Filed under: Beta Beat, iPhone
Beta Beat: Apollo IM leaves alpha, enters beta
Gallery: ApolloIM
On the iPhone front, the Apollo Instant Messenger application has left alpha and debuted this morning with a usable beta. This new beta works well enough that you can carry on multiple conversations and it feels like real software rather than a proof of concept. There are still several missing features. As our gallery shows, the buddy info feature isn't quite there yet and you still cannot add buddies on the fly--that feature should appear soon as Apollo IM integrates libpurple functionality. Also as you can see, the little red badge that tells you how many unread messages you've received (a la SMS and Mail) isn't working quite right yet. Quibbles aside, this is a big step forward for native IM.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Jehan Alvani said 1:12PM on 9-04-2007
Side Note: It would have been nice to include "for iPhone" in the opening sentence. I didn't know it was an iPhone app until I looked at "Filed Under" which I'll normally do after reading the article.
On topic: I have nothing of value to add, since I don't have an iPhone :-)
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mando said 1:48PM on 9-04-2007
one of the main problems i have with this app and all those web IM apps is that it activated EDGE while in use, therefore knocking out any phone calls to VM. Why cant it be like a sidekick where I can stay on and notify you and not interfere with the phone function?
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Sahil said 2:03PM on 9-04-2007
There's actually another native iPhone AIM Client called MobileChat, it just got announced today:
http://blog.twenty08.com/mobilechat
It hasn't shown up on Installer.app yet but once it does I hear it's cooler than Apollo, and more stable
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Nelson said 2:07PM on 9-04-2007
I do not get a list of all of my buddies on the Buddy List. The only buddies that show up are automated bots (i.e, HotSpot, Moviefone, WSJ). Is this the case for everybody? If not, does anybody know how I can fix this? Thank you!
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Paul D'Uva said 2:07PM on 9-04-2007
Sahil, I just left TUAW a message hopefully they will try it and upload a review.
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Sahil said 2:15PM on 9-04-2007
Paul, Thanks! and FYI: it's up on Installer.app and so far I'm liking the feel wayyy more than Apollo... has the ability to change status to away, and feels alot more like the SMS app.
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chris said 3:02PM on 9-04-2007
Yes, TUAW, please take a look at MobileChat. It is much better at this point. I haven't tested this with the latest Apollo, but with MobileChat you can go back to your home screen w/o losing your connection. You will also be notified via sound when you have a message even when you're not in the app. It looks and feels more like SMS on the iPhone. Very nice.
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superpac said 3:43PM on 9-04-2007
I've got my fingers crossed Apple will have a first-party AIM application soon. Maybe tomorrow to piggyback on the iPod announcements.
Seeing these apps pop up every few days or so has me salivating. The phone needs native IM, and I don't want to have to rely on hacked software to get it.
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Iain Funnell said 6:39PM on 9-04-2007
Because it's called Apollo - Does that mean that when you find a bug you can say
"Houston.. *crackle crackle* .. we have a problem"
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chookalana said 7:03PM on 9-04-2007
Neither one of them work with .Mac names. So if your AIM name is blahblah@mac.com, they both error out when attempting to do so.
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