Hard times for multi-network instant messengers: Nimbuzz forced to axe ICQ

VoIP, chat, and twitter program Nimbuzz connects to SIP (the standard VoIP protocol), GoogleTalk, Jabber, MSN (Windows Live), Yahoo, AIM, Twitter, Gadu-Gadu, Facebook, MySpace, orkut, and Hyves.

It used to connect with ICQ too, but not anymore. After having to remove Skype from their program they had to do the same with ICQ.

The reason: money.

ICQ wanted Nimbuzz to pay for everyone who chats over their network with Nimbuzz. Obviously that's not gonna happen for a free program. Nobody pays to chat, so there's no way for Nimbuzz to recoup the money.

No more Skype in Nimbuzz and fring is a big loss. Having ICQ removed from Nimbuzz is no big deal because there are plenty of other instant messaging networks left. But let's hope that GoogleTalk and MSN don't follow the bad examples set by Skype and ICQ, because then the end of multi-network chat programs is nearby.

ICQ doesn't seem to work anymore with Palringo either. Fring still has ICQ. But who knows for how long?

• Nimbuzz
• fring
• Palringo

Nimbuzz got better looks and no more Facebook friends limit

VoIP, chat, and twitter program Nimbuzz connects to SIP, GoogleTalk, Jabber, MSN (Windows Live), Yahoo, AIM, ICQ, Gadu-Gadu, Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, orkut, and Hyves.

Nimbuzz has a well designed user interface, and that interface got better. The latest version of Nimbuzz lets you hide unused tabs. For example, you can get rid of the Twitter tab if you don't tweet. You can also remove the new "recent calls" tab, but I'm gonna keep that one.

Other new eye candy: chat interface with avatars and without, three views for the contacts list (avatars, no avatars, avatars for highlighted contact only), and if you send pictures to your friends you'll see a preview image in the chat screen.

More good news: the old limit of 400 Facebook contacts has gone. If Nimbuzz only could get Skype back into the program...

I downloaded Nimbuzz 3.0 and installed it on top of the old version. Unfortunately Nimbuzz forgot my settings. It remembered my network accounts and VoIP provider (because this is stored on Nimbuzz's server), but it reset my preferred VoIP provider from SIP to NimbuzzOut, which is a shameless way to plug their own calling plan. It also changed my notification sounds to default and reactivated all the vibration alerts that I switched off. So remember to go through the settings screens when you update your old version of Nimbuzz.

• Nimbuzz
• fring (the main competitor of Nimbuzz)

New UC Browser goes official

Unofficial english translations of the latest edition of chinese Symbian web browser UC Browser were already available on most mobile phone software forums, but now you can get UC Browser version 7.4 straight from the makers.

UC Browser is similar to Opera Mini. It routes sites through a proxy server to speed up surfing and reduce the data traffic consumed by your phone. Web pages can be displayed like in a desktop browser, which means lots of scrolling and zooming in and out on small phone screens. You can choose adaptive view instead. This resizes images and reflows text to fit the width of your screen, which eliminates the need for horizontal scrolling. Adaptive view in UC Browser 7.4 is much better than in older versions, especially for sites with extensive formatting and other eye candy. You can also activate page segmentation, which splits large pages into smaller ones for faster loading and easier browsing.

UC Browser has a download manager, makes it really easy to copy text and images, and deleting your browsing history and cookies requires less clicks than in other Symbian web browsers.

The "my shortcuts" screen of UC Browser looks like a mix of Opera Mini's speed dial page and a bookmarks menu. Unfortunately it is filled with links to sites chosen by the makers of UC Browser and you can't remove the clutter. Do these sites pay UC Browser to get themselves advertised this way? The shortcuts screen would be way better if it would mix speed dials with your own bookmarks folders.

• UC Browser

New improved version of phone book, call recorder and threaded SMS program Youlu

Youlu Address Book is more than an address book. It's also an SMS program, call recorder, and "vibrate on answer" application. A name like "Youlu Contacts" would fit this versatile program much better.

If you trust Youlu's server with your private data it can backup your contacts, messages, and calender to its server. This not only gets your phone book back when your phone gets lost or broken, but it's also useful for synchronising your data between phones. But even without Youlu's online backup there are still plenty of reasons to use this very useful program.

Youlu Adress Book does the things you expect from an address book (make phone calls, edit your contacts, send SMSs). The latest version reads the contacts on your SIM card too, and it lets you edit the pictures associated with your contacts. Youlu lets you tie ringtones to contacts if they're stored in the standard sounds folders on your phone. It doesn't see sound files in other folders, which is great if you want to set a ringtone without having to scroll through the thousands of MP3s that you may have stored in your music folder.

The SMS tab shows your messages as threaded conversations. The latest version of Youlu sees all your messages, even if you move them into custom folders. Even better, Youlu lets you choose whether you want to group conversations by contact or by folder. And unlike some other SMS programs, messages that you send with Youlu appear in the built-in SMS application of your phone too.

Some minor things to fix:

The phone book manager doesn't have all the fields from Symbian's built-in address book. Anniversaries, SIP (VoIP) numbers, and notes are among the missing entries.

The FreeCallSprite-like "vibrate on answer" function didn't work when I tried it.

The call recorder works if you activate it with the central navigation button, but the "record with camera button" option made Youlu crash on my phone.

Hitting the red hangup button sends the program to the background instead of closing it, and when Youlu runs in the background it won't show up in the task manager when you long-press the menu key. Exiting the program still requires a trip to the menu in the settings tab. Maybe a future version of Youlu can let us configure the behaviour of the red button and make the program appear the task manager when sent to the background?

If Youlu fixes the few remaining issues it will be very tempting to ditch my phone's built-in phone book and SMS client and use Youlu instead. Especially if it gets an offline backup function to store contacts, messages, and calender entries in a file on my own memory card and computer instead of on Youlu's server.

• Youlu UPDATE: This link is dead. And so is Symbian.

Last time I checked, the official site still offered version 1.0.1 of the program. But version 1.0.2 (which is much better) is available on Ziddu:

• Youlu 1.0.2 (english version) on Ziddu UPDATE: This link is dead. And so is Symbian.