Adium 1.3 goes final

The ever-popular multi-protocol IM client for the Mac, Adium, has reached version 1.3, a milestone that took seven months to meet. Among the major changes are a revamped Get Info Window (now called the Contact Inspector), the inclusion of Facebook chat, and improved support for MSN. LibPurple has been updated to version 2.4.1, too, and there are general performance improvements. In all, there were 261 fixes changes, which can all be viewed here in all their detailed glory (why can't Apple be this transparent?).

For those not in the know, Adium is a multi-protocol IM application based on libpurple, the same framework that the popular Linux and Windows Pidgin (formerly GAIM) messaging application is built on. The list of supported protocols is fantastically obscene (18 in total); you can chat on anything from Google Talk to Novell GroupWise and LiveJournal. The application was originally started by a young Adam Iser many years ago, but has been passed on several times since then.

Of all the new fixes, one of our favorites is one that isn't even discussed in Adium's blog post. When you click into your buddy list and begin typing the name of a contact, no longer are you jumped around to that buddy (or whoever is online that is closest to that name). Instead, a little search box opens at the top of the window—assuming you're not using a borderless window, that is—and the list sorts to show you contacts that match what you have typed in.  

Adium 1.3 is a 22.1MB download available on the site or through the app's built-in software updater.