For those select few that use Windows Live Messenger (formerly
MSN Messenger), I have great news for you if you have been waiting for A/V on the Mac version,
Messenger for Mac. While the Microsoft’s Macintosh Business Unit, MacBU, was on the show floor at Macworld, the development team was showing off a new unreleased version of Messenger. I had a chance to ask a few questions to a dev team member. After a December update being the last status report, MacBU felt that they had not shown the community enough, and because of this, the community might think they are slacking on the job, especially when it comes to the must promised A/V chat. They decided to show off the latest build of Messenger at Macworld with emphasize on the A/V chat.
Photos after the break.
The build at Macworld was unstable, as noted by one of the developers when I asked if I could take it for a test drive. She noted that, basically, the only thing new in between the current version of Messenger and this build was the A/V chat. Also, you may ask how I know the version number. Upon being granted permission to “look around,” I immediately clicked “About Messenger for Mac” to take a screen pic. The developer closed the window and prevented me from taking a picture. She snapped at me that she did not want the version number in the public in the event that the number changed; she cited a previous story as a testament. Despite this, I was able to look at the window long enough to see the version number was 8.0.0 and a build number that I did not have time to memorize. I share this fact just to keep an open flow of information.
The developer told me that there is talk of a beta but no indication of when it would begin. She noted that the new version should be released within the year.