InstantMessenger posts

Agile Messenger was recently updated to support iPhone OS 3.0's push notifications. The obvious comparison will be to BeejiveIM, since they both do the same thing: provide a multi-client chat app offering push notifications on your iPhone. We'll have a hands-on with Beejive later, but this is how Agile Messenger (iTunes link) works. Oh, and we're giving away five promo codes so you can try it yourself, just check the end of this post.

The first screen in Agile Messenger is a series of switches for each protocol supported. These switches make it easy to see what you're connecting to when you tap the Connect button. There's support for ICQ, MSN, AIM, Yahoo, Jabber and Google. You can only log in to one account per service, however, so if you have 2 Google accounts, you're going to log in to one at a time. I'm told they are working to change this.

Once you are connected, Agile sets your status to "Available." If you close out of the app the defaults will set your status to "Away," although I soon changed it to keep me available even if I close out the app. In addition to your status, Agile adds the "Mobile with AgileMessenger" message, which I could do without. You can change this behavior in the app's preferences but you can only toggle it off. If you want to change your status, you have to change each account separately, instead of one global change. That's a bummer. There's a setting to auto-connect in the preferences, if you'd rather skip a step.

Agile's menus use rounded rectangles everywhere, and pop up like the old VH-1 series, Pop-Up Video. It's a nice visual touch, and if you want to back out of a menu just tap anywhere else on the screen but in the menu -- slightly faster than a dedicated Back button. By using the pop-up menus you can drill down into anything, but mostly contact management and preferences. Once in preferences, the buttons become standard iPhone UI, which is good, because there are bunches of switches. Pictures of the preferences in the gallery.

Read on for more on picture messaging, chatting and push notifications.

Have you ever wanted to open iChat or Adium to check a chat log, account setting, or other information, but didn't want to connect to your instant messaging services? Rob Griffiths at Macworld offers a great tip on how you can easily do this, and it won't annoy your online buddies with incessant signing on/off.

Before clicking on iChat or Adium, hold down the shift key and continue holding it until the application launches. When the app opens, none of your accounts will be logged in. You can then manually login to individual accounts as necessary. Try it and see!

If you used an iPhone before native applications came along, then you may have used BeeJive's web app for instant messaging. BeeJive [iTunes link] has now released a native application for the iPhone/iPod touch.

Some of the features of BeeJive for iPhone are:

• 24/7 connectivity, but easy on battery life
• Get notifications via email even if the application is closed (you will need push email for this to work properly)
• Works with AIM, MSN, Yahoo, GoogleTalk, ICQ, Jabber, and MySpace IM (What? There's no FaceBook support?)
• Unicode support for chatting in any language
  
• Landscape typing supported
  
• Saves chat history, which you can email
  
• Send SMS messages through AIM or Yahoo
  
• Complete management of buddy lists
• Configure alerts, sounds, vibration, etc.
  

Now, with a feature list like this, there also comes a price: $15.99. That's right ... sixteen dollars for an iPhone IM application! Despite the high price, the reviews on the App Store seem to be mostly positive -- when I wrote this post the application held a 4.5-start rating.

According to the App Store listing, the developer plans to add emoticons, group chat support, and full support for hyperlink text. Here's to hoping this application gets a sale price in the future.




Thanks, Zyber Joe!

Multi-service, open source and free chat client Adium received a new point release tonight, with new features and a redesigned interface for viewing contact information.

Adium 1.3 features the following goodies:

• Get Info Window is now called the "Contact Inspector"
  
• The aforementioned Contact Inspector has a newly redesigned interface that allows for faster retrieval of contact information
  
• Facebook chat is now integrated into Adium 1.3
• Standard contact window list now features a search box (found by pressing command + F)
• Improved MSN support with personal messages
• Speed improvements
  
• Multiple bug fixes
  

To download this new revision of Adium, just visit the Adium website and click the download link. If you would like a complete list of all the changes in Adium 1.3, just visit the Version History page.