One of the biggest problems with the iPhone is that you can't run multiple applications in the background. When it comes to IMing friends, this could be a huge problem. Currently there's only one application available that lets you connect to all your IM networks, saving users the time and pain of switching between clients. Here's a look at Palringo on the iPhone.
The Palringo app for the iPhone is small enough to download over Edge or 3G. To get started you'll need to have a Palringo account. If you don't already have one, there's a link available in the app that will take you to the registration site. Registration is quick and easy and no confirmation email is necessary to respond to.
Supported services for Palringo include:
The user interface for Palringo is fantastic! Adding networks and friends to each of the services is quick and easy. All of your online contacts are shown together alphabetically regardless of service. When you receive a message, you'll see a small mail icon pop up in the lower left corner accompanied by a chirping notification sound. Press the mail icon and you'll see a list of all your conversations along with a notification of which ones have new messages. You can leave conversations open and simply swipe your finger across the screen to switch from one conversation to another. You can also send an image from your camera or albums on your iPhone to friends.
Palringo for the iPhone is a great application to have and highly recommended. According to Palringo's description of the app,
"Using Palringo uses hardly any data: just one megabyte is sufficient for Palringo to send and receive the equivalent of about 4500 SMS messages, 32 picture messages, or up to 15 minutes of voice messages."
Comments
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Yeah.I love Palringo than any other IPhone app, just because of its simplicity & look.
Posted by: Pras | July 27, 2008 11:17 AM
So long SMS
Posted by: Shane | July 27, 2008 12:06 PM
Is this application there in the App Store?? or does it require jail breaking or something, because the official SDK doesn't allow running apps in the background yet.
Posted by: Imran Hussain | July 27, 2008 12:38 PM
Is all the sensitive authentification credential stuff stored on my iPhone or their servers? If it is their services, what guarantees to security do I have?
Is it really safe to disclose my precious Gmail password to them to use gTalk?
Posted by: Y.Y. | July 27, 2008 2:46 PM
This running in the background is not useful at all, see this message you get at startup:
"Since the iPhone only allows you to run one application at a time, you will be disconnected of you start another application"
So you still can not receive IM's while doing other stuff on the iPhone...
Posted by: Jake | July 28, 2008 12:48 AM
am i the only one that is a bit concerned with giving my IM credentials to new services?
Posted by: sean808080 | July 28, 2008 8:50 AM
I would never provide any MSn net service my accunt information, that is stupide!! They dont need it, either they record your conversations, steel your acount or your mail will be spamed! Dont give out your account info, isnt that the internet rule Nr:1 ???
Posted by: swed | July 29, 2008 5:23 AM
Even i feel that it's a bit unsafe to give out my passwords for google especially, since i have my credit cards associated with google checkout and giving out my gmail account info is like entrusting all my credit card info to these people. I doubt i would ever do it.
I hope once the 2.1 update shows up with notification services. Yahoo,google etc will come up with their own native versions.
Posted by: Sreedhar | July 30, 2008 8:47 AM
I tried this service. When I realized that the Parlingo site keeps a log of all of your conversations on their servers, which you can access via their website, I closed my account. (I don't trust this unknown company that much.) After I closed my account I was still able to log in using the iPhone App, unfortunately.
When I logged in a few days later, to see if the account had finally been deactivated, not only was it still active but I suddenly had about 20 more "buddies" on my Yahoo account which I did not authorize.
I changed my Yahoo password and removed the account for the Parlingo iPhone app. Interestingly enough, when I logged in on my desktop Yahoo (using the real Yahoo client) none of the "buddies" showed up.
In short, don't trust these people. At best the program and site have serious issues.
Note: the Yahoo account I used to test this is one I do not normally use and I have never stored important information with it.
Posted by: Alex | August 9, 2008 8:05 AM
Don't use Palringo!
It has severe security issues, see here: http://blog.kaputtendorf.de/2008/08/12/palringo-has-severe-security-issues/
Posted by: Sveenie | August 12, 2008 11:52 AM