Tag: Chat »

Most of us don't need another social networking or messaging app. Between Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat, and others, we're already as connected as we could possibly be, or so it seems.

Yet people are still flocking to Kiwi - Q&A, which is currently atop the free iOS App Store chart in the U.S. What makes Kiwi different enough to attract that kind of attention?

Skype Communications has released an update for theirSkype for iPhone app, which makes it possible to respond to your Skype messages using the Apple Watch.

I love playing those trivia games with the terribly old-school remotes bars and restaurants provide. But the worst part about the trivia at those venues is the lack of players at certain times of the day. TriviaPad gives users that multiplayer trivia experience from the comfort of their home (or anywhere) on their iPads.

The game includes trivia in all kinds of categories like entertainment and sports. The questions are presented to everyone in a room at the same time. Players can chat with the other players they’re playing against while answering questions. The iPad’s large screen is used optimally to constantly display three important windows: chat, the trivia, and score. And, similar to Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?, players are given three help buttons that include 50% Joker, Reveal, and Undo.

Players need not be concerned about getting many repeat questions; the database of questions include about 20,000 questions and the developer, SixClicks, is working on more.

The app is currently free. Run and get it before the developers change their minds.

Star Arcade, cross platform social gaming community, has recently released the next game in its social multiplayer lineup, Diamonds Paradise. Diamonds Paradise is similar to another Star Arcade game, Diamonds Capture. Both games include trying to capture as much area on the board of gems as possible. The new element in Diamonds Paradise is that the game is now honeycomb shaped, making for new and interesting combos for playing to create to win

Special items have also been added in Diamonds Paradise. The game includes an in-app shop with virtual items to purchase, a ranking system, stats, the ability to invite friends, and, of course, chat with other Star Arcade players.

Star Arcade is a cross platform mobile gaming community. Players can play each other regardless of what operating system their mobile devices may be running including iOS, Android, Windows Phone 7, and Blackberry. Games are also available on Facebook. Other games from Star Arcade include Jelly Wars and Star Reversi.

It's been a while since I regularly used my ICQ account for instant messenging but the prospect of a newly revamped, official app for it makes it all the more appealing.

As part of its 3.0 update, ICQ Messenger allows its users to chat with all their phone, ICQ, Facebook, GoogleTalk, AIM and Mail.ru contacts, all from the one app. All that's needed is a mobile phone number to join and login. It even automatically finds phone contacts already in the network, making it all the easier to send free messages.

Threaded messaging and history support has been added meaning it's as easy to consult what's just been said as it is with any conventional SMS message. A new and easy to view contact list also ensures that ICQ feels integrated into the rest of the iOS experience making it an ideal way to chat with friends for free.

Easy to use, ICQ can be accessed simultaneously from any platform such as online, via PC or phone. Push notifications mean that the user is always available for chat if they so wish, plus there's social feed updates available from Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Flickr.

For the ICQ user of old, this may well be an ideal entry point to the already busy world of messaging clients.

It's out now and it's a free app.

Ever wonder how to break the ice with people nearby? Why not use an app like Yakaround?

Yakaround is a chat room app with one crucial difference to many others - it enables people to chat to others nearby to them. Proximity plays a big part in Yakaround enabling people to get to know each other through the app rather than having to approach random strangers. It might sound a little unusual. However in a world where people are increasingly compartmentalized and find it difficult to get to know new people, Yakaround could be a great way of learning something about others in a non threatening environment.

Users can also use Yakaround to learn what's going on around them potentially making it a great app to find out about events going on in the local area.

Separate chatrooms have been set up to cover people wanting to talk about places, events or subjects meaning users should be guaranteed to find someone to chat to especially in areas with high concentrations of people.

Currently Yakaround is only available in the US with plans to spread to other English-speaking countries soon.

It's a free download for all iOS devices.

The app store is full of instant messaging apps but what exactly is the best one? A strong contender for that title goes to imo instant messenger, an app that might be lacking capital letters but certainly isn't lacking in uses.

imo allows users to connect with friends via Facebook Chat, Google Talk, Skype, MSN, ICQ/AIM, Yahoo, Jabber and Myspace all without any need to create a new account with imo, something that many similar apps require.

Features are plentiful with the ability to send voice instant messages instead of just typing and push notifications keep users informed of new messages even when the app is running in the background. There's a searchable chat history too which is always useful for consulting past conversations. Tabbed chat windows also mean that it's easy to switch between conversations whenever needed. Users can even run imo concurrently alongside being logged in on their desktops/laptops if they so wish.

It's pretty impressive stuff. Even more so when you consider the price. It's completely free.

imo instant messenger is available now for all iOS devices.

Yobongo is the name of a new social networking app that launched for iPhone and iPad on Thursday. The app is developed by Yobongo Inc., a venture between Caleb Elston and David Kasper, formerly of Justin.tv.

The goal of the app is to connect similar-minded users with one another in city-based chat rooms. The app monitors what kind of subjects you chat about and then connects you to others who like to discuss those same topics. The idea here is to introduce you to others in your city who share similar interests to you. From here, Yobongo Inc hopes a meaningful relationship will be born.

“We analyze every pair of messages sent through the system and use that to build up an understanding of who you like talking with,” co-founder Caleb Elston told Mashable, “Then when you open Yobongo, we place you with people you have the strongest affinity for. All of these simple signals lead to a very powerful signal."

Yobongo is quite easy to use. You simply start up the app, and it connects you to a chat room. You're able to chat with everyone or branch off into private conversations.

The app was privately beta tested in January, letting 150 users test a version of it. Elston says that beta testers of the application described it as "addicting." He claims that the average user participated in around 10 sessions per day. He also says that around 90% of users returned to the app each day. Sounds impressive. Of course, all these statistics are provided by the company's own internal metrics.

Currently, Yobongo is only available in a limited number of cities, including San Francisco, Austin, New York and Long Beach. If you're not in one of these cities, when you boot up the app you're greeted with a screen telling you that Yobongo is not available in your area, but that you can vote on Facebook or Twitter to bring it to your city.

If you're in one of the select cities where Yobongo is available, though, you can check it out on the iTunes App Store for free right now.

On Monday night Ning launched its social Mogwee app for iOS. The app is a brand new product from the social network-focused company and has nothing to do with its online community service.

Mogwee essentially provides an alternative platform for chatting with friends either on an individual or group basis. This is a free app that runs on iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad and will eventually be available for the Droid platform as well as accessible online through a web version on the app's website.

You create a username and then different "hangouts," which act more or less like chat rooms. The experience isn't unlike communicating via text messages. So, if you're looking for a text message-like experience in a group setting, Mogwee is for you.

In addition to being able to chat, you can also share images and videos. What's more, you can also give gifts to each other, such as a burger or cake. And you can perform silly actions like throwing sheep and even zombie sheep.

All around, it's an interesting social tool that goes out of its way to add more fun to chat. Will it make a splash? Hard to say. But you can check it out for yourself for free on the iTunes App Store.

When the iPhone 4 front-facing camera was announced, one of the most common snarky comments was that finally we could have a mobile Chatroulette. If you aren't familiar with Chatroulette, it's basically random video chat with strangers. You can read more at the Wikipedia Chatroulette entry. I won't link you directly to the Chatroulette site since, well, ahem, you might see something you don't want to see.

Grab iChatr now, if you want to try it out. It's a free app currently. I don't expect it to last in the App Store for very long. We'll see what the response from Apple is once the press starts slamming the app. But be cautioned, if iChatr becomes anything like Chatroulette -- about 1/3 of what you will see is way less than appropriate -- that's why this app is rated 17+!

In a quick test this afternoon, 3 in 10 random chats were of male genitalia. Yup, Chatroulette mobile is here all right.

Everybody loves the opportunity to send messages from their phone for free and PingChat! has been providing that opportunity to iPhone users since October last year. As long as your recipient has PingChat! on their device, you can send instant messages that appear like regular SMS notifications on the iPhone homescreen. PingChat! developer Gary Fung has now joined Enflick Inc where development of the app has continued with a larger team that includes John Lerner and Derek Ting, known for TextNow and Mail Notifier. These extra resources and the backing of Enflick have lead to the imminent release of PingChat! 2.0 with an impressive feature set.

Expected in a matter of days, PingChat! 2.0 will add the following:

-Multi-platform communication (Adds Blackberry and Android)
-Media messaging (pictures and video)
-Group messaging
-Voice Notes
-New User interface
-Location messaging (send locations via Google Maps)
-New servers and infrastructure to improve reliability

While we wait for this exciting update, here’s a video of the new app in action.

[itmsapp: 303612602 ]

First things first: TWiTPad is NOT the latest, greatest Twitter client for the iPad (do we need another one of those anyway?). Rather, it's the official application for accessing Leo Laporte's TWiT.TV netcasts, chat rooms and broadcasting calendar. If you're a fan of any of Leo Laporte's shows, chances are you'll find something worthwhile about TWiTPad.

The basic functions of TWiTPad are extremely simple. In fact, to quote Steve Jobs, the first time you open the app it "Just Works!" Once opened, the app immediately begins streaming whatever Leo and Friends have going at the moment. Sometimes this is a live show like Net@Night, MacBreak Weekly or This Week in Tech. In spite of the volume of content that Leo broadcasts every day, there's still a good chance that there is nothing live on the air when you choose to open TWiTPad. Rather than go off the air entirely, previously recorded episodes are streamed, so you get content 24/7.

If you're interested in a particular show, TWiTPad features easy access to the TWiT Google Calendar feed, adjusted for your time zone, so you can figure out the best time to tune in and watch everyone live.

The final major piece of the TWiTPad is the integrated IRC channel chatroom. Again, provided there is a live show going on, this gives you the opportunity to potentially interact with Leo and his guests or just chat with other viewers/listeners with similar interests. The chat and video settings are optimized from the moment you open the app.

As is the case with many iPad apps, the only real difference between portrait and landscape views is the amount of data displayed on the screen. Portrait mode only shows the video stream and one other component (calendar or chatroom), while landscape mode shows all three. Nothing surprising there.

While TWiTPad does a good enough job, there are still some tweaks and features that could really make this app shine. The overall appearance of the app is very utilitarian - a sort of blue steel theme, complete with rivets - and the option to at least change themes would be nice to have. Users can also access a web browser from within TWiTPad (a helpful touch that pulls up the TWiT.TV website and allows browsing while listening), but clicking on TWiT.TV video links for previously recorded shows does nothing. It would be nice if clicking the video link for last week's This Week in Tech stopped the live TWiT stream and downloaded/played the older show.

These are small complaints, however. For $0.99, this is a must-have app for anyone who is a Leo Laporte fan.