The Windows Live team is publishing a bugfix update for Windows Live Essentials 2011 (Wave 4). The quick fix update, rolling out in two stages, fixes several problems in Messenger, Photo Gallery, Mail and other applications.



Arthur de Haan, Windows Live Test and Service Engineering, summarizes the changes:

• Mail: We fixed a sorting issue in the Sent items folder and improved the upload reliability and instrumentation in Photo mail.
• Messenger: We fixed a couple of stability issues and made various changes for improved voice and video quality. We fixed an issue that was causing sound to be lost after upgrading, and we improved performance when displaying the MSN Today page in the main window.
• Photo Gallery: We implemented various bug fixes for crashes related to launching Photo Gallery through Autoplay and facial recognition.
• And more: We made many other usability, performance, and stability improvements across the suite of Windows Live Essentials apps.

Download the Windows Live Essentials Wave 4 QFE2 update now.

 

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

Over the past few weeks beta testers have been reporting bugs on this small, yet significant update of Messenger Plus! Live in order for today's release. The update specifically targets three main areas: making the program fully compatible with Windows 7; allowing settings of skins and scripts to be imported and exported and adding the features for an upcoming contest similar to the one held in Summer 2007. Overall this minor build number has many major updates within it.


Windows 7 has presented issues for Messenger in general

The contest is the same click an individual pixel to win a prize, a highly popular and successful idea where some fantastic prizes including high resolution monitors and top end consoles were up for grabs. There will also be a twist this year in order to draw more users into using Messenger Plus!. More information will be posted when Patchou officially announces the start of the contest sometime next week.


The contest proved to be very popular two years ago with 2,242,758 players

This will be the last major update before Messenger Plus! Live 5.0 is released, which is now under development. Patchou has been very secretive on its upcoming features, but a flood of suggestions has gone his way and some interesting hints have been noted by testers. Much of this will depend however, on what Windows Live Messenger 2010 has up its sleeve.

Download Messenger Plus! Live 4.82.368
See the announcement Patchou made to the Messenger Plus! forums
Read the entire changelog for Messenger Plus! Live 4.82.368

A couple of days late, but rather now than never: Windows Live Messenger 9 has experienced a very small update. There are no obvious changes with the new build, and all add-ons appear to be compatible with the release. The Messenger team are forcing users to update and stop using any older builds. This may be linked to recent updates to the Messenger protocol, and thus the new version may be to optimise the application to work in sync with it.

See the announcement at the MessengerSays blog

Patchou has released Messenger Plus! Live 4.80, the main update this version brings is full compatibility with the final version of Windows Live Messenger 2009. When Patchou says "full compatibility", he means exactly that. You won’t find a light version of your add-on here.

There isn't many visual changes to this version, however there has been a lot of things done "under the hood", which are detailed on the change log section of the Messenger Plus! site.

This release allows external developers to modify Windows Live Messenger's encoded windows files (referred to as UIB files), like in previous versions of Messenger. More information regarding this can be found in the official skinning documentation, which can be downloaded here.

An important note Patchou also mentions, aimed at developers, is that Messenger Plus! isn't required to be installed on the users computer for the UIB function to work, the UIB files created by Messenger Plus! can be read by messenger, just like the original ones. This means you can do modifications you want on your own system, encode the files and then distribute them.


View: Patchou's announcement
Download: Messenger Plus! Live 4.80.356

While on the subject of the Messsenger Plus! Live contest, the release of Messenger Plus! Live 4.22.274 introduced a bug where after the 5th of June you wouldn't be able to access the Messenger Plus! Live contest. Therefore Patchou released a updated version to correct it and a few other bugs.

So if your contest button and menu item have disappeared, download Messenger Plus! Live 4.23 and install it to continue playing the contest.

You may remember the new version of the popular Vista Live Messenger skin that is currently being in development for Windows Live Messenger 8.1.

Yesterday another screenshot was posted by Stianu, one of the creators, showing recent work made on the skin. This skin just keeps getting better, I wonder how long it will be until it is released?

View the new screenshot
Download Vista Live Messenger (for WLM 8.0)
View our skins database

Here is some quick news, fresh in. Vista Live Messenger is a skin currently out for Windows Live Messenger 8.0, and is in development to update it for 8.1. The skin is based around the Aero theme of Windows Vista.

This skin is very popular, and I know you guys love it. Stianu has just released another screenshot showing exactly what they have been doing the past few weeks.

View the screenshot
Download Vista Live Messenger (for WLM 8.0)
View our skins database

TheBlasphemer has been busy for the last couple of days fixing all of the remaining bugs and the broken features in StuffPlug 3.

He has released another new version (3.0.286) which fixes the talk to a blocked contact, keyboard LED flashing and custom emoticon and display picture stealer features, as well as all the parsing errors and several other bugs. There are also translation and UI improvements.

This is the most stable release of StuffPlug 3 so far, although it is still only compatible with Windows Live Messenger 8.1 and according to TB: "StuffPlug 3 will be compatible with WLM 8.1 and higher. WLM 8.0 will not be supported".

Download StuffPlug 3.0.286 BETA (direct link)
Release announcement at stuffplug.com

Just a quick post to let you know the new beta of StuffPlug 3 has been updated. According to stuffplug.com the update fixes a few bugs and will check for more system and software requirements, so it will only install if it is compatible with your computer and software. The update also includes 20 additional languages.

StuffPlug 3 only works on the latest version of Windows Live Messenger 8.1 beta, as TB always uses the most recent version of Messenger that he can find to test on before he releases anything. Using the current official release of Messenger (8.0) has some issues which will take time to fix (and you will be warned that you do not have the correct version for it to run on when trying to install).

Download StuffPlug 3.0.264 BETA (direct link)
Info about the bug fixes from the previous beta version (at stuffplug.com)