messenger

Slick chatting

Instant messaging may be a fun, convenient way to communicate, but how well these chat apps are structured is serious business. Luckily, Yahoo for Android possesses most of the ingredients necessary to make a great IM experience.

It's visually lush, not to mention easy to navigate, to update a status message, and to add new contacts. Crucially, there are also multiple ways to launch a conversation, and the app offers a combination of audio alerts and visual cues to help manage simultaneous chat conversations.

In addition to basic chatting, Yahoo has made sure to include favorite Yahoo features like … Read more

Yahoo, IMDb apps hit Android Market

Android users who want to to keep tabs on their Yahoo mail and learn more about their favorite movies should welcome the addition of a couple of new apps to the growing mobile marketplace.

Yahoo announced Thursday the launch of Android apps for its Mail and Messenger programs topped off by a new mobile-search widget. Available free at the Android Market, the new apps support Android 2.0 or higher and are optimized for the Motorola Droid, HTC Incredible, and Google Nexus One, according to Yahoo.

The Yahoo Mail app offers a variety of enhancements optimized for Android, said Yahoo. … Read more

Buzz Out Loud 1259: No, YOUR mom plays FarmVille (podcast)

Today in tech news, Hulu launches its subscription service and we're thinking about going over the top (maybe next year). Also, FarmVille is apparently so prevalent that it forced a Firefox update ... or, put another way, Firefox gets a little bit broken so that FarmVille people can be happy. Sheesh. Steve Jobs sends more email, Kindle for Android arrives, and we fight for a while about Froyo.

Buzz Out Loud 1254: BOL: The college years (podcast)

Buzz Out Loud: the podcast that carries you through your formative years and even into college. We've got a great email about it, in fact. Also, we were totally right about the e-book price war--Kindle is now down to $189. Also, Apple will now collect your precise geographic information and share it with its partners. You can't opt out or anything, but hey, at least they let you know. Also: a Molly rant. Like, a real one. It's at the end. Enjoy!

Windows Live Messenger debuts on iPhone (hands-on)

It's taken Microsoft a long time to produce an IM app for the iPhone. Now it has, hours before Apple released the fourth version of its iPhone operating system, we might add.

Windows Live Messenger for iPhone has many of the features we'd expect to see in an IM app, plus other social networking and e-mail extras. One screen is devoted to Windows Live, for example, offering space to update your status, follow friends in your network, and change your profile picture. A small button also take you into your e-mail in-box.

In the chewy center of the … Read more

All-in-one IM

If it isn't enough to chat with friends from Google, MySpace IM, Skype, and Facebook, as well as AIM, ICQ, MSN, Yahoo, and IRC on Trillian't multinetwork IM app, you can comfortably count the app's deep hooks into Twitter and Facebook alerts and checking e-mail (both POP3 and IMAP varieties) as reasons for switching from your current messenger.

Among its best social networking traits, Trillian will automatically shorten URLs in your tweets, and handle direct messages, re-tweets, and replies. Twitter Trends can show up in your contact list, and you can get tweets to appear in tooltip … Read more

The 404 587: Where ask and you shall receive (podcast)

The final episode of "Lost" aired yesterday, but this episode is spoiler free! However, you should know that Wilson couldn't handle the emotional scenes at the end of the episode and shed a few tears. But he also cried at the end of "Little Nicky," so don't expect too much.

If you live in a big city like us, and have ever considered inflicting irreversible damage on the guy barking away into a cell phone next to you on a subway train, a group of researchers at Cornell University know the reason why.

Following … Read more

Ballmer previews Microsoft's next Messenger

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer is giving a sneak peek at the next version of Microsoft's instant messaging program.

The new Windows Live Messenger will add a number of features, including tabbed conversations, the ability to do video chats in HD quality, share Web sites, search results and other content types, as well as pulling in updates from other social networks.

"The new Messenger will provide a great way to have more meaningful conversations with the people you care about most while also bringing together your social networks and sharing updates, cutting through the clutter, and staying up to … Read more

Man purse protocol--Jasmine's Tech Dos & Don'ts

My sixth sense tells me I'm not going to make many friends with this article, but I'm just going to say it: if you carry a bag over or across one shoulder, it's a purse. That means all those messenger bags you fellows are carrying around are man purses. I don't care how big it is: it's still a murse. And I've already earned the ire of one coworker by calling it that (I believe his exact words were: "I'll murse you"), so if you want to bombard my comment section … Read more

Microsoft stepping closer to Mac Office 2011 with Messenger Beta

The next version of Microsoft's Office productivity suite for Mac has been much anticipated, and last Wednesday Microsoft edged one step closer to it's release with the availability of Messenger 8 beta for Mac users. This is a test version of the release that will be included with the Office 2011 suite, which brings audio and video chat support to the program.… Read more