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Bonjour! It seems that I’ve not posted in a while but never mind.
After updating parts of my Vista Laptop, I thought about trying the “Windows Live Writer” that comes as part of the Windows Live Installer package. (The one where you download and install the toolbar, Live Messenger etc.)
I’m currently writing from the application and I guess we’ll see how it works out! Here is a screenshot of the application in use:
That’s right! You’ve heard it, Beejive IM is now available as a native application for the iPhone and iPod Touch! Beejive have had much experience programming IM applications with their own set of products for Windows Mobile and Blackberry Smartphones.
We’ve all been waiting for this moment since the release of the free web app from Beejive. Now they’ve brought out the app on the Apple App Store for $15.99 (£9.49). Although many have had second thoughts about buying the app due to the price, alot of these have just gone ahead and bought the app, along with me.
Here are the features announced by the developer:
General Features
– Reliable and efficient networking: be connected 24/7, and it’s gentle on your battery.
– Be connected even after you close the application. Get notified instantly when you get a new message (requires with MobileMe or Exchange/ActiveSync push email).
– Works with multiple IM networks, multiple accounts per network: AIM/iChat, MSN, Yahoo!, GoogleTalk, ICQ, Jabber, and MySpace IM.
– Desktop-like instant messaging with all of your IM buddies from a single intuitive user interface.
Chatting Features:
– Real-time chats: quick switch between multiple simultaneous chats.
– Full Unicode support, chat in any language supported by your iPhone.
– Landscape option, type with a larger keyboard.
– Chat history: Email chat logs to save chat history.
– SMS out, chat with your SMS buddies through AIM or Yahoo SMS out. Fully integrated with your iPhone/iPod Touch address book.
Account & Buddy Features:
– Manage your buddy-list, including add/remove, nicknames, groups, block, approve/deny requests.
– Sort/group/search your buddy list.
– Control your own availability, set auto-away and custom status messages, be invisible, change privacy controls.
– Configurable alerts, customizable sound, vibrate settings.
– Buddy icon support, view your friends’ icons, set your own.
For the past few hours I’ve been testing and testing the app to figure out any bugs, and honestly I’ve found next to none! It took me a while to realise alot of the settings are actually placed within the Settings.app on the springboard. This gives way to changing the timeout of a session, push email features, theme settings, groups, away settings and more.
Other than the settings, the actual app is as stable as it gets. With the 24 hour session time there is no need to log out, as you recieve all your messages the instant you reopen the app. If you would like a constant stream of the messages you are recieving, you can just set the app to send the messages via MobileMe and get them with the iPhone’s PUSH email service.
The actual UI of the app is brilliant! The only real down side is that within the chat view, messages from the recipient are coloured green as oppose to the iPhones SMS version which is in grey. (Note that in SMS your own messages are in green and not blue.)
Messages are sent fast and replies are quickly recieved too. You can change your status, add a custom status and even change your own display picture. All the accounts you have added are shown on one screen and you can change the status individually, or change all of them with one click touch of a button.
We are all hopeing to see the next set of features which should be applied with the next app update. Many are calling for things such as the ability to change the notification sounds, colour of the text bubbles and the ability to send pictures and voice recordings.
I’ve added a number of screenshots to show you what to expect if you were to buy and download the application for your iPhone/iPod Touch.
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