Articles about Messaging and Collaboration

A list of prospective bidders for a significant haul of US-government seized bitcoins has been leaked by the very administration that is organizing the auction.

The US Marshals Service accidentally revealed the confidential email addresses of interested parties when messaging them about the process and it has already apologized for the mistake that "was in no way intentional".

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While there are many fairly specialized mobile apps out there, Yo, which was just launched by Life Before Us, takes the cake for being the narrowest-focused messaging service available on Android and iOS now.

Why? Because Yo can only be used to say "Yo" to your contacts. As you can imagine, it does not even trigger a keyboard when you want to hit a friend with a message, as a touch of a button will do the trick (Life Before Us touts this as a feature, in case you are wondering why the heck I am mentioning it).

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Evernote Corporation has released Evernote 5.4 for Windows Desktop, a minor update to its popular cloud-based, cross-platform note-taking and organizational tool.

Version 5.4 introduces two new features based on user feedback: the ability to request additional permissions when accessing shared notebooks, and the ability to view shortcuts horizontally on their own dedicated toolbar.

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As a regular Facebook Messenger user, I prefer my Google Nexus 7, instead of my Nokia Lumia 920, to chat with other people. It is not due to the larger screen size, but because the Android app feels so much better than the Windows Phone counterpart. The former is fast, totes all the greatest features Facebook Messenger offers, and comes with chat heads, which are both cool and useful.

Thankfully, Facebook Messenger for Windows Phone is delivering a better experience with each update it receives. It may not happen as often as I would like, but the popular social network is slowly improving its offering, with the latest version adding some much-needed changes.

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Google Hangouts has become the chat standard for many of us. Long gone are the days of Aol Instant Messenger or MSN Messenger. If I want to chat with a friend, family member or coworker, I choose Google's service. It's not necessarily better than any other, but its value is in its ubiquity.

Today, Google expands the availability of access to the platform with the all-new Hangouts Button. This button allows one-click access to your desired chat buddy.

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With the arrival of Windows Phone 8.1, the tiled smartphone operating system has gained a significant number of great new features, turning into a much more powerful and able rival to the more-popular Android and iOS. But, no matter how good it may be, top developers still treat Windows Phone as a second-tier platform, that seemingly warrants little to no attention.

Windows Phone head Joe Belfiore has spoken of the so-called app-gap going away. Well, sorry, Joe, that is not going to happen. Tough luck. Deal with it. Why? Because top tier developers still release the latest features on Android and iOS first, leaving Windows Phone users waiting, and waiting, and then waiting some more for the "cutting-edge" to arrive -- that is, if that ever happens and the app is not abandoned in the meantime.

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Since its launch in April 2012, Bitrix24 has become one of the fastest growing online collaboration platforms, used by more than 180,000 companies.

It's now launching a new, free instant collaboration tool called Bitrix24.Network, allowing companies to work together without leaving their familiar corporate portal.

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It's a tough life being an early adopter. Having to seek out all the latest developments to make sure that you’re first in line with the beta versions.

For those who really must be at the bleeding edge, test management specialist Centercode is launching Betabound, a sort of online dating service to bring together companies and early adopters.

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Various instant messaging services are on the verge of blocking unencrypted chat messages thanks to the roll out of a XMPP upgrade that has been in the pipeline for some time.

The XMPP Standard Foundation confirmed that the 70 services that are part of the public XMPP network turned on mandatory encryption for client-to-server and server-to-server connections.

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Remember McAfee? You know, the company whose AV software you couldn't remove from your computer fast enough after picking up an off-the-shelf model? The firm was founded by the now infamous John McAfee, although he has not actually been associated with it in anything other than name for quite some time now. In fact he has become better known for a series of bizarre incidents that saw him accused of manufacturing drugs, mentioned in association with a murder and becoming a fugitive who was concerned that the police were going to kill him.

Sounds like the sort of person you'd like to make an app for your phone? Well, the man is back and this time he, or at least his company Future Tense, has come up with Chadder -- yet another messaging app. But this is a messaging app with a difference. The focus is, allegedly, on privacy, security and encryption. The company's motto is "Say what you want! ⋇⊮ ≩⋉⊱∪≀ ⋘≫≯⋌∹∦ ≎⋡⋔∪≙∼≉{] (We can’t see it anyway!)". My, those symbols really do trip off the tongue.

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This weekend, I came across an interesting post by Benedict Evans on "unfair but relevant" comparisons. While I agreed with everything he said, his focus was entirely on the hardware side of the equation. It may be just as relevant to compare today's hot mobile services to online service start-ups from the PC era.

The chart above compares the growth of Facebook's user base, since inception, to that of KakaoTalk and LINE. One disadvantage here is that we can only compare registered users for messaging apps to active users for Facebook. According to one estimate, 61 percent of LINE's registered users are active. If this proves roughly accurate for major messaging apps, KakaoTalk and LINE would still overshadow Facebook's user growth by a considerable margin. This is because PC-era start-ups like Facebook and Google operated in a much smaller playground as compared to today's mobile start-ups. But the "scale of mobile" has already been beaten to death. Does that necessarily mean that these companies also make more money?

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Microsoft has admitted to going through one of its own users' personal emails (a blogger who has leaked pre-release Windows builds and, allegedly, intended to sell the software giant's IP) without asking for a court order, as this practice is covered by its permissive privacy policy.

To assuage concerns that it may, in the future, not go through its own users' emails without justification, Microsoft has issued a statement which details the steps the company will have to complete, and the obstacles it sets for itself, for such things to happen again. This reminds me of the for-the-sake-of-doing-it surveillance reform that US President Barack Obama unveiled to minimize the controversial NSA mass surveillance practices, that also has similar measures in place to prevent abuse. Neither promise is reassuring.

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For jotting down digital notes, I prefer Evernote over any other app, including Google Keep and Microsoft OneNote. The main thing I like about it is the superb platform availability that allows me to use the service on every laptop, smartphone and tablet that I own. The sharing feature is also great; my girlfriend and I can seamlessly share and edit each other's notes and notebooks.

While Google Keep is not yet a strong contender for me, OneNote can be as good as Evernote. Some would argue it is even better. Because both my girlfriend and I use Windows Phone 8 smartphones, Microsoft's app would appear to be a natural choice. But, the lack of support for OS X means OneNote is a no-go, as I cannot use it on my MacBook Air. Until now.

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Let's be honest with ourselves: in its current app-driven iterations, VoIP is nothing more than a value added novelty. Sure, we Skype with grandma and Lync with our coworkers, but the extent of VoIP penetration into our daily lives starts and stops in bite sized chunks. As much as every me-too VoIP provider would love for us to conduct our lives according to the functionality of their limited purpose apps, the average person usually doesn't have the same feelings about VoIP as IT pros do.

Don't get me wrong in any way. I absolutely love what VoIP has enabled my business and clients to do. We're leveraging Lync on a daily basis with our staff in the field and main office. My clients are using a variety of VoIP endpoints like RingCentral or 8x8 desk phones, soft phone apps, Skype -- even GoToMeeting can be considered VoIP for the voice and video capabilities it provides.

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Windows Phone head Joe Belfiore spoke last year of the Windows Phone app gap, claiming that it would end before the start of 2014. Unfortunately for the platform, that has not turned out to be accurate as there are still lots of great titles that are either missing from Store or offered in a half-baked version on the tiled operating system. The good news is the app gap is actually closing, albeit slowly (and not anytime soon).

Microsoft revealed at MWC 2014 Facebook Messenger will launch on Windows Phone, and the app is finally available in Store today. This is one of the most important wins for the platform, as the service is hugely popular in many markets.

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