Instant Messaging

The Patent and Trademark Office has ordered a reexamination of one of the Scotts Valley, Calif.-based company's patents, after Apple Inc. requested the review. VirnetX develops instant messaging and Internet-calling software. Its stock fell 4 percent to the lowest price since Jan. 31.

FRAMINGHAM — The clicking computer keys type out the same empathy that these teen volunteers use when answering phone calls at the Samaritans crisis center. "Um-hms" and "un-huhs" typed into an instant message window must do the work usually conveyed by verbal cues. Text shorthand and emoticons are no-nos, so there won't be any "IDKs" instead of "I don't knows," or smiling faces and concerned expressions. Still, all conversations, be they on the phone or online, start pretty much the same: "Hello.

FRAMINGHAM — The clicking computer keys type out the same empathy that these teen volunteers use when answering phone calls at the Samaritans crisis center. "Um-hms" and "un-huhs" typed into an instant message window must do the work usually conveyed by verbal cues. Text shorthand and emoticons are no-nos, so there won't be any "IDKs" instead of "I don't knows," or smiling faces and concerned expressions. Still, all conversations, be they on the phone or online, start pretty much the same: "Hello.

The Patent and Trademark Office has ordered a reexamination of one of the Scotts Valley, Calif.-based company's patents, after Apple Inc. requested the review. VirnetX develops instant messaging and Internet-calling software. Its stock fell 4 percent to the lowest price since Jan. 31.

AOL is giving its AIM instant-messaging software a new look and new features in hopes of stanching an ongoing exodus of users who have turned to texting and other online messaging services. The new AIM software marks the service's biggest revamp in several years and comes as AOL tries to revitalize its business. A Web pioneer back in the '90s, AOL has been struggling as its dial-up Internet service declines and its online content and advertising business isn't generating enough revenue yet to make up for it. AOL made a preview version available Wednesday.

SEATTLE - After a trickle of updates and "betas" bearing the Windows Live moniker, Microsoft Corp. is ready to start promoting its official package of free desktop programs for e-mail, instant messaging, blogging, and sharing photos. The programs are "essentially a free upgrade for Windows," said Brian Hall, general manager of Windows Live at Microsoft. The package includes Windows Live Mail, which can grab messages from multiple free Web-based e-mail accounts, including Microsoft's Hotmail, Google Inc.'s Gmail, and AOL e-mail.

NEW YORK - A small South Carolina company says it has a cure for the modern plague of budget-busting cellphone charges racked up by teenagers: a gadget for text messaging that isn't a cellphone. Zipit Wireless Inc. plans to disclose today that it will make available a text-messaging plan for its Zipit Wireless Messenger 2, a device the size of fat wallet that uses WiFi hotspots to do free instant messaging with AOL Instant Messenger, Yahoo Messenger, and Windows Live Messenger.

CHICAGO -- A new survey says that the Internet has all but saturated the youth market. The report compiled for the Pew Internet & American Life Project found that nearly nine out of 10 young people, ages 12 through 17, have online access -- up from about three-quarters of young people in 2000. By comparison, about 66 percent of American adults now use the Internet. David Pulliam, a 17-year-old high school senior from Indianapolis, is a typical example of a wired teen.

SAN FRANCISCO — Facebook unveiled a messaging platform yesterday that takes aim at one of the Internet’s first applications, e-mail. Though chief executive Mark Zuckerberg did not go as far as declaring e-mail dead, he sees the four-decade-old technology as secondary to more seamless, faster ways of communicating, such as text messages and chats. In other words, Facebook is betting that today’s high school students are on to something. “We don’t think a modern messaging system is going to be e-mail,’’ Zuckerberg said at an event in San Francisco.

SEATTLE -- Microsoft Corp. and Yahoo Inc. have agreed to make their two instant-messaging programs work together, a partnership that could threaten market leader America Online, people familiar with the situation said. The deal was expected to be disclosed today, these people said. One of them works closely with Microsoft. The other was briefed on the deal. Both spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to disclose details. A Yahoo-Microsoft partnership, allowing users of the competing services to...

AOL is giving its AIM instant-messaging software a new look and new features in hopes of stanching an ongoing exodus of users who have turned to texting and other online messaging services. The new AIM software marks the service's biggest revamp in several years and comes as AOL tries to revitalize its business. A Web pioneer back in the '90s, AOL has been struggling as its dial-up Internet service declines and its online content and advertising business isn't generating enough revenue yet to make up for it. AOL made a preview version available Wednesday.

SAN FRANCISCO — Facebook unveiled a messaging platform yesterday that takes aim at one of the Internet’s first applications, e-mail. Though chief executive Mark Zuckerberg did not go as far as declaring e-mail dead, he sees the four-decade-old technology as secondary to more seamless, faster ways of communicating, such as text messages and chats. In other words, Facebook is betting that today’s high school students are on to something. “We don’t think a modern messaging system is going to be e-mail,’’ Zuckerberg said at an event in San...

NEW YORK - A small South Carolina company says it has a cure for the modern plague of budget-busting cellphone charges racked up by teenagers: a gadget for text messaging that isn't a cellphone. Zipit Wireless Inc. plans to disclose today that it will make available a text-messaging plan for its Zipit Wireless Messenger 2, a device the size of fat wallet that uses WiFi hotspots to do free instant messaging with AOL Instant Messenger, Yahoo Messenger, and Windows Live Messenger.

SEATTLE - After a trickle of updates and "betas" bearing the Windows Live moniker, Microsoft Corp. is ready to start promoting its official package of free desktop programs for e-mail, instant messaging, blogging, and sharing photos. The programs are "essentially a free upgrade for Windows," said Brian Hall, general manager of Windows Live at Microsoft. The package includes Windows Live Mail, which can grab messages from multiple free Web-based e-mail accounts, including Microsoft's Hotmail, Google Inc.'s Gmail, and AOL e-mail.

SEATTLE -- Microsoft Corp. and Yahoo Inc. have agreed to make their two instant-messaging programs work together, a partnership that could threaten market leader America Online, people familiar with the situation said. The deal was expected to be disclosed today, these people said. One of them works closely with Microsoft. The other was briefed on the deal. Both spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to disclose details. A Yahoo-Microsoft partnership, allowing users of the competing services to exchange messages seamlessly, would...

CHICAGO -- A new survey says that the Internet has all but saturated the youth market. The report compiled for the Pew Internet & American Life Project found that nearly nine out of 10 young people, ages 12 through 17, have online access -- up from about three-quarters of young people in 2000. By comparison, about 66 percent of American adults now use the Internet. David Pulliam, a 17-year-old high school senior from Indianapolis, is a typical example of a wired teen.

Internet safety expert Katie LeClerc will make a presentation to parents Wednesday at 7 p.m. in the Robert J. Nyman Memorial Auditorium at Hanover High School. Among the topics LeClerc will cover are the dangers of instant messaging, Facebook and Myspace rules, privacy settings, sexting, and child pornography. All parents are invited to the presentation, school officials said. - Michele Morgan Bolton

BlackBerry maker Research in Motion says its music-sharing application for its popular messaging service will be available for downloading in the U.S., Canada and Australia within a day. BBM Music allows BlackBerry users to select 50 songs from a catalog of millions of tracks for their personal playlists. BBM users can share songs from that list with friends who use the instant messaging service. Research in Motion Ltd. said on its blog Wednesday morning that BBM Music is a social music service that will be available for downloading within 24 hours.