OMG did u hear the newz?
Forget mobile IM apps, BeejiveIM chats circles around most desktop
IM clients. This versatile messaging app lets you keep in touch with
all of your far flung friends across one or more accounts with AIM/MobileMe, MSN Messenger, Google Talk, ICQ, Yahoo
Messenger, Jabber, and MySpaceIM. To organize this hodgepodge of buddy
info, you can either sort them by accounts or groups within a very iChat-inspired interface. Plus, you can compile a favorites list of all your
BFFs from any service.
Once you've got all your accounts logged
in, there are tons of options available in the iPhone's settings
menu. You can easily tweak everything from the
color of incoming or outgoing IM bubbles, hidden offline buddies, and
sound or vibrations alerts--although you can't set custom sounds for different people. Turn off off auto-spelling and auto-capitalization to type in txtspeek.
There are even some nifty iPhone-centric tricks such as shaking the
handset to switch between conversations and rotating into landscape
mode for a wide angle.
But the key drawback to instant messaging on any iPhone, regardless of
IM client, is that the device doesn't currently support background apps; you
can't receive IMs once you've closed the program. Beejive
circumvents this limitation by allowing you to keep your screen names
signed in and notify you of any IMs via email. You can even set
Beejive to log you out after a set period of inactivity. While that's
not an ideal solution, it's a reasonable work-around.
Motion controls. Multiple accounts. Stable.
No custom audio alerts. Can't run in the background or directly alert you with push IMs.
across04
December 04, 2008 at 7:42pm
BeeJive keeps you logged in to your IM accounts, even when you close the application.
So, if you take a phone call, or do something else, you receive an email with the message, and with a link to relaunch the application.There is an application setting on your iphone to determine how long you stay logged in.
You can set this up to 24 hours.Also, the application has landscape text input, and uses translucent balloons to show your input, leaving plenty of room to see the existing message thread, while composing your new message.
You pay extra, because your account includes hosting on their servers, to keep you logged in.
This will work great, and can be eliminated, once the iphone offers its own notification service.
This is a great app, and I've been using it for several weeks. Much better than any other IM application on any platform, other than maybe the sidekick.
And will be the best anywhere, once the notification service is available.
MacAddict4Life
December 04, 2008 at 5:41pm
How is this better than Palringo? I ask because Palringo is a whole lot more FREE.
Now I'm willing to pay for a really great IM app, but I need to know what makes it better than the free alternative.
maclover
December 04, 2008 at 3:44pm
Is it actually possible on any iPhone currently with any IM app to run in the background or push notifications?Since Apple hasn't put that ability onto their OS yet, right?
