messages

You may have heard about Skype, but did you know that little old Windows Live Messenger can make phone calls? Molly Wood shows you how to make voice and webcam calls using the popular IM software.

Met Vivee yet? If you're one of those folks who types text messages while barreling down the highway, you might want to. She's an animated avatar who appears on the screen of your mobile device and reads your incoming e-mail and text messages to you. That way you can keep your hands on the wheel and your eyes on the road--unless of course, you can't keep your eyes off cute little Vivee, in which case you're really screwed.

The new online service from USTelematics connects to the Internet through the Verizon Wireless EV-DO high-speed network, so … Read more

Amid the growing group of instant-messaging solutions for the IM-less iPhone, Mundu (a Webware 100 winner) has just released a new contender that handles four of the most popular chatting protocols with a fantastic interface. If you're an iPhone user, just navigate your Safari browser to http://iphone.mundu.com, which takes you to a log-in screen with access to your AIM, Yahoo, MSN, .Mac, and Google Talk accounts. You can log into all of them simultaneously, although there's no master password system like you get with Meebo.

Each client gets its own buddy list, and any additional … Read more

Given all the great consumer-facing open-source software available, I figured that I'd try to evaluate and write reviews on those I use most often. Open source long ago stopped being about developers for other developers. Here's proof.

Adium is quite simply the best instant-messaging (IM) client available. Period. It has its flaws and is, in some ways, deficient compared to iChat, Apple's own IM client. But its strengths vastly outnumber its weaknesses. I've been using it for years. In some ways, it's very similar to Trillian on the Windows platform in that it allows you to combine nearly all of your IM services (Yahoo!, MSN, AOL, Jabber, etc.) into one client.

But Adium actually goes further and provides more.… Read more

Who needs downloads? Not instant-messaging fans, apparently, according to Nielsen NetRatings. The online division of the legendary statistics-crunching company just released a study that tracks the fastest-growing instant-messaging software products from August 2006 to June 2007, and the results indicate that Web-based is the way to go.

The most rapidly growing IM client, according to the study, is Meebo, which launched just over a year ago. The fact that it's so new may be partially responsible for its rapid growth--354 percent from August 2006 to June 2007. But Meebo also packs a double punch: not only is it Web-based … Read more

A city bus driver in Poland has been fired for sending $34,000 in text messages from his company cell phone.

Leszek Wojcik ran up the bill by by sending more than 38,000 SMS messages, about 1,200 a day, in an effort to win a contest, according to a report by the Associated Press.

The Slupsk city bus driver told a local radio station that he hoped to win the contest so he could buy a second car.

The cell phone was only supposed to have a $5 limit, a spokesman for the Slupsk city transportation agency told … Read more

Don't tell mainstream marketers this, but text-messaging promotions can work.

At least for Virgin Mobile, which used the power of its network of 5 million mobile customers to raise money and awareness for homeless children in America. (There are an estimated 1.2 million to 2.8 million children and teens who are homeless in the United States.) In partnership with the nonprofit YouthNoise, among others, Virgin Mobile urged its customers, via text message, to donate $1 from their account to help homeless kids by sending the word "donate" to the short-code 66473 (or "noise"). … Read more

Text messaging as means of political outreach is hardly a new idea, but 2008 Democratic presidential hopeful Dennis Kucinich claims a new drive launched by his campaign on Monday stands out from all the rest.

The vegan congressman from Ohio is asking Americans opposed to the Iraq war to text the word "peace" to the number 73223. From there, he plans to forward on the responses to President Bush and the Pentagon.

It all amounts to what his campaign staff calls "the first time text messaging has been used to try and change American policy." (Wait, … Read more

A New York state senator has recently proposed a bill that would make it illegal to send a text message while driving in the state. The proposal from Senator Carl Marcellino was made in response to a fatal car accident involving four New York state teens. Police believe the driver, a recent high-school grad, was text messaging a friend before crashing into an oncoming trailer and killing all four in the vehicle.

A recent study shows that almost half of all teens send text messages while driving, making the odds considerably high for this kind of accident. The senator's … Read more