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Main/News >> News Archives > The week of December 19 (2004) (you
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 Messy Christmas!
dwergs says ( 25 Dec 2004 ):
MSN Messenger in 2005
dwergs says ( 24 Dec 2004 ):
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Of course we're all hoping 2005 will be the best year ever for MSN and its MSN Messenger product in particular. In addition to the personalized status messages we revealed before, Neowin is talking about several other rumoured new features:
- Status by groups;
- Multiple points of presence, i.e. being signed onto the same account on a mobile device and the desktop;
- Improved voice communication functionality;
- Further integration with ever popular mobile devices (SMS from MSN Messenger is speculated)
- Improvements in sharing personal content like photos;
You can expect some of these improvements when the current beta gets its full release in February. For others, you'll have to wait until a beta in June or July, with a desired launch date 1st September 2005. "All in all, a lot of work will go into MSN Messenger in 2005 with many new features being added," reports Tom Graham.
[Source: Neowin.net] [Vote for Mess.be at Neowin] |
2005 Inbox Forecast: Spam Drives Instant Messaging
dwergs says ( 24 Dec 2004 ):
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"Despite better technology and tougher laws, expect to keep fingering that Delete key next year," warns us PC World Senior Writer Tom Spring.
In 2005, people tired of missing one valid e-mail in a haystack of spam will turn to instant messaging services from AOL, Microsoft, and Yahoo as an alternative to e-mail. "It's already very popular to chat about both important and inane things on IM. But 2005 will be the year that IM will widely supplant e-mail."
Supporting this trend is the wide adoption of always-on broadband accounts. People will leave their IM software active and use messaging clients to have hybrid phone and text conversations. The result will be fewer long-distance charges and less reliance on e-mail (and exposure to spam).
Adoption of AOL Instant Messenger, MSN Messenger, and Yahoo Messenger will also be accelerated by the capability to archive and retrieve chat sessions. You can already store records of sessions, but doing so will get easier with features inside desktop search tools. For example, Microsoft's MSN Toolbar Suite automatically keeps searchable logs of chats.
Halleluja! If Mr. Spring is right, then 2005 is going to be one helluva year for messenger!
[Source: PC World] |
An Army of Chatters
dwergs says ( 23 Dec 2004 ):
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Earlier this week, the U.S. Air Force has launched an instant messaging service for enlisted people stationed abroad to communicate with their families and loved ones.
The new program, called Friends and Family Instant Messenger, will let airmen chat with a maximum of five family members and/or friends. The service is a departure from the military body's former policy of keeping instant messaging for internal use only.
But unlike MSN Messenger, the Air Force has implemented a number of security restrictions with its instant messaging service. Users cannot send images, audio or other documents through the system. Messages are encrypted to prevent unauthorized access. Ranks are added to screen names to ensure Airmen know who they are talking to when online. "It helps make sure people are operating within the guidelines of the Air Force when they talk to somebody," Colonel Besselman said.
The Internet, especially instant messaging, has become a central way for soldiers in Iraq to communicate with people at home. The military has set up about 200 Internet cafes throughout the war-torn country, from which people can send e-mails, chat through an instant messaging service and, in some places, use Net phones to call home.
On an emotional level, the Internet has become a revealing medium for soldiers to offer their experiences in battle. Soldiers send home personal accounts of life in Iraq as well as digital photos that can be shared through public e-mail systems.
In other times of trouble, such as Tuesday's attack in Mosul that killed 22 people and injured 69 others during lunch in a military mess hall, concerned families relied on e-mail and instant messaging to make sure their loved ones were not harmed.
"They had been through a lot, but everybody was fine, and I was just so thankful at that point," Jeannette Raburn of Haleyville, whose husband is serving in Mosul, told a local NBC affiliate. "You can think a thousand things, but that light shining on Yahoo Messenger was the best thing ever to me."
[Source: News.com] |
Come On, Ring Those Bells!
dwergs says ( 22 Dec 2004 ):
Link to Mess.be from Space: our first winner!
dwergs says ( 22 Dec 2004 ):
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 At the start of this month we asked you to link to Mess.be from your MSN Spaces blogs and report it to us. In addition to our regular link to Mess.be competition, we even reserved two extra Firebox gadgets exclusively for MSN Spaces users (eg. Space Invaders 5-in-1 Plug 'n' Play, Sega Mega Drive 6-in-1 Plug 'n' Play or something of the same value). Today we're handing out the first Firebox gift to Dan, an active blogger from Bridlington (UK), who told his readers where he got his MSN Messenger smileys from and also linked us in his Frequent Sites list.
So give it a shot, tell your blog readers why you visit Mess with MSN Messenger and put up a permanent link to us. You might win our second Firebox gadget that's looking for adoption. Those of you who already entered are still eligible, so there's no need to re-apply! Of course, you're also welcome to link to us from your regular site!
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Has Patchou reached the boundaries of Messenger Plus?
dwergs says ( 22 Dec 2004 ):
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Over the past few years MSN Messenger has matured so much -becoming a rather exhaustive out-of-the-box software package- it has left Patchou wondering if Messenger Plus! can still offer the same added value as it did for so many years. The MSN Messenger team is (finally) catching up on indispensable features (like custom away mesages, etc.) that used to be Messenger Plus!'s strong selling points. Yes, ladies and gentlemen, a true crisis hits the MSN Messenger community as Patchou is questioning the essence of the world's most popular MSN addon!
Ah, I'm sure it'll all pass, especially when die-hard Plus! fans encourage Patchou in real life during his upcoming Tour de France. If you ask me, the Messenger Plus! story is far from finished...
My point is actually proven by himself in a recent forum post: "...in the past 3 weeks, I've been working on one big new feature for the next version. This feature will be compatible with any Messenger version from 4 to 7 and should boost everyone's interest. I won't tell you now what this feature is but I can tell you that I never spent so much time on one given feature and I still probably have 2 weeks of work to put on it before it's ready to be beta tested (private testing, no more public beta before the release)."
But you'll have to be patient until at least halfway January because that's when the first screenshots of the killer feature will be posted. Teh suspense!
[Reported by: saralk] |
Hotmail dumps McAfee's antivirus for Trend Micro
dwergs says ( 22 Dec 2004 ):
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MSN's Hotmail service, which has almost 200 million users worldwide, has dumped McAfee as its antivirus partner in favor of rival Trend Micro.
According to Microsoft, e-mails and attachments sent or received by any of Hotmail's 187 million Web mail customers will be scanned in real time by Trend Micro's antivirus software beginning Monday.
Hotmail's antivirus service was previously provided by McAfee and the reason for the change is unclear. However, Martin Hoffman, chief executive of Ninemsn, which operates Hotmail in Australia and is half owned by Microsoft, said in a statement that Hotmail will be able to provide a "safer online experience" using Trend Micro's products because they provide "deeper antivirus protection."
"Ninemsn is focused on providing a safer online experience for our Australian customers...We're pleased to work with Trend Micro, to provide deeper antivirus protection for our Hotmail customers," Hoffman said.
Steve Chang, chairman and founder of Trend Micro, which is best known for its PC-cillin product, said in a statement that Trend Micro's vision is to make it safe for people to exchange digital information. "This belief is behind everything we do for every customer we serve. We are thrilled to extend this to millions more," Chang said.
McAfee was unavailable for comment.
[Source: CNET News] |
Send the most original holiday greetings of the year
dwergs says ( 21 Dec 2004 ):
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 Still looking for original christmas and new year cards? Forgot to put your holiday greetings in the post or don't feel like going through the whole write-stamp-mail hassle? Look no further: GreetingMania is what you need ;)
Custom animated greetings, video cards, a Santa e-card talking with your voice? Hundreds of possibilities are available from GreetingMania in most languages and countries!
Stay tuned for more (and more MSN Messenger related) holiday tips when the X-Mas spirit finally kicks in @ Mess.be...
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Added: Badder Santa and other MSN Display Pictures
dwergs says ( 20 Dec 2004 ):
StuffPlug-NG 2 drops features, then adds some
dwergs says ( 20 Dec 2004 ):
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We've got some good news and some bad news about one of the most popular Plus! plugins: StuffPlug-NG by TheBlasphemer.
How about some bad news first? Four old features have been dropped from the upcoming StuffPlug-NG 2. The CE/DP Stealer, which allowed you to get a hold of your contact's Custom Emoticons and/or MSN Display Pictures, has been removed because it was never really reliable and even more so with the new MSN Messenger 7. The alerts when someone deleted you or opened a conversation window have been dropped too, both because as for now TheBlasphemer can't emulate a nice toast anymore and again reliability problems with MSN Messenger 7. The last feature ditched from the final StuffPlug-NG release are the tabbed conversations, simply because they're too time-consuming to program. Maybe some day they'll return, together with the delete notifier.
Time for some good news then. Five new features will try to make you forget about the removed ones: polygamy (run multiple instances of MSN Messenger at once), offline talking (to people you blocked), hide the contact list banner ad and conversation window text ad, and boost the maximum message length to at least 5.000 characters (instead of 400 or nearly 1200 with Plus!).
Finally, StuffPlug-NG 2 features that have already been coded include: talkers, message timestamps, disable auto-replacements on emoticon shortcuts, a chat-only name, shortcuts to all Custom Emoticons, open links in default browser and a convo window close-notifier. Just like Plus!, this plugin will come in different languages and a GUI designed by Rolando.
The release date for 2.0 has not been set yet, but meanwhile here's an MSN Messenger 7 compatible version of StuffPlug-NG.
UPDATE (thanks to plastikaa.com): You can kiss another two features goodbye: ignore and on-the-fly auto-compression. TheBlasphemer however reports that by popular request tabbed conversations might be included after all!
UPDATE 2: Tester Sypher reported that the ignore feature is still present in the current SPNG 2 beta.
[Reported by: soccer5sg] [Source: StuffPlug-NG Dev Blog] |
Added: MSN Display Pictures bonanza part 7
dwergs says ( 19 Dec 2004 ):
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A 
Time to remind you of our 
>> Browse 21 
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The MSN Display Pictures and Custom Emoticons gallery is a bit slow at the moment, but we're working on it... Anyway, here's another big update in the MSN Display Pictures area, thanks to serial uploader lpchick: