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 Happy Mess-day to us: Mess.be turns 7!
Happy Mess-day to us: Mess.be turns 7!

dwergs says ( 27 Sep 2008 ):

 

Yes, we share our birthday (September 27th) together with mighty Google and of course they're stealing all our thunder. We don't have $10 million in our back pocket to give away for our 7th anniversary, but we do have some wannahaves gathering dust in the Mess HQ! October will be competition month on Mess.be so make sure you check out the news next Wednesday to find out how you can participate.

I agree, today would've been a good occassion to launch the next version of our Mess.be but there've been some setbacks. If you see that Murphy fellow with his famous law, ask for his Messenger ID so we can Winkspam him.

Schol everyone and keep messing!

PS: For those who were around in the early days, we did indeed launch on September 11th in 2001 (not the best chosen date either) but I only registered this domain name two weeks after.

>> If you want, you can leave your birthday wishes on our Facebook page.



 Legal haze obstructs VoIP plans for Windows Live Messenger in China
Legal haze obstructs VoIP plans for Windows Live Messenger in China

dwergs says ( 26 Sep 2008 ):

 

Even though Windows Live Messenger is the IM service of choice for Chinese office workers*, MSN China reportedly has no plans to allow its users to make voice calls through Messenger. Bad luck, because the feature would make it increasingly attractive for business usage.

Charles Chen, vice president of MSN China, at the 2008 China Internet Conference said that the company won't step into the "legal gray area" that is VoIP in his country. The Chinese government doesn't authorize nor prohibit non-telecom carriers to offer VoIP services.

Chen also mentioned a new version of Windows Live Messenger to be launched worldwide in the next few weeks. That means that the public beta-period of 9.0 would last just a few weeks this time.

*QQ is the most popular IM service in China, but attracts a teenage audience. Fighting with Windows Live Messenger for the second spot is China Mobile's Fetion, which allows users to send free SMS messages to mobile phones from its IM application.

[Source: Interfax TMT]



 Chatting can get you pregnant!
Chatting can get you pregnant!

dwergs says ( 26 Sep 2008 ):

 

chatting can get you pregnantSorry if that headline was misleading to you, but it's the subject of a witty cartoon ad that tries to alert us how fast things can go from "a bit of flirting" to "having a child" if not fully aware of the contraception methods out there. Yes, today is the second World Contraception Day, an international awareness campaign aiming to prevent unplanned pregnancy. The pope has let us know he's not partaking.

>> Watch the WCD 2008 - Instant Messaging ad on YouTube or download the MPG-file.

>> More information about World Contraception Day at Your-Life.com.



 Messenger team comments on random 9.0 beta issues
Messenger team comments on random 9.0 beta issues

dwergs says ( 26 Sep 2008 ):

 

Lonn, who works on the Windows Live Messenger Product Management team, has commented on a few "major issues, as he calls them, that have been logged during the first week of the public Windows Live Messenger 9.0 Beta:

1) The annoying custom emoticon display bug:

Lonn's response: "We're working on fixing this... Fyi, they do show up to the person you are sending them to."

2) Changing your status using the dropdown menu can cause layout errors:

Lonn's response: "This is a known issue around High Dpi. The work around (for now) is to your the File menu to change status."

3) Issues with ad content:

Lonn's response: "I've brought up some of the concerns raised about the contents of a few ads with the advertising team and they are looking into this further."

dwergs: "No idea what this is referring to".

4) The status-notifying borders around display pictures are not colour blind friendly:

Lonn's response: "This has been brought to the user interface team's attention, I agree it's important."

He also announced the coming of an optional upgrade prompt appearing the next few days to those logging on using outdated (and leaked) builds of Windows Live Messenger 9.0.



 Major Digsby update better, faster, stronger than ever
Major Digsby update better, faster, stronger than ever

dwergs says ( 24 Sep 2008 ):

 

Furthering today's trend of posting news about non-Microsoft IM clients compatible with Windows Live Messenger, here's a major update of Digsby, the social/IM network aggregator that first caught our attention in March.

digsbyPrevious or current users of Digsby will be extremely glad to hear that RAM usage has been brought down by almost 75 per cent! GUI responsiveness, CPU utilization, stability and connectivity have all been drastically improved, and this build also integrates LinkedIn.

>> Grab the Digsby installer here.



 Mobile eBuddy adds Facebook, ICQ, sending pictures and SMS
Mobile eBuddy adds Facebook, ICQ, sending pictures and SMS

dwergs says ( 24 Sep 2008 ):

 

As of today, a new version of the eBuddy Mobile Messenger client is available for download at get.ebuddy.com. The new version allows you to send camphone pictures to your online contacts, or send text messages to those offline directly from your contact list.

ebuddy school web messengerThey've also added support for good old ICQ as well as the fairly fresh Facebook chat to both eBuddy Mobile Messenger and eBuddy Lite Messenger, the web-based version for mobile devices which is located at m.ebuddy.com.

The original eBuddy Web Messenger added ICQ only for now. No ETA on its compatibility with Facebook.



 Meanwhile, in Yahoo! Messenger 9.0... (part 2)
Meanwhile, in Yahoo! Messenger 9.0... (part 2)

dwergs says ( 24 Sep 2008 ):

 

A week after the public Windows Live Messenger 9.0 Beta launch, here's Yahoo! also releasing the 9.0 version of its IM software after an almost one-year-long beta.

Both clients, who already live in harmony since 2006, are more than ever growing towards each other. You can tell by similar features in the new Yahoo! Messenger such as the word wheel, emoticons and links in status messages, Scenes-alike skins, the web-based Pingbox and integrated spam reporting.

But the killer feature of Yahoo! Messenger 9.0 in my eyes remains the ability to embed content like videos, maps and (online) images in the conversation window automagically. Beats PhotoShare in its current form hands down, so watch and learn, Microsoft!

>> More info about Yahoo! Messenger 9.0 here.
>> Download Yahoo! Messenger 9.0 (but don't neglect Windows Live Messenger, promise?)



 G1 phone to support Windows Live Messenger
G1 phone to support Windows Live Messenger

dwergs says ( 24 Sep 2008 ):

 

t-mobile g1 google phoneYes, it's ugly, but according to the press release the gPhone G1 comes with Windows Live Messenger support straight out of the box. Anyone found any photos, screenshots or videos of that feature in action? Let me know and I'll update this post.

>> Here's an interesting FAQ on T-Mobile's G1 phone.



 Ping.fm adds Diigo, Multiply, YouAre, Yammer and locations
Ping.fm adds Diigo, Multiply, YouAre, Yammer and locations

dwergs says ( 22 Sep 2008 ):

 

Ping.fm is a free service which allows you to update your social networks via many entry points, including a Windows Live Messenger bot. Here's what's new since we last mentioned it:

ping.fm bot- Bookmarking enabled on Diigo.
- Added support for Multiply, YouAre and the TechCrunch award-winning Yammer.
- A new location-tag (@l) supported by Brightkite, Jaiku, Twitter and Rejaw.

According to the motherpingers, a lot of great stuff is arriving soon. Get in touch with them if you have any good suggestions yourself.

>> Join the public Ping.fm beta here.



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