Recently, I moved all my apps around so that the most used apps are all on the home screen. Surprisingly, many of the apps that ended up there are free. I say surprisingly because I’ve bought quite a few apps in the past few years.

This little exercise in efficiency made me wonder what the best free iPhone apps were for others. So here I ask: What are the 5 iPhone apps you can’t live without?

I will start things off by sharing the best 5 free iPhone apps that I can’t live without.

Skype [iTunes Link]

Many people I communicate with are die-hard Skype fans. So primarily it’s important for me to connect with them using a medium where they feel comfortable.

When I’m on the MacBook Pro, I generally have a Skype session open with several threads of conversation going. It’s great to continue those conversations as I step away into iPhone land.

I also appreciate and use the international calling features; however, that is not free. If you don’t have a Skype-In phone number, check out this post to get one free.

Google Voice

While not an official app, the new HTML 5 version of Google Voice gets the job done. I recommend that you make the app into an icon that resides on your home screen; when you go to the Google Voice page on your iPhone a small pop up appears that offers this option.

About 3 months ago I made Google Voice my primary number and most times, I forward those calls to the iPhone. Before this app, it was painful to make outgoing calls. Now it’s just a simple as making a call via the native iPhone phone app.

You can also send SMS messages, turn on the “Do not disturb” feature and change various other settings. I also like the ability to view your inbox and listen to voice mails (especially since the voice to text feature is still abysmal).

Lose It! [iTunes Link]

I am still amazed that this app is actually free. I suggest you download it now before that changes. As the name implies, this app helps you “lose it” and by “it”, they mean weight.

This app helps me keep track of my weight over time and ties that data with a diet log. There is a large database of pre-selected foods with the availability to add custom foods. You can also add what exercises you completed throughout the day and Lose It! will offset your daily budget of calories accordingly.

Recently, they added a feature where you can join up with friends on your quest to Lose It!

WordPress 2 [iTunes Link]

As a blogger, it is important for me to be able to respond to commenters when ever I can and make edits on the road when necessary. Usually the kinds of questions I get – especially the solution-based posts – are time sensitive and I know how important it is to respond quickly when someone is looking for an answer.

This app is also a good tool to store future blog ideas. Simply type in the title and perhaps a bit of brainstormed notes and save as a draft to be completed when you get to your main computer.

AppMiner [iTunes Link]

If you love free quality apps like I do, then grab this app right now and begin to smile. Granted, many of the apps I find here are garbage, so here are the methods I use to find the good stuff:

Method 1: Click the “Sale” tab and look for apps listed in the “Top” section and then click the “Free” tab.

Method 2: Search for the app you wish to buy on sale or free and then “watch” it. Then periodically check the “watch” tab for hopefully a good deal in the future.

You will also want to check out FreeAppAlert to find free apps and receive alerts via Twitter or RSS.

Your Apps!

Please take some time and share your “can’t live without” apps with us. Make sure the app is free and not one of the default apps that come pre-installed with the iPhone. Thanks!

Got Tech Questions? Ask Them on MakeUseOf Answers!

• (19)The 4 Great Blogging Apps For The iPhone
• (10)Top 4 Best iPhone Twitter Apps That Host Your Media on Posterous
• (11)Start Your Own Personal Photo Blog The Dead Simple Way With Posterous
• (10)MakeUseOf Your iPhone: Palringo Instant Messenger
• (10)BrightKite On The iPhone Tears Up The Location-Based Ballgame

Messenger Plus! Live is basically an add-on for Windows Live Messenger that allows you to do a large range of customisations, and it just makes your experience using IM a whole lot better. I have at least two favourite features of Messenger Plus! Live and that is to right click on a contact and copy their email address to the clipboard, and the other one to send a mass message to all your contacts you are talking to at once.

But before I go into more detail, I better go back to the start – and that is, installation. First of all, download the program, and run the installation as you would normally would with any program. The installation file gives you an option if you would like to install a sponsor. I suggest that you refuse it just to save the hassle.

You will be then presented with a series of options that you can choose. Have a read of each screen to learn more about the program. The Windows Live Messenger installation is now complete.

To access the menu of Messenger Plus! Live, you will have a Plus! menu on your toolbar, or you can right click on a contact and select Messenger Plus! features.

Now that the software is installed, we can now look at some of the features that it offers.

Event Viewer

I find the event viewing really useful at times when I want to keep an eye out for a particular contact, when they go online, sign-out or are idle from their computer. No, I am not stalking them, but it is really useful if you’re away from your computer and people leave you a message and they sign out. The event viewer also records what songs your friends are listening to, and if you’re shy, its a great conversation starter. “Oh, you like Greenday? So do I!”

Chat Log

You may find that the inbuilt chat log on Windows Live Messenger is alright, but I don’t really like that user interface when reading over your chat history. I find that the chat log viewer on Messenger Plus! Live is much easier to use, and to browse for particular conversations. If you are concerned about other users of your computer reading them, you can also set a password to protect your chat logs.

Clean Up Your Contact Lists

In part 1 of the post, I outlined how you can see if people have you on their contact list. Another way to see is by choosing the options to clean up your contact lists. It is also a quick and easy way to remove contacts that you no longer require. I think my contact lists needs a bit of a clean up though.

Lock Windows Live Messenger

If you find yourself having a very private conversation with someone on WLM,  and someone walks into your room, or you are at work and the boss walks in, you might find it very helpful to use the shortcut key to lock Windows Live Messenger. By default it is Control+Space. This minimises all open chats, the contact list and changes the task bar icon so it doesn’t look like you’re on Messenger. When you want to resume, double click the task bar icon and enter your password if you asked it to.

Sounds & Audio To Enhance Your Chats

If you are talking to a friend who also has Messenger Plus! Live installed, why not add some sound to enhance your conversation?Below are a couple of sounds you can get, and there are many more.

Setting Personalised Status & Away Messages

Another great feature is the ability to set your own personalised status and away messages. This lets you tell exactly why you are away (if you want to tell people). You can also set auto-responders, so if someone starts talking to you, they will get a message that you set.

There are many more features as well with Messenger Plus! Live. There are also scripts that you can download to get even more functionality out of Windows Live Messenger. So what are you waiting for? If you use Windows Live Messenger all the time, you should be using Messenger Plus! Live as well.

Got Tech Questions? Ask Them on MakeUseOf Answers!

• (14)5 Cool Tips & Tricks In Windows Live MSN Messenger
• (8)WhatsApp – The Perfect iPhone Messenger App
• (27)Turn Your IM Program Into A Productivity Tool Using Imified
• (21)Translation For MSN: Auto Translates Messages While Chatting
• (5)Integrate Facebook Chat Into Pidgin Instant Messenger

Should your chat partner turn out to be an idiot or plain boring, you can quickly, but politely end the conversation and move on to another random stranger. No reason to feel guilty. The internet is full of interesting people. NEXT!

Here are a few websites to get you started.

[Editor's note: Please exercise caution when conversing with strangers online.]

Omegle

Omegle is very simple and straightforward site with online free chat rooms to meet strangers. All you do is click the “Start a chat” button and the site will pick another user at random and match you up for a chat. If you are not happy with your match, disconnect and start a new conversation.

It may take a couple of tries until you find someone interesting to talk to. However, if you take all of the failed attempts with a grain of salt, you’ll see that there is a lot of humor in this activity. Be original.

OnlyChat

OnlyChat is different from Omegle in that you can specify your gender and choose with what gender you would like to be matched for a chat. Also, if a conversation was disconnected, you’re automatically thrown into the next one.

I mostly ran into teenagers. This one was from Latvia. With only 131 users online I was matched with him twice.

AnybodyOutThere

Here we have the most advanced site to match you up with a random stranger. You have 110 characters to express what’s on your mind: Post a thought, topic or question and start talking. The site will then compile a list of potential chat partners. Based on their own message and eventually a short profile you can click the “Let’s Talk” button and hope your pick will accept.

Before the conversation opens, you have to select a nickname for yourself.

A new conversation will open in a tab. You can always go back to the results page and pick another chatter. You can have as many tabs open as you like and eventually someone will want to chat with you. If you want to add someone to your contacts or vote for them, you must sign up. But up until then, signing up is optional.

While the other services were fun, this one was the first to result in a good conversation. And if you meet someone you would like to talk to again, you can sign up, add them to your contacts, and vote for them.

I have tried a few other services. The problem with all of them was that apparently the number of users isn’t very high and so it took forever to find a chat partner. You may still want to give them a spin.

At RandomChat you can select the languages you speak and you might find someone to chat with in your native language or a tandem partner to practice a foreign language with. Blabngo is similar to ChatOnly. Apart from finding a random chat partner, you can also create an online free chat room, protect it with a password, and invite people to join it. At iddin you can chat with anybody or someone from a specific country. Once you’re in a conversation, you can easily exchange pictures through a photo sharing box next to the chat window.

Tworl was previously mentioned in my article about Top 7 Things To Do Online When You’re Bored. You can select age range, gender, and chat client of your potential chat partner. The site only serves as a matchmaker and the conversation will be redirected to the respective chat client.

Did you ever have a good or even better, a hilarious conversation with a random chat partner? Let’s hear the details!

Image credit: mzacha, miamiamia

Got Tech Questions? Ask Them on MakeUseOf Answers!

• (34)Why I’m Digging Digsby
• (8)WhatsApp – The Perfect iPhone Messenger App
• (38)What Instant Messaging Client Do You Use? [MakeUseOf Poll]
• (27)Turn Your IM Program Into A Productivity Tool Using Imified
• (21)Translation For MSN: Auto Translates Messages While Chatting

Occasionally, a friend or colleague seems to have some difficulty configuring their video to work properly with the Skype software when there was no video stream displaying, so I’ve decided to put together a short list of some of the most common problems that cause Skype to have no video stream from either your webcam or from the person you’re calling.

Does Skype Have No Video? A Few Things To Check Out.

Before we get started, there are a few very simple reasons why Skype may have no video in your particular setup. Before you even start working through this guide to troubleshoot your problem, make sure that you’re not attempting to make the video call to a mobile phone or landline. Seems silly, I know, but I’ve seen cases where people think they can Skype call someone with a mobile phone because the phone has a camera – that’s not the case.

First, download the latest version of Skype for either Windows, Mac or Linux. This will ensure that you have the latest bug fixes and patches installed. For that matter, if you’re having a problem with the video stream from the person you’re trying to call, make sure they have the latest version of Skype as well!

1. Check Your Drivers

While you may not think it’ll make a difference, the latest version of the driver for your particular webcam could include updates that handle some of the methods that Skype software uses to access your webcam video stream. In particular, if you’re having problems with Skype having no video, you’ll want to make sure that your device supports at least DirectShow 9.1 standard. Check with the manufacturer website of your webcam for the latest driver update, and of course doing a Windows update can’t hurt (usually).

Check your current driver version by going into the device manager. For most versions of Windows, that’s in the Control Panel (classic), System, and Device Manager.

Hopefully, there’s no yellow exclamation mark on the webcam, because if so then your issue is a resource conflict with another device. Fixing that is beyond the scope of this article, but it would at least indicate your Skype no video problem. If things appear fine, then right-click on your webcam device and select “properties” and then click on the driver tab. Here, you can see the driver date, and if it’s fairly old (as mine is), you may want to click on “Update Driver” and search the Internet for the latest version.

Checking the Copyright under “Driver Details” will also provide you with the name of the company that wrote the software, so you can download the latest driver version yourself if you need to. You’ll also want to try downloading the latest version of DirectX as well (you’ll need at least version 9.0 for Skype video to work). Click on Run and in the command prompt type “dxdiag” to double check your DirectX version.

2. Make sure Skype is configured properly.

If updating your drivers don’t seem to fix your video problem in Skype, then it might be a good idea to just double check your Skype video settings to be sure that they’re set up properly. When you have Skype open, click on Tools and Options. You’ll find the video settings under either General or Calls.

If you see a screen like the one above, then you know that’s the problem! Skype isn’t configured to recognize your installed webcam. The first thing to try is simply starting up the software that came with your webcam and using it to switch your webcam on (or if your webcam has a hardware switch, turn it on.) Once you make sure the cam is turned on you may have to restart Skype for it to recognize your active webcam.

Go back into the preferences screen. Even though your webcam video is now displayed, don’t celebrate yet! Take a look at the two settings underneath your webcam video. If “Automatically receive video” is set to “no one,” it may be more difficult to receive the video stream from your friend. Change it to people in your contact list.

Also, under “Show that I have video to,” change it from no one to “people in my Contact list.” While these settings shouldn’t affect your ability to have a video chat, setting them to people in your Contact list can make initiating a video chat far easier. If you click on “Webcam settings,” you may see something off or disabled, but the odds are pretty good that the default settings here should all be okay.

3. Make Sure You Aren’t Hidden.

Once you start attempting another video chat with your friend, make sure that “Hide myself” or “Stop My Video” is not selected.

The option depends on the version of Skype you’re using, but either way if it’s accidentally selected, then obviously your video stream will be blank. If your friend’s stream is blank rather than yours, ask them to right click on their blank video window and check that setting. Yes, sometimes it’s that simple!

4. Make Sure Other Programs Aren’t Using Your Webcam.

If you’ve got to this point and you still can’t seem to get Skype to display any video streams, an easily overlooked item is whether there are already other applications running in the background that could be capturing the data stream from the webcam already. There are more applications today than ever before that now integrate the webcam, such as many of the most popular Instant Messengers and even the latest version of many Internet browsers.

If your webcam is one that’s enabled by software and the light was on even before you ran the webcam software to start it, or even before you started Skype, that could be a clear sign something is already running that’s using your webcam, and Skype won’t be able to. Try closing down all of your windows, especially any other IM and other Internet applications, and then restart Skype again.

If all else fails – it’s very possible that you (or your friend) could have an older webcam that just isn’t compatible with the Skype software. Skype actually has an entire section of its online marketplace set aside for Skype-compatible webcams. As a last resort, you might just want to replace your outdated cam with a new one that is guaranteed to work!

Have you ever had problems getting Skype to display video? Did any of the tips above help, or did you fix it using another approach? Share your own Skype video nightmare story in the comments section below.

Got Tech Questions? Ask Them on MakeUseOf Answers!

• (2)How To Use The Playstation EyeToy On Windows, Ubuntu And Mac
• (11)3 Apps to Turn Your Webcam Into An IP Phone
• (17)VZOChat – How To Videoconference with Your Cameraphone Webcam
• (29)Top 10 Sites For Computer Troubleshooting & Tech Support
• (9)The 5 Toughest Tech Questions [MakeUseOf Answers]

This will be a two part post with the first part covering cool Windows Live tips and tricks that you can do without installing any add-ons, and the second part explains how you can make your Windows Live Messenger experience much more fun.

1. Remove Those Annoying Ads

You may noticed at the very bottom of the Windows Live Messenger main window, they show ads to you. However, if they slightly annoy you from time to time, here is a trick on how to block them.

On your Windows computer, open up Internet Explorer. Click on Tools, then select Internet Options. Click on the Security tab, click on Restricted sites, then click on the Sites button.

Then simply add the URL http://rad.msn.com. This serves as the Microsoft ad server and once you restrict this site, Windows Live Messenger will go from this:

to this:

2. See Which Contacts Haven’t Added You To Their Contact List

One of the most searched for keywords on my website is “how do I find out who blocked or deleted me on MSN”. It is really simple to find the answer and you don’t have to install any software on your computer or spy on your friends.

In Windows Live Messenger just go to Tools –> Options, go to the Privacy section, and under Contact List, click on View. The list that is presented to you are all your contacts that have got you on their contact list. If a contact of yours is not on that list, they have either not added you or have deleted you because they don’t want to talk to you anymore – yes I know the feeling.

If going through that list will take a while, you can also download aMSN (which is a excellent portable MSN program for your USB drive). When you view your contacts, the contacts that do not have you on their list will have a red cross next to them.

Another good thing is that you can send unlimited nudges to your friends.

3. Remote Assistance

MakeUseOf has covered many remote assistant applications such as Crossloop, Instant HouseCall, LogMeIn, uVNC, and Foldershare, but did you know Windows Live Messenger is another one? Just simply start a chat, select activities and click request remote assistance.

Accept all the prompts, then the other person will be able to view your screen, and they can control your computer if you wish for them too.

If it doesn’t work, make sure “Allow Remote Assistance” is enabled by right clicking on My Computer, select properties, Remote, and tick the box.

4. Changing Your Display Name

Want to impress your friends and have a cool name and spell your name like Ĝмдїι.©ǾМ? Well, if you open up Microsoft Word for example, find some symbols that look like characters, or even change the font, you can then paste that text into your display name field on MSN. If you want, you can also draw images like these ones.

5. View Contacts By Email Address

You may notice that in the new version of Windows Live Messenger, there is no option to view contacts by email address. I for one, view all my contacts by email address as I know contacts cannot change it (unlike display names which some contacts change all the time). By viewing contacts by email address, I know I am talking to who I want to talk to.

If you are in the same situation as me, here is a workaround to view your contacts by email address. However, it may be a bit time consuming.

What you have to do is give all your contacts nicknames when they are online. Just right-click on the contact, select edit contact, and copy and paste their email address into the Nickname box.

Unfortunately it may take some time to do this for all your contacts, but this is the only and easiest way I have found to view contacts by email. If you know of another better way, please let me know.

Remember to keep an eye out for my next post. You will be having fun with audio, and keeping up with what your friends have been doing.  In the meantime, if you have any cool Windows Live tips and tricks of your own, let us know in the comments.

Got Tech Questions? Ask Them on MakeUseOf Answers!

• (9)Messenger Plus! Live – The Must-have Addon for Windows Live Messenger
• (27)Turn Your IM Program Into A Productivity Tool Using Imified
• (21)Translation For MSN: Auto Translates Messages While Chatting
• (21)5 Online Instant Messaging Services to Chat with Friends
• (15)3 Web-Based IM Clients For Chatting The Night Away

Now, when you are in an online relationship, breaking up seems so much easier. Since all means of communication are electronic, you literally just pull the plug. It’s easy to simply ignore someone – out of sight, out of mind.

If you’ve ever tried that, you’ll know it is definitely not one of the easiest ways to end relationships. Because what will probably happen is that your ex won’t get it or won’t want to let it go that easily. As a result you will be flooded with questions and messages through eMail, Skype, Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, and whatnot. You’ll be fed up with it quickly and you’ll respond aggressively. That’s when things can get ugly.

So are there polite ways to end relationships online? A way without hurting or confusing your ex to the point where they will either hate or stalk you? Yes, there is a polite way to break up. However, there are no guarantees that it will work out the way you’d hoped. But least you will know you tried your best and you won’t have to feel guilty. That’s worth a lot, isn’t it?

Once you are 100% sure that you want to break up, prepare. How are you going to tell your ex, what are the reasons, do you have to give all the reasons, can you remain friends?

There are three polite means of communication through which you can end an online relationship. BUT you don’t just pick the one that is most convenient for you. Rather, you should pick the one through which the two of you have been communicating the most. It’s like in a traditional relationship, you won’t just text your ex-to-be, but you will sit down and talk (if you’re polite anyways).

eMail

This is by no means the easiest way to end a relationship as you are not able to foresee their reactions and act accordingly. Thus your eMail will require a lot of thought.

Begin with the positive memories, what was gained in the relationship, what did you enjoy, and why did you appreciate being with your ex. Then explain why the relationship is no longer working for you. Although this is the negative part, be polite and don’t point out all the mistakes your ex has made. If there have been things that annoyed you, only mention them if your ex can change anything about it. For example, they cannot change their passions. They can, however, change habits. But whatever you write, don’t leave room for hope. Don’t encourage them to beg you to give them a second chance. You have to be determined to end this relationship and then pull through.

Try to find the right moment to send the eMail. Send it when you know they will have time to read your eMail and think about it.

Whichever way you choose to break up, there are three golden rules to follow:

• Respect
  Respect your ex, do not make accusations, only blame yourself. It will make it easier for them to realize their own faults.
• Politeness
  Are there very specific reasons for breaking up? Only talk about them if your ex can actually change them. Be nice when expressing these reasons.
• Determination
  Do not send mixed messages. Be straight forward and to the point. Don’t leave room for hope. End it and mean it.

Instant Message / Chat

Again, you must find the right moment to chat. Ask them whether they have some time now because you need to tell them something very important. Reschedule in case they are in a hurry.

Basically, conveying your message in chat works the same as writing an eMail, only that it’s an actual conversation. Because of that, you have to prepare very well. You don’t have hours to ponder what you want to say when your ex is glued to the screen. Also, you don’t have time to evaluate possible answers when they interrupt you with questions.

In any case, follow the three golden rules from above and be polite.

Voice Chat / Phone

Breaking up over the phone is probably the most inconvenient way. However, the rules don’t change. Be prepared, make sure it’s a good time to talk for your ex, be respectful, polite, and determined.

When talking, it’s easier for your ex to interrupt you. Ask them nicely to let you finish and say you will listen to them afterwards. Above all, be calm, patient, and positive and express it with your voice. Don’t sound rude, angry or bored. Even if what you say is perfectly polite and respectful, your tone of voice can ruin the message.

Be prepared for questions and be open! Answer as nicely and honest as you can once, as in one eMail or one chat session. Then terminate the conversation. If you want to remain friends, at least ask for a break. If you don’t, tell them that you are going to delete all of their information and ask them to do the same. Finally, tell them that you do not wish to be contacted again. Stick to it.

The title of this article contains the conclusion “without getting stalked”. As I said in the introduction, there are no guarantees things will go your way. Maybe you are ending the relationship because your ex has been way too attached to you and you barely had room to breathe. Chances are they won’t take it lightly.

When you follow the advice in this article, you’ll reduce the chances of your ex-lover becoming your stalker. However, if it happens anyways, know that you are no longer dealing with a friend. You are now dealing with someone who is obsessed with you. In other words, handle them like a stalker, not like someone you once cared for.

That means you may never encourage them in any way. Do not feel tempted to comfort them. Never ever respond! Change your contact information, block or ignore the person, delete their information from all your accounts, turn off your “online status” report, lock them out by making accounts private or shared with friends only. If ignoring them doesn’t help, report them. Stalking is a crime. You will receive further help through the Stalking self-help page.

For any future online relationships, know that this could happen with anyone, anytime. Hence, limit the amount of information you share about yourself. At least until you fully trust that person.

Has someone broken up with you? Do you want to respond, but don’t know how to do it right? You might find this article on How to Write a Goodbye Letter helpful.

What was the worst way someone has broken up with you?

Image credits: spekulator, naraosga, ba1969

Got Tech Questions? Ask Them on MakeUseOf Answers!

• (52)What Happens To Your Email and Social Networking Accounts When You Die?
• (45)5 Geeky Ways To Ask Someone To Marry You On The Internet
• (21)4 Effective Tips To Ask a Girl Out On Facebook
• (14)3+ Sites To Chat With A Random Stranger
• (28)3 Coolest Ways A Geek Can Get Girls To Notice Him On Facebook

But life doesn’t have to be that hard. There are many multiple-platform chat application designed to help these people. Among those names, I personally think chatting with Nimbuzz is the best.

Overdelivers but Overlooked

It’s amazing how a good application could be so overlooked. I’ve chatted using Nimbuzz for years and there are so many things that you can do with it. Strangely, many of my friends have never even heard the name. If you are in the same boat with my friends, you could get familiar with Nimbuzz by checking out our older articles about it.

Nimbuzz is a free service that allows its users to access several instant messaging platforms simultaneously, make free calls to some internet voice services (Skype, GTalk, MSN), make conference calls, send messages, and much more. Nimbuzz is available as web based chat service, and as downloadable clients for mobile, Windows and Mac.

Simply put, you just need to register with Nimbuzz, set all of your IM accounts once, and access all of them anytime, anywhere and from any platform or device using only your Nimbuzz account.

The Many Personalities of Nimbuzz

Nimbuzz has just released the Mac version of its client as an addition to its several existing ‘personalities’. Here is the complete list of ways you can access Nimbuzz.

1. Web: The most basic way to use Nimbuzz is by accessing the service via its web interface. Regardless of what device you use, as long as you are able to connect to the internet and have a browser, you can use Nimbuzz. This method is also perfect for Linux users because there’s no Linux client available for now.Go to Nimbuzz’s main page and log in.

   

   And you’re ready to blab.

   

2. Mobile: However, it would be more convenient if you can use the Nimbuzz client built specifically for your device. There are three ways that you can use to get Nimbuzz client for your mobile:

   

   • Get the download link via SMS: This method is very convenient. You will receive a text message with the download link. However, it’s a waiting game for some and not all cellular service providers are supported.
   • Download it via your mobile’s browser: This is a more straightforward way. Just make sure that your mobile connection to the net is available.
   • Download the client using your computer and install it to your mobile: Use this method if the other two methods failed. You need to know the brand and type of your phone.

     

3. Windows: To download the client for your PC, choose the PC/Mac tab and click the “Download” button.



This version of the client will work in Windows XP, Vista and 7.



4. Mac: Previously, the only way to access Nimbuzz in Mac was using the web client. Now Mac users can access their Nimbuzz chat environment via the native Mac client.

   

Chat and beyond

Upon installing, you’ll see your contacts in the main window. Those who are offline will be greyed out.

You can start chatting with any one of your online friends by hovering your mouse over the name and click “Chat” from the pop-up window.

You also can send files and contacts to your friends by clicking the “Send” button at the top right corner of the chat window.

To enrich your chatting experience, you could add smileys to your message. They are available on the right side of the message input field.

One feature that I found very useful is the ability to “Buzz” your offline friends.

If they registered their account with their mobile number, they will receive a “call” from Nimbuzz.

Nimbuzz has always been my chosen chat client on my mobile devices. Even though I’m not a chatty person, I prefer chatting via Nimbuzz instead of sending SMS because it’s cheaper. And now I love it more because of the availability of the Mac client.

Do you use Nimbuzz? Do you know other alternatives? Share using the comments below.

Got Tech Questions? Ask Them on MakeUseOf Answers!

• (13)6 must-know Apps to make FREE Group Conference Calls
• (8)WhatsApp – The Perfect iPhone Messenger App
• (9)Messenger Plus! Live – The Must-have Addon for Windows Live Messenger
• (7)Instant Messenger Hacks: 10 Security Tips to Protect Yourself
• (12)How To Create a Google Talk Chatroom with Partychapp

Partychapp is a bot that relays a conversation to all of those that are connected to it. In addition to relaying the chat to all of your friends, it has some fun features built into it as well. There are two ways to set up your own Google Talk chat room with Partychapp.

Set Up a Chatroom with Your Web Browser

You can set up a chatroom directly from your browser if you log into Partychapp with your Google Account. Once you log in with your account, you’ll be taken back to the Partychapp web page, but you’ll see a button that says Create a new room. Click on the button, and you’ll get a simple form to create your new chat room.

The form is self-explanatory. Just pick the name for your chat room, decide whether or not you want it to be public or private, enter the email address of anyone you would like to invite to the room, and click Create!

When you sign into Google Talk, you will receive a chat request from the bot (it will be yourchatroomname@partychapp.appspotchat.com, where yourchatroomname is the name of your chat room). Accept the chat request, and start chatting away with the bot. As others accept the request from the bot, they will say everything you say to the bot.

Set Up a Chatroom By Chatting With The Bot

If you don’t feel like logging into Partychapp with your Google Account and creating the channel through the web form, you can set up a new chat room by just chatting directly with the bot. Just add yourchatroomname@partychapp.appspotchat.com to your buddy list and start chatting with the bot. Simple enough. You can invite others by sending the command /invite yourfriendsemail@gmail.com.

Here’s what Partychapp looks like in action:

Fun with the Partychapp Bot

Not only does Partychapp provide you with a chat bot, but the bot has many commands that provide some additional functionality. To see a list of all the commands, just type /help and you’ll get a list of commands. The output from /help looks like this:

List of commands:
* /leave - leave the room
* /list - show members of room
* /help - shows this
* /alias name - rename yourself to 'name'
* /score target - see the score of 'target' in plusplusbot
* /reasons target - see why target's score was changed
* /me - describe what you're doing in the third person
* /invite email1@foo.com, email2@bar.com ... - Invite a list of email addresses to this room
* /inviteonly - Set the room to invite-only
* /kick - Remove a user or invitation from this room
* /status - show what room you're in
* /summon - summons a person in the room by sending them an email.
* /undo - undo the pluspluses and minusminuses from your last message
* /debug [sequenceIds|clear] - if you don't know what this does, you probably shouldn't use it
* /stats - return system stats
* /graph-score ... - prints a link to a graph of the changes to up to three targets' scores.
* /snooze (20s|45m|1h|2d) - snooze for a specified amount of time in seconds, minutes, hours, or days.
* search and replace handler - use s/foo/bar to replace foo with bar
* plusplusbot: handles ++'s and −−'s
* Message echo@ to hear yourself talk
* Found a bug? Let us know: http://code.google.com/p/partychapp/issues/entry
* Follow us for announcements at http://twitter.com/partychat

If you’re wondering what’s up with the slashes in the commands, it’s borrowed from the command syntax for IRC. IRC is an old-school Internet chat system that has been around since 1988. Even today, IRC remains a popular form of instant communication online.

Probably the first command you’ll want to use is /alias. Just type /alias YourAlias to change your name as others will see it. You can use the /invite command I mentioned earlier to invite your buddies into the chatroom. The /inviteonly command toggles the chat room from invite-only to public.

If you’re wondering what plusplusbot is, works very much the same as plusplusbot on Twitter. If you like something, you add a ++ after it and if you dislike something, you add a −− after it. For example, if you type Partychapp++, the bot responds with [YourAlias] Partychapp++ [woot! now at 1]. If you type Partychapp++, the bot responds with [YourAlias] Partychapp−− [ouch! now at 0].

You can see the score for any word with the /score command. In this case, /score Partychapp, you get Partychapp: 0. You can also provide reasons along with your ++/−− commands. For example, if you type [YourAlias] Partychapp++ because it’s cool, you get [YourAlias] Partychapp++[woot! now at 1] because it’s cool. You can then list all the reasons for scores if you type /reasons Partychapp++. In this case, the output looks like:

Partychapp: 1
increment by youremail@gmail.com (Partychapp++)
decrement by youremail@gmail.com (Partychapp−−)
increment by youremail@gmail.com (Partychapp++ because it's cool)

Another cool feature the bot has is search and replace. To search and replace, you type s/foo/bar to replace foo with bar. For instance, if you type on one line Partychatt and the next line you type s/tt/pp the bot responds YourAlias meant Partychapp.

What’s really cool (if you’re a geek like me) is that the search/replace uses regular expressions. Regular expressions, although cryptic and difficult to master, provide an extremely powerful mechanism for the programmatic processing and manipulation of text. There are several unix utilities that make use of regular expressions, as well as many programming and scripting languages (Perl, PHP, Java, JavaScript, PCRE, Python, and Ruby to name a few).

Partychapp is a great way to set up chat rooms with your friends. If you want to try it out, I’ve set one up called makeuseof. Just add makeuseof@partychapp.appspotchat.com to your Google Talk buddy list and start chatting away. If I’m logged into Google Talk, you just might run into me there.

Note: If you’re concerned about sharing your Gmail address with those that are already in the MakeUseOf chat room I’ve set up, do not use the bot. Your Gmail address will be announced when you enter the bot.

So what do you think of Partychapp in lieu of Google Talk’s missing chat rooms?

Got Tech Questions? Ask Them on MakeUseOf Answers!

• (27)Turn Your IM Program Into A Productivity Tool Using Imified
• (8)WhatsApp – The Perfect iPhone Messenger App
• (4)Watch YouTube Or Google Videos Inside Gmail Chat
• (21)Translation For MSN: Auto Translates Messages While Chatting
• (23)Smarterchild as Your Virtual Personal Assistant

I’ve covered ways you can have some fun with video, and how to use wi-fi webcams to configure a wireless security system. So what’s left? Well, one area I would like to cover is how to turn your webcam into an IP phone.

Almost everyone has used some form of VoIP communication that makes use of some configuration of voice, video, PC-to-PC calling or PC-to-Landline calling. Depending what software you download, you may discover that it doesn’t always offer all of these features. You might be able to utilize video-chat in an IM app, but you can’t call a landline. You might be able to make PC-to-Landline calls, but there’s no option to video conference.

Therefore, in this post I’d like to offer a roundup of both new and old applications that have one important thing in common – they incorporate your webcam for videoconferencing, and they allow you to use the software as an IP phone, making PC-to-Landline calls if you so wish.

Skype Now Offers Videochat

The fastest way to turn your webcam into an IP phone is probably simply to upgrade whatever version of Skype you’re running to the latest version. One of the newest (relatively) features of Skype is the ability to now initiate a video call with other Skype users. I was using Skype for both text chat and landline phone calls for quite some time before one of my friends from the UK suggested that we have a video chat. The video feature was news to me, but after I upgraded Skype, sure enough there was the “Video Call” button right under his name!

The screen layout for video chat on Skype is really simple, and most users love the fact that Skype keeps this window within Skype itself (not a new pop-up window), which means you can very easily flip between your video chat and any text chats that you might have going on at the same time.

My buddy wasn’t online during my test call, but here you can see the layout. The caller’s video appears in the larger square at the center of the screen, and you can see what you look like in the smaller “caller” box at the lower left. Volume and video controls are along the bottom of the screen. Of course, Skype does have the landline calling feature as well (which you can even conference into the videochat if you like, so it makes the cut!

SightSpeed – The Highest Quality Video Conferencing Available

I had to add SightSpeed to this list after I read a fantastic review in PC Mag about the top video quality this app offers. While I wasn’t really convinced that anything could outperform Skype (I’m a longtime Skype fan), to my pleasant surprise SightSpeed did. First of all, this impressive software offers a larger view of your contact (as well as you – the caller), and the video quality is without a doubt superior to any other video chat application I’ve ever used.

The SightSpeed demo test call went swimmingly well. Get it…swimmingly….as in, it’s a fish tank… Ahem, so anyway, in addition to the webcam video chat feature, you can click on “Telephone” at the top menu and call a landline if you wish (at a low cost-per-minute, just like all of the others.)

This qualifies SightSpeed to our list of webcam IP phone apps. However, I also wanted to mention another very cool feature that I discovered about this software. If you click on the “Video Mail & Blogs” menu option, you can actually record a video message (limited length with the free version) that you can email to whoever you like, or you can ask for the embed code so that you can embed your video message right on your blog. Now that’s very convenient, and very cool.

ooVoo Will Make You Go Ooooooooh

The last application I’d like to cover that features both high-quality video chat capability as well as landline phone access is ooVoo. One thing I do have to say about ooVoo is that the application interface is very slick.  I love the black and grey design and buttons with glowing blue highlights. Also, the in-chat angled views of each participant is a very nice touch.

The coolest part of this app is that with your account, you’re provided with a free link that you can send folks via email (or place on your blog) that lets people call you through their web browser without having to install ooVoo on their PC. The beauty of it is that the web interface they see looks almost identical to the application interface itself.

This picture above is a call initiated to me directly from Firefox. The view doesn’t look a whole lot different than from within ooVoo itself does it? I love it when people can call me without the need to install additional software – just think how easy it would be for your parents or grandparents to use it. As long as they have a webcam that’s already enabled and working – all they have to do is click the link and they’re connected to you.

Of course, ooVoo provides a dialing pad to call landlines (at affordable rates), but what I really wanted to point out is that just like SightSpeed, this app lets you record and send video messages to friends via email.

Unlike SightSpeed, there doesn’t appear to be any quick way to embed your message anywhere online. For more details on ooVoo, make sure to check out Wez’s detailed review of the app.

No matter which of these three webcam apps with IP phone capability you choose, you’re sure to be pleased with both the quality of these apps and how easy they are to set up and use. While I personally have always preferred Skype, I’m seriously considering switching over to SightSound after testing it out.

Do you have a favorite application that offers both video conferencing and VoIP in one package? Share your favorites in the comments section below.

Got Tech Questions? Ask Them on MakeUseOf Answers!

• (5)How To Troubleshoot When Skype Has No Video [Windows]
• (17)VZOChat – How To Videoconference with Your Cameraphone Webcam
• (38)Top 7 Apple iPhone Complaints & Simple Solutions
• (13)The 5 Best Free iPhone Apps I Can’t Live Without
• (8)Make 4 Cool Spy Gadgets With Your Windows Mobile Phone

WhatsApp is an iPhone to iPhone messenger chat application. It can’t be considered instant messaging like MSN or AIM. It also doesn’t fall under Short Message Service (SMS). Rather, it’s somewhere in between. WhatsApp uses your existing internet connection (EDGE, 3G, Wifi) to send messages across networks, finally appearing on the recipient’s iPhone with the help of Push notification.

It’s fairly painless to set up and very easy to use. Would you like to know how? I’m sure you would. First, what you need to do is download the application from here [iTunes link] and install it to your iPhone. Launch the app and follow the simple on-screen instructions. You’ll have to enter your phone number in International format because WhatsApp uses your phone number to register you in its database. Unfortunately, certain countries aren’t supported: Mexico, Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand and India. If you reside in any one of these countries, the app won’t work for you. Otherwise, proceed by all means.

The app will then send you a confirmation code via SMS, which you will have to enter in the next step. Once you’re confirmed your phone number, you’re ready to rock and roll. WhatsApp is pretty genius because it will go through your address book and search for any contacts who are already using the same application. To find out who’s already on board, tap on the Contacts tab. Those using WhatsApp will have a status next to their names. Tap on any one of them to start a conversation.

If none of your friends are using WhatsApp, it’s pretty easy to get them to join you. Tap on the chats tab then the “Tell a Friend” button. You’ll be presented with 2 options: send them an invitation via email or SMS. Choosing either will relay you over to your address book so you can choose who you’d like to invite. That person will receive a message along with a link to WhatsApp’s homepage to allow them to download the app.

There is no need to sign in or out because again, this isn’t instant messaging. The entire system works with Push notification. This means that if someone sends you a message, even if you’re not currently using the application, you’ll get a notification on your iPhone that looks something like a SMS. To permit this feature to work, you’ll have to enable Push Notifications via the Settings menu. Go to Settings->Notifications->WhatsApp and slide the toggles to enable the notifications you want to receive. Then make sure that ‘Notifications’ is also enabled. After you’ve done this, it’s essential to turn on Airplane mode for at least 30 seconds then disable it for the Push notification service to be recognized.

Another interesting feature about WhatsApp is that it can submit your status over to Facebook, which is quite a nice touch. You can also get notifications every time a friend updates their status.

WhatsApp is free for a limited time and will work on all legitimately activated iPhones running 3.0 and above with an internet connection (EDGE, 3G, Wifi).

What do you think of this application? I think it’s pretty handy to bypass international messaging costs. Do you have a better alternative? I’d love to hear about it. Heck, that’s how I got to know this application!

Got Tech Questions? Ask Them on MakeUseOf Answers!

• (9)Messenger Plus! Live – The Must-have Addon for Windows Live Messenger
• (10)MakeUseOf Your iPhone: Palringo Instant Messenger
• (7)Instant Messenger Hacks: 10 Security Tips to Protect Yourself
• (12)8 Ways To Enhance Your Instant Messenger
• (34)Why I’m Digging Digsby

What makes Quassel IRC different is its client/server architecture. A typical IRC chat client is just that, a client. When you disconnect your client or end your program, you are disconnected from IRC. Quassel really brings IRC chat to the next level. It splits your IRC client into two parts – the “client” and the “core”. The core is actually what connects to the external IRC servers – your client simply connects to the core and from there, you access IRC networks.

So why bother with a 24/7 client? It is very beneficial to catch up on what has been going on since the last time you connected. For developers this means that you can see past discussions, for business it lets you keep up on what is going on. There are many reasons. However I think you will agree with me that once you learn about 24/7 IRC chat, you won’t want to go back to the old ways.

First you download the “core” application on a PC that you leave running all of the time. This PC can be a server or it can be a regular computer that you leave on 24/7. I have this running on a server in a data center so that the connection to the internet and server uptime are rock solid. They have both the core and client available for Windows, Linux and Mac – also the source code is freely available.

After running the core, you have your client to setup and configure. All configuration of the ‘core’ server is done via the client on another PC (or on the same PC, it does not matter at this point which computer the client is running on). Upon first connection to the server, it will give you the option to “Launch Wizard” to setup the core.

Once your Quassel user is set up, you can authenticate to the core. Next up will be setting up your identity. Later on you can even have separate identities for each IRC chat network that you connect to! For now, enter your username and other information and continue. By default it will connect you to Freenode but you can connect to any network you want, or multiple IRC networks.

For added security between your client and core, you can encrypt the connection. Quassel core has SSL capability added in, or if you have a Hamachi network set up you can use the IP address of your Core server for the hostname (the port is 4242).

I’ve been using Quassel for over a year now and it is definately a project to watch. mIRC is the most popular IRC chat client, but I’ve found that Quassel is just as good, and as stable. It is a great way to manage your connections to multiple IRC networks while maintaining your connectivity. It is being actively developed so look for more features such as scripting coming out soon!

And just to address the command line lovers out there – I wanted to note that this has been possible for a long time on the command line side using something like screen and irssi. However the ability to have a remote, stable connection for GUI users has been a long time coming.

Do you use Quassel? Or do you have another preferred IRC client? Let us know all about it in the comments.

Get: Quassel.

Got Tech Questions? Ask Them on MakeUseOf Answers!

• (28)How To Setup a Fake IRC Server with phpFreeChat
• (32)How To Create Your Own IRC Chat Channel
• (2)DHCP Explained: Installing & Configuring A Free DHCP Server [Linux]
• (42)10 Essential Software Apps For Web Development on a Mac
• (34)Why I’m Digging Digsby

Online, smileys are a powerful way to transport emotions. The typographic smileys are generally known as emoticons. Placed with care and read with an eye for detail, they clarify the meaning of a statement and improve interpretation.

Meanwhile, chatters across the globe have developed a huge selection of emoticons and smileys on most instant messengers. If you always want to hit the right nerve and never pick the wrong expression, use our emoticon guide to popular codes for smiley faces.

Western Emoticons

Western emoticons are typically written from left to right. Here are 15 of the most popular ones.

1. Smile

: – )   or   :-]   or   :3   or   :> stands for happiness.

2. Grin

: – D   expresses great happiness or a victory.

3. Frown

: – (   or   :-c represents sadness or disappointment. The latter can also mean great sadness.

4. Wink

; – )   or   ,-)   or   *-) indicates a joke or double entendre in what was said.

5. Tongue

: – P   or   : – p   or   :-Þ   or   :-b is an emoticon to tease, often used as a joke.

6. Open mouth

:-O   or   : – () stands for surprise or shock.

7. Distorted mouth

: – / means skepticism, being annoyed or uneasy.

8. Beaked lips

:-X   or   :-*   or   :-<> expresses a kiss, love and affection. But careful, this one can be ambiguous.

:-@   or   : – ) ~~ ( – :   or   : – )~~~~ stand for french kissing.

9. Sealed lips

:-X   or   :-# stands for embarrassment. Notice the ambiguity.

10. Halo

0:-) represents an angel or innocence and is often used in a playful manner.

11. Tear

:’-( shows a crying face and expresses sadness.

12. Horns

>:-)   or   >:-D is used to express evil.

13. Blank

: – | expresses boredom, but can also stand for no comment.

14. Spittle

:-p~~ represents drooling.

15. Arrow

>.>   or   <.<   or   >_>   or   <_< points the way in which to look. Technically, this is an eastern emoticon.

Eastern Emoticons

In contrast to western codes for smiley faces, eastern emoticons can be read without tilting the head. Here is a selection, which does not correspond to the previous one.

1. Smile for happiness

(^_^)   or   (^.^)

2. Open mouth for laughing or singing

(^o^)

3. Wink for joking

(`_^)   or   (^_~)

4. Closed eyes for sadness or sighing

(-_-)

5. Lowered head for bitterness or disappointment

(._.)   or   (,_,)

6. Sweat drop for nervousness or embarrassment

(^_^’)

7. Big eyes for wonder (seriously?)

0.o   or   O_o

8. Beaked lips for a kiss

(^x^)   or   (^3^)

9. Blushing for embarrassment

^///^   or   >///<   or   o///o

10. Crossed out eyes for death

(X_X)

11. Tears for sadness and crying

(;_;)   or   (T_T)

12. Distorted eyes for pain, failure or frustration

(>_<)   or   (>.<)

13. Closed eyes and zzZ for sleeping

(-_-)zzZ   or   -_-zzZ

14. Headphones for listening to music

d^_^b   or   d-_-b

15. Distorted eyes for annoyance

(>_>)

There are many, many more emoticons to express every shade of emotion you can think of. You will find more western emoticons here and here. The latter also includes emoticons that represent celebrities and a list of available MSN and Yahoo! smileys. More eastern emoticons can be found here.

By the way, most chat clients automatically convert codes for text smiley faces to graphics. If you want to prevent this, there is a simple trick: simply type the characters in reverse order, for example (-: instead of : – ).

Do you use emoticons and did you come across different meanings of the ones mentioned above? Please share potential ambiguities with us!

Image credits: jaylopez

Got Tech Questions? Ask Them on MakeUseOf Answers!

• (21)ZOMGies! – An Addictive Zombie Survival Game
• (9)Water Werks Game – Wet Your Whistle With Some Fun
• (19)Turn Your Android Phone Into A Real Star Trek Tricorder
• (6)Top 5 Spooky Websites That Will Keep You Awake At Night
• (13)The 6 Cutest Sites with Silly Pet Pics and LOL Pets

I’m a blogger, and as such, I am in need of a way to reach out to others while being interesting to readers. Wetoku can help!

Wetoku offers a simple way to meet someone online, record the meeting (or interview) and then share it with others. You may use it for video chat, conduct online interviews, etc.

Our Makeuseof authors have touched on several video chat type offerings that can help with online interviews (Tokbox, Eyejot, and Gmail’s video chat features). Well, wetoku makes meeting face to face with someone far away even easier. We’ll see how easy it is later in this article.

Wetoku takes simplicity to a whole new level. You login, set-up the interview, invite the interviewee, and hit the record button. It really is that easy!

Oh, and the simplicity doesn’t stop there! Sharing the video meetings/interviews with others involves all of just copying and pasting embedding code! Basically, you meet the person, hit record, hit stop, and the code pops right up! Copy and paste it like you would a YouTube video (or some other video sharing site) and there you go!

I would personally like to see some more options on the sharing end of things. I would like to see the ability to download the file for safe keeping AND for sharing on other social video sites like YouTube.  They are still working on things, and from what I can tell, they seem to be listening to feedback, so there’s still hope!

Setting up an account is really simple. Just sign up with the invitation code you were provided with (see the end of this article to get one). Once signed up and logged in, you’ll want to click the “start your interview” button and enter the information for the new online interview, including title, names and a description. Once that’s all set up, you’ll be faced with a cool invitation link which you promptly send to your interviewee anxiously awaiting the online interview:

You have to allow your camera to be detected, nothing new to web-based webcam operation. Once you and the interviewee are both on, the video will look similar to this (only with much prettier faces, I’m sure):

The round button is the record button. There is also a nifty little settings panel. I think that only pro accounts have the option of the higher quality videos (I tested the differences of quality and there is a difference). 

You can also change the volume of the microphone:

When you’re done recording, you can choose to redo it or publish it and you’re given the embed code. It’s that easy! When finished, you’ll have an online interview similar to this one conducted by wetoku Dave of Rick Calvert, CEO of Blogworld and New Media Expo:

And that’s just about all there is to it. With wetoku you can compete with the other “talking heads” out there, talking and interviewing people from all over the world!

Like I mentioned in the beginning, wetoku is a new company and they are still in private beta. They gave us 200 invites to share with you all! If you’re interested in an invite, just toss me an email timlenahan[at]makeuseof[dot]com with the EXACT phrase “wetoku invite” in the subject line (these emails will be filtered by the subject line so it must be exact or you may be overlooked) and I’ll email you an invitation code. First come first serve!

Check them out! When you do, let us know your thoughts in comments. And in case you’re familiar with some other tools to conduct video interviews share them with us in comments.

Got Tech Questions? Ask Them on MakeUseOf Answers!

• (10)How To Use Skype To Record Calls or Conduct Interviews with HotRecorder (Windows)
• (1)Make Use Of Podcast #38: Yang Quits Yahoo!, iPhone Google App
• (12)Gmail Introduces Video & Voice Features
• (6)Chat Online with VOIP Application ooVoo
• (8)A Make Use Of Interview with Digsby’s Steve Shapiro

In those circumstances I need a good tool that can record the phone call so that I can later transcribe it into a text interview. If you want to know how do you use skype for these sort of interviews – my tool of choice for this task is HotRecorder. HotRecorder is one of the most effective tools to record any VoIP call, not only Skype. However, if you are a Skype user you can rest assured that it’s a tool that’s very well integrated with the Skype application.

Getting Set Up to Record a Skype Call

Installing and using HotRecorder is about as simple as it gets. There’s virtually no setup. After you run the install and launch the application, it attaches (literally) to your Skype window. Whenever you move your Skype window around the screen, the HotRecorder window stays attached at the upper left edge.

There are a few things that you may want to configure in HotRecorder depending on your preferences. For example, in the options menu, you can assign a folder on your computer to save all of the audio files. The Sound Quality and Recording Type settings are also important because they’ll ultimately determine how quickly the size of your audio file grows.

If you have a huge hard drive and are only recording the call for yourself, by all means keep the sound quality high and use Stereo sound. However, if your intent is to email the file or you’d like to store it on smaller media that doesn’t have quite as much storage capacity, you may want to consider using Medium or Low quality.

Recording a Skype Call

When you hit “Rec” and then dial a phone number or connect with another user on Skype, you’ll see the HotRecorder display status change to “Recording” and the size of the audio file updates as well so that you know how much space the audio file is going to consume on your hard drive or USB drive.

The current time duration of the call is also displayed, so if you’re running a Podcast or radio show and you don’t want the conversation to go beyond a certain time interval, you’ll know exactly how long the discussion is going. If there are parts of the conversation that you don’t want to record, just click on “Pause,” and then when you’re ready to start rolling again you can click “Rec” again and the call will continue.

Once you click on “Stop,” you’ll be presented with the screen above so that you can fill out details about the phone call including who you talked to and anything else you want to note about the call. The important field is “Conversation with” because the listing of your calls shows this clearly, and it’s one of the best ways you’ll have of remembering your calls. You can use any filename convention you like, so keep it in a format that you’ll be able to organize. In my case I sort all of my interviews by date, so I keep the date in the filename.

Once you click on save, you’ll see the application encoding the audio and saving it to file. One interesting thing to note here is how the audio will get encoded when you choose audio. HotRecorder saves the conversation in 2 channels – meaning that during playback your interviewee’s voice will play on the left and your voice will get played on the right. This is actually pretty cool if someone has stereo headphones. Unfortunately if one of your listeners has mono headphones or will be listening to your audio file on any mono device – the conversation will seem oddly “one-sided.”

Playback and Extra Options

Playing conversations back after you’re done recording is as simple as clicking on the “Player” tab.

When you click on the Player button, you’ll see a list of all of the conversations you’ve had. As I mentioned above, the saved recordings are displayed by who the conversation was with. If you accumulate a lot of conversations over time, there’s also a search feature available (this is where your description and keywords will come in handy).

There are a couple of cool extra features with HotRecorder, and one of them is an answering machine. Personally, I don’t use this feature – but I have to admit I like the fact that unlike your typical answering machine, HotRecorder will record the message that your caller leaves, attach the file to an email, and send off the email to any email address you like. You can be anywhere in the world and never miss a phone message again as long as you have Internet access to check your email.

If you run a podcast or a radio show, another cool feature are the “emotisounds,” which let you embed various sound effects into the conversation. This can get really hilarious if you play it right. Whenever someone says something that you don’t like, just click “boo” or if they’re boring you to death just click on “Snore” – you’ll have your listeners in stitches.

If you use HotRecorder the way that I do – that is, recording phonecalls for later playback and transcription to text, the free version is more than enough. I don’t care what format the file is stored in and I really don’t care about the advertisement panel at the top. However if you want to convert your files over to MP3 or WAV format so you can use them anywhere, you’ll need the inexpensive premium version that comes with an embedded AudioConverter.

You might also want to check out earlier Simon’s article that lists a couple of alternative programs to record Skype calls.

How do you use Skype to do interviews? Do you have your own solution for recording VoIP calls? Share them with the MUO readers in the comments section below!

Got Tech Questions? Ask Them on MakeUseOf Answers!

• (12)Record Your Skype Calls On Windows and Mac
• (12)Tokbox & Etherpad: Potential Google Wave Competitors, Available Now
• (16)How To Power up your Skype
• (16)How To Conduct Video Interviews with Wetoku (Invites!)
• (13)6 must-know Apps to make FREE Group Conference Calls

Here’s a list of 10 essential software apps for web development on a Mac.

10. TextWrangler is a multipurpose text editor that works for editing code and plain text documents. It can even open files from (and save them to) remote FTP and SFTP servers.

9. Inkscape is an open source vector graphics editor similar to Adobe Illustrator. It is the first open source program to adopt Spiro curves. You can also go through their clip art collection and find dozens of images made with Inkscape that are free to use or modify.

8. Cyberduck is the all-in-one FTP, SFTP, Amazon S3, WebDav and Mosso Cloud Files browser application. Web developers often need to switch between different file systems, and Cyberduck does this without a hiccup. It works with Textmate (which has a free 30 day trial), so you can open files from Cyberduck in Textmate, edit, save and upload. Read more about FTP clients for Mac here.

7. Gimp is the second-most popular photo editing software program on the market, second only to Adobe Photoshop. The difference? Gimp is absolutely free! You can do just about everything in Gimp that you can do in Adobe Photoshop, so web developers will find this a welcome and wallet friendly addition to their software arsenal.

6. Aptana takes up where Textmate leaves off in some aspects. It is a full featured code editor, but adds the FTP support of Cyberduck, as well as important web technologies like Ajax, Adobe AIR and PHP. Read more about Aptana here on MUO.

5. Firefox is a must have for web development because of three great add-ons – Firebug, the Web Developer toolbar and ColorZilla. Firebug lets you edit, debug, and monitor CSS, HTML, and JavaScript live in any web page; while the Web Developer toolbar adds additional tools like clearing cookies, disable CSS, display ruler and display source. ColorZilla lets you pick colors from websites or images online, so you can match them to your web designs, plus measure the distance between two points on a website.

4. JAlbum helps you make attractive photo galleries for websites. JAlbum comes with various templates built-in, but you can also customize your own template to better match a web project you’re working on. Read about 5 more Excellent Mac Apps for Graphic & Web Design

3. Colloquy is a basic IRC client that every web developer will use at one point or another. Many web platforms use IRC for support, including WordPress.

2. MAMP is what you need to manage websites locally when you are without an internet connection or want to test changes without making them live on a website. It is easy to install MAMP and have access to Apache, PHP and MySQL for Mac OS X. It is also a stand-alone program, so if you need to install it, it won’t interfere with your OSX installation. Plus, you can use it to install WordPress on your Mac.

1. iTerm is a feature-filled Terminal emulator for OSX. You can bookmark your frequently used sessions, have tabbed windows with multiple sessions and more.

Do you have any suggestions for better similar apps? Let’s hear them in the comments!

Got Tech Questions? Ask Them on MakeUseOf Answers!

• (11)6 Excellent Mac Apps for Graphic & Web Design
• (35)Top 10 Professional Sample Code Websites For Programmers
• (7)Preview a Web Page in Multiple Browsers with BrowserShots
• (35)iWeb – Build A Quick, Easy & Beautiful Website [Mac only]
• (28)How To Setup a Fake IRC Server with phpFreeChat

At the outset, let me confess that machine translation usually sucks. You’re much better off with human translators any day. But what do you do for real-time chat? Till now, one had to use a different IM client like MeGlobe, to chat in a foreign language. Now, you can use Microsoft’s TBot. No installation required!

Microsoft has an impressive array of translation tools for users, webmasters, and developers, like Live Translator, but the release of Windows Live Messenger Translation bot (TBot) last year is still not widely known. Using TBot, you can chat with others in up to 13 foreign languages, or even chat with TBot itself to practice learning a foreign language. What’s more, you do not actually need to use Windows Live Messenger. You can use any IM client you like, as long as it supports the MSN protocol. Let’s see how you can use TBot in 3 easy steps to chat in a foreign language.

Step #1: Add TBot to your Contacts

To get started, you will first need to add TBot to your contact list.

From the Live Messenger toolbar, select the ‘Add a contact’ option as shown above, and add ‘mtbot@hotmail.com’ as the contact address.

Click ‘Send Invitation’ on the next screen to add TBot to your contact list. There is no need for any personal message. You should now see ‘Translator’ as one of your available contacts as shown below:

That’s it. You are all set!

Step #2: Invite TBot to a Conversation

When you want TBot’s translation services to help in a conversation, click the ‘Invite’ menu in the conversation window.

From the contact list that appears, select ‘Translator (Available, Agent)’.

TBot enters the conversation and asks you to select the target language.

I chose Russian as an example, and typed ‘12’:

To check out the list of TBot’s commands, you can enter ‘TBot ?’:

Step #3: Chat in a Foreign Language

For the sake of this post, to imitate two people chatting, I used two different IM clients – Windows Live Messenger and Pidgin. Let us suppose I’m English Dude with Live Messenger, chatting with Russian Gal who is averse to installing any Microsoft software and thus uses Pidgin on Linux. Russian Gal uses the ‘TBot change’ command to select Russian as her Source Language:

With TBot all set to translate at both ends, both of them now chat. This is what English Dude sees in his Live Messenger:

While Russian Gal sees the following in her Pidgin client:

As you can see, English Dude and Russian Gal are having an engaging conversation with the help of real-time translation by TBot.

TBot has his own profile in Windows Live Spaces, where you will also find a mini-FAQ. If you’re traveling in a foreign country, add TBot to Windows Live Messenger on your Windows Mobile device to get a free Translation Assistant with you!

Have you tried any other real-time translation software? How was your experience with TBot? Do let us know in the comments!

Got Tech Questions? Ask Them on MakeUseOf Answers!

• (27)Turn Your IM Program Into A Productivity Tool Using Imified
• (23)Smarterchild as Your Virtual Personal Assistant
• (9)Messenger Plus! Live – The Must-have Addon for Windows Live Messenger
• (21)5 Online Instant Messaging Services to Chat with Friends
• (14)5 Cool Tips & Tricks In Windows Live MSN Messenger

Especially in a business environment, unsecured IM installations are creating backdoors for hack attacks. This threat has increased manifold because nearly all IM’s allow for exchange of files, images, songs and even peer to peer sharing of entire folders.

Spam, worms, Trojans and viruses are familiar email foes. They are no friends of instant messaging either. So how do we pick our friends from our foes? Perhaps by following what Benjamin Franklin said – Distrust and caution are the parents of security.

Also, by putting these 10 habits in place.

1. Don’t give out your identity

Every IM client asks you to create a screen name. A screen name usually refers to your email ID. Create a screen name which does not touch upon personal information or your real identity. For instance, my screen name is ‘Braniac’ and not ‘Saikat’. And NEVER provide any personal details including credit card numbers and social security number over the internet.

2. Don’t chat with people not on your contact list

Always vet your contact list with people whom you know something about. Talking with Mr. Anonymous at the other end of space may be fraught with risk. It is possible to discover your computer address (i.e. your IP) from an instant message and that usually is the first requirement for a remote hack attack.

Don’t believe everything you read and always verify any information or request for information.

3. Don’t click on spam links

This is what a spam link might look like –



This is probably what you will be bombarded with first. A link tempts you to click it just for the lark. A lot of these links take you to websites which can install spyware stealthily on your computer. For e.g. Viruses and worms with colorful names such as W32.Yalove or W32/Spybot-MQ are potential threats to Yahoo users.
Ignore them.

4. Don’t share files with your chat partner

An IM client like Yahoo allows P2P file sharing. Do not share unknown content even if the person is known. P2P files, like email attachments can carry viruses, Trojan horses, and worms. They are engineered to seed themselves to other members on your buddy list. Be especially cautious when someone sends you an .exe or a .zip file.

5. Don’t let potential hackers reach you

Yahoo has an Ignore user or Report as spam so that he can’t disturb you once again. GTalk has a Block user option. Using this option allows you to keep out the unwanted from repeatedly messaging you. The default security settings in chat software tend to be relatively lax. Thus making you open to attacks. Check the settings and preferences of your chat client to apply stricter permission controls.





6. Don’t Neglect Encryption

Most IM clients lack encryption features. That essentially means that your messages can be tracked and read by eavesdropping hackers using technologies like packet sniffers or similar ones. Passwords are also a security loophole with hardly any client using strong password encryption.

The subject of encryption and strong password protection would require another post by itself. So I hand you over to Tim’s excellent post on How To Secure & Encrypt Your Instant Messaging Chats. Here at MakeUseOf.com we have a lot of posts tagged as ‘passwords’. Why not take a look at ways to set strong passwords.

7. Don’t use an older version of IM – Update

IM client companies spend a lot of effort behind doors to prevent backdoor threats. Newer versions come with bug fixes and enhanced security. For instance, the latest version of Yahoo IM is better integrated with anti-virus solutions like Norton Internet Security and Norton Anti-Virus.

So, always update your IM client as soon as one becomes available. If the chat client does not automatically prompt for an upgrade, go to the website and check your version number with the latest available. You can note the version of your particular client by clicking on Help – About…

8. Don’t download third party plug-ins from unverified sources

A lot of third party plug-ins are available for download which enhance the chatting experience. It is safer and advisable to always download from the IM client websites themselves or from verified sources.

9. Don’t forget to log-out completely

It is an oft repeated habit to click on the [X] button and exit. But this action does not close our IM client completely. Most often, they continue to run in the system tray leaving it ‘open’ for a third person to access it. IMs also have a nasty habit of broadcasting your online presence even if left to run as a background task. Especially in public computers be mindful of logging out and exiting completely. Also, never click on any Remember My Password checkbox during log-in as an added safeguard.



For Yahoo Users: Before you get up, delete your Yahoo Messenger profile. It is located by default at C:\Program Files\Yahoo!\Messenger\Profiles.

10. Don’t forget the value of a good browser, a good firewall and an even better anti-virus

Sometimes we will click a link; sometimes we will download a file. All the precautions in the world will not be able to protect us if we don’t have a secure browser, a good firewall and an anti-virus updated with the latest virus signatures. These three not only protect us from IM attacks but they are the must-haves for any system. Check out our recommendations for security programs in our article about Essential Security Downloads. Or check the MakeUseOf Polls to find out what’s more popular among MakeUseOf readers.

Chatting as against emailing is a real time activity. It is in that sense more social than any other form of web communication. The danger is that chatting can lull us into a false sense of security. Just a few fundamental forethoughts help us to turn that false sense into a more conscious sense of security.

Have you been hacked? Perhaps, you share the concern for a rigorous defense against hackers? Let us know what safety measures you personally use…

Got Tech Questions? Ask Them on MakeUseOf Answers!

• (8)WhatsApp – The Perfect iPhone Messenger App
• (9)Messenger Plus! Live – The Must-have Addon for Windows Live Messenger
• (22)How To Secure & Encrypt Your Instant Messaging Chats
• (12)8 Ways To Enhance Your Instant Messenger
• (34)Why I’m Digging Digsby

Installing phpFreeChat

• Grab the latest phpfreechat-x.x-setup.php at Sourceforge (1.2 is the latest version at the time of this writing).
• Upload it or move it to a local web server directory. We’re going to be using a XAMPP installation, so we’ve moved it to the root directory. You don’t want to put the install file where you want the chat to be.
• Navigate to the file. Our URL would be http://localhost/phpfreechat-1.2-setup.php. You’ll be greeted with a Pre-Install Check. Hopefully it looks like the picture below. Hit ‘Next’.



• You’ll be prompted for an install path. By default it creates a phpfreechat directory in the current directory, but you can change it to whatever you wish. Hit ‘Next’.



• It’ll ask you to confirm the install. Click ‘Next’. Watch the pretty progress bar. Once it’s finished, click ‘Next’.
• It’ll have installed itself in the directory of your choice, ours being http://localhost/phpfreechat/. Do as it says and delete the phpfreechat-x.x-setup.php file.

Quick Configuration

Setting up the Admin Account

The equivalent of an IRC channel op, the admin password allows you to gain access to privileges such as kicking, banning, and viewing user IP addresses. Admin status is global across all channels.

Prompt for Nickname Upon Entry

By default, the chat assigns you a nickname guest followed by random numbers. To force the user to choose a nickname when they enter:

Remove Censor and Flood Protection

Got Tech Questions? Ask Them on MakeUseOf Answers!

• (42)10 Essential Software Apps For Web Development on a Mac
• (21)The Six Ways To Add A Chat Room To Your Website
• (11)Stay Connected To IRC Chat 24/7 Using Quassel
• (65)How To Setup A Self-hosted Wordpress Blog for Free
• (32)How To Create Your Own IRC Chat Channel

New visitors to MakeUseOf may wish to review my previous article on creating and using a room on an IRC server, and then head over to WyldRyde for the first method which I will cover.

WyldRyde’s instructions are quite simple, so we’ll skip to step 4, which lets you create a Flash-based HTML widget to embed in your pages. All you must do is enter your channel’s name. If, for whatever reason, you cannot embed HTML on your pages, or perhaps want to use a nice neat text link instead, you may link to http://www.wyldryde.org/chat/chat.php?channel=channelname. You may play with an example WyldRyde chat in my room, at irc.t1mwats0n.com.

Chatzy lets its users create public and private chat rooms, providing a link to the room in the form of, for example, http://www.chatzy.com/445348388829, which can easily be linked to on a webpage, or in an email. The site offers several ways to customize the chat experience to suit your needs.

ChatMaker offers a similar “disposable chat room” service which is very basic, without the features Chatzy offers. There is a paid-upgrade option for extra features. Check out an example at http://www.chatmaker.net/chatap/rooms/t1mwats0n/.

ParaChat’s room creator lets you embed your chat room in a site’s page, as a regular text link, or as a pop-up link. As with ChatMaker, there are paid upgrades available. I’ve created an example embedded chat at http://timdubssandbox.synthasite.com/parachatbasic so that you can see how it looks.

Web-based IM client Meebo (which I’ve mentioned recently) also has a service-on-the-side called Meebo Rooms. The rooms are embeddable, simple to create and allow for sharing of video as well as text. Registering for a Meebo account beforehand will let you keep your room’s users in your buddy list with all your other contacts.

Lastly, Gabbly offers a unique service in that its chat rooms are tied to other websites. To understand what I mean, visit http://gabbly.com/makeuseof.com. You are taken to the site, which has the chat window floating over it. Instantly, everyone visiting MakeUseOf from Gabbly will be in the chat.

While Gabbly allows you to embed in your site a button to launch the chat, you simply have to link to gabbly.com/example.com. Gabbly says that you can make money by placing your own ads in the chat window, but I’m not sure how lucrative such a practice would be.

Please let us know in the comments, if we have missed any stellar web app that allows website owners to add a chat room to their website.

Got Tech Questions? Ask Them on MakeUseOf Answers!

• (3)Top 5 Sites to Download Weather Widgets For Your Blog or Website
• (18)12 No-crap Tools to Make Your Blog Better
• (18)Web Metrics 101 – What DO all these Terms Mean?
• (12)Use Skribit On Your Blog to Get Reader Suggestions
• (20)Transfer files by FTP with FileZilla

Here are some of the top tips and tricks that you can use to get more out of Instant messaging.

Set up an Answering Machine

Need an answering machine for your IM network to automatically respond to messages when you are offline? Well you can hack out a bot and have it running, monitoring the incoming messages and replying appropriately or you can simply sign into your account and set response messages.

Answer.im allows you to do just that. You are not even required to register. Log in with the IM credentials of the account you want set up answering for, set the status that will be shown to the users and then type the autoresponse text that will be sent back to the users in case someone happens to ping you while you are offline.

Use a multiprotocol client

These days everything needs to be talking to everything else. You have plants tweeting you when they need to be watered, you can update Twitter using an number of ways, then why not have a single client for all your IM needs?

You shouldn’t be running Yahoo Messenger and GTalk separately and then switching between windows when all kinds of notifications are flashing on your screen. Try something like pidgin. It might lack the occasional feature or two (like voice calls) but it more than makes up for it with tabbed interfaces, a rich set of plugins, customizations, availability for Windows, Linux and Mac and of course the price -> “free”.

Ditch desktop clients altogether

Using a netbook? Or don’t have permissions to install your favorite IM clients? Look towards the web and you won’t be disappointed. There are plenty of choices to help you get that joke across to your buddies even if that nasty admin has all sorts of ‘permission thingys’ going on!

Check out Meebo, ebuddy or imo.im. Each has its pros and cons and David recently did an amazing article on just that.

Encrypt your chat

There are good people like you (yes, I really meant YOU) and then there are bad people. Bad people like to spy on other people, perhaps steal some personal information that can then be used for all kinds of weird stuff.

While the occasional Hi there! types of conversations are fine, there are times when you want to protect your chat and history from prying eyes. Why not encrypt and secure your chat? You can encrypt your chat using both web based clients and desktop clients.

As for encrypting the chat log, you just need to find the location of log files and encrypt them on your computer using something like Truecrypt or just move it to a private directory if you are using ubuntu with ecryptfs.

Recover forgotten passwords

It often happens that you remember a password if you keep entering it often. If you instead set your client to auto-login and remember the password, chances are soon you will forget the password. If that has happened to you, you can recover such remembered passwords that appear as asterisk on the screen. Check out messenpass and other softwares that help you do so.

Create IM hyperlinks

IM hyperlinks allow people to quickly send you a message when they click on the link. All you have to do is format the “href” attribute of the <a> tag according to the IM network you want to add the link for. Check out this article for details.

Read RSS feeds

Try out ZapTXT (ZapTXT on MakeUseOf) and IMfeeds (IMfeeds on MakeUseOf) which allow you to get RSS updates within your chat client.

Use imified

Yeah, we bloggers have the habit of saving the best for last. Imified is without a doubt going to be the best buddy in your buddy list! Imified allows you to access web services, manage to do lists, ping domains and much more all from within your IM client. Mark did a great article on this fabulous tool.

Do you know of anything else you can do with instant messaging?  If you have any good ideas, let us know in the comments.

Got Tech Questions? Ask Them on MakeUseOf Answers!

• (8)WhatsApp – The Perfect iPhone Messenger App
• (9)Messenger Plus! Live – The Must-have Addon for Windows Live Messenger
• (7)Instant Messenger Hacks: 10 Security Tips to Protect Yourself
• (22)How To Secure & Encrypt Your Instant Messaging Chats
• (34)Why I’m Digging Digsby

Most IM clients, or at least most good ones, require a downloaded client in order to work. That’s fine and good, unless we’re on a different computer, or don’t have administrative privileges on our work computers, or just don’t like extra clutter on our hard drive.

If you fall into any of those camps, here are five totally Web-based, totally free online instant messaging services that you might want to check out.

Meebo

Meebo is the most popular of the Web IM choices, and with good reason. This online instant messaging service works with AIM, Yahoo, MySpace, Facebook, MSN, GTalk, ICQ, Jabber, and even Flixster.

Meebo also offers group chat, a great mobile version (for iPhones and the like), and even access in your Firefox sidebar. There’s support for file-sharing, video chat, and much more – it’s as fully-featured, if not more so, than most desktop IM clients.

My experience with Meebo was that it works best with Facebook chat, and is definitely one of the simplest to use. It’s also incredibly well-funded, which means it’s likely to stick around for a while.

Whether you use it on the site or embed it on your own website, Meebo’s a terrific IM client.

Nimbuzz

Meebo’s not my favorite, though; that prize belongs to Nimbuzz. Nimbuzz is mostly making a name for itself as a client for your cell phone or iPhone (and it’s a great one), but it offers a fabulous Web-based messaging client as well. You can make calls, group chats, send files, and do anything you’d want to do with an IM.

Instead of logging in each time to every one of your networks, you can put them all into an account with Nimbuzz instead. Then, every time you log in, just enter one username and password, and log in to all your IM networks. You can put your buddies into groups, view them by network, or just lump them all into one list.

Though Nimbuzz only has a couple of unique features – like the friend locator, to see where people are – its simplicity of use and gorgeous interface make it my IM application of choice (on every platform – but let’s stick with the Web for now.)

The feature that really sold me, though, was Skype integration – nothing else has it, and Nimbuzz does it very well. It’s a great VOIP client, a great Instant Messenger, and the application to start with in my opinion.

imo.im

imo is a relatively unknown player on the Web IM scene, but is beginning to make some waves, and with good reason. My favorite things about this online instant messenger are within your buddy list, you can star buddies you talk to most, re-name and re-order buddy lists, search through your buddy list, and even upload pictures of your buddies to the imo interface.

There’s support for voice and video chat (fingers crossed for Skype soon), some great keyboard shortcuts, and a simple-to-use interface.

If their project list is any indication, there’s some spectacular stuff coming soon from this already-great client, so keep this one bookmarked.

KoolIM

KoolIM is the niche-IMr’s tool of choice. In addition to the standards (Yahoo, MSN, AIM, GTalk), it supports ICQ, Gadu-Gadu, Xfire, Jabber, and more.  If you’re a user of a small network, KoolIM may be your best – or only – choice.

KoolIM offers two options for chat – an embedded client, available right from within the browser window, or a popup client, which looks and feels a bit more like a desktop application, acting outside of your browser (but still as a browser window).

You can log in to one account at a time, or all of them by creating a KoolIM account. KoolIM also claims fame as functioning behind a firewall, which some other applications can have trouble with.

KoolIM’s simple, not particularly feature-rich, but is uniquely network-friendly among IM clients.

eBuddy

eBuddy supports a huge number of IM services – MSN, Yahoo, GTalk, ICQ, MySpace, and promises Facebook is coming soon.

When you load eBuddy, it opens a new window for you to chat in. Your chats and contacts are tabbed, and there’s even a chat history for your recent conversations.

eBuddy offers a bunch of client versions, including great ones for your cell phone. Much like Meebo, you can also embed eBuddy directly into your own website. eBuddy’s feature list really explodes when you create a free “eBuddy ID,” which gives you tons of fun and useful features – faster login, more emoticons, saved settings, and access to other premium features.

All of these applications and others do the basics well – they send and receive messages, notify you of new ones, and generally remove the need for a desktop application. If all you want to do is chat, any of these five will do – pick the prettiest one.  Each one though, has a few unique features that make it the winner for specific people.

Try one or a few of these – which web-based client do you use for messaging?

Photo Credits: gonzalo_ar

Got Tech Questions? Ask Them on MakeUseOf Answers!

• (27)Turn Your IM Program Into A Productivity Tool Using Imified
• (15)3 Web-Based IM Clients For Chatting The Night Away
• (21)Translation For MSN: Auto Translates Messages While Chatting
• (9)Messenger Plus! Live – The Must-have Addon for Windows Live Messenger
• (22)How To View Passwords Hidden Behind Asterisk Characters

Well, we can’t exactly condone corporate espionage (We’ve had enough of that, thank you very much!). However if you are, as an example, a newly-elected U.S. President, named… I don’t know… Barack (I just pulled that out of nowhere, honest!), with secrets to keep just between you and a friend or sweetie (let’s call her…um…Michelle) over IM, you’re likely going to want some form of encryption between the two of you.

There are several ways to secure instant messaging, but here are the two absolute easiest ways. The first is web-based, because we just adore web-apps.

You will likely have heard by now of Meebo, the instant-messaging app that only requires your browser. It’s handy for when you’re on, say, your brother’s computer (as I am right now), and you need to get at your contact list. While your IM passwords are always sent through encrypted, secure means, accessing the site via the secure HTTPS protocol like so encrypts your messages as well, allowing for tighter security.

As an alternative to Meebo, I suggest Imo.IM, which supports MySpace IM and Skype, forces HTTPS, and is Firefox-sidebar-friendly.

For the easiest and tightest security possible for Barack and Michelle, we’ll need total encryption of all messages and file transfers, between the two chatters.

Time for a favorite download of ours, the Pidgin client. You need not do anything fancy yet; Just download, install, and then run the program, adding your IM accounts with the wizard. Your friend must do the same, and then you both must install the Pidgin-Encryption Plugin. Then enable the plugin from Pidgin’s Tools menu (you may need to restart Pidgin for the plugin to be available and show up in the list).

I’m sure that you’re in a hurry to get to your spy games, but relax, we’re almost done! Go ahead and hit Pidgin’s Buddies menu to start a new IM conversation with your friend. Here’s the most important part. You see this padlock icon at the top of your IM window? You both must click on this to enable the encryption.

Pidgin will handle the exchanging of encryption keys, making the secure connection, and other nerdy stuff. Messages sent via this method are fully encrypted from your end to the other, including when routed through your IM network. I call it “Really Simple Security.”

Presented above are just two ways to encrypt and secure your instant messaging chit-chat over just about any IM network. We’re always open to other options, so please feel free to post a comment and clue us in on your favorite encryption method.

Got Tech Questions? Ask Them on MakeUseOf Answers!

• (17)Securely Manage Your Passwords Online With Mitto
• (21)Protect And Track Your Laptop In Case Of Theft
• (24)Pidgin – Tips and Tricks
• (38)Ophcrack – A Password Hack Tool to Crack Almost Any Windows Password
• (25)Keeping Under the Radar and Securing Your PC Files

Presently, the feature only supports videos from Google Video or YouTube and it is available only in the Gmail version of Google Talk and not in the Google Talk desktop client.

The process, as all things Google, is simplicity itself – just drop the video URL into the chat window. A small thumbnail appears within the chat box with a preview and the loading button. Click the button and an inline video player opens up at the top of the chat box. So, a user can watch and discuss the video at the same time.

The previous way of doing things was to click on the received link and open it up in another window. Yes, we still do the same with most of the other chat services (Yahoo messenger 9 though does allow video sharing); Gmail now lets us continue chatting without browsing away to another page. That’s a time saver.

For the musically inclined like me, I use it to share some of the latest song bytes I find on the video sites. Also, one can upload home videos using a YouTube user account and then share it with a chat user. It makes for an entertaining chat session. Yes, the limitation of using video links from Google Videos and YouTube remains. Also, Google Video is on the wane according to some reports following Google’s acquisition of YouTube. But hopefully, as the feature catches on we might see more variety in the Google menu with other video sites being added.

Add this to the fact that Google has added voice and video chat to Gmail, this new arrow in its quiver is another user-friendly step forward.

Have you used this recent feature? Does it add or detract to the chat experience? Share your views with us in the comments area below.

Got Tech Questions? Ask Them on MakeUseOf Answers!

• (12)Gmail Introduces Video & Voice Features
• (27)Turn Your IM Program Into A Productivity Tool Using Imified
• (14)How To: Stay Connected With Gmail
• (12)How To Create a Google Talk Chatroom with Partychapp
• (15)How To Add Google Talk to Your Webpages

The Meebo Firefox Extension

The Meebo Firefox extension adds some nifty features to Meebo. Improvements include “toaster” style notifications, a sidebar to access your buddy list, and auto-login. Unfortunately, this extension requires the Meebo tab to still be present, meaning that your conversations don’t carry on in the sidebar, but the actual Meebo tab.

The main addition of the extension is the sidebar, which allows you to see your buddy list in that sidebar – with no need to switch tabs. However, when you want to IM someone, clicking their name in the sidebar will automatically switch your Firefox tab back to Meebo – where you can chat there. This means that you can’t browse and chat at the same time, which is often inconvenient.

The second main addition of the extension are the toaster-style notifications, which tells you about certain events (can be chosen in the options panel) without having to be focused on the Firefox window.

Meebo’s Mobile Interface As A Sidebar

The mobile interface – while sub par to the actual interface, is a convenient way of accessing Meebo from the Firefox sidebar.  It allows you to carry on conversations in the sidebar without switching tabs. However, the Firefox extension doesn’t work in tandem with this method – so you’re stuck between the Firefox addon that depends on the Meebo website interface, or the less than stellar meebo sidebar.

It displays recent messages from contacts (listed in order of recent messages), which you can click on to chat with, and also click back to the buddy list through an icon next to the input area. An apparent bug is the status picker, which makes it impossible to see the options without highlighting over them. Sound is absent.

To use this interface, create a Firefox bookmark for http://www.meebo.com/mobile/ and set it to load in the sidebar.

Greasemonkey Scripts

Change the Background Image

Meebo offers a selection of background images you can use (if you like product placements) through the preferences – appearance menu, but to use other images, you’ll need the customize meebo backgrounds Greasemonkey script. It allows you to choose a URL to grab a wallpaper from (sorry, no local options) and makes it the background for Meebo. Make sure you choose dark wallpaper (as link text appears in white for all themes) and the gray theme tends to look best with all images. (Note: I had to add http://www*.meebo.com/#* to the includes of the script to make it work).

Meebo Control Panel Script

This Greasemonkey script has a number of options that change Meebo features including hiding various elements of the page and adding the ability to sign on while invisible.

Unfortunately, it sticks an ugly blue link on top of the Meebo logo to access the “control panel” (presumably because it hasn’t been updated to keep up with Meebo’s design; the author states you can change line 91 of the script to reposition the link).

Do you use Meebo for IM? Maybe some other online instant messenger? If so, do you have any tips, tweaks, Greasemonkey scripts or any other hacks that you would like to share with the readers? Please share them in the comments!

Got Tech Questions? Ask Them on MakeUseOf Answers!

• (22)How To Secure & Encrypt Your Instant Messaging Chats
• (34)Why I’m Digging Digsby
• (8)WhatsApp – The Perfect iPhone Messenger App
• (38)What Instant Messaging Client Do You Use? [MakeUseOf Poll]
• (27)Turn Your IM Program Into A Productivity Tool Using Imified

Think of a channel as an individual “room” on a larger IRC server, usually dedicated to a certain topic or organization. Your own mileage may vary. To create and access IRC, you’ll need an IRC client like any on this list. I’ll be using the ChatZilla extension for Firefox.

If you’re new, I suggest reading IRC Help before jumping in.

You’ll notice that ChatZilla presents you upon startup with links to some popular networks. For the purposes of this demonstration, I connected to Freenode, however due to its policies against off-topic channels, I suggest using the Foonetic server instead. Just type “/server irc.foonetic.net” to connect to it.

Chances are, your initial username will be taken and you’ll be given something like “Tim____”. You can change your nickname with the command “/nick NickName” (no quotes). If you plan on using your channel often, you may wish to reserve your chosen nickname with a password. You can do this with a command in the format “/msg nickserv register password email@address“. When you return to the server later, you may login with “/msg nickserv identify password“.

Now that you’ve got your nickname registered, it’s time to create your channel. This can be done with the command “/join channelname“. The channel name can be any old nonsense. Try to make sure that your channel name is unique so that you don’t drop into another channel unannounced.

Once you’re in your channel, you have the option to register the channel, in order to maintain operator “(op)” status in the channel. To do so, your command is “/msg chanserv REGISTER #channelname password description“, replacing words when appropriate.

I’ve created a channel for #MakeUseOf on the Foonetic server, and anyone is welcome to drop in and say hi. Have fun with the old-school chit-chat!

Do you have a favorite IRC client or server to suggest? Let us know in the comments.

Got Tech Questions? Ask Them on MakeUseOf Answers!

• (11)Stay Connected To IRC Chat 24/7 Using Quassel
• (28)How To Setup a Fake IRC Server with phpFreeChat
• (42)10 Essential Software Apps For Web Development on a Mac
• (34)Why I’m Digging Digsby
• (8)WhatsApp – The Perfect iPhone Messenger App

The Google Talk chatback badge allows people visiting your webpages to chat with you with what is essentially a specialized version of the Google Talk gadget. The chatback badge will display your Google Talk online status, along with a customizable message, and a link to open a chat window with you. You can opt to use a nickname in the chat, if you wish to remain anonymous or pseudonymous.

You can also create different badges if you wish. This can be useful if you have multiple personalities as many bloggers and webmasters do. When someone clicks the link in the badge, you will receive a message from chatback@talk.google.com with a URL to chat to the guest. When you click the link, the chat begins! The guest doesn’t even need a Google Account to chat with you!

Setting up your Google Talk chatback badge is easy:

1. Go to the Create a Google Talk chatback badge page (log into your Google Account if prompted).
2. Click the Edit dropdown and change the badge to your liking.
3. Click the Update badge button.
4. Repeat steps 2 and 3 until the badge looks the way you would like it to look.
5. Copy the code in the text area at the bottom of the screen and paste it into your webpage(s).

If you are putting the badge into a narrow column on your webpage, you may find that 200px is too wide. If this is the case, you’ll need to update the code by changing the value 200 to the desired width. There are two places in the code where you’ll need to provide the new width. See the highlighted sections in the screenshot below.

Do you primarily still use Google Talk? What do you think of the Google Talk chatback badge?

Got Tech Questions? Ask Them on MakeUseOf Answers!

• (27)Turn Your IM Program Into A Productivity Tool Using Imified
• (12)Gmail Introduces Video & Voice Features
• (21)5 Online Instant Messaging Services to Chat with Friends
• (15)3 Web-Based IM Clients For Chatting The Night Away
• (25)3 Cool Addons to Improve Google Talk

So prepare to be surprised by Scrapboy, a desktop client for some of the popular social networks like Facebook, Orkut, and MySpace.

Common sense says that ’social networking’ is synonymous with the web. But a little jiggling of the senses and a desktop app does have a certain appeal.

The first benefit that comes to mind is that Scrapboy helps to provide a common interface to handle multiple sites. No more logging in individually.

I downloaded and configured Scrapboy for my Facebook and Orkut accounts (I don’t have a presence in MySpace).  I then dug in and took a closer look at whether Scrapboy is worth a shout.

Logging into Facebook

I must say I really liked the interface – clean cut and cute. The log-in is straight through with the respective social accounts. For instance, as soon as I logged into my Facebook account, the social network asked for my permission to let Scrapboy access my data. With a yes, a small floating slideshow featured the profile pics of my circle of friends.

From the Scrapboy chat box, you can see your wall posts, check your inbox, view your pokes, events and check out your groups. Checking the inbox and your groups though involves logging into Facebook through the browser.

Now I could use this single window to access my circle of friends simultaneously. Chatting with Jane, spying on John’s wall posts and looking at Jim’s tagged photos – all at the same time!

Scrapboy not only transforms social networking into a chat box-like environment, but also takes it a bit further…

• Instant notifications when friends sign-in or when they send a message or receive news.

• Go offline into a stealth state.

• Use Facebook emoticons to add ‘emotion’ to your messages.

• See what you were gabbing about with saved history.

• Be peer to peer and exchange files with friends who have their own Scrapboy installed.

• Setting personal preferences for the notifications (pokes, group invites, new photos etc) thus allowing for selective control.

• Instant check of their profile and current status.

• A tiny checkmark in the chat window also reminds friends that the user is typing and hasn’t fallen asleep on the keyboard.

• View photos in a slideshow.

• Also view wall posts, including the deleted ones on your friends’ walls.

• Scrapboy serves you reminders about a particular event. Get reminded when you want with the option of a time function. Facebook events are automatically stored in an event viewer.

• Behind a proxy server? Configure it to work seamlessly with the settings in the options tab.

Logging into Google Orkut…

Scrapboy’s other face is its sync with Google Orkut. The interface shows your own and your friends’ scraps. The interface allows you to format and post your scraps, although it does not allow you to delete any offending scraps you might receive or send. Through the interface you can subscribe to the friend updates you want thus filtering the alerts you receive. You can also view your pals – by who is online, who visited you recently or who has an upcoming birthday, etc. Scrapboy allows you to open multiple windows for your friends and view their scraps and photos at the same time.

Scrapboy has its own take on privacy (or lack of it for your friends). You get notified whenever someone deletes a scrap or a photo…and more, you can see it too.

An end critique

Here is where I noticed a flaw in the program. If I logged in directly into Facebook and/or Orkut, instead of using Scrapboy and deleted my scraps or checked my events, Scrapboy did not reflect those updates and deletions.  An inability to update my status message also was a bit irksome.

But…the final note

Scrapboy did a good job of bringing all my fairly large collection of friends from two social networks into a single window. It also saved me the bother of manually logging into their ‘online’ lives through its frequent alerts. If I have to pick one standout feature over all the others, it would have to be the chat-styled interface.

Call Scrapboy a marriage of instant messaging to scrapping and of course, poking.

Scrapboy is a 7.6 MB download compatible with versions of Windows.

Have you tried Scrapboy for yourself? Let us know what you think with a scrap in the comments.

Got Tech Questions? Ask Them on MakeUseOf Answers!

• (48)Going Twitter Crazy With Echofon For Mac, Firefox and iPhone + Echofon Pro Giveaway!
• (16)Fishbowl – An Awesome Facebook Client For Windows
• (10)3 Gadgets To Help You Get Social In Gmail
• (34)Why I’m Digging Digsby
• (16)Update all your Social Status Messages with Ping.fm

Here’s what I’m covering :

• Jerry Yang steps down from Yahoo!
• Barack Obama to give up the Crackberry
• Poll: Best Google search operators and tips
• Google voice and video chat
• Google iPhone App.

[display_podcast]

Got Tech Questions? Ask Them on MakeUseOf Answers!

• (4)Yahoo Searchmonkey Expands with Playable Music Tracks
• (8)WhatsApp – The Perfect iPhone Messenger App
• (7)Use Google’s new Mobile Directory without a Keyboard!
• (13)The 5 Best Free iPhone Apps I Can’t Live Without
• (6)Scrapboy- Desktop Client for Facebook, Myspace & Orkut (Win)

To recap, Digsby is a messaging application which lets you talk to people on all of the major instant messaging networks such as MSN, AIM, Yahoo, ICQ, Gtalk and even Facebook Chat. More than that it also lets you connect up email accounts and social networks accounts including Myspace, Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. It also supports customization, skinning and even synchronizes your account details and Digsby skins between computers.

Steve Shapiro is the project manager for Digsby and he took the time to answer a few questions concerning this project:

Tell us about the ‘Digsby’ logo/mascot…

We wanted something that was a mascot and not just a logo so that it would “be Digsby” – we felt this would be a good way to brand it as a consumer friendly product. Another important aspect of it was that it needed to look good as a 16×16 or 32×32 icon since it is used on the desktop and in the tray.

How many people do you have working on this project? Is this purely a hobby project or do you hope eventually Digsby will provide some kind of revenue stream?

Digsby is developed by a company so we do need to pay the rent and keep the lights on.

What about this project aren’t you currently happy with? Is any part of the application frustrating you feature-wise?

We would love to finish stabilizing the Windows build so we can release for Mac and Linux!  We’ve had tons of requests.

What Instant Messaging application did you use before Digsby?

I used AIM 5.9 + Gtalk.

What is your personal favourite feature?

The email integration.  It’s nice not to have to keep checking my inbox through out the day.  If I get an email that’s important I can open it right from there.   If it’s spam, I can mark it appropriately without ever going to my inbox.

I’m interested to hear your comments on the whole ‘perpetual beta’ a lot of companies have going on these days. Are you working towards an actual version 1.0 release, or is Digsby going to do a Google for the next few years?

It’s a little more complex than that.  There will never really be a 1.0 or a 2.0 but it will also not stay in beta for years.  We adopted a development cycle that is more typical of a website than a software product. A software product typically releases version 1.0 and then there is a massive effort to release 2.0. You need to then convince people to start using 2.0 because it is better while also providing support for 1.0.

With a website, every time you visit the site you see the newest version.  Digsby auto-updates each time you run it so you are always running the latest release. We release new versions almost every week.  Check out http://changelog.digsby.com.  Once it is a bit more stable we will remove the alpha or beta tag that we put at the end of each release but the fast release cycle will remain unchanged so there won’t be a version 1.0 and version 2.0…..just constant builds that keep making Digsby better and better.

Any hints you’d like to share about something big which is yet to come?

Mac + Linux releases!

What do you think of Digsby becoming the ‘Firefox’ of instant-messaging applications?

We have seen that tag line in many reviews and are honored by it.  Firefox is a great browser and being put on the same level makes us smile and encourages us to push even harder to improve Digsby.

Do you have any opinions you would care to share on the latest Windows Live Messenger?

It’s a great IM client in my opinion.

So thanks to Steve.

If you haven’t tried Digsby out yet then I would very much recommend it!

Got Tech Questions? Ask Them on MakeUseOf Answers!

• (34)Why I’m Digging Digsby
• (8)WhatsApp – The Perfect iPhone Messenger App
• (38)What Instant Messaging Client Do You Use? [MakeUseOf Poll]
• (27)Turn Your IM Program Into A Productivity Tool Using Imified
• (21)Translation For MSN: Auto Translates Messages While Chatting

However, some of you will NOT see it yet as Gmail is doing their usual and rolling it out slowly to users.   So some of you will have it and some of you won’t.   So if you don’t have it yet, don’t despair.   You will see it eventually!

This new feature is a really big deal because along with also being able to put Google gadgets in the Gmail sidebar, this means that your Gmail inbox is no longer just for email.   Your Gmail inbox is now the center of your entire working life.  I hesitate to use the phrase “nerve center” as it is over-used and a bit of a cliche but that is basically what it has now become.   Everything you need to work with is now sitting on your Gmail page :

• Your email
• The Google Calendar gadget (enabled from the Gmail Labs section)
• The Google Docs gadget (enabled from the Gmail Labs section)
• Any other gadgets you may have installed.
• Remember The Milk “to do list” gadget or the Firefox extension.
• And now….video and voice chat!

You need to install a small plug-in which Google provides but right there, you see the first drawback. If you are working on different computers, you need to have the plugin installed on ALL of the computers for the video and voice chat to work. So if you are say in an internet cafe or on a computer where you don’t have the administrator rights then you won’t be able to use the video and voice features. Any feature that requires something installed is always going to have limited appeal and limited use.

You are also obviously going to need a webcam. Google “helpfully” gives you some suggestions (obviously they’ll get their commission if you follow their ideas!)

Once you have the plug-in installed and you’ve plugged in the webcam, go to your Gmail settings, then the “chat” tab. You’ll now see a new section:

Make sure that the settings are correct and that your webcam is showing up.

If you now look at your GTalk inside Gmail, you’ll now see yourself with a little camera icon next to your name:

If anyone sees that camera icon, they’ll know that you are able to speak to them via webcam inside Gmail’s GTalk and if you see cameras next to their name, you’ll know they can do the same.

Finally, here is Gmail’s official little YouTube video on the subject :

Got Tech Questions? Ask Them on MakeUseOf Answers!

• (4)Watch YouTube Or Google Videos Inside Gmail Chat
• (27)Turn Your IM Program Into A Productivity Tool Using Imified
• (15)How To Add Google Talk to Your Webpages
• (21)5 Online Instant Messaging Services to Chat with Friends
• (15)3 Web-Based IM Clients For Chatting The Night Away