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Sidecar comes out of beta, reinvents phone calls
Smartphones have revolutionized how we communicate and the way we create, share and consume content. Yet there's one aspect of using these devices that remains stuck in the last millennium, and that's the calling experience -- yes, apparently some people still make phone calls. Sure, there are plenty of VoIP and video calling apps out there, but few are simple and beautiful. Enter Sidecar, a free app which aims to reinvent the way we make phone calls by adding messaging as well as real-time video, photo, location and contact sharing to that antiquated calling experience. It achieves this through an intuitive and polished user interface plus a handful of standards such as SIP and XMPP. Phone calls between Sidecar users are free anywhere in the world -- the app even supports free WiFi calling to any number in the US or Canada. While Sidecar's been available in beta on Android for several weeks, it's launching on iOS today with support for the iPhone and iPod touch. We've been using the app on and off for a few days on several handsets, including a Galaxy Nexus HSPA+ and an iPhone 4S and it works exactly as described. Looking for additional details? Check out the demo video and full PR after the break.%Gallery-155893%
Microsoft adds open standard support to Messenger, third-party clients now welcome
Windows Live Messenger may not be as popular as it used to be, but it's still accessed by 300 million users, and Microsoft is now hoping to grow that by making it a little more open. The service now supports XMPP and OAuth 2.0, paving the way for other chat software and services to connect more easily (some already do, but by using unofficial methods). XMPP is a messaging protocol (previously known as Jabber and used by Google Talk) and OAuth 2.0 is an open standard for authorization that both Google and Microsoft have stepped out with early support for. Maybe by opening Messenger up a bit, Microsoft is trying to avoid what happened with ICQ.
iPhone feature rumor round-up: Jabber and iTunes control
All sorts of little gems are turning up in the iPhone firmware 2.0 code; first we had scraps of GPS support being tracked down, and now we have another pair of goodies that are sure to turn at least a few heads. First up, sister site TUAW is reporting that the latest release makes reference to some sort of remote control for iTunes installations that Apple appears to be billing as "iControl," allowing iPhone users to browse and play iTunes libraries from afar -- presumably over WiFi.TUAW's also got the lowdown on code suggesting support for XMPP, the protocol that underpins Jabber, and most famously, Google Talk. It seems that access to the XMPP framework is being kept solidly out of third-party developers' hands, though, meaning that Apple -- and Apple alone -- will be using it to support on-device iPhone chat. At this point, both of these features need to be quarantined in the "rumor" category, because even if the code does exist as TUAW's tipsters are claiming, there's certainly no guarantee it'll make the cut for firmware 2.0, iPhone 2, iPhone 3, or iPhone 10. Looks promising, though!Read - iControlRead - Jabber support
Rumors: Jabber support spotted by iPhone insider
Our anonymous iControl tipster has returned and tells us that a new XMPP framework has been spotten in the latest iPhone firmware. XMPP refers to the open source standard developed by the Jabber community for instant messaging. Remember back in March when Apple announced it would support native instant messaging? In a nutshell, it looks like Apple's new iPhone-based chat will be built on Jabber/XMPP.Unfortunately, we're told that this XMPP support remains in a private framework and will not be available to 3rd party SDK developers. Apple has made a strong commitment to sand-boxed development, allowing developers little access to the underlying OS and frameworks. Single-purpose apps like games should thrive in this development environment while less bounded utilities like social networking apps may struggle--or at least have to depend strongly on web-based servers.
Peering inside: changes coming to SL's group IM interfaces
Second Life viewer version 1.19.0 isn't all that far away, though there's still some things blocking the progress so the exact timing is in doubt however Joshua Bell from Linden Lab provided some insights on the upcoming changes on the public Second Life Developer's Mailing list. The most standout item on that summary was a change to the way group IM sessions work. Right now, you're automatically connected to a new group IM session for one of your groups, and a tab pops open for it as soon as the first message for that session is sent. Disconnecting from that session has been a little problematic lately, with session tabs popping back open again. All that was pitched to change.
