If you haven’t heard of SHAPE Services or IM+ Pro, then you obviously haven’t been visiting CrackBerry enough. I’ll forgive you…this time. IM+ Pro is an amazing “all-in-one messenger” app that can be used to chat using Google Talk, AIM, MySpace, Jabber, ICQ, MSN Messenger, Yahoo! Messenger, Facebook, Skype AND Twitter at the same time until your thumbs bleed. In what is being called a “Major Update” in version 9.0.0.7 beta, users can now participate in a new local chat tool called Neighbors.
“Neighbors offers a new dimension of communication in IM+ by providing users the opportunityto find new real life connections and friends with common interests.
When signed in, users of Neighbors IM+ will be able to locate friends on the map, chat with local friends as well as initiate conversations with other people who are located nearby”
Features:
- Chat with people nearby, find new connections and post local announcements
- Buy and Sell goods and services locally
It’s an interesting concept as it almost eliminates the need for meeting new people in person. Who likes doing that anyway? Kidding! At least you can still throw on a cardigan and sneakers when you get home and still meet new friends without visiting the Neighborhood of Make-Believe. The next time you find yourself saying “Oh who are the people in your neighbourhood?” you can answer your own question with Neighborhood found within 9.0.0.7 beta (yes, I referenced both Mr. Roger’s Neighborhood and Sesame Street!). The beta is available for BlackBerry smartphones running OS 5.0 or higher and will be active until June 6th.
Reader comments
IM+ Pro 9.0.0.7 beta– Won’t you be my Neighbor?
very nice app but very expensive!
super expansive. would like to see this one go cheaper :)
free trial is there though!
Does the new beta improve the push at all? I like how Beejive automatically goes into push mode if you leave it alone for a minute, so it saves a ton of battery. I can't stand having to MANUALLY turn on push in Trillian and IM+, and also when a message comes in on those, it comes in as an email. Beejive (USED TO) intercept the message so it still showed and sounded a Beejive alert, not an email one.
Of course Beejive + OS6 + Push mode = epic fail. I bought an IM+ license when it was the CB deal of the day, and I'm just waiting for them to rework the push so I can use it efficiently.
I'm sure IM+ is *great* if you're a publication that's trading free publicity for free software. For the rest of us, SHAPE prices for SHAPE code quality and SHAPE "support" is a losing combination.
OK great...where's the PlayBook app???
First off, I must have been living under a rock for some time because I have never heard of this app before lol. Seccond, I just downloaded the beta version with neighbours and it is fantastic. However, when registering for the neighbours section thingy, I can't scroll over to the age/sex/interests/photo section and it will not allow me to register until I do so. I would reallty like to try this neighbours addition but I can't figure it out. Help!!!
Okay, so IM+ begins to catch up with local chat. Still does not have edgy new like Point-and-Chat(TM), so you can send a message to any other user you see simply by pointing your phone at him.
The neighbors function is very buggy and slow. It has been trying to determine my location for about 30 minutes. I'd recommend waiting until its improved more. Just my opinion
Just tried out the free trial of IM+Talk last week.
It was really buggy when sorting my skype contacts, they all kept on jumping back and forth online/offline. I tried to change refering settings but with little improvement. Further at startup my status was always set to "online" no matter what I selected previously. Plus, it would set up my status message to "online on IM+Talk"..
Further, when typing a message, I could not see what I was typing, just a plain black bar, where one usually sees one's typing. I didn't bother trying out the sykpe call functionality with it. Uninstalled it right away.
So i really hope shape services is taking care of these bugs, hopefully already with this beta, but I doubt. So I'm gonna miss out this release for sure.
I've been a long time user of IM+ Pro on my Bold 9000 and now my Torch 9800 and have never experienced any of the above issues. I swear by this App!
Glad that it works for you!
May be mine is just so buggy as it is the IM+Talk and not IM+Pro. To my understanding the IM+Talk is just the less expensive version of IM+Pro, only supporting Skype and no other instant messaging platforms. But may be I'm wrong and should give the Pro version a try!
Really nice app and new features
I was using quite IM+ on iPhone and iPad, but to be honest wasn't impressed with BlackBerry version. Not to mention it is heavily overpriced. Anyways, here are some findings based on half day use.
Trying to activate Neighbors getting foillowing:
"https://www.shapeservices.com/auth/signin.bb.phpCould not select proper Transport Descriptor for: https://www.shapeservices.com/auth/signin.bb.php"
Push session doesn't work great. After activated push, in less than an hour, sent myself google chat message from wife's acc - it took about 30min to get the email. Replying to the message using email got following:
"Your email can not be sent.
Most likely your Push session has expired, or the service has been disconnected."
In fact session is set for 12 hours
Hope the above helps