PDAapps Releases Unified IM Client

Posted By: Ryan Friday, December 27, 2002 5:47:51 PM

PDAapps has released an always on, unified Instant Messaging (IM) client for the Palm OS called VeriChat. It works with your persistent (GPRS/CDMA 1xRTT) or CSD wireless data connection to give you an always-on presence on the Yahoo!, MSN & AOL chat networks.

Verichat for Palm OSThe unique thing about Verichat is that you don't have to be in the application for you to chat with your buddies. They always see you as online and can send you messages, and you can receive and reply to them while in another app. You can be logged onto Yahoo, Microsoft Messenger and AOL IM all at the same time and can be talking to your buddies on either of these networks simultaneously.

It works with all PalmOS based SmartPhones (that have a data connection - circuit-switch data or high-speed data) including the Treo 180, Treo 270, Treo 300, Samsung I330, Kyocera 7135, VisorPhone, etc. lt also works with your Palm OS PDA if it has an Internet connection and a paging address.

You can use a Wireless phone via IR (infra-red) or BlueTooth for the PDA's internet connectivity, i.e., a Tungsten-T or a Treo 90 coupled via bluetooth with a Ericsson T68.

The program files has a small memory footprint, 81KB of RAM (compare to AIM's 400KB+). It is available now from PDAapps. There is a 15 day trial period.

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Air-time costs?

stupidnewpolicy @ 12/27/2002 8:37:40 PM #
Any clue what each particular vendor's position is on this app? It would be nice to know what the particular "keep-alive" frequency is and if left active for a period of time (say a day or so) what the network traffic cost would be in air-time.

Not all the wireless providers have good "unlimited internet" plans at present.



Ick

RE: Air-time costs?
PDA Guy @ 12/28/2002 1:37:22 AM #
Do *ANY* carriers have a good internet package yet? I didn't think so.

Heck, most of them are just recently starting to price VOICE where Everyman can afford it. :)

RE: Air-time costs?
KRamsauer @ 12/28/2002 2:36:23 PM #
Sprint has $10 for unlimitted monthly data. That's great.

Aim is 400+k?

UZI4U182 @ 12/27/2002 8:51:10 PM #
My version of AIM is only 141k. Still big though, especially considering what this new messenger has.

--Devan-- | Email me: UZI4U182@att.net
Webmaster of www.tavern.2ya.com
Palm OS apps, news, reviews and such
Current PDA: Sony CLIÉ PEG-SJ30
Check out my new forum: www.tavernforum.2ya.com

Wow

Massman82 @ 12/27/2002 10:31:01 PM #
Thanks PIC! This is a product that I have been waiting for for months!

Roman Pedan
Palm V/Vx
Will get a Palm OS 5 handheld
RE: Wow
Massman82 @ 12/27/2002 10:51:41 PM #
I spoke too soon! I am having lots of trouble receiving IM's IM's.

Roman Pedan
Palm V/Vx
Will get a Palm OS 5 handheld
RE: Wow
Massman82 @ 12/28/2002 10:55:26 AM #
Fixed it, it was my fault not the programs.

Roman Pedan
Palm V/Vx
Will get a Palm OS 5 handheld

Looks good - also been waiting for months for this

Louis Berk @ 12/28/2002 5:21:48 AM #
I've downloaded and installed the app on my Tungsten T and it works very well.

I'm based in the UK using GSM/GPRS via O2 on a T39m, and the connection between my mobile and the Tungsten is (of course) Bluetooth.

Speed is astonishing - I played around chatting between my wife and myself - she is on her PC, connected via ADSL. Posts in either direction were delivered almost supernaturally fast considering the posts have to pass through the GPRS network to an edge connection with the Internet and then to/from her computer.

I left the sounds turned on, on the Tungsten and there are helpful beeps but despite checking the "vibrate" options, could not feel a thing. Might be a setting in the Tungsten, though, so I'll play around some more and see if I can get it going.

Quick tip for PDAapps. I assume you are a US company - you need to think International. There is a considerably larger GSM/GPRS community in the rest of the world than the US (not knocking anyone here - just stating fact) and your revenue opportunity is wide open here in the UK.

I've no axe to grind, BTW, and I am also thinking of developing an IM client for the Palm OS platform because the market is so poorly served by software at present.

Louis Berk
http://www.louisberk.com
"I tell IT the way I see IT"


RE: Looks good - also been waiting for months for this
olgiati @ 12/28/2002 7:19:34 AM #
yes, this is it. wonder what aol msn and yahoo is thinking about program?

10Wtech
RE: Looks good - also been waiting for months for this
Stefanos @ 12/28/2002 8:17:37 AM #
I don't understand what you mean by "you need to think international". Doesn't this app work everywhere there is GSM/GPRS?

RE: Looks good - also been waiting for months for this
Wuju @ 12/28/2002 8:19:51 AM #
Good to hear that it works. Wonder if it will work in Canada throught the GPRS / GSM network from Fido.

RE: Looks good - also been waiting for months for this
Louis Berk @ 12/28/2002 8:24:46 AM #
To clarify the "international comment", and to respond to Stefanos, yes: the app does work anywhere there is GSM/GPRS connectivity.


RE: Looks good - also been waiting for months for this
KRamsauer @ 12/28/2002 2:37:56 PM #
The client uses the TOC protocol to talk to AIM servers. TOC is the protocol AOL set aside for this type of thing. They probably don't have a problem with it.

Multitasking

Roberto_tores @ 12/28/2002 7:00:16 AM #
Does anyone has noticed that this app performs multitasking like behaviour on os 4?

It would be interesting to know how it does it.

RE: Multitasking
Edward Green @ 12/28/2002 9:57:23 AM #
ICQ used to do this under OS 3.5.

I used to use my Palm 3c with ICQ and a IR connection to my Nokia 7110. Ahhh those were the days.

If you were in another app you would get a beep from ICQ.

Edward Green
--
http://www.khite.co.uk

Works when you're on another app?

Stefanos @ 12/28/2002 8:14:49 AM #
Not for me... When I am chatting to someone and launch another app, I simply get an email with the message... No MSN IM, and the message is not present in the chat when I launch VeriChat again. What am I doing wrong?

RE: Works when you're on another app?
Louis Berk @ 12/28/2002 8:28:09 AM #
Same here - it is something to do with the set-up. When first configuring the app it wanted a network provided e-mail address - something I do not appear to have. So, instead, I put in my normal e-mail address.

The result is that if someone tries to connect to me when I do not have the app open - the chat appears as a series of e-mails.

I'll play around with this and if I find a solution I'll post it here.

Another thing that does not appear to work is the "vibrate" alarm. I'd dearly like that to work.

I'm sure it is all down to some configuration issues inside the Tungsten.


RE: Works when you're on another app?
JKingGrim @ 12/28/2002 10:31:30 AM #
I think I know what it means. I use netscape, and for months now it has been boasting that it is part of a network with AOL. If you have a screen name, you automatically have an email with netscape. If you are logged into AIM, and go to the email section at 'www.netscape.net', it will log you in from AIM. This might be the network it is talking about.

RE: Works when you're on another app?
pete123 @ 12/28/2002 12:25:45 PM #
I have a Treo and it works for me when I am in another App. I think the way they have done it is that they send an Email to the "phone address", and when you receive an SMS, they capture it and display a nice looking dialog box with options to quick reply by typing the message inside the dialog box or to click chat and go to VeriChat and have the text display inside the Chat Window.

Since, there are such a variety of palm clients out there, they could not have possibly made SMS capturers for all of them (they all have proprietary messaging API -- no standard). I know this because I myself am a palm programmer. So, for people who are not lucky enough to own a Treo :), you just get a page with the IM right now, and maybe the support for your device is in the works.

RE: Works when you're on another app?
Stefanos @ 12/28/2002 6:33:06 PM #
The phone address? What would that be? I set it to the email address given by my GPRS provider, and I get an SMS notification every time someone sends me an IM (and I am on another app). That is pretty annoying, and although I can disable SMS notification, I still don't see how I can get the IM's while running different apps.

RE: Works when you're on another app?
sanchrts @ 2/19/2003 12:41:48 PM #
Louis/Stefanos

I am also having trouble figuring out what the "SMS email address" is (as Verichat call it). If you don't fill this out (as I haven't) then you have to be in verichat to receive IMs.

Obviously I would prefer to be able to receive IMs when not in verichat but Orange UK (my GPRS provider) have no idea what the sms email address is. verichat seem to suggest the email address should be [your mobile number]@[your connectivity provider domain name]

I will post back here if I resolve this or if verichat respond to my support request!

Raf

True IM

ska @ 12/28/2002 1:22:30 PM #
I seriously doubt it's a true IM client. I bet it's just a proxy notification shell for an actual IM application that run on their server. That's why the size is so small.
RE: True IM
Davy Fields @ 12/28/2002 1:48:15 PM #
Is that safe, security wise then?

-Davy Fields
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Palm_OS_5/
RE: True IM
pete123 @ 12/28/2002 1:50:36 PM #
It has to be a proxy thing otherwise who is going to convert the IMs you receive to SMS. None of the networks do it natively.

RE: True IM
KRamsauer @ 12/28/2002 2:39:04 PM #
Yes, it's proxied. It's double-proxied if you use a Treo 300 since you need a proxy server to send SMSs with Treo300SMS.

RE: True IM
olgiati @ 12/29/2002 10:09:34 AM #
does it mean that it is sms and not a true data gprs transfer ? - do you pay for sms or ?

10Wtech
RE: True IM
KRamsauer @ 12/29/2002 10:32:32 AM #
If you are in the app, the data is sent via normal Internet means (CSD, GPRS, Sprint's data network, etc). If you are in another app, the communication is done with SMS, with any charges your provider might have.

RE: True IM
olgiati @ 12/29/2002 1:05:52 PM #
ok - nice

10Wtech

Trillian

Fzara2000 @ 12/28/2002 5:42:39 PM #
Seems like they beat Trillian for a client on the Palm OS.

www.trillian.cc.

"Now thats just PRIME!"

RE: Trillian
Louis Berk @ 12/28/2002 6:12:24 PM #
Do Trillian have a Palm OS IM client in the works? I'd be very interested if they did.

RE: Trillian
mashby @ 12/30/2002 2:29:25 PM #
Although I've begged over and over, there's been no indication that there is a Palm OS application in the works. :(

I suppose anyone from the Palm OS Developer community could take up the challenge though and work with them to bring it to market. My understanding is that they simply don't have the manpower to take up a different version of Trillian.

IMHO there's a real opportunity for someone to step in and provide a killer product.

Michael T. Ashby
Director
InterPUG
http://www.interpug.com

Truly an awesome app

nrosser @ 12/28/2002 11:08:19 PM #
I used that old Yahoo Messenger for Palm app, back in my Omnisky/PalmVx days, and this totally blows that away (not to mention the fact that Yahoo has yanked support for that client - yes, I know there are UK versions of Messenger app that try to work, but...)
I've been using Verichat since their beta tests began, and I have to say that I love it. It has totally changed my view of IM - no longer do I have to be at the PC for my co-workers to think that I'm actually WORKING. Seems that some others who have posted above have had a couple of various issues - all I can say is that it's been rock solid for me, and Sprint's always on, no data limit, all for $10, data plan makes the whole thing a very sweet deal. Get the trial version - you'll love it.

Killer App

treo007 @ 12/28/2002 11:25:53 PM #
Killer App in the PDA world, plain and simple (I try to refrain from using the term as it's bandied about far too often. But finally something has come along that suits it).

RE: Killer App
treo007 @ 12/28/2002 11:35:58 PM #
Oh, and another thing. Handspring: You'd be smart to bundle this with every new communicator, ASAP.

Lots of extra info available here

gfunkmagic @ 1/4/2003 3:15:51 PM #
PDAapps released this software to the Treocentral community a while ago and there is a very informative thread thread there for all who are interested:

http://discussion.treocentral.com/tcforum/showthread.php?s=&threadid=30253

The 2003 National Championship WAS ROBBED!!! Terry Porter, you suck you freakin REF! OSU STOLE the Chanpionship, period!!

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