The maker of messaging aggregator Trillian has said it’s bringing its chat tool to Android, with a public beta test of the app set to launch within weeks. It’ll work on Android 1.6 devices and above, bringing Facebook, MSN, AOL support and more to Google phones – plus it’ll be a bespoke Android production that’s “not just a clone from the iPhone”. [Cerulian via Android Guys]
The Casio G’zOne Brigade is not a messaging phone you’d want to meet in a dark alley. It’s shock resistant. It’s water resistant. And like a great kung fu master, its outer strength is matched only by its inner fortitude.
Yesterday morning, Nokia showed off the new E75 sideways slider handset that Jesus got a look at back at Mobile World Congress. And while he thought it was a well made phone that lacked any really distinguishing features, the Aussie launch will coincide with Nokia’s new messaging service, which brings push email to your Symbian device from any POP or IMAP account, including Gmail.
Now you see it, now you don’t: This teaser for the Peek Pronto was up briefly, sent by a reader, but it’s gone now. Mysterious! Except that URL pretty much explains it all: “Peek for Business.”
Verizon has decided to start asking for $US0.03 per message from anyone who wants to send mobile-terminated messages to its customers, possible strangling SMS-based services like Google SMS, Yahoo! oneSearch. The move will also penalise any other company that uses text message notifications for its customers (though the change won’t affect rates for mobile-to-mobile messaging.) Like others, Verizon used to charge a fraction of a cent to text their subscribers, during which time lots companies built up SMS notification services for everything from social networking to banking — services which may now be too expensive to operate.
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.
