MXit V5.2 is to be released soon (3rd Quarter of 2007).

Try it out first if you are a Freestyler subscriber on MXit (See the Tradepost contact on MXit), you will be notified of the new release before everyone else.
Two weeks earlier than everyone else.
Currently only R2.50 per month for those extra premium services! Nothing compared to some R5 per day scams for ringtones etc that one sees advertized.

Why get Freestyler subscription on MXit?
You can save, send and receive your messages, greetings cards and pictures at no additional cost (beyond operator data costs).

On Thursday, August 16 2007 it will be available to Freestylers first to test out!

New features in 5.2?

Major Features

• International languages – support for more alphabets/characters (Spanish, Portuguese, French, Italian and German)
• Secure/encrypted messages/chat – A new “send encrypted” option.
• Voice Messaging/Chat (VOIP) – almost like “push-to-talk”.

– Not yet!

• Meet Your Gallery – V5.2 allows ALL users to make use of the Gallery. (Previously exclusive to Freestylers)
  Save conversations, files, Skinz and more to your personal Gallery.
  25 items at a max size of 150kb.
• Play Audio Files – on supported phones.
• Broadcast (Group Messaging) – V5.2 allows you to broadcast a message to 10 contacts in a Group for FREE. (Previously exclusive to Freestylers)

– The MXit website (mxit.com) is already translated to some other languages (Spanish, Portuguese, French, Italian, German and Brazilian).

– AE128 content encryption will shortly be standardised on the MXit system (with a view, MXit says, toward creating a foundation for financial transactions).

– The voice/voip: It’s effectively push-to-talk or ‘quasi push to talk’ as MXit describes it. – Not yet, V6 probably~
V5.2 is just a minor’ish update.

Minor Fixes/Additions

• Smooth Scrolling – Hold in up and down, no need to press up/down repeatedly.
• Set your autoaway time. ( 1,2,5,10, or 20 minutes)
• Under settings – login: You can change the connection type: auto/http/socket: half duplex/socket: full-duplex. This is for phones that might have problems connecting.
• A “3 soft button mode” – if you want to use a third shortcut button at the MXit bottom bar. (“Options” and “Back” are “soft keys” when you are talking to a contact.) Having three will give you “Write” as a softkey, for quicker access. As well as other options on other screens in MXit.
• Presence State & Mood In Conversation Screen
• Connectivity Improved
• Max Message Size Changed to 1000 bytes/characters
• Improvements for some phones:

i-Mate / HTC phones do not have much extra java APIs (no file access, no sending of SMS, no access to the camera from within Java), so the extra feature will be the ability to download skins.

• Read more below…

I managed to find the MXit V5.2 beta before it was released, but I’m not a person to break trust, so don’t even ask 🙂 You will get it soon!

Official changelist

1. Encryption
An option is now available to encrypt user to user messages using 128 AES.
The encryption is performed using a shared password.
When logging in the password is also encrypted.
A further encryption option allows services to communicate with a client using encrypted communication.

2. Meet Your Gallery
V5.2 allows ALL users to make use of the Gallery. (Previously exclusive to Freestylers)
Save conversations, files, Skinz and more to your personal Gallery.

25 items at a max size of 150kb.

3. Play Audio Files
Adds the ability to play audio files from within MXit. Note that this feature is not available to all handsets.
The following file types will be supported for each supported phone category
(The Used column is the percentage of version 5 users that makes use of that particular category)

4. Smooth Scrolling
The ability to scroll through the contacts list and chat screen by holding in an arrow key (instead of having to press it repeatedly).

5. Broadcast (Group Messaging)
V5.2 allows you to broadcast a message to 10 contacts in a Group for FREE. (Previously exclusive to Freestylers)
Multimedia file types are charged at 15 Moola per broadcast.

6. Set Auto Away Timer
The interval that must elapse before the user’s presence is set to away automatically can now be configured in Menu -> Settings -> Presence.

7. Configure Softbutton Mode
The user can now configure whether a middle softbutton action should be available where applicable (default for Nokia handsets).

8. Presence State & Mood In Conversation Screen
Modify the presence state and mood indicators that are shown in the heading bar of the conversation screen to refer to that contact instead of to the user itself.
This will make it easier to see if the mood or presence state of a contact changed, while talking to him/her.

9. Multiple Language Support
Added support for multiple languages. The choice of language is made during the download process.

10. Connectivity Improved
If a connection cannot be made using sockets, the client will fall back to HTTP mode.
Furthermore an option has been added so that the user can select at login time which network connection he would like to use (half-duplex socket, full-duplex socket or HTTP)

11. Max Message Size Changed
The maximum size of a message that can be sent has been reduced to 1000 bytes (from 2048) to save memory.

Bugs fixed:
1. Samsung D900 / E250: Fixed local file system access problems.
2. Samsung D900, Motorola V3X: Fixed file sending.
3. Motorola V3x: Fixed photo capture
4. Nokia S60: Phone camera is now available while MXit is running in the background.
5. Samsung E250: Skins, Local file access now supported.
6. HTC: Skinz now supported
7. Nokia S60 2nd Ed FP 1,2 (including Nokia 6670 and 7610): problems with updating the Profile fixed.
8. Don’t try to login any more if the logout call fails.
9. Fixed file transfers for HTTP version
10. User’s mood is now displayed properly for HTC phones
11. Screen is now updated properly if contact’s mood or presence changes while the contact’s chat screen is open.
12. HTC: Settings are now saved properly in the record store.
13. Invites cannot be moved to a group any more.
14. Up to 5 icons can now be shown in the heading

See the audio supported phone series’ here: forum.mxit.co.za/images/Audio.JPG