I recently bought an ipod touch, and am wondering:

a) If people actually use instant messenger on their touch/iphones (e.g. msn)?
b) If so, which application/s do you use, or would recommend.

I pretty much only use msn online, though occasionally google chat also (rarely). Are there any obvious issues with trying to use IM on touch/iphone?

Google chat via Safari is by far the best (probably because it's made by google), but, obviously, you can only use it for google chat. Most other IMs will do the job and allow you to login to Msn and google chat at the same time.

im+ or fring

Big fan of Palringo here.

I use fring for MSN but haven't tried a google chat one yet. I barely use Fring though, find it f***ing annoying that it won't run in the background.

I use fring for MSN but haven't tried a google chat one yet. I barely use Fring though, find it f***ing annoying that it won't run in the background.

Are there any that do run in the background?

Nope, it is a limitation of the OS at the moment that applications can't run unless they have focus. It is fully retarded.

multitasking? what's that?

It is fully retarded.

QFT

Apple must have bowed to some serious pressure from the phone industry surely
having IM on your iphone running 24x7 would eliminate the need to send sms and probably cut right into the flagfall call market (ie calls less than 30 seconds)

sucks balls, I can't wait for someone to work their way around it

IM+ for me

Also, I doubt the phone industry told Apple they can't run apps in the background. The reason is that it's too stop apps hogging resources and making the iPhone/Touch unresponsive and not able to do its basic features.

Didn't work, iPhone still lags like crap when listening to music & checking email.

Palringo actually runs in the background as far as I am aware.

I close the program, and it instantly sets my msn to 'away' status. Any messages I receive whilst away are sent straight to me as soon as the program is returned to.

Palringo actually runs in the background as far as I am aware.

Well AFAIK this is technically impossible based on my (admittedly limited) understanding of how iPhone apps work... can anyone confirm? I checked out the palringo site and can't see it claiming that anywhere.

My $359 Asus Jupiter smartphone that runs WM6 can multitask. LOL APPLE KEKEKE ROFLS.

Apple must have bowed to some serious pressure from the phone industry surely
having IM on your iphone running 24x7 would eliminate the need to send sms and probably cut right into the flagfall call market (ie calls less than 30 seconds)

sucks balls, I can't wait for someone to work their way around it

I don't get it, the s***ty version of Windows Live Messenger that runs on my N95 works fine and in the background, what's more is on three with X-Series it actually works without even running, they set some s*** up so it's associated with your phone/number and you can even still get IM messages if you sign in and then close the program completely...

Palringo actually runs in the background as far as I am aware.

Palringo logs you into MSN from their servers and proxies the connection to you on your iPhone - it gives the impression you're still logged in even when the app has closed down. When you open Palringo up again it sends all the received messages to you since the last time you connected.

Palringo logs you into MSN from their servers and proxies the connection to you on your iPhone - it gives the impression you're still logged in even when the app has closed down. When you open Palringo up again it sends all the received messages to you since the last time you connected.

Snap, thanks dude, makes perfect sense

I guess that's also what it does on mine if I close it instead of leaving it running IN THE BACKGROUND muahhaha... erm.