February 11, 2009 on 10:08 am | In 9.0 version, Features | 97 Comments
The Yahoo! Music LAUNCHcast plug-in is one of our more popular features, so I wanted to make sure everyone gets the news on upcoming changes to the service, brought to you by our “Rock On!” emoticon 
.
Starting February 16, CBS Radio will power LAUNCHcast Radio. LAUNCHcast Radio will still be accessible from the Yahoo! Messenger plug-in (as well as the Yahoo! Music website). However, it will be hosted and operated by CBS Radio rather than by Yahoo!.
With this change in service, you’ll still be able to listen to most of your favorite pre-programmed LAUNCHcast stations plus you’ll get access to CBS Radio’s wide variety of local music, news, talk, and sports programming.
Unfortunately, some features will be discontinued. Any custom “My Station” and “Moods” Stations you created will no longer be available. I love the “My Station” I’ve created so I’m really sorry to see this feature go.
If you are currently a LAUNCHcast Plus subscriber, please note that this service and its benefits will also be discontinued a few days earlier on February 12. While you will still have access to LAUNCHcast and CBS stations, all radio stations will be supported by advertising and there will no longer be a commercial-free option. Note that stations that were exclusive to LAUNCHcast Plus users will be made available to all users after the transition.
If you are a Yahoo! user through your internet provider like AT&T or Verizon, you may have been enjoying LAUNCHcast Plus as part of your account without realizing it. So don’t be alarmed if you start hearing commercials after the switch.
As a Yahoo! Messenger user, you don’t need to do anything to your plug-in or to Messenger to continue enjoying LAUNCHcast Radio powered by CBS Radio. The transition will be automatic and is scheduled to occur on February 16. In addition, if you have experienced any bugs with the current LAUNCHcast plug-in, those should go away when the plug-in is updated for the switch. Also note that only users in the US and Canada will be able to access the LAUNCHcast plug-in.
For more information on the LAUNCHcast and CBS Radio service changes, please visit:
http://help.yahoo.com/l/us/yahoo/music/launchcast/transition/faqs.html
Sarah Bacon
Product Manager
February 10, 2009 on 11:40 am | In 9.0 version, Features, Voice | 17 Comments
Well, either our voice users are very organized or they have super secret calls they’re afraid will be discovered.
To that end, we added back in the option to delete items from your call history list in Yahoo! Messenger 9.0.
Click a call to highlight it, then click the delete button above. To select multiple calls for deletion, use ctrl + click. To delete all your call history, click to select one in the list, then press ctrl + a on your keyboard to select them all. Note that we only show the one hundred most recent calls in the window. So if you delete them all, the next time you open that window the next hundred will be there.
And we know some users were experiencing a bug where the call history window was popping up every time you signed in (even if you didn’t have missed calls). We’ve fixed this problem so just sign out of Yahoo! Messenger 9.0, quit the application, then start it again and sign in. You’ll see the call history window one more time but on future sign-ins, you’ll only see it when you have missed calls or a voicemail.
Sarah Bacon
Product Manager
November 24, 2008 on 11:43 am | In 9.0 version, Features, Fun Stuff | 5 Comments
In celebration of the Thanksgiving holiday, we’ve got a couple of treats to share with you.
New Flickr IMVironment
Dubbed “the IMV for all seasons”, this new IMV displays Flickr photos in the background of your IM conversation. When you load the IMV, it goes to the current month we’re in. Then it will rotate photos that we’ve found on Flickr that fit with that month or season. Snowy landscapes in the winter months, sunny beaches in the summer – you get the idea.
When you switch to a different month, it switches for your friend too (but you’ll likely see different photos within each month because they rotate randomly), It’s a great IMV to add some color to your IM conversation. Plus when it’s cold and snowy outside, you can just switch to a warmer month to take your mind off things. Tip: You can move and resize the conversation space within the IMV. Try it now with a friend or just preview it yourself (Yahoo! Messenger 8.1 or 9.0 only).
Thanksgiving Audibles
Send some thanksgiving wishes to your IM friends with this trio of audibles. We’ve got a thankful pilgrim and a bloated diner who really know how to show their gratitude for a good meal. And of course we have a talking turkey – how could we not? 
To access them, go to the Audibles menu in your IM window, select “More Audibles”, then “See All Audibles” and click on “Thanksgiving” (U.S. only; Yahoo! Messenger 8.1 or 9.0).
This will be our only post this week and comments will be turned off for a few days until we’re back in the office to keep an eye on things.
We hope everyone has a happy thanksgiving!
Sarah Bacon
Product Manager
November 7, 2008 on 11:45 am | In 9.0 version, Features | 8 Comments
If you’re a Twitter user, you’ll find this plug-in really useful as it syncs the status messages you create in Messenger with the updates you make in Twitter.
Created by the New Zealand-based development team at WackyB, the Twitter Sync
plug-in allows you to change your status in Yahoo! Messenger 9.0 and also have it update on your Twitter account. The same is true when you use Twitter to make an update; the plug-in will take what you wrote in Twitter and make it your Yahoo! Messenger status.
The plug-in also keeps you informed about what your Twitter friends are up to. You’ll receive notifications in Messenger every time a Twitter friend changes their status. So instead of having to visit Twitter or run a separate application to get updates, you can do it all right in Yahoo! Messenger 9.0.
The control panel in the plug-in offers many handy features. You can set how often you want Messenger to check for updates from your Twitter friends, and you can control what kinds of Messenger status messages get pushed to your Twitter friends. You can also decide how you get alerted to new tweets – with sounds, popups or nothing at all. And if your friends are getting too tweety, the plug-in lets you pause updates from the main window. You can then use the Update Now link to manually pull in updates.
Click here to install the WackyB Twitter Sync plug-in (Yahoo! Messenger 9.0 only)
If you’re using Twitter and want to get updates about Yahoo! Messenger, go to our Twitter page to begin following our tweets and sending us yours.
Sarah Bacon
Product Manager
October 29, 2008 on 11:20 am | In 9.0 version, Avatars, Features | 20 Comments
If you’ve checked out the Audibles menu lately in Yahoo! Messenger 9.0, you may have come across some new residents. We’ve brought back the election audibles along with the ghoulish Halloween characters. And by popular demand, we’ve expanded the role of Emoticats by giving them their very own audibles.
Boo!
Send spooky greetings to your Messenger friends with the Halloween audibles. You can egg their IM window, send a black cat across their path, or scare them with a werewolf, ghost or ghastly scream.
Get out and vote
Early voting has already started in some states and our election audibles are ready to help you make sure your friends make it to the polls by November 4th. All the biggies are there - Abraham Lincoln, Uncle Sam, and the Statue of Liberty. And although you can’t wear election gear to the polls, you can outfit your Avatar with apparel to support your party or candidate.
Meooowwww
We know you love the Emoticats IMV so we turned your furry friends into audibles. There’s a happy cat, a “vacationing” cat, and even an emoticat with a ‘tude.
To try them out, click the audibles icon ( 
) above the text box in your IM window (Yahoo! Messenger 9.0 only). Click the More Audibles button on the right, then “See All Audibles”. Then select “Halloween”, “Election” or “Emoticats” from the list.
Sarah Bacon
Product Manager
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