Palringo gets signed, adds location, gets overhaul
Published by Steve Litchfield at 10:50 UTC, December 3rd 2008
Popular IM client deluxe Palringo has had an S60 client for a while, but as of now (v0.97) it's properly Symbian Signed, it's got cell tower location, GPS support and Wi-fi beacon detection built-in, plus a mountain of bugs have been fixed, settings added and the interface has been massively overhauled. Screenshots and download link below the break.
On the minus side, the location side of things didn't seem to work for me on the N82. Anyone else got time to try this on a recent S60 phone and report back? Comments welcome. In the meantime, here are some screenshots to give you an idea of the Palringo S60 application:
Bizarrely, the download page implies it's going to be a Java app; the location choices. Enabled with GPS off uses cell tower info and Wi-Fi beacons
'Scanning' was as far as the location bit got on my phone. Very strange. I tried with GPS enabled and without....
Palringo, in case you're new to it, allows Internet-based chat and voice/photo message transfer to other IM contacts
The new v0.97 has many more options; plus (allegedly) proper location detection and map display
To download Palringo, point S60 Web to www.palringo.mobi . You'll need to have registered an account first on the desktop at www.palringo.com.
As I say, comments welcome if you get further than I did on the location front!
Steve Litchfield, 3 Dec 2008
PS. See also the Palringo team blog for more details on the changes.
Categories: Software, Links of Interest
Platforms: General, S60 3rd Edition
News Discussion
1. If you explicitly disable and then re-enable the service with GPS when you're outside, then it should get a GPS lock. The GPS does enter sleep mode if it's been inside for a few minutes or you're not moving particularly quickly in order to preserve the battery.
2. The service has a few minutes of lag on it when you're in an area that has not yet been surveyed by Palringo. However, it should be almost instant once we've seen the area that you are in before. Also, there are some areas of the world that we are currently unable to provide a location for - but we're working on it!
3. We try and test on as many devices as possible, but with the myriad of different combinations of firmware/device-type/network operator, there may be some combinations where the location service cannot work at all yet. If you continue to have a problem that is not answered on the Palringo forums, then please e-mail support(AT)palringo.com with the details and we'll endeavour to investigate.
Best regards,
Palringo Location Service Developer