Microsoft is gearing up to make available for download the gold version of Windows Live Messenger 9.0/2009. The Redmond company has so far managed not to indicate a delivery deadline for the next version of its instant messaging client. In this regard, Microsoft’s Brandon LeBlanc only mentioned that the next version of Windows Live Messenger, along with the additional services and applications making up the Windows Live Wave 3 release, would start being rolled out to end users soon.
“Windows Live Messenger, the No. 1 instant messaging service worldwide with more than 330 million active customers, now includes more personalization, a “what’s new” feed with updates from contacts across the Web, drag-and-drop photo sharing in the conversation window, a favorites list to designate the most important contacts, and group IM to chat simultaneously with up to 20 people at the same time,” Microsoft revealed. Read the rest of this entry »
Can’t find the right image to use for your Live Messenger character? Help is at hand from the new minimise me website. This has an online designer for creating a new avatar for Live Messenger software. Once installed they will appear as the character picture in conversations and also as four different emoticons to use in conversations.
It is simple to use although it is sometimes a little slow to respond when clicking on some of the icons, but this is common complaint with web based editors and it is a limitation with the technology as a whole. Read the rest of this entry »
Windows Live Hotmail has joined Windows Live Messenger in order to extend the support of the “i’m” initiative. Microsoft debuted “i’m” back in 2007 as a way to enable Windows Live Messenger users to have a say as to where would a portion of the Redmond company’s advertising revenue from its instant messaging client would go. A year after the initiative was launched, no less than ten social cause organizations around the world received a total of over $1 million because of the users who started Windows Live Messenger conversations with “i’m.” As of May 5, the “i’m” initiative is no longer restricted to Windows Live Messenger, having migrated from the instant messaging client to Windows Live Hotmail. Read the rest of this entry »
The MTBot prototype is by all means not a new project from Microsoft. In fact, the project for the Windows Live Messenger machine translation bot debuted quietly in the summer of 2007. To this date the initiative remains nothing more than a prototype and, despite this, it is available to all Windows Live Messenger users for test driving. The brainchild of Helvecio Ribeiro, SDET w/ MSR Machine Translation, the Machine Translation Bot is designed to break the language barriers via Windows Live Messenger. The bot is a clear indication that machine translation technology can be seamlessly combined and integrated with instant messaging. Read the rest of this entry »