This is a list of web apps IM

Meebo (http://www.meebo.com): Yahoo!, MSN, GTalk, AIM, ICQ
Trillian Astra (http://www.astra.im/iphone/): Yahoo!, MSN, GTalk, AIM, ICQ
JiveTalk (http://iphone.beejive.com): Yahoo!, MSN, GTalk, AIM, ICQ
Mundu IM (http://iphone.mundu.com): Yahoo!, MSN, GTalk, AIM
eBuddy (http://www.ebuddy.com): Yahoo!, MSN, AIM
Heysan (http://m.heysan.com): MSN, AIM, ICQ
Tinybuddy IM (http://tybyim.com/): AIM
FlickIM (http://www.flickim.com): AIM
iPhoneChat (http://davidcann.com/im/): AIM
IM+ for Skype (http://www.skypeforiphone.com): Skype
CommunicationTube (http://communicationtube.com/): ICQ, MSN, IRC, GTalk

Pathfinder, a software development and user experience design firm, announced the initial release of rails_iui, an open source Rails Plug-In for the iPhone.

The plug-in makes it easier to build iPhone enabled web applications. Rail plugin adds the ability to iUI framework which contains a number of CSS styles and JavaScript event handlers, to make iPhone Web apps look and feel somewhat like native iPhone applications.

“While developing my latest mobile web application with iUI, I realized I was building up a library, so I converted everything to a Rails plug-in,” stated Rappin, creator of the plugin. “Open source is all about sharing what you have learned and making contributions to support the community.””

Currently the plug-in focuses on automating common tasks and streamlining development. Future enhancements include improvements in documentation, testing and leveraging the Rails framework to enhance interactions, especially related to history and back behavior.

To get more information and download the plugin go to here or here.

Are you an avid magazine reader? Do you look at your iPhone and think that it’d be the perfect device to read digital magazines? Well, Zinio Mobile Newsstand for the iPhone offers such digital magazines in high-resolution glory. With loads of popular magazines in tow, Zinio Mobile Newstand gives iPhone users a free look at issues that typically cost anywhere from $5 to $10.

How does it perform? Can you actually read anything?

Read the rest of this entry »

Google Reader is a hot ticket for iPhone and iPod Touch users lately. We saw a native attempt at Google Reader, which worked quite well actually. There is just nothing like the real thing though right? So here it is, Google has finally brought full support of its RSS reader, Google Reader, to the mobile Safari browser. The service says it is still in beta, but it seems to be working very well.

“This new version is designed to offer many of the same features as the desktop, while making it quick and easy to act on items. If you’ve used list view, then it should be familiar to you. Scan the titles for an item that interests you, tap and it expands in place. Starring, sharing, and keeping unread are done in place, so you never have to leave the list view or refresh the page. We think it’s a very fast way to power through your reading list.” – Google Reader Blog

The application looks to bring a more desktop like Google Reader experience to the mobile Safari browser. To access the new Google Reader, just visit http://www.google.com/reader/i/ on your iPhone or iPod Touch. The service is still in beta and you will not be redirected to that page just by visiting Reader, so bookmark it for future use.

[Via Google Reader Blog]

As the iPhone continues to march across the globe, Google’s special (and slick) interface that was introduced in mid-December has been limited to English speakers. However, yesterday the company rolled it out to 33 countries in 16 languages, including Chinese–despite the fact the handset is not available through any Chinese carriers.

More importantly, Google continues to create special mobile variations of its other pages, which now includes Google News and support for users of Google Apps. Google Apps users can now check their mail using the same interface regular Gmail users have been enjoying, with the added benefit of being signed in to use the other mobile Google services.

The updated news viewer allows users to browse by the front page or by section, and features a built-in search tool. It’s still essentially a link repository to other third-party sites, but it’s now far easier to parse through on smaller screens than its original format.

What really makes the updated News page shine is that it integrates YouTube videos in the related stories. If there are videos for a selected subject, you can view them as thumbnails, which when clicked will jump you to the handset’s built-in YouTube viewer. Short of actually having Flash, this is the closest you’ll get to being able to casually watch Web videos while browsing other news networks. You could also use a conversion tool like vTap or Avot mV, but this new system requires one less step.

I still think most iPhone users will be inclined to use Safari’s built in-search tool, which can be set to use either Google or Yahoo without having to venture to a search page first. With the speed of EDGE, I often find myself skipping any unnecessary page load when it comes time to search on the go, something that won’t be fixed until the purported 3G version of the handset comes out later this year.

A nice little Web Application that transforms any RSS Feed into a nice iPhone Web Application:

http://www.thesmespace.com/smeutils/feed/

Recent developers in WebKit on which Safari is based, ended up in Safari browser for iPhone 2.0 as well as in newly released Safari 3.1.

Apple has implemented HTML 5, CSS 3 and SVG into it. HTML 5 provides a standard for embedded SQL statements into a script code. SVG (scalable vector graphics) brings motion into places where only static bitmap graphics worked before. SQL (through SQLite) and SVG are linked into Safari but not by plug-ins. CSS 3 sets up implicit and explicit animation, and manages both using renderer.

The advancements to Safari are not only the additions of new standards. Apple has also managed to speed up JavaScript performance.

Early on Apple decided not to include cookies and XML to Safari, and hence ported SQLite from iPhone OS to Safari. It allows JavaScript coders the ability to manage data using real SQL with transaction support.While SQLite is client-sized, it is very powerful for a database that links entirely into your code.Since iPhone has space restrictions, using SQLite forces developers to use space carefully.

The advancements in Safari on iPhone 2.0 are great. In fact, Mac users will want it in their desktops! At least viewing for the developers’ perspective since it allows great stand-alone web apps, and that’s something you can’t do on other browsers.

Posted by David on March 22nd, 2008

Six Apart, the world’s leading blogging software and services company, today announced plans to continue its leadership in the mobile blogging space by developing a native TypePad mobile application for the iPhone with the soon to be released iPhone Software Developer’s Kit (SDK).

Further development on a native iPhone application continues Six Apart’s long tradition of supporting bloggers who blog on-the-go on any of the major mobile platforms. “Our users are already embracing mobile blogging and the advanced capabilities of smartphones,” said Stephane Delbecque, mobile product manager of Six Apart, Ltd. “Providing a mobile option for our customers has always been a priority and we will continue to develop applications as the mobile market and our customers’ needs grow.”

For more information about mobile blogging with the iPhone on TypePad, or to sign up for alerts about the development of the native iPhone application for TypePad visit http://www.typepad.com/mobile.