Stories about: Messenger

This week the spotlight on Loop9, EvoConnect, Aura, Scentral, PtyAuctions, and Electric Optic Systems

Like most people visiting this site, you most likely live on the Internet. And that means you need help -- help with your home or business network for accessing the Internet, help with troubleshooting, help with downloading, and with e-mail, instant messaging, and security.

Taiwan's MSI (Micro-Star International) announced its competitor for the new low-cost laptop market, the MSI Wind, early this month at Computex, and we got a chance to try it out at MSI's offices in Taipei last week.

During the Altiris user conference in April, I watched a lunch panel discuss the "consumerization of IT" and whether that's a good thing. My initial thought was that it was probably bad for enterprises that want to control everything, but may be good for smaller businesses.

Yahoo announced the public release Wednesday of a new Address Book application programming interface (API) that enables developers to build new applications by using the address books behind Yahoo Messenger, Go, Mail and others.

Now that a Yahoo acquisition is off the table, Microsoft is moving quickly to "fix" its online branding problem, an executive said Tuesday.

Microsoft on Tuesday began letting advertisers display banner ads to mobile users of Windows Live Messenger and Windows Live Hotmail, following other companies already supporting mobile banner ads.

SpamAssassin, a popular open source spam-filtering software, will have deadlier aim thanks to an add-on tool that is being offered free of charge to small businesses and individuals by MailChannels.

Microsoft and Research In Motion (RIM) have announced an agreement to provide Microsoft Windows Live services on RIM's BlackBerry smartphones, expected to be available by Winter.

As the person who keeps the local instant messenger gateway server running, I have worked with our DBAs to ensure the database is backed up and regularly purged of old records. With the occasional update and patch, it has been running more or less problem-free for about six months. I usually only have to touch it when HR or Legal needs to pursue a issue.

Assuming that Saturday's public walkaway by Microsoft doesn't prove just to be a high-risk negotiation tactic against Yahoo -- after all, the companies are rumored to have been talking about some sort of merger or acquisition for almost three years -- then what we have is a software vendor suddenly awash in tens of billions of unspent dollars that it can now lavish on other Internet firms.