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What's the best I'M app?
- Thread starter michael31986
- Start date
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No IM client can actually run in the background, it's just not part of the SDK yet.
Yep sure is I have mine open all the time. It's actually the same as it's been since they released the Push function. You just have the quick launch of the multi-tasking menu now. Oh and +1 for Beejive. I've been using it since I was on a BB.
No, Beejive does NOT have fast-switching enabled. It hasn't been updated for 4.0. It was released on June 8, which is before the App Store started accepting 4.0 apps.
Before fast switching, Apple encouraged app developers to have their apps save their state on exit, and restore it on start. Unfortunately, this didn't catch on in the developer community as well as Apple had hoped, and this wasn't a "must" for acceptance to the app store, because there are some types of apps for which this wouldn't be appropriate. As well, many developers implemented this poorly or inefficiently, with some apps taking 30 seconds or more to restore their state. (Navigation apps are notorious for this.)
Obviously, though, this WAS a "must" (at least from a practical standpoint) for IM applications that receive push notifications.
For apps that have implemented their own state-saving, the only difference users will see when/if the developer implements fast-switching is that perhaps the app will seem faster to restart. It's confusing for users because the task bar really isn't a task bar - it's a "most recently used" bar.
In 4.0, the OS can save the app's state for it, in a very fast and efficient way. But the app does need to be updated for 4.0 for this to happen. Apps that save their own state can still continue to do this on devices that don't have multitasking support. (3G and earlier, and devices that haven't been updated to 4.0.) That is, updated apps can do both, depending on the device they are running on.
Beejive obviously did everything right in the pre-4.0 world. I'd expect it to be even more fabulous once they update it for 4.0.
(I do not use or have Beejive myself. I'm a developer, and am only commenting based on what I have read here about Beejive. Since I'm a developer, I'm able to read between the lines a bit.)
There really isn't any NEED for IM apps to actually run in the background. The combination of push notifications and fast-switching does the job without the need for actually running in background. IMs are short, and the app can easily fetch new IMs when the user returns to the app after getting a notification with minimal delay. (The push notifications are short. While they can hold the text of an IM, they can't hold images, etc. which would have to be downloaded when the app is restored.)
Before fast switching, Apple encouraged app developers to have their apps save their state on exit, and restore it on start. Unfortunately, this didn't catch on in the developer community as well as Apple had hoped, and this wasn't a "must" for acceptance to the app store, because there are some types of apps for which this wouldn't be appropriate. As well, many developers implemented this poorly or inefficiently, with some apps taking 30 seconds or more to restore their state. (Navigation apps are notorious for this.)
Obviously, though, this WAS a "must" (at least from a practical standpoint) for IM applications that receive push notifications.
For apps that have implemented their own state-saving, the only difference users will see when/if the developer implements fast-switching is that perhaps the app will seem faster to restart. It's confusing for users because the task bar really isn't a task bar - it's a "most recently used" bar.
In 4.0, the OS can save the app's state for it, in a very fast and efficient way. But the app does need to be updated for 4.0 for this to happen. Apps that save their own state can still continue to do this on devices that don't have multitasking support. (3G and earlier, and devices that haven't been updated to 4.0.) That is, updated apps can do both, depending on the device they are running on.
Beejive obviously did everything right in the pre-4.0 world. I'd expect it to be even more fabulous once they update it for 4.0.
(I do not use or have Beejive myself. I'm a developer, and am only commenting based on what I have read here about Beejive. Since I'm a developer, I'm able to read between the lines a bit.)
There really isn't any NEED for IM apps to actually run in the background. The combination of push notifications and fast-switching does the job without the need for actually running in background. IMs are short, and the app can easily fetch new IMs when the user returns to the app after getting a notification with minimal delay. (The push notifications are short. While they can hold the text of an IM, they can't hold images, etc. which would have to be downloaded when the app is restored.)
You're a developer? Do you know if Apple is blocking new apps and updates for some reason? I haven't seen any at all since the launch of the iPhone 4. Not a single new app or update has come out since thursday.
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_0 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/532.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/4.0.5 Mobile/8A293 Safari/6531.22.7)
I absolutely loved IM+ until iOS4 was introduced & it pretty much went to ****. I've turned to BeeJive & Meebo. Love them both, but Meebo doesn't always cooperate with push.
I absolutely loved IM+ until iOS4 was introduced & it pretty much went to ****. I've turned to BeeJive & Meebo. Love them both, but Meebo doesn't always cooperate with push.
Meebo bothers me cause when I log into it on my phone. It changes all the settings I have saved on my aim on my comp. Like privacy settings and blocked users.
See that just proves my point. The last day apps were released was the 24th (Thursday) and not one single app or update has come out since then.
Again, not true. June 25 and 26 are clearly after June 24. Make sure you check out the list I posted in the previous post!
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I use Trillian. It lets me have all my different accounts and I can leave the app and IMs will be sent to me. I can also set it to log off a certain time. It's pretty decent.
Ok so... if there isn't a block and apps have been coming out... then what's the deal? Why haven't more developers updated their apps and icons for the retina display? What about something stupidly simple like Doodle Jump? It's frustrating.
