Comments on: GTalk on iPhone

By: O

Mon, 14 Jul 2008 03:26:19 +0000

Just wondering. Can you play Super Monkeyball on a Blackberry?

By: DailyWireless » Blog Archive » Wednesday Links: Google Talk for iPhones, iPhone 3G Mania

Mon, 07 Jul 2008 02:05:56 +0000

[...] Google Talk is now available for the iPhone. Get the details on GigaOM. [...]

By: Adam Lindsay

Adam Lindsay — Sat, 05 Jul 2008 19:32:13 +0000

Apple has already addressed the problem that you raise. Referring to their last keynote, you will find that they plan on releasing a Notification System. This will enable applications to remain closed, however you quite easily could set presence to available and logged in at the server. Messages can be sent and displayed on the screen before launching the app. This of course requires a native app, and not a web based app, but it certainly is coming.

By: Asaf Peeri

Asaf Peeri — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 17:44:35 +0000

Why ignoring Symbian OS for multi-tasking ?
Why running all the way to iPhone or Android ?
There is a big player (which lately got the backing of even bigger player – Nokia), call Symbian. It allows multi-tasking above it seamlessly and easily, and has many IM clients, much better than GTalk.

Sometimes, a hype is just a hype, nothin’ more.

By: Reto Meier

Reto Meier — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 09:03:00 +0000

As other have already mentioned this particularly bad peice of usability is an iPhone limitation, not a phone limitation.

According to the last news we heard on the iPhone SDK ‘no applications running in the background’ is set to be standard for them, with a server-side ‘push’ sending update notifications to the phone.

This is by far the biggest limitation of the iPhone SDK, by contrast Android (and WinMo and BB) supports background services and user notifications central to its design without needing an extra server hop to get the job done.

By: Doug Klein

Doug Klein — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 03:50:18 +0000

I believe if you dig a little bit you’ll find a reference to the Apple notification system. That would allow notification to the user that an incoming message is available. The fact that the app won’t run all the time (in the background) is an Apple-ism; it has nothing to do with the carriers. Once you have an IP connection the carrier is merely a data pipe.

Of course as noted in the comments, this is not yet a native app. I think you can assume this sort of thing will be much better once real IM clients come out in the next few weeks.

By: Daryll Strauss

Daryll Strauss — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 22:33:33 +0000

You do realize that there are other high-end phones other than the iPhone, right? This isn’t a problem for Windows Mobile or BlackBerries. They can run multiple applications at the same time and they have means of notifying the home screen that they have information even when they’re in the background. With 3G networking, they can even be exchanging data while on a call.

Let’s clear the air here. Apple messed this up. It isn’t a problem for other high end phones. I assume they’ll fix it at some point in the future, but until you’re right, they’ve made the iPhone fairly useless for applications where quick response or continued connection is required.

By: Mike Puchol

Mike Puchol — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 22:25:33 +0000

It’s a -web- “application”, not a real installable client. You need to keep Safari open, and that means having it in the foreground. Also, this will not support closing Safari and taking advantages of the push notifications service Apple will provide, as far as I can tell.

When they release a true standalone client please wake me up. Nothing to see here, move right along….

By: buster

buster — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 21:53:59 +0000

if you use a blackberry like me you don’t have the one app at a time problem. i have gtalk open all the time on my phone.

By: Jason Armstrong

Jason Armstrong — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 21:49:45 +0000

I don’t see why “swiping” an app off the main screen (on the iPhone) couldn’t be used as a “tasking” feature. During the keynote when AOL was showing off their chat client for the iPhone, the presenter switched from chat session to chat session by swiping. Perhaps swiping left to right for changing windows in the same app and swiping up and down could move you back and forth from one app to another? Just a thought. Or two.