No More PalmOS Instant Messaging?

cloudscout asks: "Palm users are slowly being cut off from Instant Messaging networks. In July of 2002, changes to the Yahoo! Messenger network effectively disabled the service's PalmOS client and an updated version was never released. Now the same fate has befallen ICQ users. Changes to the ICQ network have disabled the PalmOS client. This happened in September and since then, ICQ has responded to all bug reports with an irrelevant form letter. This leaves Palm users with AIM whose official client is a couple of years old, buggy and costs $20. Is there a future for Instant Messaging on Palm? One would think that the growing popularity of PalmOS SmartPhones would make this a priority."

Comments

/obvious?

[cheezus]

I'm too lazy to look, but I'd imagine that like every every other platform, there are 3rd party IM clients, perhaps even multi-protocol ones

MSN Messenger and Pocket PCs?

[ObviousGuy]

Does anyone else see this as a conspiracy on the part of Microsoft to get IM killed on Palm while building it up on Pocket PCs? I wonder how much money is being passed under the table to get Yahoo and AOL to cancel support for Palm.

Re:MSN Messenger and Pocket PCs?

[squiggleslash]

I think it's exceedingly unlikely that Microsoft could bribe their biggest competitors in the IM field, especially AOL.

(Well, you asked)

Open Source Opertunity

[MBCook]

Sounds like an opertunity for OSS to me. Why not have someone work on a (I assume scaled down) versoin of GAIM or something like that. Is there something preventing a good OSS client (like some problem with the networking APIs that are exposed) or is this just a lack of work (people have been putting up with official clients so there was no "want" for 3rd party software)?

Jabber, and its derivatives.

[Jorkapp]

A quick google search for "open source palmos instant messenger" comes up with - you guessed it - Jabber. Unfortunately, Jabber has not officially developed a PalmOS client, so here's a few promising 3rd party clients based on Jabber.

http://sourceforge.net/projects/jabberpalm/

The Jabber Palm project. By the looks of it, it's a solid client, and only a few notable bugs to work out.

-

http://www.chatopus.com/

Chatopus. A Jabber based client for PalmOS. Offers a good amount of features and support. Last version release was 01/12/04, so those -changes- in the networks shouldn't be a problem.

Re:Jabber, and its derivatives.

[OneBarG]

Unfortunately, Jabber has not officially developed a PalmOS client

Remember, Jabber isn't just 1 company. No client is "more official" because Jabber, Inc. puts it out.

Re:future of palm os...

[RevAaron]

You may rather have your iPod in your pocket, but most folks don't want to carry around a backpack full of devices. My PDA is already in my pocket- if I have a large storage card and a capable CPU, why shouldn't I listen to MP3s?

I do a lot more multitasking than just the MP3 player and IM client. On PalmOS, those were what I ran into more often, but on WindowsCE, NewtonOS or Linux, three real OSes that run on PDAs, I do a lot more multitasking.

No, I don't *need* that. But I don't need a PDA, either. Nor do I need a computer. Nor does your computer need multitasking. Why not just use DOS?