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Yahoo! Messenger sneak peek
There was a time when Yahoo! Messenger on OS X, well, sucked. That time has long since passed thanks to the great Mac focused team that Yahoo! has created (the Mac team may be small, but they are passionate). I was able to sit down with Matthew Skyrm, Director of Product Management for Yahoo! Messenger, and take a look at what Yahoo! is cooking up for the next beta. It looks good folks, really good.The UI won't be changing too much, but it will be modified to allow for some new features: Tabs - this one is huge. We all know tabs, and the team decided to go with the classic one IM window with tabs on the bottom. If you close the window, it only closes the Tab that you are currently in (which is a nice touch). Voice chat support - one of the most highly requested features it would seem. You can make free computer to computer calls and you can even call phones (and have a phone number associated with your Yahoo! Messenger) thanks to Yahoo! Voice. A new notifications section - one of the nice things about Yahoo! Messenger is that you can IM someone who isn't online and they'll get that IM when they sign on. Sadly, that means if you haven't been online in a while you can face an onslaught of windows when you start up Messenger. Tabs remedy this somewhat, but the good folks at Yahoo! went one step further and create a new section in Messenger that will show you, in your buddy list, any IMs you might have missed. You will find your voice mail here, yes you will be able to get voice mail on Yahoo! Messenger. Archiving - finally the next beta will offer a way for you to archive your messages, and not just in an ugly text file. It is clear that the team spent some serious time on the UI for the archives, and it shows. The archives also offer full Spotlight integration so now you can search your IMs just as easily as you can search the rest of your Mac. I tried to get a firm date for the release of this beta, but that Matthew is cagey. He told me to expect it sometime in the next several months because he would 'rather be vague than late.' Fair enough. This beta of Yahoo! Messenger is looking to be a very compelling upgrade, my only complaint is that I didn't get one bit of Yahoo! swag. Perhaps next Macworld.
Infinite Loop interviews Yahoo! Messenger dev
When we first came across the beta of Yahoo! Messenger 3 we were impressed. This feels like an OS X app, not some crappy Windows port! Then we pretty much forgot about the whole thing, but Jeff Smykil at Infinite Loop didn't. He wanted to know why Messenger suddenly didn't suck on the Mac, and he wanted to know who was responsible.It turns out that Tristan O'Tierney, who used to work on the Colloquy project amongst other things, has had a large part in making Messenger 3 beta what it is. Jeff interviews Tristan about all things Mac at Yahoo!, so go check it out.
Logitech's EasyCall Desktop -- the MS Office of VoIP peripherals
Today Logitech got a clue: why sell one device to the burgeoning Internet calling community when you can sell an entire suite of peripherals. Introducing the EasyCall Desktop which Logitech claims is the world's first mouse, keyboard, headset and speakerphone combo. In essence, EasyCall Desktop does for desktop clutter what Adobe, Microsoft, and Apple did for software -- take a bunch of disparate tools, give 'em the same look and feel and enhance each for relatively seamless interaction across the suite. In addition to a cordless keyboard and laser mouse (which, while not stated, will likely both feature Bluetooth 2.0 with EDR like other Logitech Desktops) the package includes a tethered stereo headset which can be attached to the full-duplex speakerphone. The speakerphone, apparently also wired, acts as the Internet calling control center and features Logitech's RightSound echo cancelation technology to get the most from VoIP apps like Yahoo Messenger with Voice, AOL's AIM, and of course Skype. What's odd is that a Skype specific keyboard will also be launched as part of the Desktop but only in Europe -- go figure. Expect the kit to ship in the US and Europe by mid-September with an expected retail price pegged at $130/€130.[Via CrowdedBrain]