State of iphone chat apps?

[mediumofmeaning]

Has anyone else noticed the conspicuous absence of any news on chat apps apolloim and mobilechat? Both of these projects were updated regularly till recently, and since then I have seen no news, whatsoever. Furthermore, the mobilechat forum seems dead (for the most part).

Does anyone have any info or insight on this?

 

[mediumofmeaning]

ok, apparently no one cares but I've read that neither is dead. apolloim is waiting till the SDK comes out, and mobilechat dudes are working on quickshareit, or whatever that program is called. Guess that means no updates for a while.

 

[th3digitalmind]

what i want to know is why haven't the programmers made a massSMS tool.... it was a hassle to have to text everybody Happy Thanksgiving separately today. Every other phone in The World basically can do this simple task. If I had the programming knowledge to get it done I would....and I would be glad to help someone wanted to guide me a bit, I am a quick learner.

but yea...the I.M. programs did kinda just dissapear

 

[Daiden]

Well that's good news about Apollo -- on their site it just says the developers aren't working on the project anymore. I guess we'll see what they have planned in February.

And yeah, the Mobilechat guys are working on a piece of their software that they actually make money on. Can't blame them for not spending 100% of their time on a free, open source program.

 

[Djmx]

OMG we need updated versions of these 2 or something... i can't live without CHAT IM APP on my IPHONe!! and MobileChat is Taking forever!! and the web apps it's really annoying!! someone take over Apollo IM or something!!!

 

[Cleverboy]

As far as I know, they both leave your passwords on your iPhone and synced to your computer in plain text, easily readable by anyone with a few braincells.

http://talk.twenty08.com/index.php?autocom=tracker&code=show_bug&bug_title_id=89&bug_cat_id=4

There is a problem with storing user names and passwords as CLEAR TEXT in the plist (preference file). Not only is this insecure in general, but it is synced to the users' personal computer, where it also exists as clear text. Upon uninstall, any undeleted account entries will remain in the plist, as information the user does not know exposes them to a loss of account information.

http://code.google.com/p/apolloim/issues/detail?id=232

What steps will reproduce the problem?
1. Opening Apollo_"LOGINNAME"_"SERVICE".plist

What is the expected output? What do you see instead?
Password and Username are stored as clear test, I think that it could be dangerous for people that
use SSH with default root's password (dottie)

What version of the product are you using? On what operating system?
1.0.2 on iPhone fw 1.0.2

Pretty freakish to me that the developers would wander off without fixing this, and figuring that its perfectly "ok". With someone's Google username/pass, there's no end of mischieve one could get into. Similarly, one's Yahoo username/password is also a highly sensitive piece of information. Why anyone would continue exposing themselves like this is beyond me. At least the TIF exploit has been plugged, so for many, its not possible to remotely pull these items directly off someone else's iPhone without access to the computer.

I'll keep waving a warning signal though.

~ CB

 

[bbplayer5]

So if your password is in clear text... this means... nothing. Unless they have your root password, they arent getting it.. If you didnt change your root password, thats your fault.

 

[Cleverboy]

So if your password is in clear text... this means... nothing. Unless they have your root password, they arent getting it.. If you didnt change your root password, thats your fault.

Did you read the part about the file syncing to your computer? If I saved my username and passwords in a text file somewhere on my computer, I'd feel pretty silly if someone ended up finding them out. Moreover, if you lose your phone or even lend your phone, you expose yourself more than you might realize. If you don't care, then you don't care though... if it wasn't required by law, I'm sure most people wouldn't buy car insurance either.

~ CB

 

[sananda]

are they not working? i have a uk iphone and tried both of these apps. they seem to sign me into my accounts but i don't see any buddy lists or any way to send an im.

 

[pedroistheman]

apollo works fine, but it would be great to be able to edit your buddy list or at least do more than just chat, you know what i mean?>

 

[Texas04]

ApolloIM seems very buggy just like MobileChat. They both under heavy usage freeze up the iPhone/iPod.

 

[sananda]

i wonder what i'm doing wrong; i can't get either to work.

 

[meagain]

I wish there was a way to stay logged into these things. It's constantly logging me out.

 

[evands]

It makes very little sense to work on iPhone applications at this time; in about 2 months, Apple will announce its SDK, at which point all existing iPhone-specific work might be completely irrelevant.