Instant Messenger 7 - good and bad
I installed the new beta version of the Instant Messenger client last week. The UI is really nice and they've added some great new features. The 2 most obvious of these are "Nudges" and "Winks". Nudges allow you to "shake" the IM client of the person that you are chatting with... I haven't really worked out when is the optimum time to use these yet.
"Winks" are small flash animations that you can send to the other person. They are like a supercharged version of the emoticons and very good for emphasising and emotion in a bold manner.
In my opinion, these 2 features add to the whole communication experience and make it worthwhile to upgrade.
The downside is that this product is beta...I seem to consistently get messages that fail to get sent to the other participant where I receive the following message:
"The following message could not be delivered to all recipients"
Very annoying and, at times this makes it nearly impossible to communicate.