If you're new to Chatables (where have you been???) then you may want to swing by our [Ch@tables] and [Pepsi Messenger] to bring yourself up to speed.. the problems we mentioned in [Ch@tables & Pepsi Messenger] with character sets 5 and 6 have been since been corrected. If you were one of the people that suffered this frustration then swing back to [PepsiStuff.com] confident in the fact that this time they will work as intended... and if you're after a cool "toy" then it's worth giving them a second shot.. you wont be disappointed :-)

Since we first featured Chatables back in October a few things have changed... their site has had a makeover, they've added an extensive [help section], the features that weren't ready for release at the time (movies and music) are now up and running.. and I have managed to get my hands on all 6 sets of chatables despite the fact that due to location I couldn't participate in the points collection...


The new look...
as before, [Ch@tables] is dead easy to navigate.. there's no getting lost here and everything you need to know about Ch@tables is within easy reach regardless of the page you're sitting on. Their [Help Section] is brilliant and you'll find it covers everything from getting started through to troubleshooting through to the most refreshing change of all... knock me down and paint me purple (or in this case orange!) it a relalistic list of what you really need to run the Ch@tables IMV and characters! This alone should give you a good indication about their dedication to customer care and satisfaction.
The system requirements are as follows...
Microsoft Internet Explorer 5.0 but they recommend you use 5.5 or 6
Macromedia Flash 5 Player (Active-X version for I.E.)
Macromedia's Shockwave 8 Player (Active-X version for I.E.)
Microsoft Windows Media Player version 6.4 or above
but don't take our word for it.. swing by their site and check it our yourselves as they also provide links to all above should you need to update. It's a one stop shop for getting everything up to speed so do take a moment to check you're running whats recommended... it will save you some grief in the long run.

Now if you're running Popup Stopper or a similar program then make sure you have it turned off when you hit their [Help Section] as the answers will appear in a popup window.. it makes bookmarking a particular page hard if you're wanting to save a specific section but it's no biggie and to get around this simply right click on the page and select "Add to Favorites.." (IE6) You may notice, as some of you have, that there is link back to us... funnily enough this upset a couple of you.. "your are one of THEM!" someone screeched in my IM one day... "one of who?" I asked... "THEM! you are a Yahoo person!" If that was the case then my pay cheque is well overdue guys ;-) Kidding aside, let me clarrify this as best I can.. Yahoo is Yahoo, Pepsi is Pespi, Ch@tables is Ch@tables and we are WackyB... not up with big boys and not in partnership with anyone. As far as I am aware Ch@tables entered a partnership/branding deal with Yahoo.. and contrary to what some of you have told us I don't believe they are the same company.. Ch@tables stand alone as do we but on a different level of course. Yahoo Messenger is one of my favourite programs which is why it's featured so heavily on this site.. same with Ch@tables.. I like them, the concept, and the way they have entered into the market place.. it's because of this that I'm happy to feature them on our site... and if you're observant enough to notice the link back to us you'll also notice that Ch@tables have posted the following.. "please email us at support@Chatables.com. We love to hear from you!"... they really mean it!! I had the pleasure of meeting (via email) a wonderful real life Chatable "character" who helped a great deal when we ran into problems with character sets 5 & 6... Chatables appears to be a bot free zone so if you're looking for human contact when it comes to customer care then rest assured human eyeballs will be reading your mail.. a nice change :-) Now back to it...



The shot of the Ch@tables IMVironment shows the features available in your IM window...the links are still active, how you use the chatable characters is still the same but what's new is the movies and music features have been enabled... something we didn't have when the Ch@tables IMV was first released back in October.


Being on two tin cans and a piece of string (also known as dialup) I struggle a little getting the movie and music previews to load correctly and in a time span that suits me.. to be expected considering what's loading but shouldn't be a problem for those of you on cable/dsl.


Now it's in this area (music and movies) that you're going to need to have the correct version of Microsoft Windows Media Player installed, remember you can find all the info re this and updating your version at the [Ch@tables site Help Section] so make sure you have it all set up and ready to go before you start playing around with the clips.







Music...
To select a music clip, click on the music note icon to the left of your chatable character list.. out pops a menu of the current clips, hit the clip you want to hear and it will load into the main IMV window.
Tip: if you don't move your mouse over the menu pretty smartly you'll find that it slides back in before you've had a chance to make your selection so place your mouse over the menu until you have made your selection from the clips listed.




Some of the clips have video, some are straight music.. if you're a fan of any of the featured clips you'll be a happy camper with the samples shown. Unlike the Monsters Inc IMV which has a larger viewing screen for their movie preview you'll the find the Ch@tables preview screen quite small in comparrison but I don't think this would put hard core fans off.. and for those of us on dialup this is a good thing.





Movie Previews..
click on the movie camera icon to get the movie menu.. I had more joy with the movies than the music.. two tin cans and a piece of string I guess ;-) As with the music menu.. hold your mouse over it to keep in place.. if you have a current clip selected you'll need to close that preview before you select from the menu again as the preview sits to the front of the imv hidding the selection menu.. not a biggie just means you can't browse while a clip is playing. You and the person you're chatting with will get the selected preview but you do have separate controls which means you can pause when you want without upsetting your chat buddy. If you run onto any problems then hit their [Ch@tables site Help Section] and if that fails don't hesitate to get in touch with them.


The Ch@table characters are still very cool.. more so now I have all of them (see [our PepsiStuff Messenger & Ch@table Review] for how I was able to do this). The Will Smith character set comes with the Ch@table IMV and is a good place to start... but by no means is he the be all and end all.. if you're looking for a few laughs and have some time to kill swing by and [Preview their Ch@tables] characters.
This wee guy (to the left) is featured on [Page 4 of the Ch@tables Previews] and his sound bite is.. "you typing but your not making any sense!" it's my favourite for now as it's so me ;-) but as there are 6 pages altogether you're bound to find something that you can relate to for either yourself or someone you know. To preview a Ch@table character from their page simply click on the arrow beneath their pic... this launches the character into a new window (make sure your pop stopper is turned off) and from there you will you see (and hear) the character as it would be played out in an IMV..

The notice.."Ch@tables will be available to the world in 1st February 2002 but you can get it from PepsiStuff.com now" is still posted on the site.. this means you have to be collecting the Pepsi points to be able to redeem them for more Ch@table character sets.. for those of us who live outside the participating countries it's been an uphill battle trying to join in on the fun.. but there is a way around this if you don't want to wait till February... either way, to get your sets you're going to need to sign up at [PepsiStuff.com] which we have covered in our [PepsiStuff & Ch@table tour]

Links...
[Ch@tables] (Ch@tables Main Site)
[Ch@tables: What the Heck is a Ch@table] (Ch@tables Site)
[Ch@tables: What's Coming Up] (Ch@tables Site)
[Preview Ch@tables] (Ch@tables Site)
[Ch@tables: Help] (Ch@tables Site)
[support@chatables.com] (Ch@tables Email Address for support)
[Ch@tables Terms Of Use] (Ch@tables Site)
[Ch@tables Privacy Policy] (Ch@tables Site)
[Yahoo! Messenger - IMVironments™] (Yahoo! Site)