There’s An App for That: Social Networking

These apps are involved with social networking or instant messaging of some sort. I decided last minute to take out the Twitter clients and make them their own edition. That will be up shortly…or whenever I get a free minute. Anyways, here ya go.

• Yahoo! Instant Messenger (YIM) – This app, as the name implies is for using YIM. My extended usage of this app has lent me a review of “schizophrenic”. I have a major love-hate relationship with this app. I love the app because I can make conversations take place with the landscape keyboard, it’s very easy to use, and you can still use most of the YIM emoticons. I hate it because some conversations take FOREVER to load, even if they are only one or 2 messages long. In addition, the actual connection time to the app is the equivalent to waiting for the buss when the bullet train passes you by. I love the ability to quickly add new contacts (or edit old ones) on the fly, but I hate the fact I can’t change my freaking avatar picture to something else. I like that I can view my contacts as their screen names or as their contact information names, but I hate that YIM gets to choose for itself and randomly decides for me sometimes when I start up. I love the push messaging when not in the app, but I hate the freaking sound the push messages make when an IM is received. It’s like for every step they take forward, they take one more back.  Overall, this is a good app to have if you’re a veteran to the YIM program. It does its job, and does it well, even if it has some shortcomings. Price: Free.
• AOL Instant Messenger (AIM) – This is the old standby for everyone who has used an IM client before. AIM is what you would expect it to be…..AIM. No real bells and whistles here other than the push notifications when not in the app. They just recently added a “Lifestream” element to it that displays status updates to your contacts much like the Feed View in Facebook. Other than that, it’s just AIM. It loads quickly, allows you to be logged in for extended periods of time (up to 24 hours) without being logged out, and lets you adjust your information. It even lets you change your avatar picture to a picture on your iPhone if you want. Price: Free. Also available: Ad-free version with the ability to have landscape IM conversations. Price: $2.99.
• ICQ – The ICQ client app is just what it sounds like, a client that lets you use your ICQ instant messaging tag to communicate to your friends online. Once again, no bells and whistles here. It also comes with push notifications and sounds. You can create room with multiple users on it (which is a plus over YIM and AIM), and that’s the frill. I’ve only had limited usage with it, so if anyone has used it more, let me know your experience. Price: Free.
• Facebook – This app is Facebook’s opus to the iPhone (and iPod Touch) world. This app lets you do almost everything you can do with the full version on your computer, minus many of the frills. They have streamlined the whole Facebook experience down to the essentials. Once plus over the website is that you can drag your favorite friends’ pages (or pages you’re a fan of) to a separate page for quick viewing access. You can do everything with the Facebook app that you can on the website (except post in the “Links” section). My problems with this app are that it is majorly broken. Before they released their last update, Java pages used to make the app crash worse than a 16 year old at a party. Even with it, the app can slow down majorly if there is a link to a Java page or to yet another random (not to mention pointless) Facebook website application. There were also some quirks I had with the reading of messages and mail within the app. I’d read a message, and it would be marked as read, yet, when I open the app back up later, it doesn’t say it’s been read. It comes up as new……WTF? Another problem that I saw is that there is no push notification or badge updates with the Notification system. You could have 5 people who replied to a status of yours, and you wouldn’t know until you’ve opened the app to see that you have them. Then, if you close the app, the badge is updated…..Come one, Facebook, get it together. One thing they do well is picture uploading and tagging. They nailed that aspect right on the head. All together, this app isn’t bad. It’s not awesome, either. It’s average. Still worth the get because it DOES make Facebook very quick to view. Price: Free.
• Loopt – See my first “There’s An App for That” story to see this one.
• Loopt Mix – This app was born out of the original Loopt application. It started as a single button, and grew into a giant social networking app. I equate this app to a dating hotline site or MySpace more than I do a social networking medium. Why? Download the app, look at some of the pictures you see people post of themselves, and you’ll understand why. Price: Free.
• MySpace – The original social networking site makes its debut on the iPhone. What can I say about it? Nothing, really. It’s just the mobile site as an app. There’s literally no difference other than it has an app icon. If you already have used it on the mobile site, then you aren’t missing anything. One broken aspect of this app is that the pages you view of other people may not necessarily be the mobile page when you click their links. (It made a giant “WTF?” thought-bubble pop up above my head when I was using it.) Of course, half the time, you won’t see anything on their pages, because most of it is Flash based. Either way, this old time site is slated to die soon, if you ask me. However, like fine wine, it may just get better with age. Price: Free.

~ by LB on November 4, 2009.