Digsby Worth Checking Out

Digsby is a neat little communications program that combines IM, email and social networking websites all in one. I’ve been using Pidgin for my IM predominantly, but the addition of Twitter to Digsby makes it an attractive alternative.

For IM, Digsby handles AIM, Yahoo, Google talk, MSN, ICQ and Jabber. It seems to have most of the basic features you’d expect from an IM client and I haven’t encountered any problems yet.

You can add Gmail, Yahoo mail, Hotmail, AOL/AIM mail, POP or IMAP accounts. I’ve just used it with a Gmail account as a way to be alerted when there is incoming email, but I’m curious about the IMAP and POP functionality. One neat feature is the ability to send emails right from the IM window, without having to open another application or webpage.

For social networking, you can add your Facebook, Myspace or Twitter accounts. I currently just use Twitter, and Digsby provides me with updates to recent Twitter activity, and lets me update my status. If you use Facebook or Myspace, Digsby will alert you to new friend requests, messages and other activity.

With Twitter, the interface isn’t as customizable as Twhirl or Snitter, but so far has been more stable than either of those and doesn’t require AIR. Digsby’s Twitter pop-up notifications display all recent activity, placing @s first. There isn’t much customization available for the Twitter interface, but it handles the basics well.

For me the real strength of the program is having all these things tied together in one package. You can turn off pop up notifications and sound for any or all accounts if, for example, you only wanted to be alerted for emails and not Twitter, or you only wanted sound and no pop-ups.

Digsby is still in Beta and could use a few more features and options, but right now it behaves well and has been reliable. I’m impressed!

Windows Live Mail

Microsoft now has a replacement for Outlook Express and it’s called Windows Live Mail. It’s available as a free download and can be found at http://get.live.com/ on the Microsoft website.

Live Mail handles your email, contacts, RSS feeds and newsgroup subscriptions. I like seeing email clients being able to handle more and more tasks, like the RSS feeds, but for now I’m still reading my feeds on my Yahoo! homepage.

Live Mail integrates seamlessly with Hotmail and Live mail, and can use POP3 to grab your Gmail or other POP mail. If you’re a Yahoo user, there are third party applications to allow you to access your free Yahoo email account via POP3 client like Windows Live Mail. I’ve had good luck using YPOPS! which is a free download available here.

I like the overall looks of the program. It’s a more modern, Vista-like skin compared to the old Outlook Express. Similar to changes in IE7, by default the menu bars are gone (with your file, edit, tools, etc. menus), but the appearance can easily be configured to display them if you are old-fashioned like me.

There is a preview pane which can be configured in multiple ways like side by side or above and below. There are numerous options to tweak various features from email handling to appearance. The built in spell checker is a lifesaver. There is a separate menu for various safety options, and Microsoft has expanded on the security features of its new email client. There is a built in junk filter, phishing protection and a host of other options.

There were a few new features that really appealed to me. There is a “blog” button that makes it easy to post emails to your blog (but as far as I can tell, only your Windows Live Spaces blog). Another nice feature is the “send photo email” option, which makes the task of sending emails containing photos a little bit easier by automating a few tasks. These two features might not be that interesting for experienced techies, but can be handy for casual users.

I really was impressed by the way Live Mail incorporated itself with the traditional webmail accounts and Windows Live IDs. If you already have an existing Hotmail account you’re all set. If you don’t, or would like a new one, you can sign up for a free account @live.com.

Windows live mail lets you log into all your accounts at the same time (I have a Hotmail and a Live account) and manage them simultaneously. It will also sync your contacts list automatically. This feature is priceless. If you have a long contact list, you can easily access it from home via the Live Mail program or you can get at it from any computer with internet access because all of your contacts are up-to-date when you log into your Live Mail/Hotmail web mail. Also, if your computer crashes, all of your messages and contacts are backed up for you online.

The contacts stored locally are not in the same format used by Outlook Express or Outlook, but Live Mail can easily import them.

Wrapping things up, Windows Live Mail is an excellent free email client and a much needed upgrade over Outlook Express. It adds several nice features, looks sharp and is fairly versatile. I’d highly recommend it to anyone currently using Outlook Express.

Cheers

-Jeff