We’ve just completed the final move to what is now the new home of Emotion Sounds. We’re sorry if you experienced problems during the past week with this feature, things have been bumpy since last autumn because of the amount of people using this feature continuously. More than 4 billion sounds have been sent since activation and the original server array was suffering from it, begging to be put to rest, despite the repeated improvements.

You can now enjoy sending emotion sounds again, rapidly and without worrying about errors. I can’t promise there won’t be any surprise this week while we adjust the new servers but things look very good so far. Don’t be shy and try out some new sounds from mpsounds.net to have some fun while chatting today. It’s free, as always, so think about sending sounds on Messenger instead of buying things with your Facebook points ;-). Thank you for your patience.

Happy New Year everybody!

It’s now official, Microsoft has released the final version of Windows Live Messenger 2009 on the Live web site. That’s about time. It took more than a year of beta versions to get to this new release but it was worth the wait. Of course, it means Messenger Plus! needs a final update too and I’ve got good news: I just saved a bunch of mon… I mean, the beta version available in the Download page has been updated to support the new Messenger. The new build number is 353. Even better, Messenger Plus! Live 4.80 will officially be released before the end of the month :-).

Two reasons pushed me to refresh the public beta before doing a final release: first, the sooner the better. I know many of you were wondering what would happen with Messenger add-ons with the new Messenger and this beta it meant to be somehow reassuring. After all, everything is fully functionnal again, including emotion sounds, scripts, skins, logs, colors, event notifications, as well as the hundred of other features&options offered in the software. Secondly, I thought some developers may like to benefit from the research I had to do during the past few weeks in the windows files of Messenger; more precisely, in UIB data files.

To make a long story short, UIB files (resource type “4010″ for those who know what I’m talking about) can be entirely decoded and re-encoded by Messenger Plus! and this functionnality is offered to every other add-ons and patches that needs it. So, if you’re the developer of a program that requires to modify the windows’ files of Messenger (previously “4004″ and “4005″), download the latest version of the Skinning Documentation and read the new “Encoding and Decoding UIB” section in “Specialized Subjects”. Three pages of documentation have been written to explain how to decode and re-encode UIB files in your application in a matter of minutes.

I hope this new version of Plus! will be useful, for end-users and developers alike. If you have anything to say about the new features, have comments, suggestions, or things to talk about in general, don’t hesitate to visit the forum. Have fun with the new Messenger!

I wish you all a very Merry Christmas 2008. Stay tuned for the next version of your Messenger add-on and enjoy the holidays with your family and friends :-).

The results are in! After a careful review of all the skins we received during the contest, ladies and gentlemen, I give you the winners:

Deformity Category

1st Place: Crystal Lab by ZOiD  winner of a Cintiq 12WX.

2nd Place: SilverGlazz by LuckyMe  winner of an Intuos3 6*8.

Originality Category

1st Place: Stormless Messenger by mynetx  winner of a Cintiq 12WX.

2nd Place: Beaver and Steve by aNILEator  winner of an Intuos3 6*8.

Functionality Category

1st Place: Wii Messenger by Ethan Li  winner of a Cintiq 12WX.

2nd Place: Windows Live Messenger 2009 by roflmao456  winner of an Intuos3 6*8.

…and the big winner of this contest, all categories considered is…

Top Place: Oil Slick by Volv who wins the Cintiq 20WSX!

Congratulations to all of you and a big round of applause (queue /sapplause) to every other contestant. 20 million skin packages have been downloaded since last year on this site alone, you can bet your work was certainely not in vain. Enjoy the rest while you can, a new version of Messenger Plus! will soon be released to let you update your skins for the new Messenge 9 Beta. More about that probably next week… :-).

Over all the Skin Packs that were received during the contest, 41 were validated and are now in the process of being judged. I am happy to say that the official skin database has now more than a hundred different skins for all of you to enjoy. More about that will be said when the winners are announced, on the 26th of September.

On a side note, I’d like to apologize for the problems you may have experienced with the Emotion Sounds feature of Messenger Plus! lately. Microsoft is not the only company who has suffered from server issues in the past few weeks (I wish I could spend time buying a new pair of shoes too). We’re currently in the process of putting everything back together, you can expect service to be back to normal by tomorrow. Thank you for your patience and your understanding.