Wednesday, April 28, 2004

Intant Messaging: Webmessenger
Webmessenger offer similar features to Chatapus, but in this case it uses a propietary protocol and the company owns the servers that work as a gateway to the other messaging protocols (MSN, Yahoo, AIM, Jabber, ICQ). Here is the list of features:

- Access to all main IM protocols, with send and receive functionality.
- Allows you to add contacts
- Features a "suspend" function that allows the users to be in an "away" status when quiting the application and when loggin again it display all pending messages.
- Seems more reliable than Chatapus, only one time I was unable to login.

What it does not offers:

- No emoticons.
- It does not imports your buddy list, it adds buddies as they send you messages. If you want your buddy list you need the desktop component.
- It does not show if a contact is online or not. Now the developer claims that it works, I was unable to verify it.
- Really expensive (29.95)
- Not pretty.

Next review: Verichat

Gabriel Castellanos

Saturday, April 24, 2004

Instant Messaging: Chatopus

After several months of trying internet programs I am pretty happy with my selections for Web Browser, email client and weblog client, now my only selection left is an IM client, I use MSN, Yahoo and AIM so I need a client that supports all three, based on this there are only three posibilities:

Verichat
Chatopus
Webmessenger

I will be reviewing each of them, this is the first of three reviews.

Chatopus

Chatopus is actually a Jabber IM client, Jabber is an open source protocol so everybody can connect to a jabber server and use and install jabber software, this open a ton of posibilities but also it has some drawbacks, mainly that there are not many reliable jabber servers out there, and without a server you cannot connect. One advantage is that the jabber protocol supports gateways to others IM networks, in this case, MSN, Yahoo and AIM.

Configuration is a little cumbersome, mainly since you can not create a Jabber account from the client nor configure the gateways. this means that you need to select a client and then make all the configuration in your PC. Check Jabber for more information.

Now the Chatopus interface is quite simple, basically allows you:

- Send/Receive IM messages.
- Check the status of your friends
- Add/Remove buddies
- It supports the T3 screen.
- Multitasking, basically you can leave the program to use another application but you will still receive your messages, this is very handy when you are working in several applications. You get message notifications in the form of silent alarms, in the case of the T3 the LED light blinks and the alert icon in the toolbar blinks too, sound alerts are in developing.

Now, the bad, it is not a beutiful app, icons are kind of simple and it does not supports emoticons, it does not support screen names either, this basically means that in the case of msn messenger you will see an email address not your buddy's name, same with Yahoo messenger.

Now the biggest plus, price, it is 14.95 at Palmgear, by far the cheapest of all the IM applications I am reviewing.

Next review: Webmessenger.

Gabriel



Friday, April 23, 2004

SLAP

I spent about half my days in meetings, which makes really important to be able to take good notes and then transfer them to the correct application (memo, calendar, task, email, etc). Always a difficult task until I found slap, wonderful piece of software, basically takes a loosely format text and convert it into an item in the selected application, so I can write something like "Tomorrow 11am Appt in NYC with Joe" select the text and press the calendar button and this will create an entry in my calendar, this allows me to concentrate in taking notes without having to jump to different applications.

Sunday, April 11, 2004

Travel

I am so happy for having my T3, one of the best uses of it is when I am traveling, I can download webpages with useful information using plucker, I summarize information and create a Word doc which I transfer to my palm, I use the Zagat guide to know where to eat, I use Metro to travel throuhg the city like a native and if I need extra information I get to the internet using my T608 and bluetooth. I can tell you, the best tourist guide ever is my T3