BeejiveIM – Review

Our rating:

By: BeejiveIM

Version #: 1.0.0

Date Released: 2008-11-02

Developer:

Price: 15.99

User Rating:

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One of my wife’s favorite sayings (she has many) is "You get what you pay for". After 14 years of marriage I can honestly say that this is yet another area in which she is… Totally Correct.

Sure there are times when you get a great deal on something but that is the exception, not the rule. Much/most of the time quality costs. It is that simple.

This isn’t always the case with regard to iPhone applications, however.

There are some amazing apps that cost little or nothing. It is rare, in fact, for me to get an app that costs more than a few dollars. That, I believe, is part of the reason the App Store has taken off the way it has.

One exception to my "more than a few dollars" rule, and an affirmation of my wife’s "get what you pay for", however, is BeeJive’s IM client for iPhone. There are no two ways about it- at $15.99 ($12.99 until tonight!) Beejive IM is expensive.

After using it for a few weeks, however, I have to say… it is also worth it! This is, by far, the best IM client I have used on the iPhone!

A lot of ink has been spilled about Beejive in the past few weeks so I will just touch on some of the things that make me love this app.

Options-

BeejiveIM works seamlessly with all the major IM players including, AIM, MSN, Yahoo!, GoogleTalk, MySpace, ICQ and Jabber. Add to that the fact that you can be on all of them at the same time and the app is extremely battery and bandwidth efficient, and you have a great, all-around IM client!.

Text Bubbles-

When you want to write an IM you simply tap the screen and start typing. A text bubble will appear and expand as you write more. Having used a number of IM clients for the iPhone I find this to be the best, cleanest and easiest to read implementation.

 Landscape!-

Being able to hold the iPhone or iPod Touch in landscape for typing is a must for me these days. If an app doesn’t offer it I am much less likely to use it. While others are just now implementing it in all sorts of application, Beejive included it from the start.

"No background apps" Workaround-
While Apple STILL doesn’t seem to have included their "push" notifications in the upcoming 2.2 firmware release, Beejive decided not to wait and took care of it themselves. The application includes a feature whereby, if you close the application, you are automatically disconnected from their servers. Instead, if the server sense that you have close the application on your iPhoto or iPod touch you automatically send you messages to your e-mail account, so long as you have enabled this feature in the application itself.

Add to that the fact that when you open the application on your iPhone once again the service reconnects and picks up exactly where you left off, and you have an application that has successfully worked around Apple’s self-imposed limitations. And it’s done so beautifully. If you rely heavily on IM for communication this kind of 24/7 connectivity is worth every penny of the applications cost.
  

Customization-

This is as close to a desktop IMing experience as I’ve seen. From the application itself you can manage your Buddy list, add or change nicknames, create groups, lock users, approved/denied requests, sort your Buddy list, control your status message, and customize all of the alerts. You can view your buddies icons and change yours and even use the accelerometer to change chats just by shaking the device!! Just take a look at all the options…

Finally, as incredibly feature rich as this application already is, future updates will include the ability to group chat, add emoticons and have full support for hyperlinks.

I could go on but I won’t. Suffice it to say this — if you only use IM casual there are some decent enough free applications available. Get them. If, however, you actually rely upon IMing on a regular basis communicate with friends, family, or even business associates, this is $15.99 well spent.

(And if you choose to spend the money before midnight tonight (November 2), you only have to spend $12.99.)

Quick Take

Value: It is expensive, but once you realize how feature-rich this application is you realize that actually is a very good one
Would I Buy Again:  I would in a second.
Learning Curve:  The basic use of this IM client is the same as just about any other. If you dig more deeply into the application, you find that there are many options to customize.
Who is it for:  Anyone who relies heavily on IM for communication with friends, family and anyone else
What I like:  incredibly feature-rich, totally stable, landscape!, "off-line" notification (yet another case in which a developer trumps Apple by miles)
What I Don’t:  priced in such a way that there are more than a few people who will not give this application a second look — they should.

Final Statement:   This is an application that Apple should be including as one of the standard feature on any new device they sell. They won’t. For that reason, anyone buying an iPhone or an iPod touch should simply add $16 onto their initial price for the device and put this application on it as soon as the first charge it. Yes, it is that good.