Yahoo! Messenger Goes to CES
January 11, 2007 on 4:27 pm | In News |
What’s the telltale sign of a day spent at the Computer Electronics Show in Las Vegas? Aching feet! CES is the world’s largest electronics show. The exhibits, gadgets, and booths go on for miles. My first stop was the Yahoo! tent, where I saw our own Josh Jacobson in action, demonstrating the new Yahoo! Messenger for Windows Vista application.We got a lot of “Oooh’s! and Aaah!’s” during the demo, which is always gratifying, but more than that, users seemed excited that Yahoo! Messenger is embracing the new Windows Vista operating system.
Then I crossed the street into the large exhibition halls, searching for electronics that Yahoo! Messenger users might find useful. It didn’t take me long. The Sony booth had some sleek Bluetooth headphones with a built-in microphone. If you use the voice feature in Yahoo! Messenger, these provide a truly hands-free, wireless calling experience. Sony also displayed its handheld Mylo (My Life Online) device, which comes preloaded with Yahoo! Messenger.
I also saw a nice trend emerging among monitor manufacturers: built-in cameras and microphones. In the Samsung booth, we checked out a prototype monitor due to ship in May or June that features a built-in, swiveling camera and a two-microphone array. The microphones pick up sound more effectively in places with lots of ambient noise (like workplaces). This kind of monitor will make video and voice conversations in Yahoo! Messenger a breeze. No more extra accessories and wires — just sit in front of your monitor and start communicating.
Logitech presented some new accessories for the Microsoft Windows Vista operating system, including the QuickCam® Ultra Vision™ Special Edition webcam. It has some handy features like an activity light so you know when you’re “live” and a quick preview button so you can check yourself for a bad hair day before broadcasting. The webcam also includes Logitech’s RightLight 2 technology, which enhances your video picture even in low light condition. This new camera also works on Windows XP.
From what I saw at the show, 2007 promises to be a great year for Yahoo! Messenger users, with new versions, cool accessories, and other goodies. We’ll keep you posted!
Sarah Bacon
Product Manager
P.S. - For more on CES, check out the complete coverage on Yahoo! Tech.
Thank for this interesting coverage… For Yahoo! maniacs who not live in USA, like me ;op
Why not organize local public conference in all countries* every years, dedicated to all newest or futures products while invite famous users or third-party contributors, press agencies ? … A great public thinthank !
(*) where Yahoo! have local office.
Comment by Olivier D. alias ze kat — January 13, 2007 #
hi thank u
Comment by Farzin — January 14, 2007 #
Maybe when the Y! staff gets back from CES, they’ll FIX THE CHAT SERVERS? And we’ll be able to chat again? Huh? That would be flippin’ sweet.
Comment by Rufus — January 14, 2007 #
hey, that’s cool
Comment by sammie — January 15, 2007 #
The chat servers and entry into rooms for the past 5 days has been nothing but pitiful, took 28 trys to just get messenger to connect to chat. For wanting to better our chat experience all the time you sure do like to make it hit rock bottom as well. Yahoo! need to have a service status page like MSN to let users be aware of your server issues and planned technical and network updates. Now that yahoo and MSN are scratching each others backs i’m sure you can learn something from them.
Comment by Dermot — January 15, 2007 #
I’m having terrible trouble connecting to chat rooms to..I’m waiting anything up to 5 minutes to get into a room before I get ‘Invalid User’, ‘Login to chat took longer than expected’ or some other message come up before I have to try again..I’m wasting all my chat time just trying to get into a room!
And while I’h here..when I eventualy do get into a room I generaly find it 90 percent full of pay bots..enough to drive me out of the room I just spent 5 minutes trying to get into!! Can you not do anything about these menaces?
It’s all very well Yahoo being free and developing new software etc etc but if the current system and software don’t work what’s the point??..you’re driving me away to places like PalTalk..I’d rather pay and have something that works than use a freebie that just isn’t up to scratch and most of it’s customers are damned bots!
Yahoo Messenger used to be good back in the build 5/6x days but since the link up with Windows Messenger its going downhill fast and the brakes need to be put on before it crashes completely.
Colin
Comment by colin1951uk — January 16, 2007 #
Yeah its a bit dissapointing.. A lot of hype but its functionaly getting worse..
I like chatting. But lately I can’t using Yahoo.. (Get it… I can’t CHAT… on Yahoo Chat,) And no amount of announcements and corporate munchy meetings changes that fact. Yahoo Chat is not a functioning chat and messaging system.
Oh well, its a big ol net, perhaps its time to pack our bags and move on..
Quote: “Yahoo! Messenger is embracing the new Windows Vista operating system.” …and forsaking loyal users..
Quote: “From what I saw at the show, 2007 promises to be a great year for Yahoo! ” …great, glad you are having fun, so far for ychat users 2007 has sucked… BIGTIME!!.
Comment by Shion — January 16, 2007 #
A while back ago, Yahoo servers were F’ed up in a way so that nobody could send private messages to each other. But could chat in chat rooms just fine.
And the odd thing about this was that the chatroom bots were still able to pm everyone freely with their spam messages. This led me to suspect that a vast majority of chatroom bots actually come from Yahoo itself. If so, I’m not sure if Yahoo creates bots to help with revenue, or to track people by looking at their ignore list (maybe only certain bots are in certain rooms), or to ensure no room is empty since not many would go to an empty room.
Comment by flashy — January 17, 2007 #
welldone
great
i like yahoo
keep on Yahoo !
we all love you , So much
and thank you .
Comment by Reza.com — January 17, 2007 #
Hi,
If the new version of the messenger is based on WPF and .NET 3.0, shouldn’t I be ablr to run it on windows XP with the .NET framework installed?
Why does everyone keep saying that this is only for the Vista operating system?
Comment by Hitesh A — January 23, 2007 #
maybe because of the new GUI. If the Yahoo Messenger Developer Team decide to only support Vista Operating Systems then there will be no way to run it on Microsoft Windows XP. I want to run this on XP because i think Vista completly sucks. I like the Windows XP Theming not the Vista Interfacing.. besides Vista uses alot of memory and will probably require something like a Dual Quadro PC to get the best performance out of this. Its a shame the XP Theming was not supported on Vista its a big let down.
Yahoo Messenger for Vista will be cool anyway. Lets just hope i can run it on Windows XP because its the best OS around.
yea yea Yahoo Team! its a new Product. Dont people get excited about when a new Product is released and think they always have to be a first there? alot of people think that and want to benefit from that Product. Now getting back on the Vista “Subject” i dont think i will be using it until Microsoft fix its bugs and supports the Windows XP Framework.
nice chatting see you guys around.
Comment by Mr Gordon — January 25, 2007 #
Will there ever be a Y! meesenger with voice that works with windows mobile? Yahoo Go is nice, but isn’t much more than pointers to mobile specific websites, and a messaging system that sucks. I use it on a PDA with BT and Wireless connection. The old Mobile version of AIM is an even better alternative to Y! messenger on mobile devices.
Comment by jimmy — February 1, 2007 #
I just downloaded the yahoo messenger for Windows Vista Preview Beta but, Where do I go to the chat rooms in Yahoo! Messenger for Windows Vista Preview beta
Comment by amyrenae_79 — December 6, 2007 #