cool stuff from microsoft
I've been playing with the new version of MSN messenger a bit since it was released the other day... There's a few really cool things that they've added since the betas and previous versions:
- “personal message“ - a TON of the people on my IM list just change their display name to the message. And it's a real pain in the ass to figure out who is who sometimes, particularly if you're pressed for time and just want to send a quick message... This is a cool feature where your name can be one thing (like your actual name) and the message will just be shown after your name. It's a different take on what a few of my friends standardized on a while back - <Initial> sez: “message” (so I would have my name be “G sez: 'is it friday yet'” or something like that...
- “What i'm listening to” - this is something actually that Gene used to do, and it may be tied into trillian or whatever he uses as a client. He would update his name via a script (I think) to be whatever was playing on his computer at the moment. This ties in media player to update your personal message to be whatever you're listening to.
- Tighter integration with MSN spaces - not really a big deal for me, given that I use this site instead and am not inclined to move things to the MSN space at the moment (though I may someday in the future). It makes sense from a 'all things MSN' point of view, and it helps spread the word if you have a personal website since it's much easier for your contacts to find it... In fact, I just created one here, which is really just a link back to http://kinasewitz.net/greg but figured I might as well take advantage of it. I like the 'lists' feature and the photo support doesn't seem to be too bad.
- display pictures - I'm not sure if other IM clients support it (I'm sure they do now, if they didn't first), but messenger has a 'display picture' that you can set - 7.0 now supports the contact page, where everyone's status is available, to have a thumbnail of their display pic...
Downsides? They moved the status icon “away, busy, etc” overlayed with the generic messenger or display icon, and it's harder to tell at a glance if someone is away or busy, or free to chat. Also, the text at the end of the line (Away) is in a different lighter font - with the new personal messages italicized at the end of the display name, status overall is a bit harder to determine.
Also, I find it strange that you can buy emoticons. How does that work? Is it cached on the local computer and you can only use it from there? Is it available from the server, so any time I'm signed in from any computer I can use that emoticon? Does it expire? How did they come up with the pricing scheme? Somehow I'm just not motivated enough by any of them that I've seen, or that I'd want to send, that I'm convinced it's worth a buck or two to get them...