It’s that time of the year again! for the third time, Messenger Plus! is proud to be part of the Fantasia Festival, organized in Montreal, Canada from July 9th to July 29th 2009. If you live in the area and like sci-fi, epic films, twisted Asian comedies and many other kind of strange movies, Fantasia is the place you’ll want to be this summer. Also, because we’re sponsoring the festival, we got free tickets to give away! All you need to do is be among the firsts to send an email to [email removed, all available tickets have been sent out] and you’ll receive a pair of tickets, redeemable at the box office for the movie of your choice. Just include your full name, full address (including postal code) and a note telling us how much you want those free tickets. Of course, like every year, I will be seeing a dozen of movies myself; if you’re interested in meeting, send me your movie schedule and we’ll see if our choices match :-).

This year, Messenger Plus! presents The Divine Weapon. This Korean movie takes place in the 15th century and is guaranteed to satisfy if you like epic battles, people who die and moustaches. Screening times, trailer and more information about the movie can be seen here. Of course, the movie will be presented in its original Korean language with English subtitles. The Divine Weapon was a smash hit upon its release this past fall in South Korea, and that’s hardly a surprise, given its engaging cast of characters, portrayed by some of the most renowned figures in Korean popular cinema at the moment, and of course its astounding action and battle scenes. A grand historical epic that never forgets to focus on the ordinary souls at the eye of the storm.

In addition to all of this, a free Fantasia skin for Messenger 2009 was added in the official skins database. As for the rest, because there’s still plenty to say and to show, you will have to be a bit more patient and wait for this weekend’s announcement. If you’re a Neowin reader, then remember to check this site as well!

A new version of your Messenger add-on is now available on this very web site. Version 4.82 will probably be one of the last of the 4th generation of Messenger Plus! as work on version 5 will officially begin during summer. For that reason, a complete health check-up in Windows 7 has been performed in today’s release. Some things have been fixed, some other things have been by improved. One example of that in the tighter integration of Tabbed Chats with the new Aero preview thumbnails.

As usual, you can read about every improvements and bug fixes in the change log. You can also give your thanks to the translators and the beta testers who help make sure Messenger Plus! keeps being reliable and dependable, every step of the way. Among the improvements, because so many users now enjoy skins and scripts of all kinds, the Import/Export feature of Messenger Plus! now back-ups your entire scripts and skins settings. One less worry for you to have next time you format your computer or you want to bring your set of personal settings with you.

And finally, if you saw nothing else in the change log that motivates you to upgrade, consider this: this release integrates everything that will be needed for the Messenger Plus! 2009 Contest which will begin next week! More about that will be said soon, but those of you who’ve been using the software for some time will probably recognize the little golden icon in their contact list and the meaning of it… you’ll just have to be patient for one more week until the contest and its prizes are revealed :-).

It’s that time of the year again: Messenger Plus! has turned 8 :-). I’m currently working on the next update and, as mentioned previously , I’ve also started considering what version 5.0 will be like. It’s also a good time to announce that the contest organized this year will be the biggest to date and the theme will be animation, movies and video games (which will fit perfectly with the yearly Fantasia Festival sponsoring). More features, more prizes, more everything! Stay tuned.

I admit it, at first, it was fun to count the years. But now, like for a kid who has grown older, it seems that Messenger Plus!’s childhood is over as the intervals between its birthdays become less and less significant and noticeable. 8 years now my friends, yep… 8 years. What’s even more surprising, at least to me, is that I still feel the need to do more, much more with this software. Considering the massive amount of people who use it every day, it’s incredible to think about all the possibilities that are still left to tap into. Messenger Plus! has grown way past its original intended life span and version 5 will mark the beginning of something new, different, and more satisfying for everybody.

Speaking of version 5, while I’m still working on the schematics, I thought I could make this step more interactive than I’m used to. The question I want to ask you today is: What do you think of Messenger Plus! ? Do you like it, hate it? I often read articles about the software, or even about myself, but for once, I would like my users to give me their honest, true, unfiltered opinion. It’s also a great way to share your ideas of anything you would like to see in the next major update of your Messenger add-on (although the forum is always available all year long for that purpose).

It can be a single word as well as two pages of text, in English or in French, and I promize to read it all, positive or negative, whether I get 10 answers or 10,000. Also, if you visit forums or blogs as part of your daily internet routine, don’t hesitate to talk about this and bring more people to this news post. Hopefully, this little exercise will also help make a better software and bring better support to those who need it in the future. Thank you!

Edit: big thanks for the hundreds of comments you sent me in such a short period of time. I have now removed the form as I now have enough text to read for a while :-).