Yahoo! has announced the beta release of its leading IM service Yahoo Messenger 9.0. The new version is powered with intuitive design and functionalities like integrated media player and user-friendly tools which enable people to connect with their friends in an easy manner. The new Yahoo Messenger comes with a localize language support in new markets including Philippines, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, India (in Hindi), and Vietnam, which takes Yahoo Messenger’s international base to over 25 nations.
The new features have been designed keeping the needs of Yahoo’s existing users in mind. Apparently, Yahoo messenger users spend approx. an hour daily which exceeds the time spent on any other IM service. The power-packed connectivity options include IM, Voice and SMS support.
So what’s new in this Beta version?
For a start, the friends list interface is revamped. Now a user can easily see the online presence indicator, display image and status all in one go. All it takes is a single-click to connect with users via voice, text message or instant messages.
In-line Media Player: The media player enables users to send image,video and map URLs to their friends and family members. File transfer becomes safe and secure than ever with scan support being provide by Symantec Norton AntiVirus.
The call forwarding option (similar to VOIP giant Skype’s) allows users to stay connected while they’re are away from their desktops. Moreover, all voice mails are sent as email attachments in MP3 format. Extensive personalization empowers users to add their personal touch to the way Yahoo Messenger appears. So they can play around with skins customize their designs and do more. In line with web2.0 the new beta comes with Flickr integration so users can share their Flickr photos with IM buddies.
On the occasion of news announcement, Sabrina Ellis, Yahoo’s Vice President said, “We’ve punched up Yahoo! Messenger to make keeping in touch with friends and family even more fun, with features like the in-line media player that helps people easily share their favorite videos, images and photos right in the IM window”.
Yahoo Messenger is the default communication tool which connects over 94 million users across the globe. Don’t waste your time go and grab the beta of the new Yahoo! Messenger can at http://beta.messenger.yahoo.com.
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There’s a few applications that would help make Linux more of a mainstream OS, but don’t expect to see them ported to Linux anytime soon. One of the least discussed in this fashion? Adobe Photoshop.
Yes, I know I’ve said before that in my purview Linux doesn’t need mainstream success to be “succesful”, but this is one of those canards that gets waved under my nose often enough that it needs to be addressed at least once.
Why Photoshop? For one, apart from Microsoft Office, it’s one of the most broadly used programs in the whole of the computer world, both Mac and PC. Everyone either wants Photoshop or “a program like Photoshop.” And in many cases, they don’t have the luxury of choosing: they’re in a graphic-arts or design job where Photoshop is mandatory, not optional. By far the most overriding reason is support for CMYK colorspaces (you can’t do proper graphics work for print without CMYK support). Lack of proper CMYK support is one of the biggest reasons why GIMP, the open-source Photoshop-like app for Linux, hasn’t been able to displace Photoshop in a professional context.
And why no Linux-specific version of Photoshop? First, and most likely, Adobe probably believes there just isn’t a market for Photoshop on Linux — yet — especially since the perceived size of that market isn’t even a fraction of its total sales, whether for Mac or Windows.
There’s also the question of commercial application support on Linux, a topic which deserves its own post but which can be summed up this way: Closed-source apps generally only get supported on a couple of distributions at a time — Red Hat and SuSE are two of the biggest, although Ubuntu is turning up more and more — since the effort involved for more than a couple of distros is more than many software companies want to take on.
(This is where I agree at least in part with Alex Wolfe about there being too many distros — too many for the software makers, but that still means a plurality of choices for the users.)
What’s ironic is that a while back, Adobe had an IRIX version of Photoshop available for a number of Silicon Graphics computers. I played with an SGI O2 workstation that had it running, and it operated exactly like its Windows counterpart. Surely it wouldn’t be difficult to take the work done for the IRIX version and apply that to a Linux edition? Probably not — programming for IRIX, Linux, and the Mac OS are almost certainly as unalike as it gets in many ways.
Finally, there’s the problem of third-party add-ons. Photoshop has a giant library of plug-ins, and many Photoshop users are married to their plug-in collections. Said plug-ins would not work on Linux, unless a) they were rewritten from the ground up (not terribly likely) or b) the Linux edition of PS had, say, some kind of back-end into Wine that allowed the plug-in to run correctly. There’s always the possibility of running the Windows edition of Photoshop in an emulated Windows session or in Wine, but that sort of defeats the point.
So if Adobe ever bothers to offer Photoshop for Linux, I suspect it’s going to be for very specific breeds of Linux, and not Linux generically. I’m dead certain Adobe is not about to make Photoshop into an open-source product; they’re going to be as stalwart about this as Microsoft is about Office. But again, it’s a question of how much Adobe feels it’s likely to get back for that effort — which, at this point, is probably not a lot at all.
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Apple has apparently instituted a credit card-only policy for iPhone sales at its retail stores in order to guarantee supply for the holidays and frustrate potential resellers, according to multiple reports.
Would-be iPhone buyers must now present a credit or debit card if they want to take home an iPhone, and they’re also now limited to just two units, as they were on iPhone Day, according to The Associated Press. The AP quoted an Apple representative explaining the move as a way of making sure there are enough iPhones for the holidays and to prevent unauthorized resellers from flooding the market.
It’s not clear whether the same policy applies to AT&T stores. I e-mailed the Apple representative quoted in the AP report late Friday evening and haven’t heard back.
Before Thursday, when the policy was implemented, you could walk into any Apple store and plunk down cash for up to five iPhones. While the concerns about supply are harder to gauge from a distance, the credit card policy seems designed to make sure buyers leave a paper trail.
You can’t really enforce a purchasing limit if the customer pays cash. How would Apple know if I walked into the downtown San Francisco store this afternoon and bought two iPhones with cash, then drove over to the Stonestown Galleria or down the road to Palo Alto, and picked up two more? Would-be unlockers might also be wary about using a credit card to pay for their purchases, even though unlocking isn’t illegal. Apple is definitely paying attention to the market for unlocked iPhones, estimating earlier this week that 250,000 people have purchased an iPhone with the intention of unlocking it from AT&T’s network.
Apple is apparently well within their rights to refuse to accept cash, as outraged as our resident libertarians might feel. U.S. businesses don’t have to accept cash if they don’t want to, according to the U.S. Treasury’s Web site, unless there is a state law that specifically requires them to accept cash.
I’m sure there are at least a few people who were thinking about equipping their family of four with iPhones this Christmas. The reports make it sound like the restriction will just last throughout the holidays, but that hasn’t been clarified as of right now.
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