I once called BeeJive the best chat client for the iPhone, and for good reason: it supports several different chat services, offers push notifications, and has a user interface that makes chatting on the iPhone about as easy as it can feasibly be. BeeJIve just keeps getting better, too. The latest version, 3.1, now supports group chats in AIM ... almost.

Group chats are a great feature that I'm sure Beejive will fully implement soon, but I'm not a fan of the way they work now. To start a group chat, just click the plus button and add multiple contacts. So far, so good, but here's where things get sticky: the only option is a private chatroom. You have to invite contacts to allow them in.

There's also no control over the name of the room. It's just Beejive plus a random string. Also, you'll want to turn notifications off if your room is very active, because having your phone beep or buzz for every message in a fast and furious chat is a wee bit obnoxious.

I know these are all minor quibbles, but it would be great to have a separate "start group chat" button, with the ability to create and name a public room. For now, though, I'm not complaining too much when an already-excellent chat client adds a useful feature it didn't have before.

Facebook Chat has been a bit slow to catch on. Since it's been relegated to being opened from the web in a Facebook Tab, it hasn't been able to compete with chat services that have their own dedicated clients, like AIM, MSN and Yahoo. Although some third-party apps - like Adium - have made the extra effort to support Facebook Chat, it's not widespread. That's about to change, though, when Facebook adopts XMPP and becomes compatible with tons of existing chat apps.

XMPP is most famous as the protocol behind Google Talk. That means any chat program that currently includes Google Talk will be able to include Facebook Chat too. Facebook, like Google, is starting out in the chat market with the advantage of huge pre-existing contact lists - for Google, it was your Gmail contacts, and for Facebook it's, well, Facebook. If you've ever wished you could just automatically add all of your Facebook buddies to your favorite IM program, you're in for a treat.

[via GigaOM]

Water Werks is another Time Waster where the aim is to get the balls to the goal. In this iteration of the well-used concept, you can only influence the balls by spraying water at the objects in the environment around them. The balls themselves are impervious to the water's effects.

You can move your hose around and adjust the spray nozzle from a wide to narrow stream, which influences the strength of the stream as well as its direction.

I found Water Werks to be more difficult than an average time waster, but certainly not impossible. It's a fresh take on a potentially tired genre.

Palringo, the multi platform rich messaging client for Windows, Mac OS X, Linux (via WINE), Windows Mobile, Android, iPhone, Symbian, Blackberry and Java (phew!), that we first covered back in 2007, has just received an update to it's Windows and Windows Mobile iterations.

Palringo is an IM client with a twist - as well as supporting a multitude of instant messaging services (Windows Live, AIM, Yahoo IM, Google Talk, ICQ, Jabber, iChat / MobileMe, QQ, Gadu-Gadu and Facebook chat), Palringo provides some features not seen in competing products such as chat groups, location sharing, picture sharing and push-to-talk speech.

Changes in the new release include support for contact avatars (although these can be disabled if required), flick / kinetic scrolling, the ability to toggle the status bar (useful for devices with small screens!), variable font size, the ability to set online-status for all services at once, an improved installation process and many other improvements and fixes.

The Symbian client was also updated last week, adding a host of new languages, reduced data usage which also results in a speed increase and a number of bug fixes including improved compatibility with the Samsung i8910.

Palringo is free to download (a premium version is available on iPhone) from the Palringo website or from your mobile device's application store.

We've long been keeping track of AIM for iPhone (iTunes link) here at Download Squad: and today an all-new version has hit the App Store that adds the Lifestream features that are available via the Lifestream website. If you haven't tried the new features, Lifestream lets you add accounts from the likes of Twitter, Flickr, Facebook, Digg and YouTube - and any activity from those services appears for your perusal within the Lifestream.

This all-new 4.0.1 update allows you to view activity within the AIM application, leave comments on all updates as well as 'Like' AIM status updates. The application also lets you browse Flickr 'shares' directly within the application with options to save the image or open the Flickr page in Safari. Whilst not a deal-breaker, it'd also be nice to have the option to email links to Flickr photos.

AIM 4.0.1 is available on the App Store for $2.99, and the free version (which is advertising supported) with the same feature set is currently in review with Apple - we'll update this post when it goes live.

Disclosure: AIM is a service from AOL, this blog's parent company.

AOL has been experimenting with Twitter and Facebook integration in AOL Instant Messenger for a while now, letting you read your updates from those services, along with other feeds, from the AIM client. In the latest beta version, integration is going a step further, allowing posting from AIM to Facebook or Twitter. The big jump from read-only to read/write is just the latest in a bunch update to AIM's social networking features. It's all part of AIM Lifestream, and you can add your accounts at AOL's Lifestream page.

A long time ago, Twitter used to support updates via IM, but that's fallen by the wayside and is no longer a priority, so it's good to see the idea being picked back up from AIM's end. AIM Lifestream has quietly added a bunch of other features this summer, too: you can now see whose buddy lists you're on, share your Diggs and Flickr photos, and sign up to receive Lifestream updates via SMS.

[via TechCrunch]

I wrote the other day about the iPhone version of AIM, and how it takes advantage of push notifications in iPhone 3.0., but since then I've been testing a different chat client that really takes things to the next level: BeejiveIM. You might be put off by the $10 purchase price, but if you're an avid IM fanatic, it will be worth every penny. BeejiveIM supports AIM, Google Chat, MSN, Yahoo!, Facebook and MySpace in a smart layout that makes it the most usable chat app I've tried on the iPhone yet.

The key features that make BeejiveIM a killer app are its support for push notifications, its horizontal keyboard, and the elegant way it organizes open chats. Rather than forcing you to dig through submenus on your buddy list, BeejiveIM puts the buddy list on one screen, and a list of your open chats on another. If someone IMs you while you have a chat open, you can tap once on the number of unread messages to switch between chats. This is right in so many ways, and avoids the clunky feeling of having to go back to your buddy list to switch to another conversation.

Sure, $10 is on the high end of the App Store price range, but there's nothing going that beats BeejiveIM at what it does. It's replaced both the AIM app and the Meebo web app on my home screen.

Now that version 3.0 of the iPhone operating system allows third-party apps to take advantage of push notifications, we're starting to see some of the first major push apps popping up. AIM for iPhone, available as a free ad-supported app or a $2.99 ad-free version, now offers push notifications. Now AIM doesn't have to be open for you to see when you've got a new IM coming in.

New push notifications pop up just like SMS messages, but you can also set AIM to badge its icon with the number of new messages you have, or play a sound when a new one comes in. Since third-party apps aren't allowed to run in the background on the iPhone, push makes AIM a lot more practical than it was when you had to have it open and active to see your new messages.

[via Lifehacker]

AIM Blast is a new AOL Instant Messenger feature that makes me feel old, because I just realized that it's been a decade since I first wondered why there was no way to IM multiple buddies without opening a chatroom. Well, it's finally here, and it works pretty well. You can't make a Blast Group from within AIM, but if you go to blast.aim.com, you can set up and edit a group from there. Blast seems to work with third-party AIM clients, although AOL says that Meebo may have some problems with it.

The Blast Group will then show up on your buddy list, and any IM you send to it will go to everyone in the group. The group acts like a normal AIM account, it just puts people's individual screennames in front of their messages, so you know who's talking. When you invite people (using your group admin page), they'll get a message in AIM asking them to accept or decline. Once they're in, they can IM the group, unless you make it admin-only. That makes your group more like a notification system than a chat, but that may work better for some people.

Download Squad isn't alone when it comes to awesome redesigns -- today, Weblogs Inc.'s parent company, AOL, launched a totally redesigned AOL.com. It looks pretty great, especially when you compare it to the other portal offerings from Microsoft, Yahoo and Google. The biggest change comes in the form of allowing direct access to outside content -- including e-mail providers like Yahoo and Gmail, social networks like Facebook and MySpace and links to non AOL sites via a new RSS reader built into the site.

I had the opportunity to talk to James Clark, the VP of the AOL.com portal, about the redesign process, both from a business and web development level, as well as ways AOL is hoping to use the newly designed page to help transform the AOL brand.

Redesigning a site of any scale can be a challenge, but redesigning a site that receives over a billion PVs a month opens up an entirely new set of both business and user challenges. Starting in 2007, the AOL team started doing research on how its competitors display the web and more importantly, how end users (not necessarily AOL users, just Internet users) use the Internet. James told me that what they found was that the "one size fits all portal was outdated and outmoded." In this day and age, even traditional AOL users get content from multiple services and expect a level of control that traditional portals just don't give them.

Last month, AOL addressed those needs by implementing the ability to check and view e-mail from other providers -- like Yahoo, Hotmail and Gmail -- directly from the AOL.com page, the same way AOL users can access AOL mail. Today's redesign continues with that trend, offering access to MySpace, Facebook, and AIM (Twitter and Bebo support will be complete very soon) all from AOL.com. You can even update all profiles simultaneously directly from the toolbar.

Additionally, users can add their own links to pages right at the top of the screen (and you don't even have to register or login to access any of this stuff -- not even Google will let you customize stuff without logging in with a Google account). Probably the coolest feature is at the bottom of the home page. AOL has integrated an RSS reader into the page. It comes preloaded with categories and websites, but you can add your own categories and your own sites. Even more interesting, the sites aren't just AOL properties. In the Tech section, for instance, CNET, TechCrunch, Slashdot and Wired are all listed -- and none of those sites are affiliated with AOL.

I've blogged about it before, and I'll blog about it again.

Back when I was just a wee lad of the Internet, I found a most wonderful concept: instant messaging! At the time, I thought MSN Messenger was the coolest thing since the automatic bread slicer. Of course, my best friend preferred Yahoo! Messenger, and the majority of everyone else I knew would use nothing but AOL Instant Messenger. So, I had two choices: have three relatively bloated instant messaging running simultaneously on my computer, or lose electronic touch with the rest of the world. That is, until I found Trillian.

Trillian, like Digsby or Adium, aggregates multiple different instant messaging services into one relatively light-weight application. The Basic (free) version supports AIM, ICQ, Windows Live, and Yahoo! service as well as IRC chat. The Pro version throws in support for Jabber (Google Talk and soon Facebook), Novell GroupWise, and Bonjour (formerly Rendezvous). Also, if you shell out the $25 for the Pro version, you'll get video chat support for the networks that support it.

Earlier this week, a Homer Simpson impersonator began instant messaging fans with a link to an "internet-only exclusive Simpsons episode." This -- like many things spawned in the dark corners of 'net -- turned out to be a PC virus. But how did this impostor gain Homer's identity?

It turns out Mr. Simpson has a legitimate, real-world e-mail address: chunkylover53@aol.com, which appeared in the episode, "The Dad Who Knew Too Little." Before airing the episode back in 2002 for the first time, Simpsons writer-producer Matt Selman registered the address with AOL. As soon as the episode finished airing, Selman's inbox filled-up instantly. Selman began replying to emails under the guise of Homer, and fans got to enjoy a short conversation with the cartoon star

Six years later, the email account is no longer active, but fans begin receiving AIM messages from Chunkylover53. Fans forgot that an AIM screen-name can be tied to an email other than its AOL email counterpart, and Selman never registered it or abandoned it at a later time -- leaving it open for hijack.

[via TECH.BLORGE.com]

One of the most striking things about the first crop of iPhone apps is the divide between those that work with the phone's user interface, and those that either don't take advantage of the phone or ignore the design specs altogether. The AOL Instant Messenger app for iPhone scores points in some UI areas, but could be more intuitive and feel more like an iPhone app in others.

We've got no complaints about the look of AIM, but there are some places where it doesn't feel right. For example, we were really hoping for a horizontal mode in this app, to take advantage of the wider keyboard. Groups are supported, but you can only view them one at a time, which makes them much less useful than on desktop versions of AIM. While a mobile AIM app like this is a dream we've had since high school, we favor the more intuitive Meebo mobile web app. It supports mutliple chat clients, too ... can we get an app store version of that?

Oh, and here's a tip, because we've seen a lot of people confused by this: to change your screenname, you have to go to your iPhone Settings. It's not in the AIM app itself.

It's been a while since AOL launched an updated version if its instant messenger for Windows Mobile. The new version is still in beta, but it has some nifty features that make it worth checking out. The first thing you'll notice is that the interface is much more attractive. But it's also more useful.

When you first login you're greeted with a buddy list. You can double tap on any contact to enter a chat window. After you've initiated a chat you can flip back to your buddy list knowing that you'll be able to see all open chats and any new messages in the sidebar that now pops up.

You can also manage your buddy list from the client. And the settings menu has a nice array of options letting you customize your notification, conversation, and privacy settings.

This beta supports devices running Windows Mobile 5.0 and 6.

[via The Boy Genius Report]

Facebook has put out their chat service, Google has Google chat. There's no desktop app for Facebook, but there is one for Google chat.

Confusing, and annoying. It's also confusing and annoying to have to use those services in separate programs or multiple tabs in a web browser.

AIM is probably the most popular IM service known to man and woman, iChat for Mac...these are both desktop experiences.

Enter Gabtastik.

For Windows XP and Mac OS X, Gabtastik wants to take your browser chatting to the desktop where a lot us feels that it should stay. The program takes you to a page just like a web browser would to log in. It did seem a little slow to pull in Facebook data. That could be an issue.

You can switch back and forth between Facebook chat and Google, as well as change the opacity of the application itself so that it doesn't become an annoyance by overpowering your desktop. Make it invisible if that floats your boat.

This is a great way to not be tethered to either site via browser 24/7 and still be in contact with your friends who either are tethered or are cool enough to use something like Gabtastik. The downside is that you still have to have AIM or iChat up along with this if you use them too.

Gabtastik calls itself a "Site Specific Browser" for web chat services, so will other services be included as they pop up as well? Let's hope so!

Gabtastik is not the first to do pull these services away from their respective sites, Digsby handles it, and so does a sweet Firefox trick.