I’ve always wondered why Apple’s Messages app on the iPhone didn’t support IM like iChat. I’ve tried a couple different IM apps on the iPhone, but never found one I liked and for some reason I never saw or heard of BeejiveIM. That is until the recent news stories showing pirated versions of the app popping up ‘PC LOAD LETTER’ messages, stopping pirates from using the app. ( For anyone not familiar with that, it’s an HP Laserjet message from the 90’s made into a hilarious bit in the movie Office Space. )
After reading about Beejive’s efforts to thwart piracy in a humorous way, I was curious about the app and I’m glad I looked. It’s iChat for the iPhone, simple as that- it looks similar, it supports attachments ( photos, audio recordings ), links, 8 IM formats, and uses push notifications. Best of all, it works perfectly – I’ve been hammering on this app all day with 6 different IM accounts all active at the same time. And some of those accounts are different usernames on AIM and WindowsLive, all working perfectly together.
The UI looks very much like iChat, and will let you change the background image easily. Beejive has also included some excellent background images for the chats too. Another feature I’m using often, now that I’m always online on the iPhone, is the different messages per account. You can either pick one status message for all accounts or pick them individually, which is quite useful on a mobile app. You can also view the contacts’ iPhone address book entry and the IM service’s entry, seeing how long they’ve been online and most other options you would have on a desktop IM App.
If you are looking for an IM app, you really need to consider BeejiveIM. I think it was $16 originally, but now it’s selling for $9.99. Although that’s on the more expensive range of iPhone apps, it’s totally worth it. I’ve already spent at least that amount on other IM apps but never found one that had a good UI, didn’t crash, or did not include an IM service I require. Now, I’ve finally found the perfect IM app for me. I highly recommend BeejiveIM, it’s the best IM app on the iPhone in my opinion and well worth the price.
Product Information
| Price: | $9.99 |
| Manufacturer: | Beejive |
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Adam,You’ve Jailbroken Your Iphone!
Is that a bad thing?
Not at all! I’ve done it to my Touch
I’ve been using the BeeJive app ever since it came out. I tried the BeeJive web app before the app store existed and it was nice but the app is great. It has improved tremendously since my first purchase and the push feature makes it top notch. You can add my vote for BeeJive!
Ok good – I don’t know what the general feeling is on Jailbreaking – I know some people feel like everyone who Jailbreaks is a pirate, but I’ve never pirated anything on my iPhone. I Jailbreak because I find I cannot live without the added usability; I mean you’re basically turning the iPhone/Touch into a portable Unix workstation of 10 years ago with OpenGL, GPS, Wifi, and Cell.
I’m planning on doing a short article introducing folks to Jailbreaking and highlighting some of the more useful applications. Anyone have suggestions for apps to include in the Jailbreaking article?
I’ve been using;
StatusNotifier
LockInfo
AT&T Carrier Logo
FontSwap
HapticPro
@Adam Scinto I’ve jailbroken my 3GS, and the biggest reason I continue to keep it that way is the program SBSettings. Being able to adjust brightness, turn on and off BT and WiFi, and easily reboot or power off the phone is such a nice feature.
There are other JB programs that are worth the minimal effort required, but that is the biggest one for me.