The Event was all about Windows Live Wave 3: Darren Huston kicked off with Vision on Life without Walls (PC, Mobile and Online - Windows + Windows Live = full Windows experience), followed by Joost Nienhuis who spoke about the digital behavior of consumers which led to the Windows Live demonstration given by Arnout Hemel. Here we saw how the new Windows Live will make live easier for the various consumer groups, mainly the Social web users (stay in touch with friends easier and in a more personal way), and the Functional web users (how to organize my online life better).

- When will the (RC) apps (Windows Live Essentials) be released?
The answer to that is they will be released next week at http://download.live.com/

If you've been using the latest beta version of Windows Live Messenger lately, I have some good news: Messenger Plus! is now fully compatible with it! Although I don’t like releasing anything that's not "final", the growing popularity of this new Messenger made it clear something had to be done on my side. For that reason, Messenger Plus! Live 4.79 has been added to the Download section and the Change Log has been updated accordingly.

Keep in mind that this is beta material so no support will be given for it. Some of the improvements (display pictures in notification popups for instance) are global to all Messenger versions so if you like what's fresh and new, this beta is for you. Also, while you have fun with this new release, get prepared for a very special promotion coming your way for Christmas. Those of you who like action figures and collectibles (yes, you read correctly) are in for a shock.

Phunk'n is unique in the sense that it brings a lot of things that have never been seen in Windows Live Messenger skins before, which is why I kept a lot of it under wraps for a long time. It is the first skin to utilize Messengers animation tags all around the entire use interface which means every single button will fade animate in and out and other things around messenger will also slide around.

What else is new in Phunk'n? Well Phunk'n also features the first fully fledged Messenger Plus skin. Yes I went to the exhaustive effort of skinning plus itself (which isn't easy by the way) to make the skin a bit more complete. While I tried to skin every window, there are some that couldn't be skinned because of technical reasons which I hope will be fixed in the future by Patchou (hint, hint).

Now onto the skin itself. The skin comes in two editions: Infucso (Black) and Niveus (White). Both offer the same variety of user options except that Infusco has one extra option that enables a lighter background in text areas for those too lazy to use the text override feature in Messenger Plus Live.

Starting today, you have 5 weeks to create the most outstanding skin imaginable. The deadline is September 14th at 23:59:59, Greenwich Mean Time. To participate, all you need to do is submit a skin to the official database (the contest is open worldwide), updates of existing skins are accepted. All the skins will be tested in the current most popular version of Messenger, Windows Live Messenger 8.5 (no need to make them work in the outdated Messenger 9 Beta from last winter).

Not 1 but 7 Wacom Tablets will be distributed to the winners of this contest. Your skin(s) will be judged and placed into three different categories: originality (something never done before), deformity (shaped windows), and functionality (improved user interface). The first prize for each category is an excellent Cintiq 12WX (check out the video on their site), a 12.1" TFT screen that acts like a second monitor for your computer and lets you draw directly on the pictures you want to edit with incredible precision. The second prize for each category is a very respectable Intuos3 6*8 with 1,024 pressure levels and professional software such as Adobe Photoshop Elements. And finally, the creator of the one best skin, all categories considered, will get rewarded for his efforts with a magnificent Cintiq 20WXS. This dream-come-true for any graphic designer features a 20.1" wide screen with a resolution of 1680*1050, has 14 customizable hard keys, 2 touch strips, a special rotating stand so that you can use the tablet like a big sheet of paper, anti-glare and friction coating to simulate the texture of paper and a wide viewing angle.

It's not everyday that I find myself recompiling an old friend. Messenger Plus! 3 had been recompiled early this year with Visual Studio 2008 and because I do not test any of my products in Windows 98 anymore, I had the bad surprise today to learn that VS2008 does not produce compatible binaries for older operating systems. Long story short, it meant that Messenger Plus! 3 couldn't be installed on some older versions of Windows while it should have.

The problem has been fixed so if you're one of those still forced to use Windows 98 or Windows Me on a regular basis, you can now download the updated version of Messenger Plus! 3 on this web site which will continue to work beautifully with MSN Messenger.

Persistent text formatting
Now when you change your font, text size or color for your IM messages, we’ll save your settings between sessions. So if you like to IM in font size 14 using red letters in Arial Bold, we’ll remember!

Voice improvements
We updated the user interface for the voice feature to make the buttons more clear and added a new voice visualization called “Color Burst”. Plus there’s an updated incoming call notification that appears front and center when a call comes in.

No webcam yet, but we’re making that clear
A lot of our feedback has been from users asking for webcam support or users that look for the webcam feature but can’t find it in the product. Currently, we don’t have webcam support in Yahoo! Messenger for Vista but to shorten our users’ search for it, we added a webcam menu item. Those not in-the-know will get a message telling them that webcam support is coming soon.

Attention iPhone owners! You can now chat with all your Google Talk buddies while on the go. Our new version of Google Talk is designed specifically for the iPhone and runs in the iPhone's browser, so you don't need to download or install anything. Just visit www.google.com/talk on your iPhone, sign in, and start chatting. And because it is built for the browser, it will work on today's iPhones as well as on tomorrow's 3G iPhones.