RSS Feeds
Peripherals
iBuddy Meatspace Instant Message Notification Guy Now On Sale
Posted by Jason Chen at 4:40 AM on July 30, 2008
That iBuddy MSN emote guy we caw back at CES is now on sale at Brando for US$20. If you don't remember, you can set up notifications on your MSN buddies, so that when they sign on, the iBuddy goes nuts and flaps its wings. It also recognises up to eight emotes and blinks/flaps/explodes accordingly. Sucks that it's only MSN-compatible out of the box, but should be easily hackable to support just about all networks. [Brando]
Google's brand new Gtalk webapp for the iPhone is as crappy as I expected it would be. It has a nice design, and sending messages was easy, but at the end of the day it's still running in Safari—which means if you get a call you are signed out of chat. And unlike other web-based IM apps, Gtalk doesn't work in the background, so interruptions as simple as going to the home screen sign you out too. Also, there are no preference settings, so you are stuck looking at your whole contact list, online and off. Gtalk's AIM support is also curiously absent from this release. In short, this program sucks. If you're looking for a solid IM solution before the App store opens, I strongly recommend Agile Mobile's AM client recently released on Installer, which I've been playing around with.
iPhoneAtlas claims to have received an internal AT&T memo detailing what the iPhone 3G MMS app might look like. Even iPhoneAtlas doesn't believe that these photos are 100% real, and lookin at the button layout and the UI design, we can pretty much say that these things better NOT be real. The memo doesn't list what kind of pricing will be on this mythical MMS plan, but since the iPhone 
After years of neglect, AOL has apparently remembered that Windows Mobile exists and just released a new official AIM client. Though still in beta, it's supposedly compatible with all WinMo 5 and 6 devices. It looks pretty swank, at least as far as WinMo apps go, and more than satisfying for a mobile AIM client. Hopefully this means they're cooking up one for the iPhone too. [
Apple's filed a patent on their upcoming iPhone instant messaging app, detailing exactly what it's going to look like and how it's going to behave. While most of the images show an iChat-esque (and current SMS-like) interface, there are some interesting tidbits we picked up from the text. One, there's mention of "graphics, photos, audio files, video files and/or other attachments as are supported in a MMS and/or Enhanced Message Service," which points to possible MMS support in the future. At the very least, it might mean that their IM app will be able to transfer files. Two, there's also a reference to the user receiving "an instant message while the user of the device is in another application," alleviating fears that we wouldn't be able to IM in the background. Both these snippets are after the jump.
