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MSN Messenger 7.5 is still in beta, but that doesn’t mean Microsoft can’t begin work on 8.0, right? According to The Hotfix a third party source who supposedly works for Microsoft was kind enough to provide them with the a list of possible, and most certainly rumored, features for MSN Messenger 8.0:
• Change of Messenger Skins
• Real-time Emotions
• Messenger Built Internal Windows Media Player 10
• Pause/Resumed File Transfers (File Blocked Extension Applied)
• Detailed File Transfer (Download/Upload Speed)
• Animated Display Pictures (.gif .jpg .png (File Support under Consideration))
• Mood Status
• Faster Contact List Loading and scrolling
• Public Profile and MSN Spaces Combined
• More MSN Space features
• New Hotmail and MSN Messenger Integration
• Downloadable MSN Messenger on Mobile
• News Updates according to Location
• Top 10 MSN Music Radio
• New Stylish Notifier Pop-up
• Downloadable Skins for MSN (Contact Window & Conversation Window)
• Complete Integration with Windows XP® & Windows Vista® Codename: Longhorn®
• Offline Voice/Message Machine
• Animated Buddy Icon Helper
• Display Picture Ratings
The source also claims that 8.0 will be in BETA by the end of this year, and we can expect the official release in 2006. What do you think of the features? Improvements to a popular IM client, or just more junk you won’t use anyways?
Read More 
| The Hotfix
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After a particularly destructive rampage across the Internet, leaving a wake of disabled and broken PCs, authorities have arrested two young men in connection with the case.
Authorities in Morocco and Turkey have arrested two people believed to be responsible for unleashing a computer worm that infected networks at U.S. companies and government agencies earlier this month, the FBI said Friday.
Farid Essebar, 18, was arrested in Morocco, while Atilla Ekici, 21, was arrested in Turkey on Thursday, the FBI said. They will be prosecuted in those countries, the FBI said.
The worm targeted critical security flaws in Microsoft Windows operating systems, with Windows 2000 most susceptible to infection. Mac users, as usual, were not affected.
Read More | KOMO
Dartmouth’s Class of 2009 Will Live “Converged” Lifestyle
Posted by Edwin Soto Categories: Corporate News, Home Entertainment, Internet, PC / Laptop,
Dartmouth’s Class of 2009 will enjoy converged living for the next four years. The Hanover, NH location has an extraordinary wired and wireless network that spans over the entire campus. Students will be able to use their laptops to make phone calls, watch television, email, and access the Internet. All incoming freshmen will be given a security key to use over the various computers, enforcing that security is a priority at the school. I think I would prefer this over a school iPod.
Read More | Dartmouth News
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Verizon and Yahoo! Team Up for Broadband Service
Posted by Edwin Soto Categories: Corporate News, Internet,
Verizon and Yahoo! have joined forces to create a low cost broadband service project. The service will include 10 email address with 2GB of storage each, unlimited commercial-free streaming radio, on-demand music videos, unlimited photo storage, and more. The package will be available for $14.95 per month, promising speeds of 768k downstream and 128k upstream. There will also offer faster packages varying in price from $19.95 to $37.95. No word yet on when this will start, but rest assured that MSN can’t be happy since they have been partners with Verizon years now.
Read More | BetaNews
America Online Fined $1.25 Million, Will Revamp Customer Service Cancellation Procedures
Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Corporate News, Internet,
Oh yes, we may have just seen the first nail in the coffin of AOL. The company was fined $1.25 million by the State of New York due to complaints from users about how absurdly difficult it is to cancel the service after signing up. While the $1.25 million looks like a large amount, this is really chump change for the very large America Online. What will hurt them though, is the fact that they will be refining their procedures for handling customer cancellations. Up until now, service agents received bonuses if they had a 50% or better retention rate - some agents made tens of thousands of dollars on this program alone. The new program will no longer have a minimum quota. You can probably say goodbye to the “if you stay, I will give you another free three months” spiel.
Read More | ZDNet
Google Talk is downloadable and ready to incorporate all your communication needs. Google has released their first IM client with built in voice communication. As for the features, Google Talk is simple and to the point. You can customize messages with very few clicks. I can’t wait to see what they have in store for future upgrades. I wonder how I will be able to use this in court?
Read More | Google Talk
If you can’t wait until Google releases Google Talk to the masses, it seems you’re in luck. All you need is a Jabber-compatable IM client like Audium, iChat, GAIM or Trillian and a Gmail account. Point your server setting to talk.google.com and simply sign in using your Gmail username and password. You’ll be online using the latest instant messaging program in no time. Okay, not quite - but you are using the server. That’s cool, right? If you’re having a problem getting on, compare your configuration settings with these.
Read More | Smash World
Google has had quite a busy year in terms of expansion- first Gmail, followed by Google maps and personalized Google news pages just to name a few. It now seems that Google is ready to launch their next project, possibly titled Google Talk, as early as Wednesday. Not just a clone of other instant messaging programs in the market, it’s reported that along with the ability to talk via text-based messages, users will also be able to hold voice conversations thus throwing Google into competition with Skype, a service which has already hit the 150 million download mark. While Google has not yet commented on the project, I think it’s safe to say that whatever it is Google has in store for us, it will be just as successful as their past ventures.
Read More | USA Today
Man, I love when people try to take advantage of unknowing suckers on eBay, only to have their auction ended and account frozen. Case in point, an auction titled “*EXCLUSIVE* Intel Mac - P4 3GHz, OS X 10.4 with iLife”. Now, those in the know will look at this and write it off as utter crap. After all, this is just a PC with the pirated OSx86 installed. In the Q&A section, the seller admits that it is a “clone” of the official developer version, but still, how many average shoppers really know what that means? Click below if you want to see the auction, but don’t delay, as we have a hunch that this won’t be up for much longer.
Read More | eBay UK
The desktop search arena is an interesting one, with Google, Microsoft, Yahoo!, and even some independants all vying for your attention. Today, Google dropped a major upgrade to its desktop search tool appropriately called Google Desktop 2. This one includes a Sidebar, which allows you to view and manage just about every component of your search experience, including stock management, weather, Gmail, Outlook information, RSS, and instant messaging. This one is for Windows users only, but I don’t see too many Mac users complaining - after all, we have Spotlight.
We’ve also improved your desktop search experience. With Quick Find, you can now launch applications and see search results as you type without even opening a browser. We’ve also extended our Outlook integration, so you can search Google Desktop with the Outlook Toolbar and see results within Outlook itself. Finally, you can search even more stuff, including your Gmail, files on network drives, many Outlook data types (including Contacts, Tasks, Calendar, Notes and Journal) and MSN Messenger chats. And if you yearn for even stronger security, you can encrypt your entire index.
Read More | Google Desktop via DigitalTechNews
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