Wait a minute, but surely skinning now has more depth and a smaller learning curve thanks to Messenger Plus! Live? While this is true the issue today is the end a thriving community to extrapolate anything from the available modern resources.
Looking back to MSN Messenger 7.5
For me MSN Messenger was the golden era of skin development. Granted there were significantly fewer releases, it is difficult to argue the quality of most end products were nothing short of spectacular. One could argue MSN Messenger was unattractive and users wanted something different, encouraging skinners? I disagree, looking at designs of the past there was just a different caliber of designer.
Since the eBuddy app for the iPhone and iPod Touch was released back in July it has been a commercial success and is now one of the most popular apps to ever hit Apple's monopolistic mobile applications store. With over 4 million downloads the eBuddy team have been working hard to add new features in a timely fashion.

Pro users can now customise the app with themes
Pro users have the ability to customise their mobile eBuddy with themes, an important new feature within the update. As eBuddy supports push notifications it is desirable to constantly have the client running, even when you may be away. The new auto-away feature allows users to set their status to away after a specific time interval.
The new build also boasts several bug fixes and added customisation over the use of push notifications. All in all the eBuddy team have provided a solid update and users should update to receive the full benefit. If you're new to eBuddy for iPhone download the app from the store (for free) today.
Source: eBuddy blog - eBuddy for iPhone update


Pro users can now customise the app with themes
Pro users have the ability to customise their mobile eBuddy with themes, an important new feature within the update. As eBuddy supports push notifications it is desirable to constantly have the client running, even when you may be away. The new auto-away feature allows users to set their status to away after a specific time interval.
The new build also boasts several bug fixes and added customisation over the use of push notifications. All in all the eBuddy team have provided a solid update and users should update to receive the full benefit. If you're new to eBuddy for iPhone download the app from the store (for free) today.
Source: eBuddy blog - eBuddy for iPhone update
Recent research suggests different cultures interoperate facial expressions differently and this extends to the use of emoticons used throughout the Internet. The common smiley face we know - :-) - may not correlate with those within Eastern Asia.
Although the research is primarily concerned with natural, human facial expressions, the universities involved extrapolated further evidence to provide differences in interpretations between text emoticons:

Both these emoticons represent happiness. But which one do you associate happy with?
Differences were widely regarded to be related on the focus of a specific region of the face. While Asians typically scanned around the eyes, westerns tended to look at the face as a whole.
Source: BBC News - Facial expressions 'not global'
Although the research is primarily concerned with natural, human facial expressions, the universities involved extrapolated further evidence to provide differences in interpretations between text emoticons:
A computer program given the same information from the eyes as the East Asian observers was similarly unable to distinguish between the emotions of disgust and anger, and fear and surprise.
Both these emoticons represent happiness. But which one do you associate happy with?
Differences were widely regarded to be related on the focus of a specific region of the face. While Asians typically scanned around the eyes, westerns tended to look at the face as a whole.
Source: BBC News - Facial expressions 'not global'


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