BUZZARD  As with others, I am experiencing constant unexpected quits of Tunnelblick. So much so that the application is extremely frustrating to use. Unfortunately, I am using Witopia, and Witopia packages their paid VPN service with Tunnelblick. Accordingly, I have no other choice than to endure the constant instability of Tunnelblick.

I am using OSX 10.5.3  
(Version 3.0b6)

BUZZARD  I upgraded to this latest version of Shimo and was disappointed to find that the connection times are really slow, sometimes taking as long as a couple of minutes to complete the VPN connection. This is true from both my Macbook Pro and iMac. I never experienced this problem with the earlier (free) version of Shimo. I have found Shimo to be very useful and much simpler to use than the Cisco client; however, the slow connection times I am experiencing make me wish I could downgrade to the earlier free version, which was working fine for me.  
(Version 2.0.3)

BUZZARD  Thanks Horatio...yes I did - it's the same as my installed version.  
(Version 12.1)

BUZZARD  As with many others here, I tried to run the update on my copy of Office 2008 (yes, legal and registered), and again:

"You cannot install Office 2008 SP1 Update (12.1.0) on this volume. A version of the software required to install this update was not found on this volume."

Repaired permissions, no copy of Office 2004 (but I wish I had kept 2004 that instead!), etc etc...it just won't run.

I had high hopes that perhaps SP1 would do something to improve the incredible sluggishness of the apps, but alas, I and many others can't even get the update to run, so I guess we will never know. But then, maybe I should consider myself lucky since other users managed to get the updater to run, only to find Office 2008 completely hosed.

Nice piece of work, Microsoft. I am still searching for a good reason why I shelled out the money to upgrade to Office 2008

As for this SP1 update, what else can I give it but a string of 1s?  
(Version 12.1)

BUZZARD  Getting everything into the imminent new A/V stack was the reason MS gave in September 2006 for not including A/V in Messenger 6.

http://blogs.msdn.com/macmojo/archive/2006/09/27/774149.aspx

MS proposes lots of serious technical hurdles as reasons why they couldn't do A/V with messenger. But both aMSN and Mercury were already doing A/V before the above blog, and Messenger 7 still can't do it.

I'd call that coasting.  
(Version 7.0)

BUZZARD  Yes, I saw that Microsoft blog from November 2007. I recall they said they were making progress on A/V for the Mac version, but it was a complicated process, matching up platforms, etc.

OK, cool, reasonable excuse. But what I don't understand is why Microsoft cannot sort out A/V for the OSX version of Messenger, while the unpaid developers of aMSN and Mercury have. Those applications have had A/V for years.

So are the Messenger developers over at the Microsoft Mac BU just dimwits, or is there some other overriding reason for not including A/V with their own Messenger?  
(Version 7.0)

BUZZARD  So this is the new version of Messenger that many of us have been waiting for? And STILL no capability for audio/video?

Why is it that Microsoft cannot seem to come up with a version that includes A/V, when both aMSN and Mercury have had this capability (and more) for years? MS apparently can't even play catchup with freeware. I see no reason to download this crippleware unless you have some requirements for using the corporate features, and that is probably a very small minority of Messenger users.

But then, after Office 2008, did we expect anything even marginally innovative from the Microsoft Mac developers?  
(Version 7.0)

BUZZARD  aMSN has some problems with Leopard. For example, the application always crashes when doing a file transfer. Hopefully the developer will get the fixes done soon as aMSN is a far superior client compared to MSN Messenger.  
(Version 0.97rc1)

BUZZARD  After downloading and installing the update via Software Update, I experienced a relatively long restart. Following that, my battery firmware was updated without a problem.

I also seemed to have good results. Using Coconut Battery immediately before and after the update:

Before:

Original Battery Capacity: 5500

Current Battery Capacity: 5124

After:

Original Battery Capacity: 5567

Current Battery Capacity: 5500  
(Version 1.3)

BUZZARD  I am using (1) Intel Core 2 Duo MacBook Pro and (2) Intel Core 2 Duo iMac, OSX 10.4.10

With both machines, Messenger crashes each and every time I simply close a chat window. I'm sure Microsoft is aware of the problem, as a crash report is filed each time (at the user's option). The same crash is reproducible with other users and seems it may have begun with 10.4.9. I'm not expecting any help from MS in fixing messenger.

My advice: you don't even bother with this piece of junk, assuming you are running a system similar to my own. If you want a crash-free MS Messenger experience, you will have no option but to use one of the other MSN clients.  
(Version 6.0.2)

BUZZARD  This version of Azureus crashes constantly for me when switching between Safari and Azureus, and also when closing tabs in Azureus in "Advanced" mode. Actually it crashes so frequently that I find the application of little practical use.   
(Version 3.0.1.4)

BUZZARD  Touch tones (DTMF) still do not work with this version for any system I need to use, such as telephone banking or conference call systems. As such, Skype is still not a completely useful system for me. If you need to use those, Gizmo is the best alternative that I have found.  
(Version 2.5.0.63)

BUZZARD  Yes, Bluetooth headsets work fine with Skype. Once your headset is paired with your Mac, just select the headset in your Skype audio prefs.  
(Version 2.5.0.63)

BUZZARD  Well it's nice eye candy, but it takes up way too much real estate and processor. I can't really see the point though when there are tools like MenuMeter that get the job done in a much more useful and simple manner and also with a lot less horsepower.  
(Version 2007)

BUZZARD  The download link is broken. Does anyone have an updated link? I see that the download link at mercury.to is also directing to the same broken link.  
(Version 1.8)

BUZZARD  Gdisk works OK for small files on my G4 Powerbook. But it appears that there are problems with using it on a dual core iMac, as it crashed on first startup on both our 17" iMacs. Second startup on those machines did work.

Bad news is that as others have nothed, the application is not useful for large files. In trying to upload a 200M file, Gdisk crashes every time on every machine. Small files will upload OK, but not being able to upload large files (not sure what the cutoof point would be) severely limits the usefulness of Gdisk.

When it works, the Gdisk interface is simple and very well designed. No criticisms at alll there.

Such a shame, and Gdisk would be extremely useful and I would use it regularly. Apparently there are no other Mac applications out there that allow use of a Gmail account for external file storage in the way Gdisk does, but I have seen several Windows applications that do. I would gladly pay for such an application and hopefully the Gdisk developer fixed Gdisk, or someone else writes a similar appplication/  
(Version 0.5)

BUZZARD  The current version of YamiPod does not work with iTunes 7.0 and iPod video. You will receive a message saying "firmware is not supported" and YamiPod will quit. Importantly, it will not unmount your iPod and the iPod will continue to say "Do not disconnect", so there is a chance of directory damage when you do disconnect it.

Warning: It's probably wise to NOT run YamiPod until a new release fixes this major bug.  
(Version 0.99.5)

BUZZARD  Having used Limewire for many years I thought I might download Acquisition and give it a try. I queued up a few trial downloads and left Acquisition to run all night. On returning in the morning, I found perhaps a dozen "nag" screens loaded on Safari. Yes, this trial version not only nags you to pay for it, but it also hijacks your browser...not just once, but over and over again.

To me, this is bordering on malware. After closing the multiple and repetitive nag pages that Acquisition hijacked Safari into loading for me, I promptly quit the application and trashed it. Simply out of principle, I do not support any app that hijacks other applications with nags, and I will not put up with such foolishness to simply evaluate shareware.

With that, I give Acquisition would give one star for "features", but I cannot evaluate the other categories since I am not willing to put up with its hijacking my web browser long enough to evaluate it.  
(Version 131.3)

BUZZARD  iMac Intel here running 10.4.7 and this doesn't show up in Software Update for me, although I see it is still on the Apple downloads page. I wonder what's up with that?  
(Version 2006-004)

BUZZARD  Three words:

Still No Video.  
(Version 1.5.0.48)

BUZZARD  Download link is broken. The link is returning an "under construction" page.  
(Version 1.0b3)

BUZZARD  The last two Fedex shipments (international) that I have tried to track with Package Tracker have not worked. Package Tracker is saying "Package number may be incorrect or the tracking site layout changed". I know the tracking numbers are good since they track in the Fedex site. I wonder if something has changed at fedex.com that has broken Package Tracker?  
(Version 2.1.7)

BUZZARD  1.25 mHz eMac here, with the upgrade from 10.4.5 --> 10.4.6. The update did not show up in Software Update so I downloaded the delta upgrade from Apple.

The install went without a problem. As with other reviewers, I noticed that I had more disk space after the upgrade then before. Wonder what went away?

Also, in case you do not see it in the notes, expect two restarts. The startup time before the first restart toook a long time - much longer than the usual longer restarts after an OS upgrade.  
(Version 10.4.6)

BUZZARD  Don't even bother. For me under 10.4.4, Charla crashes constantly, just by bringing another Finder window to the front.

ChitChat is much better, but sadly there have been no updates in a year and not sure whether it is still being developed. Would be great if someone developed a new Yahoo chat client and supported it.  
(Version 1.6.6m)