Microsoft released its newest chat client, Messenger 6.0, for the Macintosh platform in Universal Binary form.
Version 6.0 of the Microsoft Messenger for Mac works for Mac OS 10.3 or later, according to its website. The Universal Binary will permit it to work on PowerPC and Intel-based processors.
Microsoft has long touted that outside of Apple it has the largest number of developers working on Mac software. They listed a number of new features for the Mac client that reflect the work they can accomplish:
• Chat with Yahoo! Messenger contacts
• Add a status message that your personal contacts can see
• Share what you are listening to in iTunes with your personal contacts
• Create, send, and receive custom emoticons with personal contacts
• Send and receive custom animated emoticons with personal contacts
• Search for conversation histories using Spotlight
• Check the spelling in your instant messages
Microsoft announced earlier in 2006 they would interoperate messaging with Yahoo. This update represents another step toward better interoperability between IM clients for the two companies.
There are two types of communication services being offered through the new client – personal and corporate. The announcement from Microsoft described the differences between the two:
A personal account works with the Windows Live Messenger service. Contacts that you add to your personal account include friends and family members. Instant message conversations with users are not limited to users who have Messenger for Mac installed on their computers.
A corporate account uses the Microsoft Office Live Communications Server service. Contacts that you add to your corporate account include coworkers who are in the same company as you and associates at other companies. Instant message conversations with other corporate account users are not limited to corporate users who have Messenger for Mac installed on their computers.
With the federation features enabled on Live Communications Server, users can also have instant message conversations with users who have other instant messaging services, such as AOL Instant Messenger (AIM), Yahoo! Messenger, and iChat users who are signed in with AOL accounts.
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David Utter is a staff writer for murdok covering technology and business.
