Tag: CHAT

Jabber, the universal chat protocol latterly known as XMPP (Extensible Messaging and Presence Protocol), has just celebrated its 12th birthday. Kicking off in January of 1999, the open technology protocol for instant messaging then known as Jabber, quickly gained favor. But it wasn't until the formation of the XMPP working group in 2002, and then later the integration of the open protocol by ...

If you were lost without your Skype connection yesterday, the company's official blog has some heartening news for you this morning. Skype's engineers have been working hard to re-build the network of supernodes -- which had failed due to a software bug -- and have started seeing some encouraging signs. Users in various locations have been able to sign in again, and Skype reports that around 5 ...

Verbs is a brand new entry into the crowded market of chat clients for iOS devices, but it's got a couple of factors that make it worth considering over alternatives like Meebo, Beejive and Trillian. First and foremost, Verbs is gorgeous. It's got an extremely clean design, with Retina-ready graphics and lots of fantastic details that make it a joy to use. Second, it supports uploading and sharing ...

The Google Talk app for Android is nice enough for text chatting on the go, but it lacks the video support offered by its desktop cousin. That could very well change in Android 2.3, if a recent discovery by Android Guys is an accurate indication of things to come. Nestled in amongst the files which shipped the Gingerbread SDK are a boatload of icons, including the ones you see above. The video ...

Kik, the hot new messaging app that racked up a million users in a couple of weeks and then got called out for covertly harvesting users' contacts, has now been completely banned from RIM's BlackBerry App World. RIM announced it was booting Kik over "breached contractual obligations," and that it has terminated all agreements with Kik and stopped supporting the service. As our sister site ...

Yahoo! Messenger remains one of the most popular desktop IM clients around, and its users are now able to get a taste of what's coming in version 11. Like its biggest competition -- Windows Live Messenger -- Y! Messenger 11 is about creating a more current, social messaging app. One of the biggest additions is Facebook chat support -- which works nicely, though former Squadder Brad Linder ...

The Inside Windows Live blog has announced that Microsoft has temporarily disabled active links for Windows Live Messenger (WLM) 2009 users. Its motivation: to prevent the spread of a malicious worm plaguing users of the instant messaging program. An infected user who is chatting with someone else could unknowingly send a poisoned link to other users -- who then click the link and download its ...

Must-have smartphone apps are few and far between. In fact, it's hard to name more than two apps that I use on a daily basis: Angry Birds is the first, of course, and BeejiveIM is the second. I reviewed BeejiveIM for Android last month and came away with the conclusion that it's almost faultless. The interface is smooth, and you can customize colors and backgrounds to your heart's content. ...

Not everyone who owns an Android smartphone has a glorious 4-inch Super AMOLED display in his or her pocket. Lower-priced devices like the HTC Wildfire have brought budget-conscious shoppers into the Android fold, too. But there's a downside to a device with a smaller screen: not all of the big name apps will run on them. If you've been cursing under your breath about the fact that you can't ...

If you've switched over to the Skype 5.0 Beta for Mac, and you don't love the new look of Skype chat, there might be an easy fix. Skype 5 Mini is a simple chatstyle swap that cuts a lot of the whitespace out of Skype's new default chat appearance, letting you fit more text into your window. Mini is the Lego to the default's ages-3-and-up Duplo. The first thing you'll notice about Mini is that ...

Adium isn't the only instant messaging app powered by libpurple which has seen a healthy spate of updates recently. Pidgin -- the cross-platform multi-network massaging app -- has been updated twice in the past fortnight, squashing numerous bugs and tweaking its interface. Among the lengthy changelogs for Pidgin 2.7.4 and 2.7.5 you'll find support from Chrome and Chromium on non-Windows ...

After a rather epic and pregnant pause, the developers of Adium have finally squeezed out the next major version release of the best open-source Mac chat client in town: Adium 1.4. The main feature additions are Twitter and IRC support, but the contact list has also been overhauled to support contacts in multiple groups and instant searching. There's also a new version of libpurple under the ...

Microsoft Messenger for Mac, Microsoft's instant messaging application for Apple-made computers has hit version 8, finished its beta testing, and is now ready to download and use. Microsoft Messenger for Mac 8 will be included in the upcoming Office for Mac 2011 suite as well. Messenger for Mac has all the features you'd expect -- it lets you instant message, audio and video call your friends ...

Campfire is a slick way for teams to communicate, collaborate, and share via the Web -- but if you're searching for a simple, free alternative, a new project called Holla is worth a look. Holla is an open-source chat and file sharing Web app. While it lacks Campfire's more advanced features, like transcripts and voice calling, Holla still provides an elegantly simple way to assemble a group ...

Skype for Windows has officially reached version 5. The most important feature addition is, as expected, Facebook integration. Group video calls, a feature that has been available in Skype 5 betas, has also made the jump to the stable version. Some work to clean up the UI has also been done. The new Facebook tab brings your News Feed into Skype and lets you post messages, comment, and like ...