The Tlog - a technology blog » Instant Messaging

Assorted new releases

Pedro Timóteo — Wed, 21 Jun 2006 10:31:06 +0000

First, Windows Live Messenger (formely MSN Messenger) is out.

I’ve only tried it out for a minute, and all of my contacts were still using MSN Messenger 7.5. Still full of ads, but there’s a Mess.be patch to remove them, and tinker with it, which I haven’t installed yet, but I’ve used the MSN 7.5 version for months, and it made it bearable.

One new feature: you can talk to people while “appearing offline”, now. Of course, they’ll instantly realize that you aren’t really offline…

Second, Opera 9 is finally out. Lots of new stuff to explore. It passes the ACID2 test, and is still by far the fastest modern browser in the world. Firefox is still my primary browser, but Opera is a joy to use. Also (via Pedro Fonseca), a list of 10 features you’ll find only in Opera. Note that all of them are for version 8.0 – the new version has even more unique features.

Windows Live Messenger final: tomorrow?

Pedro Timóteo — Mon, 19 Jun 2006 17:53:35 +0000

According to mess.be, yes.

If you don’t know about it, it’s the next version of the software previously known as “MSN Messenger”, which most Portuguese refer to as either “MSN” or “Messenger”, never realizing that MSN is something else, and that there are other messengers.

And here are some of its new features, and some screenshots, too.

Software I Like #5: Gajim

Pedro Timóteo — Thu, 06 Oct 2005 14:23:41 +0000

(NOTE: this is part of the “Software I like” series)

Gajim is a Jabber client for Unix / Linux systems, using Python and PyGTK.

It’s small, works very well, and has a lot more Jabber features than Gaim, its main competition (Jabber support in Gaim seems to be mostly an afterthought). Therefore, I’m using it now, at work. (I’m on holidays right now, but you know what I mean )

Oh, just like any Jabber client, it works with Google Talk as well.