A few things. FREE Windows 7 is entering it's last days. Beta versions will start experience a rolling expiration starting July 1 with all beta copies expiring August 1. The present RC release candidate downloads will end August 15. Microsoft says any installed RC is set to expire on June 1, 2010, with the bi-hourly shutdowns starting March 1.
How you tried Bing, Microsoft's new search engine. Let's hear your opinions and comments here!
Although Bing is pretty big news, Microsoft is also intending an overhaul of their venerable MSN portal home page. Some of the MSN changes are already being tested in various parts of the world. France is now seeing a new user interface with fewer channels and more prominent video. In Brazil, a far more radical remake of MSN features a social media bar where people can drag videos to share them with their circle of friends.
In general MS wants to pear down the channels and increase the video content. They are experimenting with new software that responds to user input such as preferred video content. The company has an MSN Today screen it shows users as they log into Windows Live Messenger. For the past three months, Microsoft has been showing four different screens depending on whether a user is male or female and whether he or she is over or under 25.
Here's a link to an interesting article on the history of emoticons (smilies). It was written by a friend of ours--me (shameless plug).
Do you know about eBuddy? eBuddy is an all platform all chat software interface that makes chatting easy and fun even across several chat platforms. Whether you prefer MSN, Yahoo, AIM, GTalk, Facebook, ICQ or MySpace, this interface handles it all.
You can use in on your desktop, mobile phone, even Android. You can put all your friends in one buddy list and instantly chat from anywhere. There are web versions as well as mobile versions. You can even chat in the browser of any device: mobile, PC, iPhone/iPod Touch, Sony PSP & Nintendo DS without an install. Works on older phones too.
It's rapidly becoming a mobile world. What with Blackberries and cell phones that act more like our home computers, more and more apps are bringing out mobile versions--including Microsoft through their Windows Live for Windows Mobile. The latest version includes Windows Live Hotmail, Messenger, Contacts and Spaces. Microsoft says you can even download and sync your contacts from your Windows Live account to your mobile phone.
Copy the link into your browser bar to get all the details. You'll need your mobile phone number as Microsoft sends the app right to your phone.
Guess, how many users use MSN Messenger monthly? Give up? According to Microsoft, more than 155 million users use this service monthly. That high number is a testament to MSN Messenger's continuing popularity despite a growing number of competitors.
It appears that younger users are turning to MSN for their instant messaging needs. While there are other worthy apps, the largely free MSN Messenger packs a heck of a lot of content into one central application.
