MSN Messenger Version 4.0

[minstryoffunk]

iChat is bloated... 23.8mb of RAM vs. 11.72mb for AIM, and AIM works better.

I use MSN only for a few people... it is opened on request.

AIM does not work better

not to mention that it is aesthetically unpleasing and has ads

the only advantage it has over iChat is the use of buddy info and the ability to copy conversations

it seems to me that most people have so much memory that it doesnt make a difference

 

[melchior]

??? you only have 768mb of ram and you think that's enough? sheesh! i cannot imagine using a copmuter with less than 4gig of ram

AIM does not work better

not to mention that it is aesthetically unpleasing and has ads

the only advantage it has over iChat is the use of buddy info and the ability to copy conversations

it seems to me that most people have so much memory that it doesnt make a difference

 

[iHack]

Wow. M$ actually meeting a deadline. They even seem to be a month early! Is this what Steve meant when he said hell froze over?

M.

 

[michael666]

it still doesn't support video messaging?

I am also disappointed about this. Is there actually any IM software that allows video chats between Mac and Windows (not XP)? Yahoo supports video, but no sound!

 

[Craigy]

iChat for PC?

I wonder if iChat AV for the PC will ever show it's face? Especially since apple seems so pally with AOL at the momemnt.

I sure they would shift a heck of a lot of isights....

 

[Nermal]

I think you just pointed out the stem of a primary argument: we can't just switch to a different service, our peers those clients and thus we must use the service that they use and I don't plan on convincing the hundreds of contacts on my list to switch.

Exactly. I don't feel like telling all my friends to switch to a service they've never even heard of. So MSN it is.

Edit: And it looks like they haven't fixed the date problem I reported a while ago (always displays dates in the American format, regardless of what you've set in System Preferences).

 

[Telomar]

Edit: And it looks like they haven't fixed the date problem I reported a while ago (always displays dates in the American format, regardless of what you've set in System Preferences).

Mine displays the date in the same preference as the entire system, dd/mm/yy. That's also clearly not the US method.

 

[displaced]

disclaimer: not tried v4.0 yet, but will update when I get away from work.

The firewall/NAT traversal stuff is welcome -- these things really should just work, and I'm glad it's got done.

I'd really love to see video and voice chat. As previous posters have pointed out, changing services isn't really practical if your buddies don't also change.

It's a shame that video conferencing has become so intertwined with chat apps. Before the IM craze exploded, there was a real push towards standardised video conferencing. Unfortunately this seems to have fallen away -- it's still perfectly possible, but not as convenient or as accessible to the masses in the way that instant messaging with video support is.

The issue seems to have gone on the back-burner recently, but we really need interoperability between IM protocols. It's incredible that we've had to put up with this situation as long as we have.

Are any of the alternative MSN-capable clients (Fire, Proteus, etc) working on (or even considering) including voice & video? That'd be nice to see. At the very least, it would be good if the MS MacBU would state either way whether these features are planned for Mac Messenger... I was sorta hoping that it'd be in v4...

Still -- I'm quite a fan of Office on the Mac. Even though messenger may be lackluster, I've found Office to be pretty great. Similar enough to the Windows versions to be comfortable, but with plenty of Mac flair. Considering the size of the projects they undertake and their limited resources, I reckon the MacBU are doing excellent work.

(but I'd trade all the tea in China for a feature-complete and fully compatible port of MS Access. I swear that's the only thing keeping our company tied to Windows..... live the dream..)

 

[jwhitnah]

People use this?

 

[Stella]

What has actually changed since the previous version - any new functionality or just a face lift?

MSN 4 is a crock of ****.

 

[denm316]

its getting better, still not will all the features of the windows version

 

[Trowaman]

I wonder if iChat AV for the PC will ever show it's face? Especially since apple seems so pally with AOL at the momemnt.

I sure they would shift a heck of a lot of isights....

here here. While we're at it, let's give iChat the ability to make profiles (taglines are great, but so is permanent stuff) and easy up the way to add people to buddy lists. Also if I have someone with multiple screen names and they are signed on to both, I'd to have some easy way to choose which screen name to IM.

On this note, I'm at college and Rendezvous rulez. We were actually able to make an Apple club b/c of it. THink of how many other interesting people we could meet with iChat for PC.

. . . Well I'm ready for iChat 3.

 

[simply258]

many claimed that aMSN is a much better client.
well, in some way it is.
but i've tried aMSN, and it's annoying in some ways as well.

Give dMSN a go. I use it instead of the official version. Much better than aMSN.

http://www.versiontracker.com/dyn/moreinfo/macosx/23124

 

[achmafooma]

On my Windows PC, I use Trillian because it supports ICQ, MSN, AIM, Yahoo Messenger, and....um.....one other messaging service. I only know people that use ICQ and MSN, mostly MSN, so iChat is out of the question.

Not for people who have absolutely no use for it.

MSN Messenger has always worked for me, and I never have any trouble using it, so until Trillian or someone makes a program that supports both ICQ and MSN (amongst others), I'll just stick with MSN.

Fire supports AIM, ICQ, MSN, Yahoo!, and Jabber in a single interface in Mac OS X.

http://fire.sourceforge.net/

It's pretty good. Not perfect, but I've been using it for a couple weeks now and am overall very happy with it.

 

[keysersoze]

ooooooooo NEW EMOTICONS! So Exciting!



stupid microsoft.

 

[gorkonapple]

GRRRRR

New emoticons? Come on Microsoft! GIVE ME VOICE at a minimum! I am sick of not having this on my mac(but not enough to switch).

 

[djdarlek]

Its crap, They cant design **** for the mac.

while generally i'll jump on the Microsoft hate-wagon any chance i get.. but on mac, aside from messenger, i have been very impressed with their office suite.. Office X was not as bad as many people make out, and i have been running the developers version of Office 2004 for about a month now and i LOVE it! great features, brilliant spam catchin, loads of new features etc.. this early version is still yet to crash, and compared to my old copy of Office X entourage, the search functions are pretty impressive..

other than that MICROSOFT DIE MICROSOFT DIE MICROSOFT DIE MICROSOFT DIE MICROSOFT DIE MICROSOFT DIE MICROSOFT DIE MICROSOFT DIE MICROSOFT DIE MICROSOFT DIE MICROSOFT DIE

 

[Abstract]

Fire supports AIM, ICQ, MSN, Yahoo!, and Jabber in a single interface in Mac OS X.

http://fire.sourceforge.net/

It's pretty good. Not perfect, but I've been using it for a couple weeks now and am overall very happy with it.

Thanks buddy.

 

[bobpensik]

so until Trillian or someone makes a program that supports both ICQ and MSN (amongst others), I'll just stick with MSN.

They have, they are called: Adium , Fire , Proteus to name a few!

Adium is the best tho, in my opinion!

 

[iggyb]

Fire supports AIM, ICQ, MSN, Yahoo!, and Jabber in a single interface in Mac OS X.

http://fire.sourceforge.net/

It's pretty good. Not perfect, but I've been using it for a couple weeks now and am overall very happy with it.

This is what gets frustrating with Apple. Why won't they allow iChat to support all these formats as well? Why keep iChat limited to so few users?

 

[~Shard~]

Hmm, I was initially thinking of picking this up since I have quite a few friends on MSN, however after reading the amjority of negative posts here, I think I'll stay away! Although I can't say I'm too surprised that Microsoft has once again released a sub-par version of software...

 

[achmafooma]

This is what gets frustrating with Apple. Why won't they allow iChat to support all these formats as well? Why keep iChat limited to so few users?

Good question. I love the iChat interface, and it was really tough for me to switch to Fire (although I'll give Adium another try, since people seem to be giving it rave reviews -- I haven't used it since way-back-when it was just an AIM client).

I only switched for a few silly little reasons. #1 was the support for multiple chat services (which iChat absolutely should do! I mean, we can put MSN, Yahoo!, and other accounts in Address Book!), #2 is that I missed having a profile, and #3 is some people are really dense and assume you're available if they don't get an auto-response away message.

Hopefully iChat 3 will introduce these things! I understand the delay with #1 (although can't they just pull from the open-source apps [like Adium, Fire, etc.] like they did with Safari?), but #2 and 3 seem pretty easy ... I can't imagine why they didn't show up in iChat 2.

 

[jcshas]

I use MSN Messenger out of convenience since the majority of my friends and relatives are PC users, and or have Hotmail accounts. Aside from the understanding that this is predominately a Mac centric community here, I'm not sure why everyone is giving MSN Messenger such a bad rap. Yes, I own both Mac's and PC's, AND yes, I think Apple makes a far superior product. But having used both, I can't see how iChat is so much better than MSN Messenger. Just my two cents.

 

[bpd115]

Messenger is bloated and doesn't provide Video or Voice ala it's PC counterpart which is why everyone is laughing at this "upgrade". Wow new emoticions big deal...

 

[Chealion]

There are some new features!

Does anyone know if this is Cocoa or still Carbon?

If it is a Cocoa rewrite, then it deserves it's 4.0 moniker. Otherwise it should 3.5.2 with a fugly logo.

However some new features I like: Turn off promotional pane (no more ads in your contact list!) And the alerts are less intrusive. Nice change that way. Really disappointed in the upgrade however, maybe 3.6 at best if it wasn't rewritten.