Three Brand New Yahoo! Messenger Versions Released by Yahoo!
The development team over at Yahoo! has not been slacking off, that’s for sure. For the past few weeks or so three versions of the popular instant messaging (IM) application have been released to the general public. For the Windows user, Yahoo! has released Yahoo! Messenger 10 Beta; for the Mac OS X user, Yahoo! has released an updated version of Yahoo! Messenger for Mac 3.0 Beta; last but not least, for the iPhone user, Yahoo! has released Yahoo! Messenger for iPhone 1.2.2.
The reason why we didn’t report on these software releases at the time they were rolled out is because we’ve been busy with launching a new FindMySoft section. I am talking about a new How To section where you can find quite a few how-to tutorials – the list of articles will increase over time. Make sure to visit the How To section and let us know what you think.
Getting back to Yahoo! Messenger, the Windows-specific version, here is what you can expect to get from Yahoo! Messenger 10 Beta:
- High quality video calls right within the IM window.
Brian Lamkin, SVP Yahoo! Applications, explains: “With this new release of Yahoo! Messenger, the biggest news is the debut of truly high quality video calling. Using your Web cam, you can now have full-screen, face-to-face video conversations with crystal clear audio for free from right within your Yahoo! Messenger window.”
- Alternative contacts list view called Y! Updates
Senior Product Manager with Yahoo! Messenger, Sarah Bacon, explains: “To help you keep up with your friends, we added an alternate view of your contact list that shows a real-time stream of their updates, including Messenger status message changes. If they’ve opted-in to share their updates via Yahoo!, you’ll be able to see what they’re saying on Twitter, reading on Yahoo! Buzz, listening to on Last.fm, and more
- Brand new Yahoo! Insider
- New language menu displayed on the sign-in screen allows you to pick one of 16 different languages.
- New ways to arrange your contacts
- New IM window icons
Moving on to the Mac OS X user, here is what you can expect to get from the updated Yahoo! Messenger for Mac 3.0 Beta:
- Several bugs have been dealt with. You can expect this software application to be more stable and perform better than previous versions (the last version we know about is Yahoo! Messenger for Mac 3.0 Beta 4).
- Yahoo! insider is now available for the Mac version.
- This update ensures Yahoo! Messenger for Mac 3.0 Beta is compatible with Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard.
- A Report a Problem feature has been added. To access it click Help -> select Report a Problem to Yahoo!
Last but not least, the iPhone specific version of Yahoo! Messenger has evolved from v. 1.2.1 to version 1.2.2. Here are the new bits and pieces Yahoo! Messenger for iPhone 1.2.2 brings to the table:
- The Idle status message is gone. This applies to when you shut down the Yahoo! Messenger app but are still signed in.
- The buzz notification sound has been improved and vibrating notifications have been added to it as well. You can also turn Buzz off in the Settings menu.
- The IM notification sound has been changed.
- Address book integration issues have been solved.
If you would like to get Yahoo! Messenger 10 Beta, a download location is available here.
If you would like to get Yahoo! Messenger for Mac 3.0 Beta, a download location is available here.
If you would like to get Yahoo! Messenger for iPhone, a download location is available here.
The reason why we didn’t report on these software releases at the time they were rolled out is because we’ve been busy with launching a new FindMySoft section. I am talking about a new How To section where you can find quite a few how-to tutorials – the list of articles will increase over time. Make sure to visit the How To section and let us know what you think.
Getting back to Yahoo! Messenger, the Windows-specific version, here is what you can expect to get from Yahoo! Messenger 10 Beta:
- High quality video calls right within the IM window.
Brian Lamkin, SVP Yahoo! Applications, explains: “With this new release of Yahoo! Messenger, the biggest news is the debut of truly high quality video calling. Using your Web cam, you can now have full-screen, face-to-face video conversations with crystal clear audio for free from right within your Yahoo! Messenger window.”
- Alternative contacts list view called Y! Updates
Senior Product Manager with Yahoo! Messenger, Sarah Bacon, explains: “To help you keep up with your friends, we added an alternate view of your contact list that shows a real-time stream of their updates, including Messenger status message changes. If they’ve opted-in to share their updates via Yahoo!, you’ll be able to see what they’re saying on Twitter, reading on Yahoo! Buzz, listening to on Last.fm, and more
- Brand new Yahoo! Insider
- New language menu displayed on the sign-in screen allows you to pick one of 16 different languages.
- New ways to arrange your contacts
- New IM window icons
Moving on to the Mac OS X user, here is what you can expect to get from the updated Yahoo! Messenger for Mac 3.0 Beta:
- Several bugs have been dealt with. You can expect this software application to be more stable and perform better than previous versions (the last version we know about is Yahoo! Messenger for Mac 3.0 Beta 4).
- Yahoo! insider is now available for the Mac version.
- This update ensures Yahoo! Messenger for Mac 3.0 Beta is compatible with Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard.
- A Report a Problem feature has been added. To access it click Help -> select Report a Problem to Yahoo!
Last but not least, the iPhone specific version of Yahoo! Messenger has evolved from v. 1.2.1 to version 1.2.2. Here are the new bits and pieces Yahoo! Messenger for iPhone 1.2.2 brings to the table:
- The Idle status message is gone. This applies to when you shut down the Yahoo! Messenger app but are still signed in.
- The buzz notification sound has been improved and vibrating notifications have been added to it as well. You can also turn Buzz off in the Settings menu.
- The IM notification sound has been changed.
- Address book integration issues have been solved.
If you would like to get Yahoo! Messenger 10 Beta, a download location is available here.
If you would like to get Yahoo! Messenger for Mac 3.0 Beta, a download location is available here.
If you would like to get Yahoo! Messenger for iPhone, a download location is available here.
