Facebook Messenger for Windows Now Officially Available

Facebook Messenger leaked back in December, and Facebook decided to keep the link active that was pointing to the program’s download. Today, Facebook is officially releasing Messenger for Windows, promising that Mac users will get their version of the messenger application soon as well.

Facebook Messenger basically gives you an option to chat with your Facebook friends and contacts without having the Facebook.com website open at all.

Installation of the program should not be a problem, as it is silent and without settings that need to be made. The Messenger is compatible with both 32-bit and 64-bit versions of Windows. Once installed, you can start it and enter your Facebook login details to get started.

The Messenger opens the main interface that combines Facebook’s header with the news ticker and chat sidebar after log in.

Here you see the friend requests, messages and notifications on top, followed by the live ticker that updates whenever a friend likes, posts or befriends someone on Facebook. This way you see more news and contacts available for chat.

You can start a chat with a left-click on one of your contact’s names. A search is provided to find a specific contact. Only five friends are displayed by default in the interface. You can use the attach to sidebar button to attach the interface to the right side of your monitor, so that it takes up all vertical screen estate there.

Facebook Messenger stores your log in information unless you sign out before you close the application. If you do not sign out, you are automatically logged in again when you start the application again at a later time. You can log out of Facebook with a click on the settings button next to search, and the selection of log out. Here you can also go offline, which may be useful to block chat messages in case they are too distracting or unwanted at that time.

You can chat with multiple friends at the same time. Each friend is displayed in a tab in the chat interface.

The biggest advantage of Facebook Messenger is that it provides access to chat and notifications in a much smaller window. If you are keeping your web browser open only to chat on Facebook, or prefer your chat window and notifications to be visible all the time, then the Messenger app might be for you.

Keep in mind though that it does not support all the features just yet. You cannot chat with groups, do video calls or edit settings other than the settings mentioned above. If that does not bother you, Facebook Messenger for Windows might be just for you.

Update: Facebook Messenger for Windows is currently only compatible with Windows 7. Facebook is however working on versions for Vista and XP.

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Messenger Plus Live About the Author:Martin Brinkmann is a journalist from Germany who founded Ghacks Technology News Back in 2005. He is passionate about all things tech and knows the Internet and computers like the back of his hand. You can follow Martin on Facebook or Twitter.Author: Martin Brinkmann, Tuesday March 6, 2012 -
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Check Social Media Network Username Available With Knowem

Companies today no longer only have to provide contents on their on their own websites, but also on third party sites. This includes social networking sites like Twitter or Facebook for instance where the majority of businesses need to be present to interact with their audience.

For that, it is important to register the right brand, product or username on those sites. This can also be an important consideration during product creation. It is not only important that a brand related product name is available, but also that the name is available on social networking sites.

Individual users may also want to use the same name on all social networking sites they use. And that’s where Knowem can help them with.

All it takes is to key in a name that you plan on using to see if it is available or taken on hundreds of social media sites, blogging sites, or video hosting sites. Knowem supports all popular names, from Twitter and Facebook to Reddit, YouTube or Linkedin. The most popular destinations are checked right away, with links pointing to the site’s so that you can get started signing up on those sites manually immediately.

You can also switch to the Social Networks tab which lists all of the supported sites in categories such as blogging, business, design or information. Sites are not checked automatically, a click on check this category checks the availability on all sites listed in the category. To check multiple categories, you need to click the button multiple times for each category you want checked.

It does not end here though, as you can also use Knowem to check for available domain names.

The developers of Knowem make money by offering premium services. These automate the signup on a select number of sites, and include profile creation and email confirmations. It starts at $64.95 for 25 essential networks and goes all the way up to $599 for signups at 300 social networking sites.

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The Social Map of the World About the Author:Martin Brinkmann is a journalist from Germany who founded Ghacks Technology News Back in 2005. He is passionate about all things tech and knows the Internet and computers like the back of his hand. You can follow Martin on Facebook or Twitter.Author: Martin Brinkmann, Friday February 24, 2012 -
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SMPlayer 0.7.0 Media Player Now Available

One of my favorite media players of all time, SMPlayer, has recently been updated to version 0.7.0. SMPlayer is a front-end for MPlayer making it a player that supports nearly every video format out of the box without the need to go codec hunting before you can start watching the video or movie you are dying to watch.

SMPlayer, as always, comes in different release versions. Users can download a portable version, a web installer, or an offline installer. Existing users can simply copy or install the new version over the old one.

One of the big new changes in SMPlayer 0.7.0 is support for MPlayer 2, a fork of the original MPlayer project, which adds features to the video player that the original MPlayer does not support. This includes precise seeking, seeking while the video has been paused or ordered chapters support in mkv videos.

To integrate MPlayer 2 the following needs to be done. You first need to download the MPlayer 2 binary from the website linked above. Open the options menu in SMPlayer afterwards and select Preferences from the menu. You can alternatively use the keyboard shortcut Ctrl-p to open the preferences directly.

Switch to the General > General tab if it is not displayed. Change the MPlayer executable path to the MPlayer 2 path to use it instead of the original MPlayer.

Another change is support for playing YouTube videos right from within the media player. Just paste in a YouTube video via the Open > Url menu to watch it right within the desktop video player. You can alternatively drag and drop video links right from a browser into the SMPlayer window to play the videos in there.

The developers have added a new favorites menu accessible right from the new heart icon placed in the player’s main toolbar. This opens a menu with direct access to favorite videos on the computer, and options to add or edit videos in the new favorites window.

The changes introduced in this version of SMPlayer all make sense. Especially support for MPLayer 2 can improve the video experience significantly.

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About the Author:Martin Brinkmann is a journalist from Germany who founded Ghacks Technology News Back in 2005. He is passionate about all things tech and knows the Internet and computers like the back of his hand. You can follow Martin on Facebook or Twitter.Author: Martin Brinkmann, Tuesday January 31, 2012 -
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Kinect For Windows Coming In February, Preorders Available

Microsoft yesterday at their keynote revealed that the company sold more than 18 million Kinect units for the Xbox 360 gaming console. Kinect, for those unfamiliar with, is a motion sensing input device that allows Xbox 360 gamers to interact with the system through body movement and their voice.

Kinect for the Windows operating system has been officially announced during that keynote, which will be available from February 1 on. Retail sites like Amazon are already accepting preorders, with the price tag set to $249.99, which is about $100 more than Xbox 360 users have to pay. A recent blog post on the Kinect for Windows blog reveals details about the difference in pricing.

The ability to sell Kinect for Xbox 360 at its current price point is in large part subsidized by consumers buying a number of Kinect games, subscribing to Xbox LIVE, and making other transactions associated with the Xbox 360 ecosystem. In addition, the Kinect for Xbox 360 was built for and tested with the Xbox 360 console only, which is why it is not licensed for general commercial use, supported or under warranty when used on any other platform.

No subsidizing, no license for commercial use and no support or warranty are the core reasons for the price difference between Kinect for Windows and Microsoft’s Xbox. Microsoft will offer “special academic pricing” later this year.

Kinect for Windows will only run on computers running the Windows 7 or Windows 8 operating systems, and on Windows embedded-based devices. Microsoft will not charge license fees for the SDK or runtime, which will be available for free (and likely included with the Kinect for Windows hardware).

Developers who are currently using the beta SDK with the Xbox Kinect unit may continue to do so until June 16, 2016. New projects, non-commercial and commercial alike, are not permitted to use the unit. They “require the fully tested and supported Kinect for Windows hardware and software platform”.

Kinect for Windows ships with a small USB cable to connect the device to PCs and supported devices. A new firmware for the Windows unit enables the so called near mode which allows the sensors to pick up movement as near as 50 centimeters in front of the device.

Verdict

If you are asking me, I’d say that Kinect for Windows will take a backseat in the beginning. The product certainly has its appeal for developers. End users on the other hand cannot really do a lot with the unit straight from the start. The product seems to ship without games or applications, and if you add the price tag and need for installation of the SDK software to it you end up with an unattractive bundle for now. This may change in the future when apps or conversions becomes available.

What’s your take on Kinect for Windows?

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Leaked Microsoft Roadmap Reveals Windows 8, Windows 9 Release Dates About the Author:Martin Brinkmann is a journalist from Germany who founded Ghacks Technology News Back in 2005. He is passionate about all things tech and knows the Internet and computers like the back of his hand. You can follow Martin on Facebook or Twitter.Author: Martin Brinkmann, Tuesday January 10, 2012 -
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