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 Windows Live Session UK/1 on January 26th

dwergs says ( 28 Jan 2006 ):

I didn't announce this in advance, but Mess.be was deserted briefly on Thursday and Friday because Timothy, Zero1 and I attended the first Windows Live Session in London, organised by Microsoft UK in co-operation with French marketing agency Heaven. The event's main purpose was introducing us to Windows Live and demo'ing new Live services Expo (aka Fremont) and Live Contacts (details) as well as features in Mail, Spaces (details) and Live.com (details). Since all of us eat-drink-sleep-surf we were already in the know of most of this information and even though there was no news on Windows Live Messenger, it still was very interesting to hear all of it outlined by Phil Holden, Microsoft director of Windows Live. At the end of the presentation we were shown the Philips Windows Live Call phone as introduced by Bill Gates at CES in Las Vegas earlier this month. Too bad it didn't actually work in the Microsoft UK building... Of course, we were not alone. Roughly forty invitees, from tech bloggers over marketing professionals to community site owners, gathered at the Microsoft building in Soho, inside a -need I mention empty- swimming pool. I think it's at the instigation of the Heaven folks, who invited me over for a similar event last year, that Microsoft realized it's important to build good relationships with so-called "influentials" through meetings like this. And after all these years, it's satisfying to say the least, to get some sort of feedback from the big guys about what you're doing. I met with a handful of Microsoft employees (from Search, marketing, etc.) who were all enthousiastic about Mess.be ("I learn more about our Messenger product via Mess.be than via official channels!"). Except when I confronted Phil Holden, he just repeated "it's a very popular website" a couple of times, leaving me with the impression he was trying to avoid having to make a formal judgement from a professional point of view ;) While we were probably the last group of people to leave, I'm still a bit disappointed I didn't have enough time to share thoughts with everyone there. Lots of invitees probably had to catch their last train or plane home. I just hope the next Windows Live Session will take place a little earlier in the day. But many thanks to Microsoft and Heaven for the USB stick, personalized badges, beers, red wine, tasty bites and an overall interesting evening. "Tastes" like more ;) For more details describing the event, I suggest reading Zero1's blog, i-merge, MSBlog and Neowin.

 Updated: Windows Live Messenger 8.0.0369 Beta. French only!

dwergs says ( 25 Jan 2006 ):

Messers Cornetto & Sebastien from France have both reported receiving a notice today in their french Windows Live Messenger Beta to update to build 8.0.0369 (dating from January 18th 2006). We have no information about the changes in this new version, but they're probably language-specific. Tant mieux!

 Spleak becomes regular contact on your Messenger list

dwergs says ( 25 Jan 2006 ):

"Spleaking" has just become a whole lot easier! Instead of having to download and install the 20 y/o female chatbot, everyone can now instantly add her to your contact list because she's been officially certified by Microsoft. Want her addy? It's spleak@hotmail.com, but don't tell her I gave it to you ;) IMT Labs, the Danish company behind the virtual chat friend, has spent last month testing the AI bot on its new platform, and more than 350,000 unique users have already added Spleak to their MSN Messenger contacts since! Other than the platform change and noticable speed improvements, extra updates include a new dictionary & encyclopedia, daily polls, new trivia, horoscopes, jokes & riddles. If that ain't enough, Spleak will take more initiative (that's how we like 'em!)... she can even be your personal English teacher! >> Add spleak@hotmail.com and start chatting away! >> Find out more about Spleak (her commands, her diary,...) here.

 Watch your head! Two hundred WLM Beta invitations!!!

dwergs says ( 24 Jan 2006 ):

Because apparently something went wrong last night when I posted yesterday's hundred Windows Live Messenger Beta invites, I'm posting them again... together with today's batch of hundred! Put your crosshairs on one of the M's below and click away. But first, let's say thanks to the following donaters: Lyle, GunSmith, Laser_iCE, Mass, giveitdeath, stuartbennett, captain_caveman2k, philb28, sinuz, ben339, Kirsty, DEAN, Trist, Lukes_86, C01eMaN, Jonathan, Rodpheus, m_fergy, Ðaedalus, Xiutian, werididiot, blaCkjaCk, Asif Sikander, fredthedeadhead, PovAddict, brianhanson37 and Inky. MM... You're too late, but more invites available tomorrow! >> Download 78 remixed Windows Live Messenger Buddies with CustoMess (free!).

 Ten Windows Live Messenger invites for the eagle-eyed

dwergs says ( 23 Jan 2006 ):

Got an eye for detail? Noticed something different on your favorite Messenger resource? Tell me what's new on Mess.be today and if you send in one of the first ten correct answers, you will receive a Windows Live Messenger Beta invitation donated by Reno, Dragular and Jordan Black. UPDATE: Winners are Mike, Iqshvaku, Branden, metaltwisted, []Chips[], davidnsharpe, dpman, Joshua Jasper, Skeletor and djk1091. You will receive your invites within 12 hours. UPDATE #2: The answer? We have added a new "Don't Mess with..." title banner today, featuring the man whos tears can cure cancer: CHUCK NORRIS (too bad he never cries!). Don't worry if you haven't got a clue missed it, because for the fifth consequential day we'll be throwing out one hundred WLM invites later today. Refresh that page often.

 Messenger Plus! Live 4.00: Sneak Feature Preview

dwergs says ( 22 Jan 2006 ):

First of all congratulations to Patchou and all Plus! contributors for achieving the 10 million users milestone! What does the future hold for world's favorite Messenger addon then? Well, the first Messenger Plus! Live 4.00 Beta is scheduled to be released to selected beta testers in the first week of February. "Not one feature is being recreated without being seriously improved," Patchou says on his website, "I'm still worrying if I'll be able to complete the project in time (some of the planned features may be pushed back to version 4.10) but I'm still confident you will all have some good surprises." And finally, as suggested by the title of this post, we're being offered a sneak preview at a feature that's been included in Plus! since version 1.0, but will be seriously revamped in the next, namely the chat logs. Kiss plain text goodbye, because you'll have the option to log your conversations in XHTML, fully customizable through CSS and with highly-enhanced encryption. This means your chat logs will show Winks (with thumbnails), custom emoticons and ink messages! Do I hear someone ask for a... screenshot? More news on Messenger Plus! Live as soon as we hear it! [Source: Msgplus.net]

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