Messenger Links

So the big news from MacBU this week was the release of Messenger for
Mac 6. This was an important release for us because it was our first
actual application that was shipped as a universal binary. For those
keeping track, we previously shipped
shipped some universal drivers, and the Microsoft Entourage.mdimporter
file that we shipped as part of our 10.2.3 update last spring was
universal, so we're getting there. In any case, hats off to the team for
getting this out. Some of the new features in Messenger for Mac 6
include:

-
Universal binary

• Yahoo Messenger contacts
• Custom emoticons
• Split windows
• Spell check
• Status messages
• What I'm Listening To

Nicole over at the Inside Windows Live Messenger blog posted a little
conversation between Windows Live Messenger and Messenger for
Mac. Check it out here:

Messenger for Mac vs Windows Live Messenger

MM says:

    Hi, I am Messenger for Mac

WLM says:

    and, I am Windows Live Messenger (WLM)
You look great, what has changed?

MM says:

    Thank you, I just got a makeover I am now 6.0!

Be sure to read the whole thing. :)

Other sites around the net picked up on the new version of
Messenger. These
include Eric
Lam, ActiveWin, MSTechToday, O'Reilly
E-Tel (Daniel has some comments and suggestions, which we'll
note.),
TUAW(Scott's comments are noted also.), and
finally Paul
Stamatiou (One of my favorite Mac bloggers) gave it a shout.

Of course, one of the big question left is about when we're going to
get Audio/Visual support? Mary addressed that question in the MacMojo
blog
in this post.

Finally, I wanted to mention that Apple released Update 10.4.8 on Friday and it included a couple of fixes for Office for Mac. These
fixes are:

- Resolves an issue for Microsoft Word in which Word might stop responding when saving a file that uses certain OpenType fonts.

Resolves an issue for Microsoft PowerPoint in which the display  
resolution might not change as expected after switching from a  
PowerPoint presentation to a different application via  
Command-Tab.

A big thanks to Apple for getting these updates out there.

A commenter
at TUAW noticed a significant performance increase in Word
after installing the 10.4.8 update and it seems really fast after the
update on my Macs also, though I haven't done any benchmarks on it. If you haven't
installed the update yet, check your Word launch times before and
after and see if there's any difference.

Have a nice week!

Comments

• Anonymous
  September 29, 2006
  The comment has been removed

• Anonymous
  September 30, 2006
  PingBack from http://namwarn.wordpress.com/2006/09/30/9/

• Anonymous
  September 30, 2006
  "You look great"? Are they talking about the same Messenger for Mac that I tried out after the announcement? With the enormous brushed metal windows? Eh?

• Anonymous
  September 30, 2006
  Generally, great work. But there's always room for improvement. :)
  
  I guess I'm one of the few guys who will not cry over the missing A/V features. The things that bug me are far smaller and hopefully can be fixed in the 6.0.1, released next week. :)
  
  1) The biggest annoyance of them all - in 6.0, my (little bit modified) US International keyboard layout does not work anymore. Up to 5.1, I couldn't make umlaut characters (õäöü) when changing my screen name by clicking on it in the contact list, but in the 6.0 this plague has propagated to the main chat window. :( They work when I use the Estonian keyboard layout which has those letters as separate keys, but using US International, which means having a "dead key" and pressing §a for ä, after pressing §, nothing happens (like it should), but when pressing a, a regular a appears. Please look into it and fix. If sending the .keyboard file helps, let me know where to send it to.
  
  2) Mood messages - great. However, if they are long enough to not fit into the contact list, there seems to be no way to see the end of them rather than to resize the contact list. Which, because I keep the list on the right side of my screen, means that I first have to drag it to the left in order to be able to resize it from the bottom right corner.
  
  2.5) Can you put the mood message in the chat window?
  
  3) Status shown in the dock icon - it was there until 5.0 came along. I know it's probably because you can now have different statuses under WLM and LCS, but can you pleaaase put it back for this majority of users who only use WLM (that is, when only one account is used)?
  
  About the tabbed chatting everyone else is crying about - if you decide to implement that, please put in a checkbox to turn it off. Tabs can be great, but so many programs have got it wrong for my personal taste.
  
  
  Indrek

• Anonymous
  September 30, 2006
  I woulbn't even consider using a messenger without AV support. It would be a waste of time to download it>
  

• Anonymous
  September 30, 2006
  Well here's a problem.
  
  System requirements
  Operating system: Mac OS X version 10.3.9 or later
  
  What? Not interested in servicing people who 1. Can't afford/don't want to spend money updating their OSs? or 2. Don't believe in applying every little update (i.e. X.x.9) because of the inevitable new bugs that get introduced?
  
  I'll keep using Fire for my <10.3.9 OS X and a different on on my Mac OS 8 machines for those very few PC people I chat with on MSN b/c they can't cope with installing YIM or AIM. Out of choice.
  
  I think your system requirements are very short sighted. There are many people in this world who get access to the internet and it's services by using old or handmedown computers. Thank goodness for opensource alternatives.

• Anonymous
  October 01, 2006
  I'd love to see iSight (A/V) support...

• Anonymous
  October 01, 2006
  Is there any way to add a Messenger for Mac status to a personal website? I have icons for iChat and Yahoo messenger which show viewers whether I am online or not. I'd like to add one for Messenger for Mac if it's possible. Any help would be appreciated.

• Anonymous
  October 01, 2006
  Very cool. Messenger used to be the best IM client on the Mac for non-Latin Mac-Windows communication (until Google came up their Jabber servers to iChat). I still use it occasionally, though AV will definitely make me use it more.
  
  Does this version integrate to Address Book? Most of my contacts didn't bother to spell their full names, and I would really like to see the mugshots I have assigned.

• Anonymous
  October 01, 2006
  The comment has been removed

• Anonymous
  October 01, 2006
  PingBack from http://www.messenger.es/2006/10/02/microsoft-mejorara-el-audio-y-video-para-los-nuevos-messenges/

• Anonymous
  October 02, 2006
  The comment has been removed

• Anonymous
  October 03, 2006
  The comment has been removed

• Anonymous
  October 06, 2006
  PROXY support doesn't work, is it normal??

• Anonymous
  October 06, 2006
  The comment has been removed

• Anonymous
  October 11, 2006
  Opensourcefan: I read your comments, and they don't seem to make much sense.  I'm not the biggest fan of the requirements either, but a minimum of 10.3.9 is needed for most Universal Binary based applications to work.  Most also work on older versions of 10.3, but there may be instability. If you look at the other existing PPC only products from Microsoft, most of them support some version of 10.2.x as it's earliest operating system.  That's a better compatibility record then most Apple products.

• Anonymous
  October 15, 2006
  The comment has been removed

• Anonymous
  October 22, 2006
  hi im am currently using mac os x 10.2.3 and msn does not work can someon please send me the msn messenger download link to this email address din_phuttatusky@hotmail.com thanks heaps

• Anonymous
  October 26, 2006
  PingBack from http://www.mexico501.com/2006/10/27/macbu-new-features-in-messengermac/

• Anonymous
  November 03, 2006
  thanks heaps.

• Anonymous
  November 09, 2006
  The comment has been removed

• Anonymous
  November 17, 2006
  logging into Microsoft Messenger 6.0.x is really slowwwww....