MSN 5.0 Mac

[joneSi]

According to macrumors.com it is available for immediate release. Will this finally have the audio/video support we want? Most likely not. If you can, and you use it, upgrade it and let us know!

joneSi

 

[fryke]

Actually, I think you've read that either on macnews.net.tc, appleinsider.com or another rumour page carrying the rumour. Currently, MS has not yet made the new version available. The new version was planned to be released last night/today, though...

 

[Reality]

All this new version has is a new look, display pictures, and better file transfer. Which would pretty much mean it has file transfer for the first time. MS 4.0 didn't work 99% of the time when sending off files to friends. I'm sticking with Aduim myself. it might be slower in some areas but it works all the time.

 

[joneSi]

Whoops, my bad. In my checks of the rumor mills, I failed to quote the proper one. Appleinsider.com is where I saw it.

joneSi

 

[CreativeEye]

just downloaded it...

you now have two tabs - 'personal' and 'corporate' - if you dont need either one you cant remove them. so they just take up dea room. it would be better if it let you sign into multiple accounts as i thought it would.

its also a very clumsy use of the metal interface. it just doenst feel right.

your contacts are too far right from the left hand side also.

you can now have a display picture... yawwwwnnnn...

all in all it just doesnt look very clever.

 

[Satcomer]

It STILL does not support web cameras. iChat is still the king on my box.

 

[joneSi]

Yawn is right. I just wish I could use iChat with video over Jabber. That would be nice...
joneSi

 

[fryke]

I'm glad they let go of the 'MSN' in the name, though. People constantly kept mixing MSN as a provider, MSN as a webbrowser and MSN as a messenger app... Now, it's simply 'Messenger'.

 

[RGrphc2]

i don't see it...i'm still getting Messenger 4.0 though

I'll stick with Adium X and iChat

 

[Viro]

It's been released. Get it here. Still no video conferencing. I'm staying with Adium.

 

[Veljo]

Adium is definately better. I tried out 5, and as expected it's disappointing. The one thing I prefer about it though is that it actually tells me whos online when they come on!

 

[smithy]

Yeah Messenger 5 is alright, they just don't want to make it as good as messenger for Windows. I do somewhat like the interface that they did design.

Veljo, download growl - this lets you have a notification with more than online/offline it includes file transfer cancel/sent/recieve and abit more. Also growl is fantastic for alot of other things eg. iTunes. It integrates alot of apps together with growl to show notifications. http://growl.info

 

[Convert]

I just got back from Iraq, and immediately downloaded M5.

... and to think I was excited. It's okay. It's better than MSN 4.0. It's more like MSN 4.5. If this is meant to be a substantial upgrade, I wonder what MSN 6 will support - custom emoticons? Yay.

Damn, first they make us wait so long... and now it doesn't even have any real improvements - the 'improvements' it makes are barely credible. I can't stand the display pics, it's too much of an excess on the window... and it's got that huge gap between the two pics.


How do you initiate chat with AIM users? If this works well, I may stick with MSN 5. I'm not sure.

 

[Porce]

You can't talk to AIM users using MSN, as far as I'm aware. You'd need to use Adium for that, and have your own AIM screenname. There's also a way to do it in iChat.

 

[Viro]

I don't get what is so cool about MSN on the Mac. It is crippled compared to MSN on Windows, lacking video conferencing and whiteboard features. Since it is only an IM program on the Mac, why not just stick to Adium?

 

[Convert]

Yeah, there's not even audio support. You just have to take a look at the MS site to realise how they're basically hyping up basic features, to make this version seem amazing.

Rapid response is the name of the game for Mac users who don't have the time for a round of phone tag, especially at work. With this in mind, we've overhauled Microsoft Messenger for Mac, giving it an entirely new look and business-oriented features that include better security and support for users on a corporate network.

Rapid response? LOL.

 

[RGrphc2]

I don't get what is so cool about MSN on the Mac. It is crippled compared to MSN on Windows, lacking video conferencing and whiteboard features. Since it is only an IM program on the Mac, why not just stick to Adium?

it is crippled and it sucks. I'll stick to iChat for everything (loves jabber!), everyone i kno uses aim anyways...so it's not a big deal

 

[Convert]

Most UKers use MSN rather than AIM. All my friends in England use MSN. I only use AIM for my American/Canadian friends.

Final Verdict: MSN 5 is not really a substantial update. I've already mentioned how barely different it is feature wise (still no audio support... yet third party apps such as Adium and Mercury Messenger support this - MM supports webcam too), so I thought at least tech wise it'd be better. But no. It's basically the same "Internet problem" which is only valid when using the official client; use a third party client and I never get d/c. Also, it still has that password error, claiming that my password is incorrect, when it isn't. It's just a 'connection problem'.

It's kinda sad, how the company of the official client of such a popular idea, is doing so badly in this aspect. Really awful delivery, truck-loads of hype, and barely any new features, while the Windows version has really stupid features like nudges. Is Microsoft trying to win me over here?