RSSYahoo Messenger previews a new Vista-centric version
By Tim Conneally | Published December 6, 2007, 12:22 PM
Last night, Yahoo opened the pre-beta preview version of Yahoo Messenger for Vista, with graphic features that appear to be more at home in the Vista environment than with XP.
Yahoo's newest version of its Messenger client has been designed from the ground up for Vista, with an interface different from all prior incarnations, built upon the Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF).
Since this is only a preview version intended to gather reactions from the public, it is missing many of the features familiar to previous Yahoo releases. Among these are: voice, webcam support, chat rooms, IM to SMS, IMVironments, Audibles, plug-ins, conferencing and photo sharing. Drag-and-drop sharing of files up to 2 GB is one of the features available, so photos technically can be sent.
Josh Jacobson, Senior Product Manager of Yahoo Messenger for Vista, has made it abundantly clear that this preview version needs to be discussed in public, noting several times in press releases and the preview video the myriad ways in which testers can let Yahoo know their opinions. If the "feedback" button built into the messenger is not enough, you may fill out a feedback form.
A direct download of the preview is available on messenger.yahoo.com/download_vista.php. Users looking for an open source application also utilizing WPF may wish to check out Jabber client Xeus Messenger, currently in beta.
Sorry, posted twice by accident. How do you delete a comment if you accidentally post twice?
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|I was expecting something where you could do more than the XP version, not less. Maybe the final release in January 2009 will have all the bells and whistles.
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|WPF is also available for XP since 2006 so Yahoo! should release this for XP as well.
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|its ehhhh ok.
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|"with an interface different from all prior incantations"
incarnations
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|tough crowd
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|Would be nice if the download page for it on BetaNews *actually* had a screenshot of the Beta version and not an older version.
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|Looks like a total rewrite... So many are quick to judge when they themselves likely never experienced such an undertaking.
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|Wow, 10 months after their 1st announcement that the 1st Beta would be available soon, they managed to get out a pre-beta release which looks more or less like an empty shell. It's easier to sum up what actually works with this release then to mention what doesn't work yet. You can send an IM to your friends and that's basically it... Not bad for 10 months of development. Probably takes them another 10 months before they release a Beta version which could be rigged with bugs.
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|props to yahoo. at least it looks like they're trying to be awesome with everything they've done in the last 4 years. jquery over their bloated yui, but i can see where they wanted something to use amongst all their apps regardless of its true benefit to the outside developers
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|Yeah it would be cool to install but it lack 64bit support. Seems weak that many of these "software" devlopers can't make it work for 64bit. You don't even get the option to install the 32bit version. And this is built on WPF which is nativally supported by Vista.
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|WPF is "Windows Presentation Foundation" not Format. I think a minimum talent is fine to have before writing an article.
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|ouch. never had a typo in your day mr perfect?
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|What does talent have anything to do with writing an article?
He made an error in what it was called
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|He did already:
"I think a minimum talent is fine"
minimal
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|Ouch! lol
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|zing!
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