Folks at Beejive recently released a new version of their awesome Instant Messaging app BeejiveIM which is one of our favorite iPhone apps. You can read our review of the iPhone app here.
The new version of BeejiveIM (2.1.0) includes support for Facebook IM, ability to customize the background wallpaper within the iPhone app and anti-piracy measures to fight piracy of their iPhone app after Crackulous was released; a jailbreak app which strips copy protection from iPhone apps and render them free for distribution.
The new version of BeejiveIM includes:
- Support for Facebook IM, including the ability to login from multiple locations, update your buddy picture and update your Facebook status.
- Wallpaper selection inside the application. Ability to select your own wallpaper.
- Performance enhancements.
- Small UI enhancements.
So BeejiveIM which already worked with multiple IM networks such as AIM/iChat/MobileMe, MSN/Windows Live, Yahoo!, MySpace, GoogleTalk, ICQ, & Jabber, now also supports Facebook IM.
BeejiveIM 2.1.0 also allows you to customize the background wallpaper within the iPhone app. Simply tap “More” and then “Set Wallpaper” to bring up the selection of wallpapers. You also have the option to select a photo from your iPhone's camera roll or take a picture and set it as the background wallpaper for the app.
They have also implemented an anti-piracy measure to fight piracy of their iPhone app. They informed Mobilecrunch:
So if users are using a cracked version of BeejiveIM; they will get the following error:
Here is some background about the error from Greg Kumparak of Mobilecrunch:
Here is the YouTube link to the video.
Its interesting to see iPhone developers taking matters in their own hands to fight piracy of their iPhone apps, developer of iPhone app, Full-Screen Web Browser had also figured out a way to turn cracked versions of his iPhone app into demos.
As we have mentioned before, BeejiveIM which costs $15.99 is pricey but it is an awesome instant messaging client for the iPhone. It is also one of the most polished iPhone apps that I have used. If you are an IM addict then it is definitely worth the high price especially since Push Notification service finally introduced in iPhone firmware 3.0 will address one of the major drawbacks of the iPhone app (though it was due to limitations of the iPhone SDK) where it cannot be run in the background currently.
You can download BeejiveIM using this direct iTunes link.
As always, please don't forget to drop us a line to give us your feedback on the latest version of BeejiveIM.
yep i remember one night i was logging in beejive to see who's online, and i that error popped up and scared me. I then googled it and found out they now detect if its cracked.
I miss beejive.
It's good to see the developers fighting back.
It's often a single person coding for hours and hours to make a few quid(£)/bucks($) to feel justified in and appreciated for their efforts. Admittedly, some devs give us the choice to donate rather than purchase, and if it's a well coded app that I need, then purchase/donate I will.
Now, my problem lies with apps that require full payment upfront for something that we just have a review on, apps like Beejive don't come cheap and often it 'Doesn't do what it says on the tin'
**I make NO REFERENCE to Beejive being a substandard app, I have never tried it therefor i can't comment**
This is where a lot of people turn to cracked apps.
I have tried cracked apps, but I can say I am honest enough to say that if I like the app, I WILL purchase.
I'm trying to say that if expensive apps were to offer a FULL 'timed' demo (not a 'Lite' version) then i'm sure a lot more people would turn from cracked apps and purchase the real thing.
I for one support those who work(ed) hard at making my iPhone personal to me, and I offer them my thanks
I used to use the cracked version of Beejive but I bought it a while back now as I really like the cracked version.
Buy the app then, you've tried it now and stop hogging the Beejive servers so people who paid can use them.
I had the cracked version of beejive, now i bought the original from the appstore and the same thing is happening. I think that the server is bloking all jailbroken iphones..
Someone help me please
Thanks
I know piracy is wrong. I will buy it when I get my itunes refilled. For now I'll stay with palringo.
I have it running on my jailbroken iPhone 3G and I haven't observed any problems.
So the statement:
I think that the server is bloking all jailbroken iphones..
Isn't accurate or probably there is a bug.
Jim from Beejive also clarified over at Mobilecrunch:
Beejive is only targeting it’s cracked application, people who purchased the app and use it on a jailbroken device are not being affected. If you purchased the app after having a cracked version installed, you will need to delete the cracked app and install the purchased app. Some users will have to do a restore to get the app to work, depending on their jailbreak configuration.
I guess you can try deleting the iPhone app from your iPhone and also deleting it from iTunes.
Then download the latest version either via App Store on your iPhone or via iTunes and try connecting again to see if it resolves your problem.
And if that doesn't work, contact their Support. I'm sure they will help troubleshoot the problem and resolve it for you.
I completely agree, users should be able to try the apps before buying them (expensive or inexpensive).
But the problem has been that iPhone developers currently cannot offer demo versions of their iPhone app due to lack of a demo mechanism built into the iPhone SDK.
It was actually surprising to see no specific mention of this when iPhone firmware 3.0 was previewed.
iPhone developers might use the In-app purchase feature to allow timed demo of their iPhone apps in iPhone firmware 3.0.
so what is the benefit of chattnig through the BeeJive Facebook IM as opposed to just using the facebook app and the chat feature?
does beejive run in the background? Do you get chat notifications?
It doesn't run in the background due to the limitation of the SDK which will get addressed with Push notification in firmware 3.0.
For now, they have a workaround if you are a MobileMe user.
You can checkout our review of the app for more details.
Presumably the benefit of BeeJive for Facebook IM over the Facebook app is that with Facebook app, you can only be logged in to Facebook chat; with Beejive you can be logged in to all you various chat clients at the same time. I think there's also some kind of feature where you can log out for a short period of time and not really lose your connection/online status with Beejive. Nice way to quickly hit Safari or email without having to log in and out of chat.
yeah, i guess that would be cool.