Microsoft adds Windows Messenger to Windows XP
By: Arie SlobThis week, Microsoft released a version of Windows Messenger 4 to its Windows XP beta testers in an interim beta build, although it will be made more broadly available to all testers (including people who ordered the preview), when Windows XP Release Candidate 1 (RC1) will be made available later this month (probably June 18th).
Windows Messenger 4 will replace the publicly available MSN Messenger. Windows Messenger expands on MSN Messenger's capabilities and adds new .NET-related functionality, such as contact notification, file and application sharing, and XP Remote Assistance.
"Windows XP opens the door to amazing new kinds of person-to-person communication," said Microsoft Product Unit Manager David Gurle, who heads the Windows Messenger development team. "Today, communication is highly asynchronous. You send e-mail and wait for a response. You call someone and leave voice mail. You send a document to coworkers and wait for them to make changes and send it back. With Windows Messenger, you know right away if someone is available and then you can see them, talk with them, and work on documents together, all in real time and at levels of quality that have been unimaginable until now."
According to Gurle, Windows Messenger will make it possible for people to come together in ways that may seem fantastic today. One example: students and researchers in different locations -- even in different countries -- will be able to work together on projects, sharing source material and co-editing papers, all online, in real time. Families will find it easy to hold spur-of-the-moment online reunions. Companies will find it easier and more cost effective to bring colleagues located in different offices together to exchange ideas, work on presentations and discuss strategies. Features such as white-boarding, shared document editing, as well as video- and audio-conferencing, will make a meeting of colleagues located in different countries just as productive as a face-to-face meeting.
In addition, Windows XP will extend digital communication beyond desktop computing to a host of existing and new devices that will make real time communication a reality even for users who aren't sitting in front of their home or office PC.
While some forms of real-time communication have been available for a while (Microsoft NetMeeting, Chat, and MSN Messenger mentioned above), the new Windows Messenger combines all these in one application, greatly improving on it's ease of use.
While the real-time communication platform brings together a variety of previously existing technologies, significant improvements were made to Windows XP, as well. These include "forward-error correction" technology that reduces audio- and video-stream delays when there is more Internet traffic than the system can handle. Windows Messenger can also select the voice coder and decoder -- or codecs -- that match network conditions in the moment. When there is plenty of bandwidth available, Windows Messenger will load a codec that can provide sound quality that exceeds what we're accustomed to on the telephone. As network delays increase, it automatically and seamlessly switches to slower-speed codecs, providing the best possible level of quality at all times.
Another new technology in Windows XP, "acoustic echo cancellation," reduces the feedback echo that frequently plagues users who place PC-to-PC audio calls over the Internet. Planned additions to future releases of Windows Messenger include the ability to place PC-to-phone calls, and the option to select which service provider will carry the call, from anywhere in the world.
An important enabling technology central to Windows Messenger is a new standard called SIP (Session Initiation Protocol). Developed three years ago through work done at Columbia University and Bell Labs, and adopted by the Internet Engineering Task Force, SIP is an overarching standard that makes it possible for many different kinds of devices to connect to the Internet and take advantage of real-time communication. SIP lets users determine whether the people they want to communicate with are online and then invite them to join in an online conference. From there, SIP allows users to initiate video streams, open voice channels, and share documents.
Microsoft talks about its support for SIP - "SIP gives software developers a common starting point for building applications that interoperate easily" - in an obvious dig at AOL, which has refused to open its IM software to other parties.
This new Windows Messenger seems to take aim at AOL, although publicly Microsoft denies this.