[General Topics] Menneisyys:
Instant Messaging is, as with, for example, Web browsers, is a constantly improved area of mobile platforms. This means we’re getting newer and newer instant messenger apps all the time.

Palringo is the newest application to enter the Windows Mobile / Symbian instant messaging world. It, despite of being new, is already is a decent contender really worth paying attention to. Their free (!), multiplatform IM client, Palringo, is certainly worth paying attention to because it has some goodies not present in (most) other instant messenger clients.

(VGA Pocket PC)

(Symbian s60v3)

(176*220 MS Smartphone)

(Current, tested versions: Windows Mobile: 10/25/2007; Symbian s60v3: 0.96 (11) 10/08/2007. Test devices: Pocket PC (HTC Universal, HTC Wizard), MS Smartphone (HTC s310, s710) and Symbian s60v3 (Nokia N95).)

Getting, using

You can download it HERE. Enter your e-mail address twice. It can be arbitrary – that is, on any other server; it must, however, be an existing one so that you can activate the account. Also, create the password you’d like to use with the client. After submitting the info (and signing in with this), you’re taken to the Download page, where just click the “Download” button or buttons, if you select clients for multiple operating systems. Currently, three operating systems are supported: Windows Mobile (Smartphone and Pocket PC), desktop Windows and Symbian S60v3. They also promise a MIDlet (Java) version of their client, bringing IM support to even “dumb” phones, Blackberries and Palm OS-based devices.

Alternatively, if you don’t want to use desktop download / installation, you can fill in your phone number if you want a direct installation link to be sent to you per SMS.

After installing and starting the client, select Menu / Palringo / Online. Enter the e-mail / password pair you’ve registered yourself first at Palringo.

Then, you’ll need to add services to your account. You may want to do this on your desktop computer (with the desktop version if you don’t have a remote controller tool like the excellent Pocket Controller) if you don’t have a decent keyboard for your phone. If you do this on the desktop, the added service accounts will be immediately synchronized to your mobile (and vice versa – and, of course, between mobile phones as well).

Palringo is interoperable with MSN, Yahoo, AIM, GG (Gadu-Gadu), ICQ and XMPP (Jabber). That is, after selecting Menu / Add Service, select the one you’d like to use from the list and, then, just fill in the service login / password as can be seen in HERE. Now, you’ll be logged in. Note that you can add other service accounts any time; you’ll be able to switch between them on the main dialog.

You’ll soon notice Palringo supports multiple logins. Very few IM clients allow the user to log in with multiple accounts into a given IM network: currently, only the, otherwise, not very good Causerie and the band new, beta version of Shape Services’ well-known IM+ for MS Smartphones. (See THIS and THIS threads; their Smartphone homepage is HERE; note that the current (4.45 and 6.15, respectively) PPC and Symbian S60v3 versions still don’t support multiple logins). In THIS screenshot (the same made on a 176*220 Smartphone is HERE and you can see I’ve already logged in with three MSN accounts, and I can still add more MSN accounts by selecting Add Service.

In this respect, therefore, Palringo is without doubt the best.

In addition, it supports groups (pretty much like on the IRC), which is a great way to meet friends or people and is increasingly used by some user communities like that of the infamous XDA-Developers. You can, of course, both create a new or join an existing group. Some screenshots of joining a group: 1 2 3 4 – it’s certainly worth giving a try!

Voice clips, camera stills, clickable links, copy/paste

As with several other clients, it supports sending voice clips. As opposed to, say, Fring (which is without doubt the best IM app in this respect), and just like with Microsoft’s Live Messenger on Windows Mobile (but not on the desktop, where full voice chat is supported), you can only use voice clips, not real-time VoIP. (And, of course, this only works in one direction with non-native Palringo receivers like MSN.) The voice codec is Speex-based, which means it works with acceptable upload speed even over GPRS, while maintaining pretty good sound quality.

Links are clickable on all platforms - certainly good news.

You can paste into the text input field and you can also copy the contents of individual messages (Pocket PC – a HTC Wizard – screenshot HERE). This is good news for Symbian S60 / MS Smartphone (platforms lacking a touchscreen and its mass-selecting capabilities) users but not very good for Pocket PC users, which may want to make mass selection upon wanting to, say, save an entire conversation to a file in one step.

Logging, history

Unfortunately, it doesn’t seem to log conversations on Windows Mobile at all. On Symbian, however, there’s a separate menu item in the chat window, Options / View Older Messages (or, alternatively, activating the thin bar at the top – in the screenshot, it’s purple-colored). This will retrieve the message from the server, which may take some time, particularly if you retrieve a voice clip or an image.

(Windows Mobile users, see the point in providing Symbian info in my articles? The previous paragraph was one of the tidbits that REALLY make it worth discussing multiple operating system versions at the same time. It’s certainly worth knowing the Symbian version is better in this respect – then, you can “push” the developers to implement the same functionality in the Windows Mobile port as well.)

The problem with this kind of logging is that you must retrieve all older messages one by one by either selecting Options / View Older Messages all the time or, better, pressing the bar. In addition, as the old messages / images / voice clips are all stored on the server, it may take some time to retrieve them. However, it’s still better than nothing at all. Still, in this respect, there’re much more advanced IM clients; most importantly, mov Messenger (for both platforms under Windows Mobile).