Messenger made exclusively for Windows Vista users. The ground up rebuild has taken quite a long time (11 months), but it's finally here.
Yahoo! Messenger for Vista is officially available as a preview download starting today. There are some important features that are missing in this build, but the significant additions might make up for the lack of features. The changes in Yahoo! Messenger include a complete change of layout, skin chooser, filter-as-you-type for easy searching, spell checker and a convenient tabbed conversation window that controls your desktop clutter. The rebuild also incorporates sidebar graphics that have the ability to show favorite contacts separated from conversation windows. Graphical elements in the new IM take Microsoft's graphic subsystem into play for vector based interfaces and enhanced emoticons. IM's can now be conveniently sent to both Yahoo! and Windows Live Messenger contacts, complete with up to 2GB worth of files.
There are a few features that have been left out of this build that are scheduled for a later date. They are big ones that people do expect to have, be it a beta build or any release and include voice, webcam, chat rooms, text messaging to mobile devices, photo sharing and conferencing. To grab a copy of the new Yahoo! Messenger for Vista preview release, visit http://messenger.yahoo.com/windowsvista.php We will have more on this application as we put it through the DLS wringer.
Check out some screenshots of Yahoo! Messenger for Vista Preview in the gallery.
It looks like Microsoft is preparing to launch the latest versions of Windows Live Mail, Messenger, Writer, Photo Gallery, and Family Safety.
If you've been keeping track, you probably know that Microsoft has already released beta versions of most of these applications, and a nice little unified installer app that lets you install a bunch of Microsoft services all at once, if that's the kind of thing you're inclined to do. We'd like to think that each service will work a bit more reliably once they emerge from beta, but having spent the last few months with Windows Vista, we've learned to temper our hopes.
If you use Yahoo! Messenger on a Mac, now is the time to upgrade. The team has finally announced a new beta version with a bunch of new features. Don't get overly excited though, a major one is missing.
It's been a little while, but the time has come for the new Yahoo! Messenger Mac 3.0 Beta. We will mention this little tidbit first and slap Yahoo!'s hand a little as it is the most important feature that has not yet dropped into the application, voice calling. It's important, and Yahoo! knows this, why they released this application without it is anyone's guess. Nevertheless, the new version is out and does give users a much improved user experience.
Tabbed IM windows now appear as separate tabs so there is less clutter on desktops. If you feel like using separate windows, drag the tab out to create one.
Chat rooms that were once only opened up to Windows users, can now accept Mac users.
All instant messages and all chat room conversations can be archived on your computer for searching and reference.
Stability issues for file transfers and webcams have been fixed up and cleaned out.
Then there are the emoticons. No user interface is complete without pretty icons, and the new Mac Messenger has them.
Yahoo! Messenger for Mac 3.0 runs on Mac OSX 10.4 or later. And please Yahoo! add some voice!
The team at AOL has a new piece of software in the works codenamed Helix. It integrates email, web browsing and instant messaging all into a single application. But it might not be the best solution for non AOL users.
AOL Helix is basically a desktop type application that conveniently places all of applications within one. Think Apollo, but taking up all of the screen real estate, and concentrating on AOL services only. The Beta test application seemed to take quite a while to install. Which was extremely annoying, but thankfully did not slow down the running of other applications, and of course remember that it is in Beta. After loading, a full screen application was launched with a tabbed browser window and links to AOL services like mail and AIM instant messaging.
Is it for everyone? No. If you use all AOL services like AIM and email it's great, and creates a highly productive environment. However, if you do rely on other services such as Gmail and MSN messenger, this application is not for you.
Update: Thank you Scott for updating us about the abilities to add POP3 email accounts like Gmail. Check under Add Accounts in the Mail application.
First instant messaging distracted us from our day to day work, now it's set to distract our gaming life too.
Microsoft has announced that they will be integrating Windows Live Messenger on Xbox 360 consoles. This new addition allows users to chat straight from their televisions using Messenger.
How will users type though? Well, Microsoft has developed a virtual keyboard on the Xbox 360 where users scroll through letters, or users can always plug in a USB keyboard to consoles. Microsoft will also be launching a QWERTY text input device that will connect directly into the Xbox 360 controller that supports text and instant messaging as well.
Do DLS readers think Instant Messaging is a good addition to the Xbox? Or is it just another potentially distracting 'feature'?
With the recent release of Vista comes new versions of Microsoft's programs, one of those being Windows Live Messenger. There are a few handy changes introduced in this new version, which might get your download finger itching to click the "Get it free" button. The changes include new looks for emoticons, contact and display images. Add a mobile number of a buddy by clicking on a cell phone icon beside a contact, and then send an SMS to that phone number. There is also a new feature called roaming identity. This feature allows for a persons display name and personal image to stay with them no matter what computer they log into from. There are also language updates that add eight new language capabilities to the IM. Other updates include the ability to instantly sync contacts information in your Windows Live mail address book the minute contacts have updated their information. Yahoo has also updated their instant messaging application to work with Microsoft's new OS.
I could have sworn that Yahoo! Messenger already did this, but according to this post from the Yahoo! Messenger blog, you can call any 800 (or other typical free - 877 / 866 / 888 / etc. call) and not use any minutes from your Yahoo! Voice account.
This announcement coincides with the upcoming Yahoo! promo for the movie "The Messengers", something to do with a 'click-to-call' (whatever that is) campaign they will be running. Hopefully, this isn't the start of getting ads played before you make a call.
In addition, the post mentions a new minor upgrade to v8.1.239. We're told that changes include voice quality improvements and minor fixes for it running in MS Vista (but why not just run the Vista version instead??)
The voice quality continues to be decent, certainly good enough that I've dropped long distance and international calling from my landline - preferring a combination of my cell & Y! IM to call around the world.
I'm not sure how this functionality can be found - I pulled the current version of Y! Messenger from the official website, and it doesn't yet have Sametime or LCS listed - maybe I'm just a little impatient...
[Update: I just booted my PC and the options appeared auto-magically...]
So, you have a hard time convincing the kids that Santa is real? Windows Live Messenger has set up a way for your kids (with your help of course) to chat with "Santa" on Windows Live Messenger (you'll need to download the latest, but there is a link on the page). All you have to do is add Santa's messenger ID (northpole at live dot com) to your WLM contact list and then you can send messages to him and get a reply back. I suppose that this whole thing started because Santa had to become more tech savvy with the times, to be sure he could hack it when it comes to all the new-fangled gadgets the kiddies want these days. I did hear a rumor that Santa and Bill Gates go way back, which is how Santa easily got a spot in Microsoft's offering of holiday cheer, but it is largely unsubstantiated at this point. Heck, simply tell your kids that Santa knows Bill Gates (feel free to link to this post),I'll bet that will make them believe in him for sure. It just makes sense. There you go, a holiday KidHack for you.
Yahoo! fixed a little flaw this week in Yahoo! Messenger for Windows that could have been used by hackers. The flaw was in the ActiveX control and allowed hackers to crash a chat session and Internet Explorer. Worse, it could have executed malicious code on the victim's machine. The initiation could have taken place if hackers prompted users to view HTML code that linked to a web site with malicious code.
Not to worry, though--Yahoo! has this "highly critical" bug all fixed, and is recommending that users who downloaded Yahoo! Messenger before November 2nd to install the new 8.1 update.
Nokia is planning on offering up email and instant messaging from Yahoo! on its mobile phones. The new plan will see three Nokia models having the ability to accept Yahoo! mail and chats on Yahoo! Messenger, along with the ability to sync Yahoo! contacts, tasks and calendar items. What does it mean for both companies? Nokia is the top mobile manufacturer worldwide, but still has some ground to cover in the US. Yahoo! will be seen as a market leader in the mobile email sector since emailing from phones will be a giant must-have for consumers in the coming year. Having their service preinstalled on Nokia devices will help push their technology to the forefront of consumer's minds.
I have been trying out the Gmail for mobile phones application on a Motorola RAZR for quite some time now, and I think I would be lost if I was unable to check email while on the go with such a quick and easy application. I hope Yahoo!'s is this easy.
Microsoft has released a beta version of Windows Live Messenger 8.1 over at Live.com. It's not an enormous update, but it does add a few nice features to the IM client. Among them are a "Roaming Identity," meaning you can (optionally) have your display picture and personal message follow you wherever you login, an improved emoticon, background, and display picture menu that shows you recently-used emoticons, etc. up top, an SMS phone book that lets you associate phone numbers with you contacts and send them SMS messages easily, a "report abuse" function, and support for Vista's Presentation Mode that keeps IMs from interrupting you when you're in the middle of a presentation. There are a couple other minor new features like an improved Contact Card, a Sign Out option on the Status menu and a new contact emoticon. Windows Live Messenger is a free download from Microsoft.
Yahoo! has just released 
