MSN Quietly Updates Messenger to 7.5

By Ed Oswald | Published August 24, 2005, 12:08 PM

Microsoft on Tuesday afternoon beefed up its MSN Messenger client by releasing version 7.5 of the product. Among the new features are a continued push for VoIP through a feature called "voice clip" and beta connectivity with Vodafone Messenger for customers in Europe.

Voice clip allows a user to record a small audio file under 15 seconds in length and send it to his or her contacts. The feature does not require a direct connection to work, and will play instantly upon receipt. Microsoft says the feature was designed to feel like an instant message, and adds a "personalized and emotional dimension to IM."

Microsoft has also improved audio quality for VoIP calls with improved echo cancellation.

MSN Messenger 7.5 adds interoperability with users of Vodafone Messenger in Europe - a service provided by the mobile phone company that enables subscribers to talk between a handset and PC. In June, Vodafone and MSN first introduced interoperability through Vodafone's own product.

"This move will connect the largest PC IM service in the world with customers from the world's largest mobile carrier," a Microsoft spokesperson told BetaNews. "We're in beta with this service today and MSN Messenger v7.5 is the client that will enable us to roll this service out more broadly in the coming weeks and months in Europe."

Also in Tuesday's release were dynamic backgrounds that allow for animation in the background of a Messenger chat window, expanded security settings, and better audio and video conference support.

MSN Messenger 7.5 is available for download from FileForum.

Comments

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Personally I prefere MSN... Sure some of the features you have to buy but hey if you ignore those features (if you dont like to buy them) then MSN works fine.... I've never had a problem with MSN..... I update it everytime..... so I give credit to MSN, fun and easy!..... screw yahoo, and google......

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I wouldn't give two cents for their new start page or hotmail, but MSN messenger is actually useful and does some of the best video messaging out there.

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its not even getting signed in !!!!

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Good the 7.5, togehter with AIM and Yahoo still most used out there and the Google Beta Thing is nice but what does it do better as any other? Sure for now it is a stripped thing to tease the other players in the market and they know. Google didn't bring anything on the market (search engines only) which make sense thus far. All apps look like colorful Toys R Us things with a half empty batteries. Google has choosen to go a fast way, disposal policy, and waiting or hoping that from the 100 apps released maybe 1 will make it big. They placed themselfs on a very low and desperate level actually. They better keep stuck with their search engines! Having the bucks to develop doesn't mean anything.

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eh that was really not a well informed review

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Sure Google Talk doesnt do anything better than others but its forcing competitors to do better. For example take Gmail, it came out with a slick interface and 2gb of storage space which in turned forced other companies such as Yahoo and Hotmail to do the same thing in order for them to keep there customers. Just think about being stuck with 10mb of free space in Hotmail as opposed to the 250mb they offer now, if it wasnt for google that my have never happened, infact hotmail is developing a new interface and is going to up storage space again all again thanks to google. Google also made satellite images for maps which pushed other companies like microsoft to do the same. So by google accelarating production and apps its forcing others to do the same overall helping us as customers. If you look at it also ICQ was the best IM client out there and the most widely used back in the days it had everything MSN currenlty offers from file transfers to confrence chatting however it did not have the ability to retrieve contacts from any computer thats where MSN picked up and made itself popular. Likewise Google Talk I believe will do the same in the near future.

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The only reason msn released 7.5 is because GoogleTalk was released today! This version is very unstable and still has many bugs which were reported in the Beta stages but was not fix. They just released it in a hurry because of Google Talk. Nonetheless MSN still is popular and the new features added in 7.5 like dynamic backgrounds are useless KEEP IT SIMPLE STUPID....and thats what google has done!

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Personally, I prefer MSN to all of the other IM clients. Yeah, it has some fluff and it's not very professional, but it's fun to use and has lots of nice features. Yahoo is also very good, and AIM is way behind and WAAAYYY overdue for a remake. I've tried others like Trillian and they don't have all of the features that I use. So I'm sticking with MSN, which is a very nice, full featured client.

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it is very nice, but its insecure x_x research a bit

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Now that Google Talk has been released, it seems others are beginning to make a big push. I think if anyone is going to create something to compete with Google they'll need to learn to remove all the bloat from the products and only leave what the majority of the users want - leaving the rest for plugins for example! I'm certainly not going back to MSN...

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The articles FileForum link doesn't work. http://fileforum.betanew...for_Windows/942840565/1

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