Home of The Weekly Leaks, The Blacklist and FASHAL
Remember back in March when I got my hands on some screenshots of an upcoming app and website that’d allow you to order Burger King from your smartphone? Well, it went live in the last few hours and I’ve already tested it out on my Samsung Galaxy S2. Here are some screenshots.
We were all astonished at last week’s news that Facebook had acquired the photo editing and sharing app Instagram for a mind-blowing 1 Billion USD. A two-year old startup which as Colbert says “ruins your photos” with filters was worth 1,000,000,000USD. But, I’m sorry to say that Instagram is not the best app out there, and that I still prefer Lightbox, even though I do acknowledge that the acquisition will help Instagram come on top (or destroy it, depending on what the Zuckerberg is planning). Here’s a breakdown of why Lightbox is better than Instagram in my opinion.
Instagram dominates the iOS market, with virtually everyone with an iPhone at least trying out the app if not religiously using it. Lightbox is the biggest player on the Android market. But, two weeks ago, Instagram beat Lightbox to it, and released its Instagram for Android, making it “cross-platform”, while Lightbox is exclusively on Android for now (which I think is good, keeping all the “#iPhonographers” and their silly breakfast-shots away from my timeline).
However, Instagram’s website is practically useless. Lightbox has a magnificently sexy website which does all the same features its app does. In other words, it’s a fully-functional, stand-alone website meaning anyone can use it, regardless if you carry a smartphone. It’s also very handy compared to Instagram, where you can’t even edit your profile picture from the “website”.
Screenshot of the Lightbox Website
Screenshot of the Instagram “website”
Apart from which platforms these apps support, there are several advantage I have noticed which Lightbox has:
I just made my first credit card, and shuffling that with my internet card, savings account and debit card is sometimes confusing. Also, I hate going to the bank, and who the hell still uses paid SMS? With this awesome app, you just sign in with your Bank Audi online account, and it automatically tracks everything you spend with your cards. You can also add your cash withdrawals and categorize each transaction, and make a cute pie chart.
What’s useful about this app is it really helps you keep track of how much you’re spending. It also helps you keep track of your budget, and helps you sniff out all those pesky bank fees which they don’t SMS you about (sneaky bastards). If you’re an Android user and a Bank Audi customer, this is a MUST-HAVE. Love it. I just wish it would automatically categorize obvious things like restaurants into the “restaurants” category for example, but, otherwise flawless.
I don’t know why, but instead of grouping everything into one, neat, comprehensive app like MTV, LBCI has chosen to develop several apps such as LBCI, LBCI News and Kalam Ennas. If you’re a news junkie though, this app is cool. It has breaking news notifications (in arabic) and does that cleanly without misbehaving in terms of wasting megabytes.
Alfa and MTCtouch rape us with their fees and rape us again with their poor, poor, poor service. So, making use of the measly 5 free SMSes per day does have its satisfaction. However, the assholes now added the stupid “verification” code when you want to send an SMS, making it even more of a hassle, especially from your mobile browser.
This app is extremely simple and does what it says perfectly. Just sign in, punch in the number, type your message and send. And voila, sent. No verification, no waiting for it to load, no lag in SMS time. So, download it and make use of the “gift” our crappy providers have given us. Also, there is one for Alfa and one for MTCtouch, making it even simpler.
Personally, I step out of the door and press the stairwell button to see if its electricity or “moteur”. But, for you app freaks, I’ve added in this app. I don’t like it because it’s basically a widget-maker only. You have to get all the information, like when the electricity cuts off in your area, and for how long. So, it’s not very useful in terms of predicting the cut offs itself, it just presents whatever you now in a widget format. But, it’s nice to have it in case some Apple fanboy flaunts their version of the app.
Unfortunately, I couldn’t attend all of today’s sessions and talks. I was upset because good friends like George El Khabbaz, Joumana Mattar and Maya Zankoul gave UX talks I would’ve loved to attend, but, all was not lost. Stephane Crozatier, a Facebook engineer tasked with helping develop social products for strategic Facebook partners through the open graph.
Now, that sounds super-geeky and programmer language, but luckily for you, I’m not a computer scientist and thus will relay what I understood and discovered today from the session: why the timeline?
Stephane talked about how Facebook has created a graph that has several nodes. Nodes are people and brands, and the network you create with people you friend and things you like, make the open graph everyone is so hyped about. Why are they hyped? Well, because it is the mother of all treasures when it comes to data mining: what you like, who you surround yourself with and what you do, every marketer’s dream data. Of course, if you don’t allow it, this graph will remain off-limits to websites and corporations.
Anyway, after introducing what the graph and Facebook Platform were, Stephane went on to discuss the rationale behind this new “evolutionary leap” in Facebook world. “Talking about things on Facebook is nice, but doing things on Facebook is nicer” pretty much summed up the Facebook mantra in a very simple and elegant way.
We used to send notifications to our pages, for example “Gino likes X article.” Today, you get “Gino read X article on Y website” in realtime, and with a “widget” on my timeline with the actual article. This also applies for music I listen to on SoundCloud for example, or photos I pin on Pinterest. Now, I can do those things via Facebook, or at least do more than “shallow link” to the homepage, but actually initiate an action via Facebook on the third party website.
You’d think, why would Facebook do that? Why would they grant access to their 850 million+ users to lesser online players? Well, why not? Facebook doesn’t only allow partners to utilize the graph (with user permission of course), they also help the strategic partners with their endeavors and perfect their social products, because according to Stephane, “it creates a viral loop” to which I completely agree.
Some interesting data presented was that Pinterest’s referrals rose 60% when its Facebook app became integrated into the new timeline. Another interesting tidbit was that Goodreads daily active users (DAU) rose a whopping 77% after utilizing the open graph technology to integrate it into Facebook.
So, the rationale behind the timeline and new platform seem even more appealing to me now. However, I know many of you have been resistant to switch to the new timeline. I have bad news for you, everyone is gonna be switched to the new timeline eventually. I personally sorta cheated and created a dummy app on Facebook developers and got the new timeline many months ago, and have since grown very much accustomed to it, and love it!
For privacy freaks, take the time to fix your settings. Also, I agree with Google co-founder Eric Shmidt when he said that if you don’t want it online, you probably shouldn’t be doing it anyway.
Also, something fun today was Nokia’s freezing cold competition. They brought a massive block of ice impregnated with a brand new Nokia 701. Each person had 30 seconds to try to chisel and hack at the ice and if you get the phone dislodged, it’s yours. Unfortunately, some people hit too hard and smashed the phone. Nokia were kind enough though to hand another, functional device for the winner.
If you’re in the Middle-East, chances are you were bombarded with thousands of “MarkaVIP” ads and emails. The somewhat “wozzeh” name though that seems like spam, is actually an immensely successful Jordanian-based company that has scored over 5 million USD in investment less than two years after its inception in late 2010.
Such examples have become abundant in the Middle-East recently, and I’m sure you guys are like me in wondering “why can’t I be part of that?” and “why didn’t I think of that!” and of course “do I still have time and opportunities to jump on that band wagon”. The answers might not be clear, but some of the most qualified people who can answer and discuss these questions will all be in one place next week: ArabNet.
The line up of speakers will include people like Osama Bedeir, Vice President of Payments at Google (I hope Google Wallet is coming to the MENA region soon!), Shervin Pishevar,nManaging Director at Menlo Ventures and Amina Belghiti, Head of Platform Partnerships, New Markets EMEA, Facebook. These three are only 3 among over a 100 other professionals, academics and entrepreneurs who will provide in-depth insight into a wide spectrum of topics such as entrepreneurship, investment, the future of media and advertising, interaction through social media platforms, and the effect of the latest technology trends on the digital market.
Being around so many innovative individuals over the past two years, has pushed me, a humble Biology student, to start thinking about online business ventures and e-startups. I for one, I’m glad to attend talks by these individuals prior to formally launching my business plan. I’m also hoping to poach potential investors and developers to help me bring it all together! So, I for one, am excited about the speakers, as should you! See you all next week! Oh, and here’s the full-list of other awesome people that are going to present.
I’m a brand loyal person usually. Not sure why, but if I enjoy a product enough, I tend to buy the newer one or other products from the same manufacturer. When I’m going abroad, I usually carry a small carry-on and a backpack full of all my electronics. Laptop, iPad, iPod, camera, phones and of course headphones.
The whirring of jet engines, the bakes of buses, the squeak of train tracks and of course your annoying fellow passengers make headphones a must when traveling. Here are my suggestions for which type of headgear to use when on the move. My extensive pleasurable experience has been with Skullcandies, I have several headphones and my backpack is also SKDY.
I’m a headphone fan. Why? Well, apart from having no need to insert stuff deep into your ear canal, they usually look cool. They also send a message to others that “shut up, I don’t wanna talk to you” which is perfect on long journeys. Skullcandy have several types of headphones, but my favorite are the “hesh” line. They’re sturdy, have very diverse designs and are very comfortable to wear. In fact, in the few times I have been a DJ, my Paul Frank Skullcandies (which cost around 70.00USD) were my headphones of choice.
The second type of SKDY headphones I own are the “skullcrushers” which are notorious for their bass amplification. When I wanna listen to some minimal and deep house, maybe even some dubstep, the skullcrushers will definitely be your carry-on club sound system. Usually, a song sounds very different when played in a club setting with the improved and accentuated bass. These headphones provide you a good approximation of what a track will really sound like when you blast it at a party. Only downside is that when there are phones around, they create interference (parasite) and affect the music experience if you get a Whatsapp message. So, I’d definitely recommend Hesh headphones over Skullcrushers. They also need batteries to function fully, and the batteries are housed on the connecting line, which makes it awkward to stow away neatly.
The third type of SKDY I have are the smaller, Agent headphones. These headphones are better for travel, they’re smaller and more compact and usually lighter than their bulky Hesh counterparts. They also take a shape more similar to the human ear, making their prolonged use more comfortable. They’re also cheaper than their skullcrushing and hesh headphones.
If you’re worried about size and price, and you really want 0 noise from the world around you, then you should go with the earphones or “buds”. They’re the type that you insert into your ear canal, insulating it against any other sound. They’re the cheapest in the product line and you can fit them anywhere. They’re less flashy though, and if you’re looking to make a fashion statement and send others a signal that you’re busy or don’t wanna talk, the buds are definitely not your right choice.
Go with the Agents. Why spend 400 USD for headphones when you can spend 10% of that and get one which doesn’t have a rapper’s name and looks exactly the same every single time. Happy commuting!
I was an ArabNet Official Blogger last year, and I had a blast attending the conference, live-tweeting it and blogging about the panels and talks and events within the conference. I also met a lot of people from across the Arab World who have become very good friends. Most importantly, I started seeing mobile and web like a boss, and could even start giving advice to businesses and agencies, all thanks to last year’s speakers and panelist, who turned me from a humble Biology student interested in tech, to a web and mobile-savvy person up-to-date with the latest trends, start-ups and the industry in the MENA region. So, here are a few reasons why you might want to attend ArabNet 2012.
This is the top reason to attend in my opinion. Two years ago, 500 people attended. Last year, around a 1000. This year, it’s expected to surpass 1500 participants from all over the world! Imagine how many business owners will meet the right developers, how many start-ups will meet the right investors and how many designers will pair up with programmers and create the next big site or app.
So, graab a whole bunch of business cards and make new shiny ones, because the real magic of ArabNet doesn’t only happen in the big halls where talks and presentations are held, but the coffe breaks and lunch breaks where you can mingle and network.
This time around, the conference is five whole days. These days have something in store for everyone from the geeky programmers who slave on building our websites and apps functionality, to the artsy designers obsessed with stream-lining everything, to the seasoned investor trying to make sense of web and mobile, and of course the steadily rising number of aspiring entrepreneurs hoping to make their businesses come to life.
So, if you didn’t know you could hack a Kinect and aren’t interested in learning how, you could miss the first couple of days. But, you’d also be missing out on the lightning talks and getting to meet engineers from companies like Google and Facebook! The Industry Day looks exceptionally exciting this year, the two forum days are a MUST-attend and the Community Day is the culmination of the whole conference where we open up to the general public.
The Industry Day is something new this year, and I’m personally looking forward to it. This day will focus on how tech, web and mobile are being used in industries like healthcare, the banking sector, governments, education and other fields that are not exclusively web and mobile, but integrate these technologies to better their performance, experience and output. This is a MUCH-welcome addition in my opinion, after all, focusing exclusively on web and mobile companies and start-ups was sorta limited, now, we have the whole business and services spectrum included!
Check this list out. Exactly, wow. You might not want to watch every single one, but there are at least two-dozen that I personally would love to hear speak. Everything from marketers and strategists, to CEOs and rising entrepreneurs, sharing their success stories, analyses and predictions for the future of web and mobile.
Last year, ArabNet was taking place at the peak of the Arab Springs. Naturally, with web and mobile’s catalyzing role and citizen journalism via social media blossoming, the Arab Spring was a major issue being discussed, with optimism and enthusiasm about the future high. This time around, the Arab World is a changed one, and the inevitable “report card” of the Arab Spring will be an issue that will undoubtedly be present. Also, some struggles are far from over, and understanding their impact and their outcomes with all the brightest minds of the Arab World is reason enough to attend!
Lebanon’s notoriously horrible Internet connection and speed last year was the butt of many jokes. Luckily though, we’ve gotten a considerably bump in speed and bandwidth and things like online conferencing and live-streaming will be a breeze.
For more information and registration, go here!
I absolutely adore this app. Playing Monopoly live can be a bit time consuming, especially when it comes to counting money, finding the right card, etc. It’s also very prone to cheating. The iPad app solves that, with the bank and real estate duties being handled automatically by the app. This means faster and more enjoyable gameplay, and zero chance of cheating. The visuals are alos cool and the multiplayer mode is a LOT of fun, letting you play anywhere and anytime without the need to awkwardly carry the massive box. This is a MUST-have app for your iPad, you won’t regret it.
If you are a heavy redditor like me, you’re gonna adore this app. It’s better than www.reddit.com. The ability to up-vote or down-vote an article after you open it, makes it all the more awesome. Reddit usually shows the up and down vote buttons on the link to the article, not on the article itself, which I find awkward. It’s a very tidy, fast and clear app. It’s the perfect manifestation of the “Internet’s Front Page” and all your favorite subreddits! DOWNLOAD THIS APP!
This is a really fun game, and best of all, it’s free and light on the megabytes. It’s just 19.5MB, but will have you addicted in minutes. A combination of swiping and tapping helps you avoid obstacles by jumping, sliding and sharp turns trying to escape the monkey-zombie things chasing you. The character runs on its own and gets faster with time. Collecting coins will let you buy power-ups and new characters. All in all, it’s a pretty simple and fun game which can get exciting and doesn’t need 30+ minutes to end like Monopoly. So, if you’re on-the-go or waiting for a few minutes, or can’t sleep, this game is a worthwhile download.
If you’re a Daft Punk fan, this is a no-brainer. This free app lets you use the loops in “technologic” and “harder better faster stronger”. It’s awesome and plenty of fun. Few music-making apps are this simple and easy to use. What can be annoying is that you aren’t given cues about when to tap each vocal loop when you activate the acoustic loop which is an all-or-none button in that when it starts, it doesn’t stop and you cannot pause it! Other than that, love it and use it very often when I’m bored, sorta like doodling on a paper!
Everyone is signing up to Twitter these days, and many go down in flames after a few confusing minutes. Here are a few pointers from a Twitter addict such as myself. I hope it helps! And don’t just follow Saad and Mikati, follow real tweeps who are awesome.
This should be fairly simple to accomplish by yourselves, if you find it hard, then please stick to Facebook and spare everyone the horror.
I never follow a twitter account without a photo. It doesn’t have to be your photo in a bikini, just not the generic egg thing twitter places by default. So, please, before you start following people and expecting them to follow you back, add a photo (I posted images on how to do that, just look for my mouse cursor) and fill your bio.
Your bio should be somewhat revealing about who you are. Being funny is an added plus, being cocky is a huge minus. For example, calling yourself an “expert” or “guru” is sort of arrogant and makes you look silly. That’s for people to decide, not you. Being ambiguous is up to you too, but I’d rather get an idea what you’d be tweeting about before clicking follow.
As for location, it’s nice to add your actual city, like Beirut or NYC, but if you’re paranoid about your safety, then go ahead and put barf-inducing stuff like “planet earth” or “somewhere over the rainbow” and feel cute =P
Before you start following people and expect them to follow you back, you might as well post a few interesting tweets. “Hello” or “I don’t understand this” aren’t good examples. Why not share a nice post you read somewhere? Or a funny photo, or something that will actually make visiting your profile worth people’s time.
People who’ve been on Twitter for a while, tend to follow only the best accounts they’ve come across. I for one, routinely clear up my following list, removing inactive accounts, accounts that spam and just simply annoying accounts. So the 1100-something people I follow, are all awesome, so flip through it and follow the ones you find interesting too. That’s how you begin building up your following list, and eventually your follower list.
Which means you don’t have to follow back, and the other person doesn’t need to follow you. But, general Twitter etiquette dictates you follow back users who follow you. Give them a chance, maybe you’ll enjoy their updates, if not, you can always unfollow.
Very few people use Twitter.com. That’s because most os us tweet on the move via our mobile devices. That’s where Twitter clients come in. They’re apps which replace Twitter and allow you to customize the way you tweet, read and interact. I personally recommend Tweetdeck (I used it on Mac and Android) it’s so awesome, that Twitter bough it =P. There’s also Hootsuite, Echofon and the official Twitter app for iPad and Android which I’d also recommend.
If you don’t have the time to read, click play and let Gavin Ford explain it to you in 34 seconds. If you’re THAT bored at work or university, take a moment to consider why this conference is a good idea.
You just have to register here to guarantee your place
Apart from our lives becoming largely digital and cyberspace via Facebook, Twitter, Foursquare and all the other social networks we subscribe to, social media is the new “it” thing in marketing and business, where every single establishment todays needs to be present, and present effectively on social networks. In other words, you will definitely come across something you’ll say “ooooh” or “ahaaa” to whether its about your personal or professional life.
It includes everyone from the British Ambassador (and good tweep) Tom Fletcher, to Lebanon’s and the region’s most influential online experts, activists and entrepreneurs. It also includes me on a panel, so that’s reason enough! But, if you insist, here’s the speakers’ list.
Conferences can get boring, and the talking might get sometimes too much to sit through. But, there’s a reward at the end with the fabulous Poly, EpiSode and Anthony Touma performing live at the Issam Fares Institute.
As you can see from these posters, JB and Black may be two examples of where SM went wrong. That’s your chance to bash the beliebers in a room full of hundreds of people like you.
I know the economy’s bad and stuff, and I’m sure some of you might wanna stuff some donuts and munchkins and sandwiches in between talks. Caterers at conferences are often some obscure restaurant with stuff you’re not used to. This time, the food’s something I think we all like.
I highly recommend you register ASAP and show up on December the 16th at noon. The guys at the Online Collaborative have done a fantastic job in preparing this marathon social media day and I am certain it will not disappoint. I wish the AUBOC the best of luck, and that I miss them, and that I’ll see you all on Friday December the 16th!
I hate plastic. I also hate aluminum. It seems I love ploycarbonate plastic though, which the N9 unibody is machined from. The beautiful matter plastic comes in black, cyan and magenta. It’s not painted, the matte feel is actually how the ploycarbonate is. This mean scratching it won’t mean the end of its sexiness, because the scratch will reveal the same color as the surface, making it basically scratch-proof. It’s also pretty sturdy, and I have yet to meet someone which doesn’t gently caress the backside of this phone, enjoying the texture.
Gorilla glass is just as it name implies, really cool. It’s scratch-proof and very tough, and is seen in Samsung Galaxy SIIs, which don’t shatter into a million pieces when you drop them, namely like the iPhone 4. The screen is also glare-proof, which means even if it’s in direct sunlight, you won’t be blinded by the sun’s reflection and will still be able to read what’s on the screen with ease.
The N9′s screen is also curved on all four edges, giving the impression the screen is hugging the unibody tightly, forming the flagship phone Nokia can be proud of. It also makes swiping all the more fluid and enjoyable.
The screen is the equivalent of Samsung’s Super AMOLED Plus, which means it will make you drool with its crisp graphics and vivid colors. The beauty of swiping is portrayed in the seamless transitions and animations with every gesture. Videos, photos and pretty much everything else, is eye-candy and you’ll find the need to toggle between the 3 home screens too great to ignore, creating a perpetual loop of sexy graphics.
The N9 has only 3 buttons. 2 for volume and zoom control, and one for lock and power control. The other 5 sides of the 6-sided ploycarbonate body are devoid of any physical interactive surface. It’s just on 3.9″ screen which you can program to obey commands usually assigned to buttons and switches, with mere swipe gestures.
One thing Nokia challenged with this phone, is the conventional notion of navigation in an OS. In iOS, the clumsy multitasking often has us click the central button and return to the rigid app-grid and clumsy folders, THEN choose the app we want to use. Android OS is more flexible, but still as good as the custom launcher you’ve illegally downloaded. In the N9′s MeeGo, 3 homescreens come built-in.
The main one is the app grid homescreen, to the left of it is a homescreen where all your notifications and feeds are displayed and the third one is where multitasking has been solved. I’ll explain the multi-tasking bit in the next point, but basically what this means is that the conventional idea of a homescreen is being challenged and far more convenient one is offered by the N9′s MeeGo Harmattan OS.
The third homescreen which I absolutely adore, is THE best solution to multitasking on a mobile device I have ever seen. This homescreen is an adjustable grid of live screenshots of open apps which you can monitor and switch through, or kill right on the spot. For example, if I’m downloading a file, but also decided to watch a video, I can partially swipe the video aside while holding it. This keeps the video playing, but also reveals the part of the homescreen I wanna check to make sure my download is still running. In other words, wow. It is a far cry from the clumsier mechanisms seen on iOS and Android systems.
To be honest, I was turned off by the camera in the N9. That’s because compared to the N8, I doubt any phone camera will seem impressive. But, what really upset me was the noisiness of photos, where they appeared grainy at some times. A few photo sets later, I discovered the very powerful photo editor that comes included in the phone. It takes one click to “auto-fix” your photos and the graininess is solved! So, for the simple point-and-shoot use like myself, the auto-focus and face recognition saves me tons of time. I’m just sad there’s no burst or panoramic shoot option =( Other than that, the 720p HD video and multiple still-photo settings should have you photography-types satisfied.
In the contacts app on the Nokia N9, the full range of information you might have for a specific person are all grouped into one. Social networks, skype, phone and email are all integrated into one. This might not seem impressive to some, but it goes the extra step and shows you their statuses on the different chat platforms. I love that integration when it comes to contacts. The only thing I’d add, is the ability to sync contacts, and not just mail, chat and calendar entries, with your Google Account.
Another clumsy procedure on most touch phones is text selection, copying and pasting. On the N9, all you have to do is swipe over the text you wanna select. No long-press, no double-tap, no nothing, just a simple fluid gesture. The keyboard is a virtual QWERTY keyboard, but would’ve loved to see Swype typing and keypad keyboard integration like in the E7. Other than that, loved the typing with haptic feedback and unobtrusive auto-correct.
As you all know, MeeGo has been abandoned by Nokia. The linux-based, very promising OS will be replaced by Windows Mango OS on the new N9-inspired flagship Lumia 800 device. So, owning this phone is like owning a collector’s item. It’s literally, one-of-a-kind and is the best independently developed Nokia device ever built. This doesn’t mean that MeeGo won’t be viable or supported. Nokia promised two years of support for the MeeGo ecosystem and it looks like other mobile giants like Samsung have their eyes set on the beautifully designed OS. If I had to choose between Mango and MeeGo, I’d definitely go with MeeGo.
I have to warn you guys, Whatsapp doesn’t run on the Nokia N9. That’s not really a big deal for me, I hate that chat client and I have a BBM as a second phone. However, I do know some of you rely on it heavily and that’s a sacrifice you’re gonna have to make if you wanna own the sleek, sexy Nokia N9.
NFC, which you can use to interact with other hardware, like speakers for example. Near Field Communication is when a simple tap is enough to perform an action with your device. Another cool NFC perk is that you download Angry Birds for free, but only have 5 levels unlocked. To unlock another 5, you need to bump your phone with another N9 and both of your phones will unlock 5 extra levels.
I’ll allow you a few moments to chuckle at the name and it’s naughty and dirty innuendoes in both English and French.
As you know, on this blog I am in a constant search for the best cross-platform chat client and whenever a new one pops out, I try it out and try to encourage as many of you to get on board if it seems worth your while.
Even though Kik, LiveProfile and Kakao looked promising, they’re all by independent app developers with little or no support (even obstruction, like RIM and Kik) by big mobile giants. So, when the mobile industry leader, Samsung, decides to launch its very own cross-platform smart chat platform, we’d better be listening.
The potential for ChatON to grow is massive. Imagine all Samsung phones come preloaded with the app in the near future. That’s like BlackBerry’s BBM, only nicer and cross-platform (which BBM has yet to become!). Samsung promised ChatON wil be available for all major mobile platforms, ie Android, iOS and BlackBerry and maybe even Windows. So far though, it’s has been released on Android systems only.
After my dear friend Carl Bou Samra pointed it out to me, I had ChatON downloaded and installed on my Samsung Galaxy S in minutes. That’s when I began discovering this promising new chat app.
At first, the colors were a little funky, but upon closer inspection, I realized the app had a LOT to offer. All the normal chat options were there. You could chat individually, or in group. You can send images, sounds, videos, locations, contacts, calendar entries and my favorite, AMS. AMS is an animated message which you create! All you have to do is draw the animation on your mobile phone, and voila, it is sent, animated and sexy to your friend or friends. You can even add music, backgrounds and clipart from existing samples or your own media files!
You add contacts by their mobile numbers and it can automatically detect ChatON users in your phonebook. You can also customize your profile beyond a status message, by adding a display picture, a much-welcome feature missing in other chat platforms. Its delivered/sent notifications are clumsy though, and there is no read notification, which is a bummer if you ask me! Samsung also promised to have a web-client for ChatON which will allow you to chat from any device or machine with a decent Internet browser, which is pretty cool too… Sorta like eBuddy’s XMS.
To really understand what I mean, I’d really recommend you watch this video
So, I strongly recommend all you Android users out there download it and get the hang of it, and add me as a contact!I’ll make sure to share with you guys when the iOS and BB versions of ChatON will be available so we can all put it through its paces together. So far so good though! Fast, reliable and feature-filled!
