Tag - Review
Every so often I come across a skin I think gets the right blend between unique design and a polished look. This has become more rare these days, but it does stop them being created. Oil Slick gives Messenger the refined and stylish look it needs, building on its motto of 'A touch of class, a pinch of style'. From the creator of Deep Blue, our skin of the month for January, Volv has released his new creation that has a lot of attention to detail.
What I like about it:
Everything has been looked at and optimised. The slick gradients, display pictures in the contact list and the Messenger icons and buttons changed to blend in with the skin shows just how well this skin has been made. This is my favourite Messenger skin out at the moment, and I will actually be keeping this one.
What I don't like about it:
The sign in screen has to be kept rather big for my display picture to display, which is a little annoying. I also think more options would add to the skin, but there is plenty there to customise it with already. To put it simply there is nothing majority wrong with this skin and I highly recommend using it.
>> View a screenshot of Oil Slick skin
>> Download it from the Messenger Plus! Live skins database
What I like about it:
Everything has been looked at and optimised. The slick gradients, display pictures in the contact list and the Messenger icons and buttons changed to blend in with the skin shows just how well this skin has been made. This is my favourite Messenger skin out at the moment, and I will actually be keeping this one.
What I don't like about it:
The sign in screen has to be kept rather big for my display picture to display, which is a little annoying. I also think more options would add to the skin, but there is plenty there to customise it with already. To put it simply there is nothing majority wrong with this skin and I highly recommend using it.
>> View a screenshot of Oil Slick skin
>> Download it from the Messenger Plus! Live skins database
Here's the sweeping statement of the day: The Nintendo Wii is the best looking console out there today! Well maybe not, 480p and 16:9 wide-screen support is hardly next-gen graphics and it doesn't compares with the PlayStation's 1080p display. However I find the simple colours and clean interface much more pleasing to the eye than the XMB or the Xbox dashboard. Wii Messenger takes this simple idea and integrates it into Windows Live Messenger.
The good:
The concept itself is a great idea. The clean milk and Tiger skins of the past have always been popular. Messenger itself has a very bloated appearance, and this just makes things easier on the eyes. The skin isn't sloppy either, changing a significant amount of images and icons shows the level of deepth and the creativity the designer has implemented.
The bad:
There are very little options in the skin, meaning it can be difficult to customise Messenger to how you want it to look. Moreover there is some sloppy work in the system tray icons and the display pictures next to the buddy icons in the contact list are hardly appealing.
Once again here is another good skin that's worth a try, breaking away from the Vista style skins that take over the offical skins database. I would recommend using it, but I found the lack of customisation the and ugly icons in the contact list meant I didn't keep using it.
>> Download Wii Messenger
The good:
The concept itself is a great idea. The clean milk and Tiger skins of the past have always been popular. Messenger itself has a very bloated appearance, and this just makes things easier on the eyes. The skin isn't sloppy either, changing a significant amount of images and icons shows the level of deepth and the creativity the designer has implemented.
The bad:
There are very little options in the skin, meaning it can be difficult to customise Messenger to how you want it to look. Moreover there is some sloppy work in the system tray icons and the display pictures next to the buddy icons in the contact list are hardly appealing.
Once again here is another good skin that's worth a try, breaking away from the Vista style skins that take over the offical skins database. I would recommend using it, but I found the lack of customisation the and ugly icons in the contact list meant I didn't keep using it.
>> Download Wii Messenger
Despite Messenger Plus! Live integrating itself with the design, and the user's colour scheme of Windows Live Messenger, it contains noticeable differences, that give it an unique look, whilst making it appear part of the main program. Basilis has noticed this difference and has created a skin for Windows Live Messenger based on Messenger Plus! Live's design.
The good:
The skin has a plausible design. Windows Live Messenger looks cleaner with the lighter look and use of gradients. The status icons also make it easy to know which contacts are available , unlike in Messenger where the buddy icon status are easy not to notice. The skin is highly customisable, allowing you to remove buttons and sections as you desire.
The bad:
Some of the images used have become pixelated and don't look great when Messenger is expanded (mainly on the main contact list banner). Some icons could have been changed to match the brighter style of the skin (such as those in the contact list), and the branding of "Basilis" on the sign-in page is a slight annoyance.
Overall this is a good skin, and I believe it shows how good Messenger Plus! Live's design can look if used within Windows Live Messenger. Some added polishing to the skin would have made the skin better, but the level of customisation allows you to patch out elements and buttons you dislike.
>> Download Messenger Plus! Live skin
The good:
The skin has a plausible design. Windows Live Messenger looks cleaner with the lighter look and use of gradients. The status icons also make it easy to know which contacts are available , unlike in Messenger where the buddy icon status are easy not to notice. The skin is highly customisable, allowing you to remove buttons and sections as you desire.
The bad:
Some of the images used have become pixelated and don't look great when Messenger is expanded (mainly on the main contact list banner). Some icons could have been changed to match the brighter style of the skin (such as those in the contact list), and the branding of "Basilis" on the sign-in page is a slight annoyance.
Overall this is a good skin, and I believe it shows how good Messenger Plus! Live's design can look if used within Windows Live Messenger. Some added polishing to the skin would have made the skin better, but the level of customisation allows you to patch out elements and buttons you dislike.
>> Download Messenger Plus! Live skin
I'm going to be honest here, the current release of StuffPlug is rather bland. It lacks what made the add-on for MSN Messenger so great; unique features, exceptionally well coded. It wasn't the fault of the developers, they were busy and everyone was inspired by their ideas. Stealing emoticons and display pictures used to be StuffPlug's big features until they were mimicked by various other add-ons. What could TheBlasphemer and the other developers do to fix this?
The answer ... StuffPlug 3.5! Beta testers today received one if the largest updates to program in recent months and its going to make using StuffPlug with Messenger a must again. StuffPlug 3.5 has a new design which matches Windows Live Messenger's Vista style and changes to your specific colour scheme. The add-on is integrated well, the features are vast and it also contains some small tweaks that make Messenger more bearable.
This release is due on January 7th 2008 (in English) and on 21st January for translated versions. This is just a small step to where StuffPlug will be soon as TheBlasphemer is working on StuffPlug 4 for Windows Live Messenger 9 which will contain some new features and perfect the experimental ones. StuffPlug 3.5 is an important update, but is essentially here so Windows Live Messenger 8.5 users can use StuffPlug while adding several must have new features including:
>> View some screenshots of the upcoming version
>> Visit the official StuffPlug website
The answer ... StuffPlug 3.5! Beta testers today received one if the largest updates to program in recent months and its going to make using StuffPlug with Messenger a must again. StuffPlug 3.5 has a new design which matches Windows Live Messenger's Vista style and changes to your specific colour scheme. The add-on is integrated well, the features are vast and it also contains some small tweaks that make Messenger more bearable.
This release is due on January 7th 2008 (in English) and on 21st January for translated versions. This is just a small step to where StuffPlug will be soon as TheBlasphemer is working on StuffPlug 4 for Windows Live Messenger 9 which will contain some new features and perfect the experimental ones. StuffPlug 3.5 is an important update, but is essentially here so Windows Live Messenger 8.5 users can use StuffPlug while adding several must have new features including:
- Editing of display name from the contact list
- Blocking of an entire group
- Adding new contacts through the wordwheel
- Sending 'action texts' to contacts, which mimics Messenger's action prompts
- Chatting to contacts whom you have blocked
- Use of chat only names within conversations
- Showing the current time of your contacts matching to their timezone
- Sending of fake invites to contacts
- Flashing of LED keyboard when computer is in full screen mode
- Disabling the file transfer limit allowing you to send more than 3 files at one time
- Boost character limit up to 5,000 in conversation messages
- Allow unlimited emoticons to be used within a message
- Window icons reflect your contacts status
- Creation of customizable timestamps
- Disable your 'user is typing a message' notification
- Opening of links in default browser
- Polygramy (multiple Messenger's running at once)
- Adding of mail icon in system tray
- Memory flusher: 'This feature periodically flushes messengers used memory and keeps its overall memory usage lower'
- Security speedup: addressing the issue that was highlighted here
>> View some screenshots of the upcoming version
>> Visit the official StuffPlug website
Messenger Plus! Live 4.50 has been in beta testers hands for a few weeks now, and there are some significant changes. A new design, numerous tweaks and some impressive new features really make this release one of the best ever. Here are the main changes:
Skinning
Messenger Plus! Live's main new feature is fully integrated skins within Messenger! The program manages skins, allows skin creators to develop them easier than ever before (no more .rle issues) and customize Messenger's design to its full potential. It is seriously impressive and I bet more skins like the ones available for MSN Messenger. Skins will be made faster and in a larger quantity. Windows Live Messenger itself could not implement this feature better. Skinning also allows manipulation of Messenger's windows, something which was never possible before. You can see a basic example of this happening in the screenshot below:
Design
Messenger Plus! Live has fully integrated its design with Windows Live Messenger 8.5, but with additional tweaks that Messenger itself can benefit from. Check a look at some screenshots in our gallery and see the new design for yourself.
Changes to contact list clean-up
The new contact list clean up wizard has two modes: one for the contacts on your list and one for the contacts that have you on their list. This helps you know the people you have deleted that still have you in their contact list and who knows you may want to add them again.
Event notifications within conversations
Chat logging
The chat log viewer has had various improvements, which can make the script we talked about, Log Manager seem a little dated. However, new features such as a print preview menu, faster browsing their ability to search within multiple logs, reading over old chats is better than ever.
Scripts
A new debug window is present and the script editor window now has line numbers and the ability to close off certain sections. Basically the script editor is now more practical and similar to that of most modern code editors.
Others
I can assure you the changelog goes on and on and on and you will notice the various little tweaks for yourself. The list above are just the main changes. However, what you will really notice is the development of skins. If you are skinner don't think we have been skinning for long, testers only got it enabled as of yesterday, so you are pretty much in the same shoes as us.
>> View some screenshots in our gallery
>> Download the current release of Messenger Plus! Live
Skinning
Messenger Plus! Live's main new feature is fully integrated skins within Messenger! The program manages skins, allows skin creators to develop them easier than ever before (no more .rle issues) and customize Messenger's design to its full potential. It is seriously impressive and I bet more skins like the ones available for MSN Messenger. Skins will be made faster and in a larger quantity. Windows Live Messenger itself could not implement this feature better. Skinning also allows manipulation of Messenger's windows, something which was never possible before. You can see a basic example of this happening in the screenshot below:
Design
Messenger Plus! Live has fully integrated its design with Windows Live Messenger 8.5, but with additional tweaks that Messenger itself can benefit from. Check a look at some screenshots in our gallery and see the new design for yourself.
Changes to contact list clean-up
The new contact list clean up wizard has two modes: one for the contacts on your list and one for the contacts that have you on their list. This helps you know the people you have deleted that still have you in their contact list and who knows you may want to add them again.
Event notifications within conversations
This feature notifies you of your contact events in the chat window themselves, in the area where 'user is typing' is generally displayed. This is mostly visible if you're using Windows Live Messenger 8.5.
Chat logging
The chat log viewer has had various improvements, which can make the script we talked about, Log Manager seem a little dated. However, new features such as a print preview menu, faster browsing their ability to search within multiple logs, reading over old chats is better than ever.
Scripts
A new debug window is present and the script editor window now has line numbers and the ability to close off certain sections. Basically the script editor is now more practical and similar to that of most modern code editors.
Others
- An additional options menu has been adding to contact cards.
- Encrypted log files an now have an optional password hint.
- Event notifications such as when a contact signs out is enabled by default.
- The installer system has been improved with a bigger uninstaller menu and is faster on Windows Vista.
- An option has been added that allows you to hide your 'contact is typing a message notification', something we have already talked about in the past.
- You can show your currently installed scripts with the (!SVER) command.
- A /exit command has been added which closes all current chats and exits Messenger.
- There is now 'disable sign-out confirmation when chats are opened' option in the Customize section of the preferences.
I can assure you the changelog goes on and on and on and you will notice the various little tweaks for yourself. The list above are just the main changes. However, what you will really notice is the development of skins. If you are skinner don't think we have been skinning for long, testers only got it enabled as of yesterday, so you are pretty much in the same shoes as us.
>> View some screenshots in our gallery
>> Download the current release of Messenger Plus! Live
I am a new news poster for Messenger Stuff so please bear with me. I'm kicking things off with a review (quiet a lengthy first post, but I hope you like it). I am amazed on how quickly new plugins are being developed. Can you remember the old days when there were one or two faithful plugins? Well I can't say it's a bad thing because even though most of the new plugins have features that Messenger Plus! Live or StuffPlug have' they do come with new, interesting features!
Messenger Air Live 2 is a new add-on which I came across when browsing the net for things to post about on msgstuff.com. I found it on various websites (the andyman adds: including Messenger Stuff) and I thought you may like to check it out. The program itself has some interesting features such as disabling alerts for specific contacts, favourite contact, display picture slideshow and more. It has some great ideas, however it needs to be placed in a easy to use interface to make it come alive.
If I was to keep this plugin installed on my system (which I'm afraid to say I won't) then I would only keep it for things like the Favourite Contact feature and to disable alerts for specific contacts.
The program itself is slow, buggy and the random pop-ups are annoying. The fact that it's slow even on a high specification system like mine is very worrying for me.
The installer was simple, but maybe too simple and it was horrible to use because I am a multi tasker who is always doing something else. And as soon as it goes out of focus it goes into the taskbar status icon and if you have a hidden taskbar such as mine you don't see where it has gone. I think they should remove this very annoying 'feature' and just make it minimize to the taskbar to be honest.
I might be being harsh on this program but I really don't like it (and when I was typing this, the program kept popping up which was very annoying). I can say though I do have high expectations because I am a faithful user of Messenger Plus! Live and that add-on is very, very well coded and is very hard to fault. Check out the feature list for Messenger Air Live 2 below:
So all in all the program has a lot of potential, it just needs a bit of work and it will become a very good add-on for Messenger. I hoped you enjoyed my first review for msgstuff.com.
>> View screenshots for Messenger Air Live
>> Visit the official website
Messenger Air Live 2 is a new add-on which I came across when browsing the net for things to post about on msgstuff.com. I found it on various websites (the andyman adds: including Messenger Stuff) and I thought you may like to check it out. The program itself has some interesting features such as disabling alerts for specific contacts, favourite contact, display picture slideshow and more. It has some great ideas, however it needs to be placed in a easy to use interface to make it come alive.
If I was to keep this plugin installed on my system (which I'm afraid to say I won't) then I would only keep it for things like the Favourite Contact feature and to disable alerts for specific contacts.
The program itself is slow, buggy and the random pop-ups are annoying. The fact that it's slow even on a high specification system like mine is very worrying for me.
The installer was simple, but maybe too simple and it was horrible to use because I am a multi tasker who is always doing something else. And as soon as it goes out of focus it goes into the taskbar status icon and if you have a hidden taskbar such as mine you don't see where it has gone. I think they should remove this very annoying 'feature' and just make it minimize to the taskbar to be honest.
I might be being harsh on this program but I really don't like it (and when I was typing this, the program kept popping up which was very annoying). I can say though I do have high expectations because I am a faithful user of Messenger Plus! Live and that add-on is very, very well coded and is very hard to fault. Check out the feature list for Messenger Air Live 2 below:
Anti toast flooder: Stop your contacts flooding you with signin toasts.
Contact shadow: Copy your contacts status, friendly name changes and also new features to play with your contact and let them know they are being shadowed.
Display picture featur: Set up a slideshow with your display pictures for your contacts and apply up to 5 different favourite display pictures for easy access.
Status assignments: Set a display picture for each status so it changes with your status. Set a timed assignment so your status and personal message change at a specific time.
Messenger protection: Enable protection on your display picture, status and friendly name to stop others messing with your account. Use the lockout feature to stop others using windows live messenger when you sign out.
Messenger Air Live alerts: Get alerts when certain events occur such as people copying your friendly name or your favourite contact coming online etc.
Contact shadow: Copy your contacts status, friendly name changes and also new features to play with your contact and let them know they are being shadowed.
Display picture featur: Set up a slideshow with your display pictures for your contacts and apply up to 5 different favourite display pictures for easy access.
Status assignments: Set a display picture for each status so it changes with your status. Set a timed assignment so your status and personal message change at a specific time.
Messenger protection: Enable protection on your display picture, status and friendly name to stop others messing with your account. Use the lockout feature to stop others using windows live messenger when you sign out.
Messenger Air Live alerts: Get alerts when certain events occur such as people copying your friendly name or your favourite contact coming online etc.
So all in all the program has a lot of potential, it just needs a bit of work and it will become a very good add-on for Messenger. I hoped you enjoyed my first review for msgstuff.com.
>> View screenshots for Messenger Air Live
>> Visit the official website
Pidgin has been in the news since early April, after it became the new name for Gaim. A few weeks later it was released and after an update last week I've decided to give it a try and see how it feels.
I've seen a lot of forum threads this week asking for alternatives to Windows Live Messenger, as it no longer meets their requirements. I've found myself showing them Pidgin because it works on many IM networks. However, I was recommending the program based on what I knew, I never really tested the program for long, I guess it is time I took it out for a real test drive.
Pidgin is extremely easy to install. Just over 10MB gives you so much, and you can choose to download extras such as Aspell within the installer itself. The NSIS installer system allows you to easily customise where Pidgin should be installed and what shortcuts to use without it becoming complicated.
Compared to Microsoft installers there is a huge difference, they are large, slow and, well, not easy to use. First impressions do count, and I don't want to wait 10 minutes to install a program (which is how long it takes Messenger on my old XP machine).
Getting my accounts set up was a little tricky, mainly because I didn't know what some of the input forms meant. Still it wasn't difficult, just not perfect. This is just me being nitpicky.
Yahoo! Messenger and Windows Live Messenger may have teamed up, but Pidgin allows you to use all your IM accounts within one program. It may lack in features, but the features it does have provide everything you really need. I just wish the design was more customisable.
With more features and more on the team, Pidgin could be a huge program. It's great for on the go and if you are a business user. However, if like me and everyone you know uses MSN/ Windows Live Messenger, it is better to just use the main program by Microsoft. Nevertheless Pidgin is simple, clean and easy to use. I recommend this as the main alternative to Messenger, it just doesn't suit me.
>> Adding an account
>> Buddy list
>> Conversations in Pidgin
>> Managing accounts
>> Setting your friendly name
I've seen a lot of forum threads this week asking for alternatives to Windows Live Messenger, as it no longer meets their requirements. I've found myself showing them Pidgin because it works on many IM networks. However, I was recommending the program based on what I knew, I never really tested the program for long, I guess it is time I took it out for a real test drive.
Pidgin is extremely easy to install. Just over 10MB gives you so much, and you can choose to download extras such as Aspell within the installer itself. The NSIS installer system allows you to easily customise where Pidgin should be installed and what shortcuts to use without it becoming complicated.
Compared to Microsoft installers there is a huge difference, they are large, slow and, well, not easy to use. First impressions do count, and I don't want to wait 10 minutes to install a program (which is how long it takes Messenger on my old XP machine).
Getting my accounts set up was a little tricky, mainly because I didn't know what some of the input forms meant. Still it wasn't difficult, just not perfect. This is just me being nitpicky.
Yahoo! Messenger and Windows Live Messenger may have teamed up, but Pidgin allows you to use all your IM accounts within one program. It may lack in features, but the features it does have provide everything you really need. I just wish the design was more customisable.
With more features and more on the team, Pidgin could be a huge program. It's great for on the go and if you are a business user. However, if like me and everyone you know uses MSN/ Windows Live Messenger, it is better to just use the main program by Microsoft. Nevertheless Pidgin is simple, clean and easy to use. I recommend this as the main alternative to Messenger, it just doesn't suit me.
>> Adding an account
>> Buddy list
>> Conversations in Pidgin
>> Managing accounts
>> Setting your friendly name