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 Messenger Plus! Live 4.50 to revitalise Messenger skinning
Messenger Plus! Live 4.50 to revitalise Messenger skinning

dwergs says ( 17 Nov 2007 ):

 

Patchou this morning sent me a big ass pre-release changelog for Messenger Plus! Live 4.50, to be released the first week of December. I'm not allowed to show you the entire list of additions and changed items, but here's one thing I'm not gonna withhold from you guys any longer: the add-on's new SKINNING feature!

Instead of having to patch and modify DLL-files, Messenger Plus! skin packs can be easily imported and applied directly to the memory. The Messenger Plus! skinning engine is fully documented in more than 30 pages of documentation (you'll be able to find it under Preferences > Skins) but reading the first sections will get you started already. As a bonus, Plus! skins enable new features previously unavailable to skinners, like user modifiable options, multi-language support, control over the shape of the Messenger windows... even Messenger Plus! itself can be skinned.

I'll be revealing more details on the new Messenger Plus! Live release in the next couple of days.



 Ask Santa (and get no answer)
Ask Santa (and get no answer)

dwergs says ( 16 Nov 2007 ):

 

Is it that time of the year already? Time for ho-ho-ho and gift shopping stress? Apparently, because the first Santa bot has just woken from his "summer sleep". Not only did he put on a few pounds, he also changed his official e-mail address from northpole@live.com to asksanta@live.ca (no, he did not move from the North Pole to Canada). Last year's address still works though.

ask santa, the windows live messenger botUnfortunately for the kids, Santa seems to be very busy in his workshop right now. He rarely asks you to play a game of Factory Frenzy, but sometimes, just sometimes, he does.

UPDATE: All work and no play make Santa a dull, old man. He's ready to play games now, or click here if he's not.

>> Add asksanta@live.ca to your contact list.
>> Visit Santa's Space.
>> Read about last year's Santa bot stand-off.



 The 7 deadly sins of Instant Messaging
The 7 deadly sins of Instant Messaging

dwergs says ( 16 Nov 2007 ):

 

Found on 43 Folders:

Thou shalt not use it: Eh.. ok, cross this one out.

Thou shalt not make yourself available 24/7: not chatting every moment means you'll have more to talk about when you see your friends in real life.

Thou shalt not expect a response: the beauty of IM is that it lets you have "slow conversations".

Thou shalt not send urgent requests: if you're not willing to make a phone call, then maybe it's not a real emergency.

Thou shalt not be a buddy slut: you spend 80 percent of your chat time with 20 percent of your buddies.

Thou shalt not broadcast your [Messenger address]: this keeps your buddy list short and prevents stalkers from creeping you out.

Thou shalt not forward chat messages to your phone: this is the electronic dog leash feature. If you have it on, turn it off now. Free yourself, run wild, and go play!



 Expanded Messenger interoperabilty not on roadmap (officially)
Expanded Messenger interoperabilty not on roadmap (officially)

dwergs says ( 14 Nov 2007 ):

 

AmpCoder's minutes of the George Tech presentation by Andrew Jenks have clearly woken up Microsoft's PR machine. Not only was the rumor about the discontinuation of Messenger for Mac denied (see my preceding posts), I also found Chris Jones, corporate vice president for Windows Live, carefully damping the enthousiasm about interoperability prospects with other IM providers than Yahoo!. Here's the extract from the Q&A, questions printed in bold:

"There was a presentation by one of the folks at Microsoft at Georgia Tech that talked a little bit about the future of Messenger. Can you talk a little bit about that? It mentioned some things like interoperability with AOL and Google as being in the works.

Jones: I think that the person works on my team, and they were quoted out of context. We obviously have some work that we're working on with Messenger in terms of the platform and the direction that we're headed, but the things that were quoted and said, they aren't on our roadmap in any kind of public way.

Where are things as far as interoperability with some of the other folks?

Jones: We have an agreement with Yahoo on interop, and that's about the extent of what we've done. I can't discuss things on other networks, but certainly we've had conversations with other folks. And the work that we've done on our contact interchange is just an example of the kinds of things that we'll expect to do in the future.

I do think over time IM networks are going to interoperate. It's just challenging from a business perspective for everybody to agree to do that right now.
"
Sure, Jones can officially state so, yet we know now that developers are really playing around with further interoperability on the sly...

[Source: News.com]



 Messenger for Mac 7.0 adds audio/video features: part 2
Messenger for Mac 7.0 adds audio/video features: part 2

dwergs says ( 13 Nov 2007 ):

 

More news from the Mac front: Anav, member of the Messenger for Mac team, has stepped out of the dark to pick up the pieces left behind by that rumor I won't be repeating. In a posting on the official Mac Mojo blog, he talks about the context and progress of the video conversation feature expected in Messenger for Mac 7.0 and already in beta for select corporate users:

"That leads to the next question – "what about AV for the Personal service?" Since we've successfully implemented AV for Corporate service, and the AV stack we are using is being adopted right now by Windows Live Messenger, that means we are that much closer to having an AV solution on Personal service. However, we're not there yet. To ensure compatibility between Windows Live Messenger and Messenger for Mac, we have to wait until Windows Live Messenger completes their transition to the new AV stack before we can deliver this on our end. This leads us to the topic of why it is we have all these dependencies...

One of the most important goals for product development in Mac BU is making sure that the products we deliver work cross platform. Since Messenger is a real-time communication solution, enabling users to communicate cross-platform is very important. To accomplish this, the protocols used by the Mac and Windows programs have to be the same. Hence, the dependencies… The good news is that Windows Live Messenger has made great progress on the integration of the new AV stack in to their system. Unfortunately, we can’t give you a specific time frame in which you will see a Messenger for Mac release with AV for the Personal service. However, we can say that it is definitely in progress.
"
The blog post is also graced by a smooth teaser image showing a speech bubble, a webcam lens and a microphone. The expectations are high now, so let's see if Microsoft can beat Adium in the A/V department...

messenger for mac 7.0 video conversation



 Adium for Mac OS X updated, enables third-party videochat
Adium for Mac OS X updated, enables third-party videochat

dwergs says ( 13 Nov 2007 ):

 

It almost got lost in all the excitement over the final Windows Live Messenger 8.5 release and the MSN Messenger for Mac 7.0 announcement, but Adium was updated as well last week. Version 1.1.4 of the MSN-compatible IM client fixes almost all Mac OS X 10.5-related issues in the previous version, including contact list drag & drop, the image picker and interactions with Windows Live Spaces. The Open Hotmail Inbox option under File > Connect now does what it says, log indexing and searching has been improved, several crashes have been addressed, etc.

The team also released a plugin which enables cross-platform and cross-service videochatting with up to 15 people, courtesy of MeBeam. It's not as nicely integrated into Adium as most users would like to see, because it relies on a browser-based Flash session comparable to what we've seen in imo.im. But it works, and it's currently the best option for those who want to engage in audio/video conversations.

>> Download Adium 1.1.4 for Mac OS X.

>> Download and install the MeBeam plugin, relaunch Adium, ctrl-click (or right-click) a contact and choose "Initiate MeBeam Videochat" (more info here).

[Reported by: Ancyru]



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