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Messenger for Mac to drop PowerPC support?

updated 01:25 pm EDT, Fri March 20, 2009

Messenger dropping PowerPC


The next version of Microsoft's Messenger for Mac will be an Intel-only application, a source tells MacNN. The latest beta builds of Messenger 8 are said to have dropped all references to PowerPC architecture, making the app unusable by even G5-based Mac desktops. Exact reasons are unknown, but Intel hardware may be necessary to exploit the app's audio and video chat capabilities.

Apple is also believed to be developing the next version of Mac OS X, Snow Leopard, as an Intel-only platform. As Messenger 8 is only expected to ship later this year, the software may be gaining optimization for Snow Leopard. The latter is currently anticipated in a summer or early fall release by analysts.


by MacNN Staff

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Comments

  1. 010111

    Junior Member

    Joined: Aug 2002

    +3

    hm.

    A/V is probably done using Silverlight... since it is all cross-platform.

    Silverlight is Intel only.

  1. Salty

    Professional Poster

    Joined: Jul 2005

    +3

    Makes Some Sense

    Makes some sense the majority of iSight owners probably have MacBooks or MacBook Pros.

  1. ricardogf

    Fresh-Faced Recruit

    Joined: Jan 2003

    -4

    Huh?

    And who the h*** cares about MSN Messenger? It's too late to party anyway...MS is irrelevant.

  1. testudo

    Fresh-Faced Recruit

    Joined: Aug 2001

    -7

    Re: Huh?

    Isn't the question "Who the h*** cares about IM clients? IM is irrelevant."

    Today its all blogs and twitter and facebook and myspace. No time/room for boring 'chats', esp. face to face.

  1. malax

    Fresh-Faced Recruit

    Joined: Aug 2006

    -1

    maybe in biz

    The only way this is relevant is if someone works at a company that uses IM for internal communications and has standardized on MS Messenger AND is having staff work on ancient Macs. So if anything this is good news for Apple: some IT departments are going to have to replace a few long-in-the-tooth Macs.

    Otherwise, yawn.

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