Fanatic Live » Windows Live Messenger

I’M Update

Adrian Doherty — Sat, 02 Aug 2008 02:04:19 +0000

And as the initiative keeps chugging along, the donation total now stands at $1,698,090 million spread to the various causes involved. Remember you can be involved by spreading it to your friends via your hotmail and more recently your facebook account via Invite2Messenger which will go step by step on how to help.

You can even create your own free muggin with the I’M message for Windows Live Messenger just by registering yourself to the cause. Lets get it to $2million!

Windows Live Messenger Library 2.0 is released

Adrian Doherty — Sat, 02 Aug 2008 01:20:12 +0000

The Windows Live Messenger Library is (WLML) a client-side library for building presence-enabled instant messaging web applications hosted in any domain that site visitors can use to interact with each other and Windows Live Messenger users. WLML is written in C# and compiled into JavaScript using Script#; applications can be written either in C# (with Script#) or JavaScript. WLML 2.0 has been released: it is backward compatible with WLML 1.0 and the version 1.0 API is still available. The new version (documentation) contains the following changes:

Sorted contact collections: New OnlineContacts and OfflineContacts collections list contacts in sorted order to make it easier for applications to show sorted contact lists.
Contact display picture links: Contact display picture links are now returned but with respect user privacy, there is some special handling required to use them in applications.
Customization for the Sign-In Control: color schemes can now be defined for the Sign-In Control.
A new URL for loading the library: Library files are now content distributed globally; applications should see improved library load time.
Hosted static images for status icons and Messenger logos: GIF and PNG static images for applications to use for displaying user status are now being hosted.
URL strings for Messenger resources: The library returns a set of market-specific URLs for applications to display links to required Microsoft pages such as the privacy statement. This is to enable applications to move the Sign-In Control out of view when it is not needed.
Sign-In Control returns extended authentication results: The Sign-in Control has been updated to return more detailed information about user authentication results.

Source: Ars Technica

i’m Making a Difference Update

Adrian Doherty — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 01:08:56 +0000

Many of you know of the i’m Making a Difference project has been around for a year. Well today Dharmesh Mehta announced on MessengerSays that it has donated $1.3 Million to the various charities associated with the project. As we speak the total has been updated to $1,409,788 Million.

They have also announced that theres still no set limit on donations and are continuing the project now and into the future so this is great news to all that participate and want to make a difference. Remember if you wish to help the cause head over to i’m Making a Difference site.

i’m Stunned

Adrian Doherty — Mon, 07 Jan 2008 02:14:15 +0000

Just as the title says, I’m stunned. Just 5 days ago I updated about the i’m Making A Difference progress and just checking the donation tally, it has risen to an unbelievable $706,678.63. So the donation per month average has risen to $70,667.

This is absolutely amazing with less then $300,000 to go till it reaches $1,000,000 million region. My guess is next month may see this worthwhile cause will reach this mark easily. All I can say is keep up the good work to those that support it!

i’m Making Progress

Adrian Doherty — Wed, 02 Jan 2008 01:58:53 +0000

A few months back I wrote a piece on the progress of the i’m Making A Difference program and at that stage approximately $92,500 was raised. Since then till now it has catapulted to an amazing $366,018.38. Thats raised the average raised per month from $10,000 to roughly $33,274. This is tremendous news for those charities that are involved with the program.

For those that are interested in spreading the message via your websites or blogs, you can now register for an online medallion for those that are passionate about the cause. Heres an example of the medallion;

So remember if you wish to help these wonderful charities out, make sure you have one of the following codes in your Windows Live Messenger name and start having conversations with your friends to continue this great work.

*red+u - American Red Cross
*bgca – Boys & Girls Clubs of America
*hsus – Humane Society of the United States
*naf – National AIDS Fund
*mssoc - National MS Society
*9mil – ninemillion.org
*sierra – Sierra Club
*help – StopGlobalWarming.org
*komen – Susan G. Komen for the Cure
*unicef – U.S. Fund for UNICEF

Windows Live Messenger 9 Leaked

Adrian Doherty — Thu, 29 Nov 2007 11:30:25 +0000

Windows Live Messenger 9 has been leaked to net to numerous websites around the globe, sporting new features;

Messenger Sounds – Configure a signature sound when you come online to your buddies.
Multiple Sign Ins – For example; Allows you to sign into messenger on the pc as well as your Xbox Live account. Note that it’s only working for registered Beta participants. It should also coincide with the expected Xbox Dashboard Update.
Contact Spam – You can now block and report a suspected spammer(relating to advertising etc.)
Animated Display Pictures – Such as an animated gif, Dynamic Display Pictures(DDP’s) which currently can only be made by companies with a Digital License are still around.

Links can be found all over the place and we won’t be linking it to front page. Try Google perhaps ? We suggest you keep using the current version 8.5 till this is publicly released by the Messenger Team. You can also head to mess.be for screenshots.

Windows Live Messenger 8.5 Final

Adrian Doherty — Wed, 07 Nov 2007 09:42:42 +0000

The final version of Windows Live Messenger 8.5 is now officially available to download. It was leaked ahead of schedule but I thought we’d wait till it was official. The english version can be found here and for other versions heres another 20 languages which Mess have provided. Also the only thing noticeable is the fact there is finally Vista x64 support(Yay!)

Arabic, Bulgarian, Chinese-Simplified, Chinese-Traditional, Croatian, Czech , Danish, Dutch, Estonian, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Hebrew, Hungarian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Latvian, Lithuanian, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese-Brazil, Portuguese-Portugal, Romanian, Russian, Slovak, Slovenian, Spanish, Swedish, Thai, Turkish, Ukrainian

Windows Live Messenger 8.5 Beta Upgrades

Adrian Doherty — Wed, 26 Sep 2007 06:32:23 +0000

If you haven’t already noticed, The Messenger Team posted about the new updates that users of Windows Live Messenger 8.5 Beta 1 will be prompted to update to Beta 2. While the updates will be optional for Windows XP/XP 64 bit/Server 2003, Windows Vista 32/64 bit will be forced to update to Beta 2, which ironically cannot be installed from the current beta installer that is available.

So for those that want to use the new beta and are using Windows Vista 32/64bit, install the Windows Live Messenger 8.5 Beta 1 and logging in will prompt you to update and accept.

Windows Live Messenger IM Control Soon

Adrian Doherty — Fri, 14 Sep 2007 05:22:41 +0000

As Liveside reported, Messenger Presence or Windows Live Messenger IM Control as its described in Angus Logan’s Blog will allow people to chat with your without them seeing your email address which is similar to Web2Messenger already provides. So when do you expect to be able to use it? Theres no release date so you’ll just have to wait like the rest of us. Of course, you’ll have to enable the option to allow anyone to chat with you if you don’t have them on your list. There could be the risk of getting spammed using this feature but I’m sure Microsoft will put in some sort of safeguard.

Messenger Webcam Flaw Fixed

Adrian Doherty — Thu, 13 Sep 2007 08:13:46 +0000

Regarding the Webcam Flaw , the Messenger Team have posted about the new upgrades and here is the key parts below:

Do users have to upgrade?

Yes, once a user has been given a mandatory upgrade notice, they will have to install Windows Live Messenger 8.1. Most users have been given an optional upgrade notice since January 2007.

I am not seeing a mandatory upgrade right now and I am running a bad version of the client, why?

The Messenger network uses a rolling upgrade mechanism across the network. It will take several days to get a mandatory upgrade and new bits to all users.

What can users do now to protect themselves sooner?

Users running Windows Live Messenger 8.1 do not need to take action. Users running earlier versions of Messenger should visit http://messenger.live.com and install Windows Live Messenger 8.1.

I use Windows 2000. How can I protect myself?

Because Windows 2000 isnâ€™t supported by Windows Live Messenger 8.1, we will provide an updated version of MSN Messenger 7.0. We will upgrade Windows 2000 users to the updated version of MSN Messenger 7.0 after the Windows Live Messenger upgrades.

Till then, as a precautionary measure, donâ€™t accept a webcam or a video call invitation from a contact that you donâ€™t trust.

If Iâ€™m running the new Windows Live Messenger 8.5 beta, am I protected?

Yes. Messenger 8.5 beta users are not affected by this vulnerability.