imo.im Quietly Building One Solid Multi-Network Instant Messaging App
When I first covered imo.im back in February, I wrote it was one of the best Web apps for instant messaging you’d likely never heard of, and chances are you’ve forgotten all about it since then. To be honest, so had I, but the team got in touch last week to let us know it had added some useful new features to the service over the past few months and that we should give it another look. We aim to please, so here goes.
Imo.im is a multi-network IM tool, which means you can use it to log on to multiple messaging services like Windows Live Messenger / MSN, AIM / ICQ, MySpace, Yahoo Messenger, Jabber, Gtalk and even Skype and get a single, complete contact list from inside your browser and chat with people on your list using text, voice or video. It also boasts a basic desktop client, which is unfortunately still Windows-only.
Recently, imo.im added Facebook Chat to its list of supported IM services, which was about the only one it sorely lacked when I first wrote about the app. Now that its supports chat sessions with your Facebook friends as well, it’s more than ever a close competitor to better-known startups who offer web-based IM clients like Meebo and eBuddy Webmessenger. And it supports Skype chat in addition to the classic ones, which – correct me if I’m wrong – I have yet to see integrated in any other web-based application (note that apps for mobile devices like fring and Nimbuzz support Skype chat).
Also new in imo.im is a ‘broadcast’ feature that allows users to send free messages out to other imo.im users (e.g. job openings, chat invitations, etc.) and a complementary photo sharing service that allows people to share images with other users across all networks. Finally, the startup is experimenting with a ‘whiteboard’ feature that enables users to work on diagrams, drawings and more with each other. Next up: perfecting the service’s search and chat history functionality.
Also on the roadmap is an iPhone application, which the startup aims to put up on the App Store in the coming weeks (we’ll be watching).
The company, which was co-founded by Georges Harik – one of the first 10 employees at Google and manager of several of its early products – claims it has so far attracted half a million users to try out its service even though it’s still in alpha mode looking at the logo.
Give it a whirl – no registration or download required – and tell us what you think.
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Adobe AIR Zooms Past 200 Million Installs, And We Have Some Apps To Recommend
We’ll say it right off the bat: there’s a good chance you have a recent version of Adobe Reader installed on your computer, so that probably means you’ve also installed Adobe AIR, the company’s cross-platform runtime environment for RIAs, as well as the Acrobat.com application. You may not even be aware those came bundled, but you still have the option to uninstall both and still keep Adobe Reader. Glad we got that out of the way.
On to the news: by means of a blog post, Adobe Systems has just confirmed the number of installs for Adobe AIR that had been floating around the Web ever since CTO Kevin Lynch mentioned something along those lines at the recent Flash Camp Keynote in San Francisco: 200 million, double the amount the company touted at the end of January 2009. The number was reached a little over two weeks ago, about 16 months after its debut on the market.
Whether you’re aware that you’ve installed Adobe AIR at some point or not, or whether you think the 200 million installs is actually on the low rather than the high side (I think the number is fairly moderate), there are some really good applications out there that you don’t know yet but might want to check out:
Allows users to upload music, videos, and photos to imeem. This app will automatically discover all your iTunes playlists and enable you to easily zip them over to your imeem profile. You can also drag and drop your desired tracks for upload to imeem, create custom playlists and share your music with others.
An elegant search tool for Flickr, which utilizes several methods of its public API. Flair matches search queries by tags and makes it easy to jump to the original resolution upload (often easily wallpaper quality) and the source photographers photostream (by clicking their user icon).
An intuitive and extensive desktop app for mind-mapping purposes, tied to web app Comapping.com. Use it to manage and share information more efficiently.
Ebook reader for the Gutenberg online book library. Ebooks are available free of charge in both text and audio format. NetBook lets you search the Gutenberg database, download and read/listen to ebooks and store them in cache for offline use.
Yes, Hulu has an official desktop application too, but this one is worth a second look (we’ve covered this one before). MYMediaplayer allows users to browse the Hulu library while watching videos, and you can dock the window to the side of the monitor so you can work and watch TV at the same time. Perfect for procrastination!
You can find these and 500 other applications on the AIR Marketplace.
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