Facebook may have the best looking iPhone site to date, but Meebo for the iPhone is more useful, as it brings instant messaging, finally, to that phone. ICQ, AIM, MSN, Yahoo, and Jabber/Google are supported.
Meebo took its time building the site, which is actually their first mobile application. There is no special URL, just go to meebo.com from an iPhone and the browser will load the correct code.
The application scales either way you hold the phone (I recommend vertically to see contact, horizontally to chat – see pictures). All of your settings from Meebo are retained on the iPhone, including any avatar you’ve created. And people who you’ve had recent conversations with are always listed on the top of your buddy list.
I have a couple of complaints with Meebo. First, you still can’t access Skype text chat – a limitation of Skype, not Meebo. Also, if you leave the browser to take a call, send a text message, whatever, you are auto-logged off of Meebo and IM. This is an iPhone limitation and underscores the need for real IM chat software for the iPhone. Adium is what I use on my desktop Mac. Hopefully we’ll someday see something similar for the phone, too.
We previously covered FlickIM, which has a very nice AIM-only chat app for the iPhone. Mundu and eBuddy also have their own iPhone products as well. Mundu works well, although they may charge for it at some point; eBuddy only connects with MSN, Yahoo, and AIM.
As I noted in my post, it’s fun to watch eBuddy and Meebo battle it out.
http://www.cent...y-to-the-iphone
I wish I had an iPhone.
Why all this attention by developers on the iPhone?
I use a Nokia E65 with the Opera browser, and there is nothing on the Meebo (or Facebook) pages that Opera Mobile wouldn’t be able to support. There is no reason that these applications cannot be “mobile applications” instead of “iPhone applications” – if only the developers would realise that there is a market out there of users who don’t use iPhones.
Eric Meyer had an extremely critical blog post about this, and I remember reading that Robert Scoble prefers to use his N95 (?) over the iPhone due to the fact the iPhone has no support for video.
Man, I am so tired of hearing about the iphone. It’s getting a ridiculous amount of hype for having such a small amount of phones in circulation. Maybe if it had a real keyboard I’d get one, but not as it is now.
Mike,
Good to know you have finally seen the light in terms of iPhone being the best portable device ever made by a human.
I am looking forward to reading more iPhone related stories on techcrunch.
Another cool app for the iPhone!
The iPhone has as UNIX based OS, and is a truly revolutionary peace of hardware. If no one writes about a Nokia phone or the blackbarry, then it is because it is just a plain boring peace of hardware, its like using Windows, Word with Times new roman, it just so god damn boring.
I love reading about the iPhone, please keep it coming.
Mads
meebo rules all, im so excited!
As someone else commented, whatever works on iPhone’s Safari would have worked on Nokia’s NG browser for some time … so, I would actually ding these companies for not knowing this (to take advantage of Nokia devices to deliver a richer experience, which has a much higher penetration).
They are just jumping on the hype-wagon to get a bit of PR … nothing that will matter, long term.
Yawn. Sometimes, I wish I could be as easily impressed
Oh man, Mike is going deep touble with facebook. You shouldn’t never write Facebook may have the best looking.
You should write Facebook have user-friendly UI. Instead of, “may have”….
It’s like you want to destory facebook’s repulation. Now, I get it…
It’s this is about getting revenge with facebook. I think you should apologize Facebook.
If no apology … Good Luck. You are going to need it. I would never mess with Facebook product. I will be reading something else other than facebook.
Interesting to see so many apps coming out for a device that doesn’t seem to have as big of an audience as many others out there. With all these apps out the advertising will certainly be soon to follow. I know that AdMob is already trying to take advantage of this: http://www.admo...m/s/home/iphone
It will be interesting to see how it all pans out.
Anyone know of good IM apps for Windows Mobile phones?
Techcrunch is making my head spinning like helicopter. I don’t understand the concept of attacking products or mocking products or hurting company’s innovations.
“Facebook may have the best looking”; “I have a couple of complaints with Meebo.”
I never have ipod or try their products. It’s like…. uhm… Techcrunch is telling me — “Don’t trying!”
one more application for our lovely little iPhone… but what about the rest… i mean i don’t have an iphone… can someone help me with my handset please…
@9 “I will be reading something else other than facebook.”
May I suggest a “Teach Yourself English” book?
@15…. I don’t have time to correct the whole thing. Life is short.
I’m speeding up my life. I have to work three jobs. My eyes or brain is playing too much tricks.
Have you heard of dyslexia?
If you suggest a “Teach Yourself English” book. There’s no way you can fix me. If I read whole book I could end up getting writer’s block.
I could have higher business IQ, programming skills, etc… than one.
http://en.wikip...d_with_dyslexia
You should see how many people end up getting famous. Watch me… No VC startup can beat my newest killer app.
You should really give the following application a try. I think it’s still far superior to all the iPhone IM applications out there.
http://iphone.beejive.com
@Tien Nguyen , you can try OcroTalk (http://www.octro.com/)
how to use iPhone and much more, tell me what you think.
http://www.howtouseiphone.com
-Lula
Adium for the iPhone. and mobile Adium in general is what we all need. Adium rocks and I’d like to be able to use that on my phone. Yeah, Skype is still going to be a separate thing, but one step at a time, eh?
“Why all this attention by developers on the iPhone?”
Because the valley is an echo chamber.
“Mundu works well, although they may charge for it at some point.”
Got a source/reference/citation for that, or are you just assuming that? Have you checked with them?
Because I don’t see any reference to charging anywhere on their site, other then for their in-device products (which are a completely different ballgame). In fact, the only reference to charging appears to be on (hold your breath, here it comes) TechCrunch!
What stops any the others, like Meebo, BeeJive, eBuddy, etc., from charging at some point? The fear of being “TechCrunched”?
Why is TechCrunch so anti-revenues anyway?
Until the mobile IM clients supported notifications they are quite limited to me. When you browse away from the tab, there’s no way to know whether you are missing a message …
This application works fine on my Blackberry Pearl with the Opera 4.1 mini (beta) browser …. yes it even looks nice on my nice little screen.
I think it’s time to start branding these Mobile RIA’s …
Jimmy … you sound like a Tool …
a brilliant iPhone “app” – really an iPhone version of a website – was developed 3 weeks after the iPhone came out by jambase, a live music fan site and tour date database. check it out at http://www.jambase.com/iphone – whether you have an iPhone or not or whether you are interested in the content or not, you should be able to appreciate the innovation (of course you will appreciate it 100x more if you have an iPhone).
Are you really friends with Gary Busey? Could you do a talkcrunch interview with him and ask him about things?
Meebo looks great on the iPhone, almost like the site was specifically built with the iPhone in mind. Definately worth trying.
It’s great to see that Arrington is friends with one of the founders of Meebo. There’s never any conflict of interest on TechCrunch.
this thread hurts my head. Geez people.
How come every review of iPhone apps emphasize how good they look, when invariably the usage leaves something to be desired? I know everything looks better through Apple-colored glasses, but there seems to be a desperation to write something good about iPhone apps when every review I read actually reduces my desire for an iPhone.
That said, I think a lot of the dev hype around the iPhone is directly attributable to the lack of mobile Flash to allow good apps to be written with existing skillsets for a wider range of phones.
is that seth…as in Seth Godin?
I agree with another poster and I said this in the last message you guys wrote about the limitations of FlickIM:
BeeJive has a fantastic client for AIM. Both FlickIM and BeeJive solve the problems of being logged out when taking a call. This isn’t a problem with the iPhone as your story reports, it’s a problem with developers not developing for the iPhone. Unlike FlickIM, BeeJive supports all the major clients like Meebo does. But from the sound of it BeeJive is still better than Meebo.
There have been solutions out there for Treos that kept persistent connection to the IM session even when other applications are running. Perhaps something can be done on the server side to remove this hurdle.
niceee..
has everyone seen the TechCrunch iPhone wallpaper yet?
http://thememyp...mage-14-10.html
Anybody out there who knows some good iPhone adapted sites?
So far I often use the link portal site MobStart which has a great list of iPhone adapted web sites…….but Im sure there are many more?
Check out http://mobil.mobstart.dk and go to the link category iPhone
James
YEAH, MobStart got some really nice iPhone site links….check http://mobil.mobstart.dk
Even som cool sex sites!