Just before the new year we posted what we thought DX might be. This morning a xatBlogs user pointed out that 42 had given the new DX power to two testers. After some observation and scrutiny on our part, we’re leaning even more now in the direction of a xat to days converter.

Here are a few more things we picked up on this morning:

1. Once the DX power is used, you lose it. This could be thought of as an ATM processing fee.

2. If you have two DX’s and you “use the process” once, you will lose DX. If you do it again, you’ll lose the other. Again, if you look at DX as a processing fee, it “fits”.

3. Asked “Are you going to sell DX” a tester replied no, because “I am spending the power”. Spending it on what? On converting xats to days maybe?

So… Any guesses?

Update: give Xatland’s DX blog post a read for more details. Xatland, headed by Brian (a Xat.com tester and longtime volunteer) has more details that probably anyone right now.

We’re light on details at the moment, but word has it that Xat may be planning to “redo” some or possibly all of the Xat smiles. In fact a source very close to the top has stated that Xat is “close to redoing all the smilies”.

We’re not sure what that entails exactly, but rest assured that if they do it, the smilies will be better than they were before. Do we really need to know more than that?

We’ll have to wait and see!

Although we have very sketchy details right now, XatLive, Xat’s most recent hush-hush application, appears to be geared specifically to massive multi-user chat. How the application ends up being used is left to your imagination but think Q&A’s and live interviews with performing artists, actors, or creators of your favorite television shows.

Xatlive answers the question, “how can one effectively moderate 1000, 10,000, or a even 1,000,000 users”. It can simply be thought of as a tool that allows the moderating of event specific, massive multi-user chats. Participants might for example, enter a chat as a spectator but be unable to participate in the main chat where the event is taking place. Users questions might then fall into a sort of queue where moderators will be at the ready, able to act on each question and/or participant via a control panel.

Although unconfirmed, Xatlive may also find its way into regular Xat chats as well. Our testing, although very beta, suggested that may be an option but we’ll all have to wait and see.

When does getting up at 3 .am., because you just can’t seem to get to sleep, pay off? When you get to try out what is rumored to possibly be Xat’s next big feature; a mobile version of their the Xat site.

Xat is currently working on a chat by mobile phone version of their site. Although it has yet to be confirmed, this hopefully will find its way into a full blown Xat application; think iPhone app. At the moment little is know about either.

The non-flash version that we tested was a very basic, very  scaled down beta version of the Xat site.

Stay tuned for more info!

This is purely rumor from an unconfirmed source but, he heard it from a friend who heard it from a friend that knows this guy who, well…you get the idea.

Xat appears to be planning three new power releases: Invisible, Superkick, and “30″.

Invisible, we think, has something to do with a poll that Xat was running a couple of weeks ago. In it, Xat asked whether users would be interested in a new invisible-owner power. This new invisible power might be in answer to that poll.

Superkick, we’ve been told, is “kick” on steroids. Apparently it gives the kicker additional banning power but we don’t have the  specifics on how this is accomplished.

Xat is also working on a third power, but all we know at this point is that it has been code named “30″.

We’ll update this post when/if we get more information.

Xat has been kind enough to let us test drive the new “Boot” well in advance of its release. We’ve been told that right now, as it’s still being tested, anything can change. Below are a few screenshots to at least give you a better idea of what’s to come.

How to use Xat “boot”:
1. Click on a users name.
2. Click on “kick”.
3. Enter reason, and decide what Xat to “boot” them to.

What we don’t know:
- The cost
- Who will be able to use it (i.e. main owners, owners, moderators, etc…)
- Whether there will be restrictions with respect to the rooms you can “boot to”

We’ll update this post if we happen to get any more details.

Xat is preparing to release in total, possibly, 5 new powers.

We have confirmed the following two Xat Powers:

Boot – allows you to kick a user from one chat, right into another.

Octagram – allows you to create eight-sided geometric smilies; similar to “hexagon”.

We also know that Xat is releasing three additional powers but what they do or how they work is unknown at this time; we think they’re called “27″, “28″, and “29″.

We’ll update this post when we get more information.

Update: A post by Physical (Help staff) suggests that one additional power may be called “showxats”. According to that post, this new Xat power may allow a user to see how many xats/days you have when they click on your powers tab.

Update 2 – March 20: Two of the powers mentioned above went on sale today:

“Showxats”, which ultimately was simply named “show” and costs  50 xats.
“Octogram” which costs 150 xats.

XAT is experimenting with the idea of implementing a new language translation tool for use in all chats. The “interpreter” would be accessed in the same way that Doodle is accessed. With just a click, the interpreter would allow anyone to chat with users who speak in a language other than their own (20+ could be supported).

It would work like this:

1. A user would enter, let’s say, an English chat.
2. Anyone could open the interpreter, select their own language (English), and watch as the visitors language is detected and translated in real-time.

Example:
User 1 writes: Hola. ¿Cómo estás?
User 2 sees: Hola. ¿Cómo estás? [ Hi. How are you? ]

The tool is based on the Google Translations API. XAT is planning a limited release of the interpreter in a few days.

Someone close to XAT has told us that the XAT “clear” power, the one that was available only for a short time, may be available again.

We weren’t told when or at what cost, but one thing is certain; those who didn’t have the opportunity to buy before will now be able to.

Those who already have “clear” can now speculate if now is/isn’t the time to sell the “clear” that they already have for a profit.

We’ll update this post when we have more information on this power.

Update: Now now sale! 84 left!

This power, so far, isn’t official. But we have confirmation that it is in the works.

From the looks of it, “Cycle” allows you to cycle through a range of colors similar to the image in the example below.

xat cycle power

Cost: Unknown.

Update: The “cycle” power is now official and can be purchased  here. 
Cost: 500 XATS