Wow, it has been a while since I last posted here so I feel I owe an explanation. Having just started university things have been a bit manic and with Halloween being tonight, I thought I should squeeze in a post before venturing out.

• Messenger Plus! 4.83: Patchou has released a small update for Messenger Plus! Live which addresses some bugs and compatibility issues, whilst removing traces of the recent contest. [Read more]
  
  
• MessengerDiscovery 3.0 plans: Matt, the creator of MessengerDiscovery has already outlined the program's future development plans. Perhaps the most notable new feature on the list is the end of the proxy connections and the application becoming open source to encourage other developers to migrate to Messenger. [Read more]
  
  
• eBuddy receives a re-code: The hit web messenger eBuddy is working on a new web messenger, from the ground up, drawing on newer technologies and better user-interaction. A sleeker interface, along with greater depth for customization and a new layer of polish ensures the service stays up to date with this fast moving industry. [Read more]
  
  
• Interview with Marcus Schmidt: Marketing manager over at Microsoft, Marcus Schmidt reveals his personal thoughts about the future of Windows Live Messenger and what he would like to see in the upcoming Wave 4 series of Windows Live products. [Read more]
  
  
• A standalone web messenger from Microsoft: Microsoft Singapore have released their own web messenger client based on the Messenger API library. As the old Microsoft web messenger was recently discontinued for one built inside of Windows Live Hotmail this is an interesting move, yet one that should please those seeking a fully featured, yet non-bloated client on the web. [Give it a go]

Speedlinking posts are where I organise all my bookmarks and go over some small news items over the past couple of weeks (or in this case, a month) and write them up here. As ever we aim to deliver all news, no matter how mediocre they may seem, so let's get it out of the way in this post.

• eBuddy reveals statistics (17th July): It may interest you to know the popularity of the hit web messenger. Its new iPhone App reached the top spot in the App Store in 40 countries within the past week, their Mobile Messenger has been downloaded 25 million times and over 1,750,000,000 are sent with eBuddy each week. [Read more]
  
  
• Trillian Astra enters public beta (19th June): The IM buzz for several years now has been about the future of Trillian and we have been posting about it for a long time. The Windows and Web version has entered a public beta phase for everyone to try out. [Read more]
  
  
• 10 IM Apps for the iPhone (15th July): A recent article I came across at theAppleBlog gives an overview of the various IM apps available for the iPhone and presents a rounded and informed overview of each. [Read more]
  
  
• MessengerDiscovery 2.0.48 (10th July): The update provides 12 important bug fixes, new API features and an improved tray menu among several other things. According to Matt via his Twitter feed the update was due some weeks before, but was delayed as he had the flu. [Read more]
  
  
• LiveScratcher public beta (16th July): This week we talked about what TheBlasphemer was doing in 2009, where his new project, LiveScratcher was discussed. Now an early build has been uploaded for Messenger developers to experiment with. If your interested, give it a go. [Read more]

I'll like to start this post by apologising for being inactive the past few weeks. But now I can hopefully spend more time on posting news and I'll start by writing up a few news posts within this speedlinking catch-up one. See this as getting your contextual knowledge about Windows Live Messenger in October.

Create your own web messenger: LiveSide have created a highly detailed, eight-part tutorial on how to create a web messenger for Windows Live Messenger using the API developer library. Click here to view part 1, and use the tags to locate the post tags to find the rest of the tutorials.

Significant sign-in bug present in Wave 3: The MessengerSays blog has brought up an important concern, over another sign-in bug, that has famously plagued Windows Live Messenger since it was first launched. The bug occurs when users block the new-style groups within the program. There is no current solution, but the Messenger team have assured users a fix is being developed.

Windows Live Calls powered by Voype: Our friends over at mess.be have the scoop on this one:
Interviews with the Messenger team: LiveSide have had the chance to interview the Messenger team on a recent visit to Raymond. Altogether there are three videos, all of which make interesting viewing. Watch, part 1, part 2 and part 3.

Free Halloween Messenger theme pack: It's a week until Halloween is upon us yet again. It's not such a big thing here in the UK, but I know you Americans treat it as a national holiday so, grab your free theme pack from Microsoft today.

There have been several small developments over the past week, mostly involving the new public beta of Windows Live Messenger 9. Here is the stuff that may not warrant a full news post, but we didn't want to slip under the net:

• The MessengerSays blog, the official blog of Windows Live Messenger, has gone through the details of the Wave 3 update explaining each new feature in depth, complete with screenshots and even videos.
  
  
• A-Patch has been updated for the Wave 3 beta version. Following concern over the future development of skins and patches, the popular Messenger patching application has found a walk-a-round and has been updated to include a vast amount of features. For those of you who hate ads, or certain things within Messenger, this is your chance to block them out.
  
  
• The Windows Live Messenger library has been updated to version 2.5 which improves on the web API of the program, giving web developers more access to the workings of the Messenger servers.
  
  
• Patchou has commented on a version of Messenger Plus! Live for Windows Live Messenger 9. He told users: "I'll start working on it today [Wednesday 17/9] but I can't say yet if I'll release something publicly before the final version is released by Microsoft or not (all of that depends on when they'll actually release a final)."
  
  
• LiveSide have revealed how they found the Wave 3 download links, and defended themselves for making them public. I believe they are still very bitter about their DMCA notice they received a few weeks ago (as are we), and have tried to persuade Microsoft to have better PR relations. They make a valid point.

New is slow, but it has been happening, while all this time I have been busy. So I think it's time for a catch-up post!

i'm Initiative concerns:
mess.be have discovered Microsoft have raised $1.5 million on the i'm Initiative campaign since its launch sixteen months ago. However, in ads on just one new campaign, the Talkathon Microsoft have spent $5 million! One could argue Microsoft aren't really raising money for charity, but are attempting to portray themselves in a favourable light to users, which in my book is a big no no.

TinyURL blocked:
The 3rd party company in charge of stopping viruses spreading though Messenger have come under fire again, when they blocked TinyURL links within messages. The system has been controversial since it blocked websites containing .info domains, or entire websites such as YouTube and eBuddy. The system is also ineffective as there are workarounds virus creators can implement and the poor coding means it slows down Messenger. This is probably not the last we will hear of the crazy blocking system either.

MessengerDiscovery Live update:
Version 1.5 brings webcam recordings, encrypted messages, pinable contacts and skinable alerts. Download the update from the official website. As always MessengerDiscovery is feature rich, containing many new and wonderful ideas. It is just a shame they are coded sloppy and this update continues that trend.

MSN Messenger UK stats: - Source



So there we are, a nice little wrap up of the news over the past week or so, but don't worry there is still more to come, some of which is more interesting than this dribble. But being honest, with no development updates, news has been and will remain slow until when Windows Live Messenger 9 is near ready.

There have been several news stories this month which I have felt either didn't need a whole post to themselves or that I haven't had time to write about. There were also several things that I missed while I was away on my holiday and thought I couldn't write about in detail so long after they were first announced. So here is a brief round-up of the news that "got away" this month:

• The eBuddy multi-network web messenger beta has been updated twice in July. Read the improvements of the July 6th update, which include connection and performance improvements and lots of bugfixes, and the changes in the most recent July 19th update, which include the abilities to upload your own display picture and to receive custom emoticons from Windows Live Messenger users.
  
  
• In other eBuddy news, the eBuddy Mobile Messenger beta has now been downloaded over 100,000 times - helped partly, I would like to think, by my tutorial and review of it.
  
  
• Also, for any "lucky" iPhone owners out there eBuddy have released a special version of their web messenger for you to use, offering a convenient and attractive messaging solution for the device. After managing to get hold of one in the US to ship over to their offices in the Netherlands, the eBuddy team started making a modified version for it straight away and ended up with one of the most advanced, AJAX powered, web-based, multi-network chat clients currently available for the iPhone. It is currently an alpha version (so expect more updates and changes in time) and allows you to use your iPhone to connect to your Windows Live Messenger, Yahoo! Messenger and AIM accounts. If you have an iPhone just browse to eBuddy.com and it will automatically take you to the sign-in page for the iPhone version. Find out more and see a screenshot here.
  
  
• Messenger Air Live 2 has been released! Download it here or find out more about the features it offers, including custom alerts, contact cloner, toast flood protection and display picture slideshow.
  
  
• The Messenger content provider Kiwee (which has been offering all of its content for free on its Canadian site for a while now) has relaunched at kiwee.com. At the new address they are offering backgrounds, emoticons, winks and display pictures for free (to any one who creates a free account), as well as 'postCards' to use on social networking sites such as MySpace. They actually seem to be moving away from Messenger content and focusing more on things like these 'postCards' and therefore haven't moved all off the content from their old site over to the new one, but luckily for you their old site is still available and the Canadian one is still free.
  
  
• The official XBOX 360 Messenger Kit has been designed to make it easier to type messages when using the Windows Live Messenger integration on your XBOX 360 and is due to go on sale in the US in early September for about $30.
  
  
• The latest version of Adium, a Messenger client for Macs, has been released. View the changelog for version 1.0.5 or download the latest release now.
  
  
• To celebrate the 25th anniversary of the emoticon Yahoo! Messenger conducted a survey of 40,000 of their users to find out how they use emoticons. See the results at the official Yahoo! Messenger Blog.
  
  
• Although we're now celebrating the birthdays of Windows Live Messenger, some people are still nostalgic and marking the 8th birthday of MSN Messenger which was on July 22nd.