Shortly after the release of the updated Messenger for Mac, the multi-protocol alternative Adium 1.0 was released.
As I’m not a Mac user, I have never paid much attention to Adium, but with a 1.0 release it’s fair to take a look at it, even if I don’t use it.
Adium supports a wide array of services, these icons say enough:
Through the use of “Xtras”, Adium is highly customisable, types of Xtras including emoticon sets, contact list styles, message styles, AppleScripts, plugins, etc.
The change log from 0.89 is quite long, so get the new version if you’re a Mac user!
Version 6.0.2 of Messenger for Mac was released around the same time as Windows Live Messenger 8.1. The changes in this update include:
- Certificate alert now appears if you are missing a certificate preventing sign-in. If you get this alert, you need to contact Apple to find out how to obtain/re-install the certificate.
- Chat history for long histories should now save correctly.
- Some users were having issues where ALL contacts appeared offline; this has been resolved in this release.
- Messenger logging support has been added and is disabled by default. If you contact PSS with problems, they may ask you to enable logging so they can further investigate any issues.
It’s mostly an effort to fix sign-in issues, so be sure to update if you experience sign-in difficulty with Messenger for Mac.
ValSpy has also written a review of Messenger for Mac over at Messenger Stuff.
Kool IM, launched in July 2006, is one of the more recently released Web based instant messaging services supporting the Windows Live Messenger network. It also supports a few networks most others don’t, such as Google Talk, ICQ and Sametime.
Kool IM launched version 2 a couple of weeks ago, with the most notable change being the switch from pop-up windows to being entirely embedded in one page using AJAX.
One of Windows Vista’s new features is parental controls, allowing parents to manage what their children can do on the computer, and back in March 2006, Microsoft announced Windows Live Family Safety Settings to complement the controls that Vista offers.
Among features announced in the Family Safety offering is contact management for Messenger:
Parents will be able to create “allow” lists for communication services to help prevent their children from crossing paths with unknown contacts. The allow list will also help parents restrict access to a child’s personal blog or social networking page to only those contacts they have approved.
We haven’t yet seen contact management in FSS, but a new site called Live and Beyond has posted claiming that the feature will be ready very soon. Since the Windows Live Messenger 8.1 beta recently came to a close, we may see contact management in version 9.0. On second thought, I’m betting the capabilities for this are already in Windows Live Messenger 8.1, but just not active yet (server side configuration).
