Communication sometimes leaves links incomplete – but this new version should help!
This year’s Wakefield Show, which takes place on Saturday, 21st April – a couple of days time – will see the release of a brand new version of Messenger Pro, which now gains a big, shiny ‘8’ on the end of its name to replace the old, dusty ‘7’.
R-Comp released version 7 of the email and news client some three years ago, and – building on the work done to NetFetch, bringing that up to version 5 – with this major release an emphasis has been placed on both security, and compatibility with other platforms. Unsurprisingly, then, one of the headline features of Messenger Pro 8 is the ability to connect securely to your mail servers, whether they are IMAP, POP, or SMTP.
Another of the changes that appeared in NetFetch 5 was the ability to ensure email ‘from’ a particular user was sent through a particular outgoing mail server – to ensure compliance with Sender Policy Framework, or SPF, which requires that such a server is authorised to carry email from that address (or domain), an increasingly widespread method of blocking spam.
Messenger Pro 8, therefore, also supports this feature, with specific outgoing email servers for specific mailboxes now catered for.
Usability has also been improved for new users, with the process of setting up email accounts given a streamlined process that guides you through the necessary configuration. And for existing users, pained by the need to deal with emails from other platforms, the handling of HTML emails has been improved, as has the way the software handles long links/URLs – including recognising characters that can be a valid part of such a link, but which may not have been recognised previously, breaking the link.
For those worried about the integrity of their email data, Messenger Pro 8 now includes the option to have the software store email back ups externally to its usual storage location.
The application itself isn’t the only aspect of the package to have been updated – the manual has as well, with new sections covering the changes between version 7 and version 8, and new chapters where necessary, detailing the configuration changes, SSL features, and about running Messenger Pro as an IMAP server.
The price of the software is still to be confirmed, but you can expect it – to quote R-Comp’s Andrew Rawnsley – to be about the cost of a steak and chips at a local restaurant. It will be available to buy on CD at the show on Saturday, and buyers of that edition will also benefit from the Windows/Mac version, with a licence key to enable full use of the email features of the software (which normally costs £25.00) – and discounted upgrades are available to move from that to the ‘Deluxe’ edition.
