IM posts

BeeJive iPhone app gets AIM chatroom support, sort of

by Jay Hathaway Nov 6th 2009

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.

Tags: aim, beejive, chat, chatroom, group chat, GroupChat, IM, iphone

Filed under: Developer, Social Software

Facebook Chat gets XMPP, catches up with AIM, Google Talk and MSN

by Jay Hathaway Nov 6th 2009

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]

Tags: AIM, chat, facebook, google talk, GoogleTalk, IM, jabber, xmpp

Filed under: Utilities, Windows, Freeware, Open Source

MonitorES pauses media playback, adjusts IM status when your PC is locked

by Brad Linder Oct 19th 2009

MonitorES is a tiny Windows application that lets you adjust the behavior of some running applications when you lock your PC. For instance, you can adjust MonitorES to show a screen saver or turn off your monitor to save electricity.

The utility also lets you automatically update your instant messenger status, mute your system, and pause playback of 16 different media players including Winamp, Foobar, and Windows Media Player. As for IM clients, MonitorES supports Google Talk, Yahoo! Messenger, Digsby, and Miranda.

When you login to your computer again, media playback will resume, your IM status will be updated, and of course your screen will turn back on.

[via Lifehacker]

Tags: im, lock, media-player, monitores

Filed under: Windows, Macintosh, Linux, Windows Mobile, Symbian, BlackBerry, iPhone, Mobile, Android, Windows x64

Palringo for Windows / Windows Mobile updated

by Paul O'Brien Sep 18th 2009

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.

Tags: aim, facebook, im, instant messaging, InstantMessaging, palringo, windows live, WindowsLive, yim

Filed under: Windows, Macintosh, Linux, Social Software

Pidgin 2.6 adds audio/video support for Gtalk

by Jay Hathaway Aug 19th 2009

Pidgin, a popular, crossplatform, multi-protocol chat app, just got an important update to version 2.6. It's important because this is the first time Pidgin has supported audio or video chat over Google Talk. Even my favorite chat client for the Mac, Adium, doesn't yet support those features. Unfortunately, audio and video chats don't yet work in the Windows version of Pidgin, but they should be available soon.

The other very important update better (read: actually working) file transfers on Yahoo! and Google Talk. There's also some preliminary theme support, for those of you who enjoy building themes, but it's that feature is too new to have a selection of themes to choose from.

If you're not comfortable compiling an app, you can wait on Pidgin for a little while until the pre-compiled native apps show up. Speaking of native apps, Pidgin doesn't look bad on a Mac, per se, but it can't compete on looks against a Mac-like app like Adium.

[via Lifehacker]

Tags: chat, google-talk, gtalk, im, pidgin, yahoo

Filed under: Internet, Windows, Web

Trillan Astra chat client leaves beta

by Brad Linder Aug 15th 2009

After years of private testing, Trillian launched a public beta of its updated multi-protocol chat client earlier this summer. This week, the company took off the beta label, and Trillian Astra replaces the company's older chat client.

Trillian Astra lets users chat with contacts on a number of services, including AOL Intant Messenger, Windows live Mesenger, Google Talk, ICQ, and Yahoo! Messenger.

It also lets you update your Facebook and Twitter status messages, which makes Trillian Astra a direct competitor to Digsby. So if you were annoyed with Digsby's heavy-handed revenue generating techniques, you might want to take a look at Trillian Astra. To Digsby's credit, the company did roll out an update that makes the "Support Digsby" section easier to spot and configure, along with a link to a Wiki entry explaining how the Digsby Research Module works.

Trillian Astra is available as a free download for Windows. Mac and iPhone versions are in the works. There's also a web client, which pits Trillian Astra against web-based chat service Meebo.

[via CNET]

Tags: chat, digsby, im, instant-messaging, trillian, trillian-astra

Filed under: Utilities, Office, Productivity

3jam: Google Voice may have some competition

by Jay Hathaway Jul 30th 2009

3jam offers a bundle of phone-related services, all connected to a virtual number. It's like Google Voice, but it does a few neat tricks that Google Voice doesn't. Incoming calls can ring simultaneously on your phone, IM or Skype. If you don't use your landline, you can even port that number to 3jam. 3jam also handles text messages, visual voicemail (with transcription), and SMS-to-Email conversations.

3jam is also working an enterprise angle by offering numbers for groups, which is kind of handy if you're a small business or a community organization. 3jam's services will cost you a monthly fee, but the idea is that it will be cheaper and offer more services than your existing phone service. The rates are reasonable, with 5-cent texts in the US, and international rates that seem competitive. Call forwarding rates from the most expensive countries top out around 35 cents, but most are much lower, and it beats paying your cell carrier's long distance rates.

Tags: 3jam, google voice, GoogleVoice, IM, phone, skype, texting, voice, voicemail

Filed under: Social Software, iPhone, Mobile

BeejiveIM, now with Push, is the best iPhone chat client so far

by Jay Hathaway Jun 27th 2009

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.

Tags: AIM, AIM-client, beejive, chat, IM, iphone, multichat

Filed under: Features, Windows, Open Source, Lists, Windows x64

40+ great open source apps & games to trick out your new Windows install

by Lee Mathews May 18th 2009

This weekend I finished setting up a fresh triple-boot install on my MSI laptop. With my operating systems ready to go, the time had come to start reinstalling applications. While it wasn't a conscious decision, I noticed that the majority of my apps were Open Source - so I decided to keep the ball rolling.

Even if you haven't just gone through a reformat, these are great applications and well worth installing. If you have, then hopefully this list will provide you with a solid base of programs to get you started with your fresh, new Windows install!

Web Browsers: Chromium, Firefox
They excel at different things, so I install both browsers by default. Chromium is great for all-purpose surfing, while I use Firefox and my favorite extensions to tackle my daily web-based work.

Office: OpenOffice.Org, Sumatra, PDFCreator
For lightweight PDF reading and creation from any Windows app, Sumatra and PDFCreator are solid options. OpenOffice.Org, well, it's the name to beat in open source suites.

Tags: browser, file transfer, FileTransfer, foss, games, IM, maintenance, media, office, open-source, OSS, pdf, social networking, SocialNetworking, stallman, utilities

Filed under: Macintosh, Social Software, Beta

Adium releases 1.4 beta with IRC and Twitter support

by Jay Hathaway May 18th 2009

My favorite chat client for OS X just keeps getting better. Adium 1.3.4. has been released, and it offers some major performance improvements, especially where Facebook Chat is concerned. It's also likely the last Adium release that will work on OS X 10.4 Tiger. As nice as it is to get stable updates to Adium, 1.3.4 is overshadowed by the release of 1.4 beta, which includes support for Twitter and IRC.

1.4b also has a ton of other improvements and fixes, especially in the area of group chats, including the ability to use separate styles for individual and group message windows. Why do group chats matter so much? Well, for one thing, Twitter for Adium runs in a group chat window, so the devs likely had to get that part of the interface running smoothly to roll out Twitter support. The impressive full list of changes and a download of the latest beta can be found at beta.adium.im.

Tags: adium, chat, IM, IRC, OS X, OsX, twitter

Filed under: Windows, Social Software

Digsby Alpha reduces CPU usage, offers smoother performance

by Brad Linder Apr 30th 2009

Digsby is a multi-protocol chat and social networking client that lets you update your Facebook, MySpace and Twitter status or chat with your AIM, Windows Live, Google Talk, or Yahoo! Messenger. Overall, it's a pretty awesome little utility if you'd rather use one application to track all of your accounts at once. But it's historically been a bit of a resource hog.

Now there's a new alpha version that reduces the CPU use by about 30 percent, improves file transfers for AIM and Windows Live users, and lets you set the status updates on MySpace accounts. There are also new emoticon boxes.

Probably the best part is that it just feels a bit faster. In the past, Digsby had a tendency to make my computer lock up for a second or two before displaying incoming IM messages. Now it doesn't.

You can find out how to join Digsby's group of Alpha testers at the Digsby blog. Bear in mind, once you become an Alpha tester you're signing up to receive less stable versions of the software and you could experience some bugs.

[via WebWare]

Tags: digsby, digsby-alpha, im, instant-messenger

Filed under: Utilities, Macintosh

Get TwitterIM in Adium early, with a plugin

by Jay Hathaway Apr 13th 2009

Adium, the popular multi-protocol chat app for OS X, announced a while back that version 1.4 will support using Twitter via IM. If you don't want to wait for 1.4, you can turn on Twitter in Adium using the TwitterIM plugin. It lets you add your Twitter account to Adium, just like an account from any other service, and you can use it to post to Twitter and reply to other people's messages.

TwitterIM is not an official release by the Adium team, but it works well enough to hold you over until theirs comes out. Basically, your Twitter stream comes in like regular IMs, all in one window, and you can click a link to send a reply. To set up Twitter once the plug-in is installed, just create a new account in your Adium preferences, and put in your Twitter username and password.

Tags: adium, chat, IM, twitter, Twitter-IM

Filed under: Internet, Web

Zoho Chat 2.0 takes aim at Meebo, falls a bit short

by Brad Linder Apr 1st 2009

Zoho is adding to its line of web-based productivity apps with the launch of Zoho Chat 2.0. The service is a web-based instant messenger that lets you connect to multiple IM networks to chat simultaneously with your AOL, Windows Live, Yahoo!, Gogole, and other contacts. In other words, Zoho Chat is a lot like Meebo.

But Meebo has some features that are still missing from Zoho Chat, including the ability to create aliases for contacts and recognize contact groups that you've already set up. Meebo also lets you send files to users no matter which IM network they're using, while Zoho Chat users can only share files with other Zoho users.

That doesn't mean Zoho Chat is useless. The service does show promise. And more importantly it ties into Zoho's impressive suite of online office apps. You can launch Zoho Chat from within other Zoho applications including Zoho Writer or Zoho Sheet. And you can click a "Share your desktop" button from any chat window to launch the Zoho Meeting web conferencing application.

[via ReadWriteWeb]

Tags: im, meebo, zoho, zoho-chat

Filed under: Internet, Windows, Freeware, Social Software, Windows x64

New portable Digsby version available

by Lee Mathews Mar 27th 2009

Carsten Knobloch - who previously put together the first portable version of Google Chrome - had created a portable version of Digsby several months ago. Updates, however, caused it to stop functioning, but it looks like he's managed to solve the problem with some help from a friend.

On Monday, he posted an updated version of the popular multi-protocol instant messaging app (for which he thanks Stephan) that you can take with you on your flash drive. Better yet, he's been testing Digsby's update feature on the portable version and it's now applying them without issue.

The link above is for the German-to-English translation via Google, which will mess with your download. To get the Portable Digsby self-extracting archive, view the original page and click the link.

Tags: digsby, im, instant-massaging, portable

Filed under: Internet, Windows, Web

Meebo launches desktop notifier for web-based IM

by Brad Linder Mar 25th 2009

Meebo is a web-based instant messaging app. Users can sign into AOL, Windows Live, Google, Yahoo! and other instant messaging services from any web browser without downloading and installing any software. But today Meebo launched something new: A desktop notifier.

Notice I didn't say desktop client. The new tool doesn't let you run Meebo outside of a web browser. What it does is sign you into your IM services and send you notifications when your contacts log on or off, or send you a message. It does this whether you have Meebo open in a browser window or not. You can also use the notifier to quickly load the Meebo.com web site so you can reply to messages, check your buddy list, or perform other actions.

A Mac version is in the works, but right now the Meebo notifier is only available for Windows.

[via Profy]

Tags: IM, instant-messaging, meebo, meebo-notifier

Graveyard Shift - zombie-busting Time Waster

With Halloween fast approaching, it's a great time to get in some practice defending your territory against zombies. In Graveyard Shift, you take aim at zombies and other creepy-crawlies, blasting them into splatters of cartoony green guts. It's a casual first-person shooter, and it's very easy to get the hang of - use the mouse to aim, click to fire. Graveyard Shift has at least 15 levels, and it might even have some secret stages I haven't unlocked yet. They key to getting good at Graveyard Shift is learning to use ...

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