messenger

Instant messaging tool

MSC Messenger attempts to be an alternative instant messaging system with some added bonuses. While it piles on the additional choices, most users will need to let their head stop spinning before using this program.

The interface will look somewhat familiar to anyone who has sent instant messages in the past. The rectangular screen is perfectly sized for keeping track of buddies and monitoring conversations. However, MSC provides an almost overwhelming number of added icons and commands that will probably lead most users to the online Help menu for some direction. Once users familiarize themselves with the layout, adding buddies … Read more

Chrome debuts new Corsair and Vega commuter bags

Chrome started with a couple of guys in Boulder, Colo., who set out to built a bag that could stand a lifetime of daily abuse. Eight years later, the operation is now based out to San Francisco, where Chrome bags have become the staple of bike messengers, students, and packrats alike. Today, Chrome also announced its sojourn into the techie commuter market with the release of two stripped-down, laptop-friendly bags: the Vega and Corsair.

The Vega draws inspiration from the classic "musette" bags used to feed cyclists in the middle of a big race. Since weight is everything to these pros, the bags have to be minimalist and utilitarian, and the Vega is no different. It's light, tough, and can easily fit up to a 15-inch laptop.

It's important to stress the tough material used in the build: 1,000 denier Cordura material, a heavyweight nylon with a urethane coating to protect from water, abrasian, and grime. Make no mistake about it: these are some of the toughest bags you can get.… Read more

Webware 100 winner: Yahoo Messenger

Site: Messenger.yahoo.com Category: Communication

Yahoo Messenger is Yahoo's instant-messaging client and chat protocol. Yahoo Messenger users can chat with one another via text, voice, or video chat. Yahoo has also built-in VoIP services to let users call regular old telephones without having to leave the application. Users can also download and install a number of plug-ins that add extra functionality and features.

The latest version of Yahoo's Messenger desktop software lets users share files up to 2GB in size and includes "stealth" settings that let you choose who's allowed to see you when … Read more

Webware 100 winner: Windows Live Messenger

Site: Messenger.live.com Category: Communication

Windows Live Messenger is Microsoft's instant-messaging service. Once called MSN Messenger, Windows Live Messenger is a chat client that also works with Yahoo's IM protocol. Users can text and video chat, as well as make calls and send SMS text messages to telephones. It also has a shared file storage system that lets users swap and store files.

Windows Live Messenger is available on several platforms including mobile phones. It's even been integrated into Microsoft's gaming console, the Xbox 360. All versions require users to sign up with Microsoft's … Read more

Chat consolidator

Omega Messenger offers users a chance to combine different chat programs into one centralized location. While the program works well, some may find that it doesn't cover all their messaging needs.

This free trial has a very simple interface. It mimics many popular chat programs, like AIM or Yahoo Messenger, with a slim, rectangular display and your options along the top. Here you will find buttons to log in, log out, configure, and add contacts. Clicking on log in brings up a drop-down menu with four different chat programs (MSN, Yahoo, AIM, ICQ) that you can open simultaneously. From … Read more

Familiar feel

Yahoo Messenger smoothly makes the jump to the iPhone and iPod Touch in this mobile imagining of Yahoo's desktop Messenger. In preserving core chatting features, the application shoots off IM and SMS messages, stashes key emoticons, encourages status updates, adds new contacts, and shares photos you've either stored on the camera roll, or have taken fresh through the iPhone's onboard lens.

Yahoo Messenger's clean, crisp iPhone app delivers notifications of new incoming chats while you're in a different conversation window, in addition to alerting you on a separate messaging screen. When a new message arrives, … Read more

Yahoo's new spin: Landscape IMs for iPhone

Less than a month after Yahoo released Yahoo Messenger for iPhone and iPod Touch (download), the Sunnyvale, Calif., company is back with a triple-tweaked version.

Support for chatting in landscape mode is the most noticeable new capability hammered into version 1.1. Turning the iPhone to the side slides up the virtual QWERTY, but it also shrinks the visible chat space to a line or two, the typical trade-off.

In addition, Yahoo has also added a dialog box for reporting bugs, which you'll find at the bottom of the Settings window. The third change is a fix for the … Read more

A speedier, chattier Digsby IM client in the works?

Keep an eye on the cutting-edge releases and you've got hints at what might make it into the stable version of the products you use. A new private alpha release of Digsby's all-in-one IM application for Windows looks like it's slashing some of the speed and CPU issues known to plague the slick-looking chat and uber-status-and-e-mail-update application, now in beta.

Some back-end work (specifically, an update to Python 2.6 coding language and a move to a new compiler) has reduced the CPU load by 30 percent, Digsby claimed in a blog post. In addition, Digsby did … Read more

Yahoo Messenger 9 'status' tweak: Sharing is caring

On Friday, Yahoo let it be known they added a small tweak to Yahoo Messenger 9 for Windows.

When the latest version of Yahoo's chat application launched, it broadcast as secondary status messages certain activities within the Yahoo network, like refreshing your avatar. Now the service has expanded to record your doings on roughly twenty networks outside of Yahoo--like Twitter, Last.fm, YouTube, Pandora, and Yelp--as well as tracking your whereabouts more thoroughly within Yahoo's network, like the sports, movies, and shopping silos.

Sharing is optional, of course, but to get it, you'll need to make sure … Read more

Yahoo will ping Messenger 8 IMers to upgrade

Sometimes, skipping a software update makes sense. Sticking to Windows XP instead of switching to the Vista operating system is a case in point. Yahoo Messenger 9 is not.

On Tuesday, Yahoo announced that it's time to grow up. Like it or not, in a few weeks, Windows users still chatting on Yahoo Messenger 8 and Yahoo Messenger 9 beta will see a window pop up at sign-in urging an upgrade to the latest version of the free chat client. While there's no indication that Yahoo will force you to change, it's a sure bet that nag … Read more