Beejive Makes Me Cry A Little, Putting WinMo Client On Ice
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With just one phrase, “We will not be releasing a production version of BeejiveIM for Windows Mobile 6″, the folks at Beejive have me mourning what was shaping up to be an amazing IM client for Windows Mobile. I have just recently started using IM again and I stumbled on Beejive on my iPhone. When I found out they had a WinMo app in beta, I had to test it out. Even being just a beta program, I find it just as useful as any of the other WinMo IM clients I have tried.
Luckily, they are planning one more Beejive release for WinMo to fix some of the major issues. In addition, they are going to keep Beejive available and free…so, if it works on your phone, you’re in luck. They are also planning on taking another look at things when Windows Mobile 7 is released. See what one of the guys at Beejive had to say after the break.
Jim, from Beejive, posted a full explanation on their forums (emphasis mine):
We have decided not to release a production version of BeejiveIM for Windows Mobile 6. There were many reasons for this decision, but the two biggest had to do with the current Windows Mobile market and support/time issues. With all the devices currently running Windows Mobile, it has been proving very time consuming to build a quality product that works with all the various hardware configurations. We pride ourselves on releasing quality products and feel at this moment we would be spreading ourselves too thin if we released a production Windows Mobile 6 application.
I really can’t blame them for this since they do not want to do a bad job supporting one of their applications. They have production IM clients for both Blackberry and the iPhone, so they have to. This also shows one of the drawbacks of variety. I personally prefer the fact that WinMo can support many different form factors, but it shows how much more effort it is for a developer to make sure that their application works on all of those devices as well.
I have used the iPhone client and it is really top notch, the best one out there. I have heard that the Blackberry client is the same quality, so I am looking forward to a full Windows Mobile client, but the current beta is pretty stable. So, this is just one more reason to look forward to Windows Mobile 7.
I fully expect that once Beejive IM is released for WinMo, it will challenge IM+ and others for the top spot of IM apps. Has anyone else tried out Beejive? What did you think?
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http://www.lonelycatgames.com/?app=slick
Slick is far better than beejive, in my opinion. I’ve been using Slick for almost 2 years and its very reliable. It supports ICQ, Yahoo Messenger, AIM, MSN Messenger, Google Talk and Jabber. Best of all, it’s freeware and already a mature app.
It can send pictures directly taken using the device camera. Send/receive files, Send/receive offline messages, Support text messaging, Go invisible, Group/buddy management, Touch scrolling on chat thread..etc…
Better install it, play around/explore. Just look at the menu and configuration options and you’ll find out lots of other features Murdoch would only dream of!
Ciao!
-MacGyver
Slick is free because it’s still under development. I prefer to use Pigeon! or QIP.
But Beejive is really sexy, too. Unfortunately it does not support my HTC Touch Pro’s keyboard. And it’s some kind of fat - 5 MB of RAM is 4 MB too much!