An update from the folks Cerulean Studios on the status of the iPhone version of their popular IM client, Trillian:
It’s been 60 days since our initial and only submission to the App Store. Unlike many of the horror stories you may have read about, we haven’t yet received a rejection notice and we’re not frantically going back and forth with Apple fixing reported problems. Despite sending a steady stream of emails to Apple requesting status updates, we continue to receive generic form letters in response – frustrating, to say the least. As developers, we absolutely understand and appreciate Apple’s need to quality control applications – including the need for additional review time when warranted – but being kept in the dark for two months is a strange way to accomplish this. Cerulean remains ready and willing to work with Apple to ensure the software meets all necessary requirements.
We’re hoping they hear back soon as well. We’re also hoping Apple understands that their lack of communication continues to hurt what’s otherwise a fantastic success story with the App Store. Step up to the mic, will ya? Everything can’t be dead silence and boilerplate on one end, Phil Schiller email on the other…
[Thanks Robert for the tip!]
IM+ Forum Review by llofte. For more Forum Reviews, see the TiPb iPhone App Store Forum Review Index!
IM+ is an IM client with push notification support for 10 networks, including Twitter. I use AIM, Facebook, and Twitter, so these are the only networks that influence this review.
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Every week a few of us from team TiPb, bloggers and forum crew alike, will bring you our current favorite, funnest, most useful App Store apps, WebApps, jailbreak apps, even the occasional accessory, web site, or desktop app if the mood strikes us. As long as they’re iPhone (or iPod touch) related, they’re fair game.
So who’s on deck this week and what are our picks? Find out after the break!
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Still waiting for its turn to get into the slow-moving App Store, IM+ is ready with version 3.1 which adds support for iPhone 3.0 Push Notifications. Text alerts, badges, and sounds are all supported, and can be individually enabled or disabled both through Apple’s Notifications Settings panel.
IM+ supports a ton of services, including Skype, AOL, MSN, Twitter, Facebook, Yahoo!, Google Talk, Jabber, ICQ, and MySpace. Testing it with AOL proved to be a quick, clean experience, with IM+ launching and re-connecting to their server in a brisk and snappy manner on an iPhone 3GS. Copy and Paste also worked well, albeit it only in the text input box (I couldn’t find a way to select or copy text from previous chat bubbles).
Hopefully Apple will approve IM+ 3.1 with Push for the App Store soon. In the meantime, you can take advantage of sale pricing on the previous version, 3.0 (which pushed via re-direct to email). $5.99 via iTunes.
More screenshots after the break!
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TruPhone let us know that they’ve updated their iPhone VoIP app to version 3.0 and called up some major enhancements along the way. Among them:
- TruPhone, previously a WebApp, has now gone native for better speed and performance
- It’s new UI makes the app much slicker – specifically the integrated IM functionality
- Oh, and the call quality has been “radically improved”
Other highlights include:
integrated messaging tool unifies all IM communities in a single place, meaning users can manage all their IM communication from a single page within the application – eliminating the need to constantly jockey between different applications or even different pages within an application. IM services currently supported include Skype, MSN Messenger, AIM, Yahoo! Messenger and Google Talk.
TruPhone 3.0 is available, for FREE, via the iTunes App Store.
Drop us a note in the comments and let us know how it works for you!
Sure some Skype-come-lately may be making a big splash right now, but Fring has been serving up a lot of goodness to a lot of users for a while already (including those in Canada!) and they’re by no means done yet. They’ve just let TiPb know about their latest update, which not only includes a ton of great new features, but lays the foundation for notifications, which will be getting a huge “push” come iPhone 3.0:
You can now choose whether to show or hide your Offline contacts and regular GSM buddies. And for convenience, we’ve moved fring settings to the general iPhone settings, so there’s no need to open fring each time you want to make a small change.
You’ll also notice a small flag symbol in the top left hand corner of the dialer screen, Tap this and you’ll get a list of countries. Select the one you’re calling and the International dial code will automatically be entered making overseas Skype Out and SIP calls even easier.
We’re also just finishing off a notification add-on for this version. This add-on will notify you when your friends are trying to connect with you whilst your fring is closed. This of course includes all the different services (Skype, MSN, Google talk etc)
To make this as useful as possible, we are conducting a gradual roll-out, starting with the UK and US. This service will eventually be in line with Apple’s 3.0 firmware and new notification feature.
Fring is available for FREE from the iTunes App Store. If you’ve already updated, give it a try and let us know how it works for you!
UPDATE: Skype seems to be live now in the US App Store [iTunes Link]. If you find it in any other App Store’s please let us know in the comments. [Thanks daveizzle for the tip!]
UPDATE 2: According to CBC News, Skype will NOT be available in Canada (though it will be everywhere else). The reason, a patent-license restrictions on Skype’s end that they won’t discuss. Apparently that means no iPhone Skype App for Canada and crippled Skype-to-Skype and IM only for the BlackBerry come may. Sort that out, will you Skype. Now? [via arcterex]
UPDATE 3: Important note for JAILBREAK users: if you’re experiencing constant crashes, be sure to update MobileSubstrate via Cydia.
ORIGINAL post after the jump!
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When the original BeeJive IM for the iPhone won our App vs. App Instant Messenger Showdown, Brian thought it was a killer app with some killer features, just a tad shy of IM perfection. We agreed and named it our 2008 TiPby Editors’ Choice Award winner for best Social Networking/IM app. Now that version 2.0 has landed — and Apple’s Push Notification Service still very much hasn’t — can the old best be the newer better? Read on to find out!
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Posted on Wednesday, Oct 8, 2008 by Casey Chan
File Under:App Reviews, App Store Apps, At Work, Featured, Reviews; Tags: app vs app, At Work, beejive, beejiveim, im, im client, instant message, palringo
[This is a TiPb AT WORK App vs. App Review! The TiPb iPhone Forums voted on their favorite Apps, we took the top two, and now they're going head-to-head. But wait -- there's more! One of the forum voters has already won a copy of the winning App... Congrats duhockey! Want another chance to win? Comment on this post and make sure you leave a valid email address in the comment form -- it won't be made public, but it will be used to contact you if you win! Check out the full contest details, then grab your iPhone and get ready to get things done -- the TiPb AT WORK IM Showdown starts now!]
Instant Messaging has become one of the most popular forms of online communication because it offers instant access, no SMS costs, and unmatched convenience. How Apple doesn’t implement an iChat Mobile on the iPhone is simply beyond us, we at TiPb think an iChat Mobile would be a top contender for an App vs App.
With that said, 3rd party apps are beginning to fill the holes that Apple left open. Two of the more popular, argued about IM Clients available in the App Store are Palringo and BeejiveIM. Though at the core of each is an IM Client, they could not be more different. How do they perform? Which IM Client is better? Who will win the first edition of AppvsApp: AT WORK ?
Read on for the rest of the review!
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If you’re an IM-hound, it’s time for you to head over to iTunes and lay down $15.99 for BeejiveIM. The multi-client software can handle AIM, MSN, Yahoo, Google Talk, MySpace, ICQ, and Jabber all in one little app. The whole services works via Beejive’s own servers which allows them to include a couple of neat features. The first — they’ll cache your messages so if you go out of service or quit the app your messages will be waiting when you return. The second — if you have an Exchange or MobileMe account, you can punch in your email address in the preferences and Beejive will shoot you a quick email letting you know that you’ve just received a message. Nice. Hopefully that feature will be unnecessary once Apple offers push notifications, but in the meantime it’s a clever stopgap solution.
The only real downside is that the price, $15.99, doesn’t really seem in line with the current $9.99 default price on a lot of apps. I’m of two minds on this issue. Come read the pros and cons with us after the break!
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