A new version of Instan-t Enterprise Messenger

This new version of Instan-t includes a wide range of improvements and brand new collaborative features that allows an integration to meet enterprises´ specific needs. In this way, companies can prevent their users from running public IMs (MSN ®, Gtalk®, AOL®, ICQ® & Yahoo®) and control who is allowed to communicate with them. Besides, it offers multi person chat with voice and video, centralized message archiving, send and receive SMS to/from mobile devices, integration with Active Directory, online presentations and computer sharing, among others. Finally, its web-based administration console permits complete control of the IM network in addition to new possibilities as custom defined management levels, create and modify users, enable or disable specific features and check monthly and daily new user registration statistics.

The company offers both a server and a hosted (ASP) model and four enterprise editions with different sets of features to adapt to the needs and budget of each organization.

If you are interested, more information is available here.

Free trials are available here.

Vbuzzer Messenger

Vbuzzer is an unique instant messenger that combines VoIP, internet fax, RSS, and multi protocol with Windows Live, Yahoo, AOL, ICQ Instant Messengers. While we all know a few other "all-in-ones" out there, none offers the same "all-in-one" to the extent Vbuzzer offers (VoIP+Fax+RSS+Multi Protocol).

I like Vbuzzer's robustness, stability and clearness. Noticing it didn't embed the GIPS engine as everyone else have done, Vbuzzer still achieves great voice quality in all network conditions that can rival Skype, if not better. The multi-protocol IM
function is also my favorite daily tool.

You can download Vbuzzer here.

Pidgin tips and enhancements

After the rename and the new version Pidgin became more popular than ever. Some people started calling it "The Firefox of the instant messengers". However I think that Pidgin needs a lot of time and hard work to deserve such words. I've been using it for the last few days and here are some useful or not that useful but interesting tips I've found on the web:

How to configure Pidgin to work with Google Talk

Manast.com offers a working (at least for the most people) solution. Pidgin doesn't have all of the features of Google Talk client. However I feel much better using one application for most of the instant messaging protocols.

How to install Pidgin 2.0.0 on Ubuntu Feisty Fawn (7.04)

There are a lot of different solutions around the web but I prefer the Debuntu solution. Just add the Debuntu repository and then download and install Pidgin.

Visual enhancements

Here are some Pidgin themes, icons and emoticons:

• Original Yahoo and MSN emoticons for Pidgin - preview and download
  
• Human Theme - great for Ubuntu fans - preview and download
• Windows Vista style icons - preview and download
• OSX style icons - preview and download

Using Amarok? Show your friends what you are listening to

Get this Amarok script - it updates your Pidgin status message with what you are
currently listening to.


That is the list for now. I'll keep looking for other interesting tips and news related to Pidgin and I'll post them here.

Yahoo! Messenger for the Web

Techcrunch announced few hours ago that the Flash-based Yahoo! Web Messenger will be launched today. You can chat with both Yahoo! and Windows Live Messenger friends because of the integration with the Microsoft's messenger. It doesn't have all the features of the desktop Yahoo! Messenger but it's looking very promising to me.

To start the web instant messenger go to http://webmessenger.yahoo.com or http://web.im.



More web based instant messengers are listed here.

iVisit - Video Conferencing for PC and Mac

iVisit is an application which can be used for multi-party video conferencing. You can share all kind of files (pictures, videos, music, etc.) during the conversation. It has versions for both PC and Mac. You can interact privately one on one, in eight way videoconference rooms, 100 party channels. iVisit is great for teams, business meetings, schools, communities. The lite version is absolutely free.

Related: What to do if you forget your iVisit password.

Textbased MSN Client

TMSNC (from Textbased MSN Client) is a textbased (console) client for the MSN Messenger protocol. It works on Linux, MacOS and BSD systems. The goal of this project is to create a client like MSN Messenger (with sound, webcam and file transfer support), but without any graphical features. The current version of this messenger is 0.3.2. You can download Textbased MSN Client here.