Palringo Instant Messenger for BlackBerry Goes Gold

We got an email from Palringo yesterday letting us know a new "gold" version of their Instant Messenger app for BlackBerry is now available. It was back in June 2008 when we first made mention of Palringo in the blogs and that time the app wasn't quite ready for primetime. This new version adds location support and functionality for Facebook, iChat and QQ as well as other fixes improvents you can learn about from the video above or read after the jump. You can grab it for free from Palringo.com. I haven't tested it out yet, so if you give it a go be sure to report back with your findings in the comments.

Palringo for BlackBerry Goes Gold - Core Facts

Palringo for BlackBerry now includes the option to share your location with other Palringo users. Location and proximity [distance] of contacts are shown, both on the buddy list screen and on map displays for even greater precision.
User feedback on the initial beta version of Palringo for BlackBerry has been instrumental in refining the gold version. In particular, the connection issues identified in the beta version have been resolved.
Palringo is available now for the BlackBerry Pearl, BlackBerry Curve and BlackBerry 8800 series. The application is free and downloadable from www.palringo.mobi.
Palringo users can exchange voice, picture and text-based messages with contacts on many popular messaging services including Microsoft's Windows Live/MSN Messenger, Facebook, AOL Instant Messenger, Google Talk, Yahoo! Messenger, Apple's iChat, Gadu-Gadu, ICQ, Jabber and QQ. This means that Blackberry users can chat, and share photo and voice messages, with all of their friends on many different IM and social networking services using just one application.
Palringo enables users to form and administer groups. Many businesses use Palringo Groups as an additional tool to enable communication with staff, whether they're out in the field or in the office.
There are presently thousands of active groups, ranging from entire businesses to special interest groups to sports clubs. There is no need to be online to receive messages; the conversation history can be read whenever a user logs in.
Palringo is designed for use on mobile phones, but versions are also available for Windows-based PCs and for Mac OS.
At the recent Mobile World Congress in Barcelona [February 2009], Palringo was shortlisted for a 2009 GSMA Global Mobile Award - the most prestigious annual awards in the world of mobile. The shortlist of five, in the Best Mobile Internet Service category, also featured Nokia and Bharti Airtel.