Mundu Instant Messenger
With the loss the Palm OS community suffered with the end of Verichat, Geodesic is moving in to fill the gap with the newest release of Mundu Interoperable Messenger. Version 4 will now operate on all Treo flavors, most notably the Treo 700p, which has problems running many other applications in background mode. Versions are available for both Palm OS and Windows Mobile platforms. But my concentration here is on the Palm version.
Mundu Interoperable Messenge v 4 runs perfectly in background mode, and connects to most popular messaging services including Yahoo, Windows Live Messenger, AIM, ICQ, GoogleTalk, and Jabber. Unlike running any of these separate clients on your desktop, Mundu allows you to view all your contacts in one window, and allows you to cross-conference.
As you can see from the above image (with names blurred out to protect the guilty), all contacts appear together with appropriate icons and status showing. There are several font sizes available, but even with the smallest, you still can’t see long custom status messages.You can see my friend on GoogleTalk whose status is showing as “Available but not to….” and I have no idea what he’s not available to do. And while you can set your own custom away messages, of the 3 services I use (Yahoo, AIM, WLM), the custom message shows up only in WLM: Yahoo and AIM remain displaying only “Available.”
The chat session screen is clear and simple to navigate. Options are available include being able to change your text to show boldface, underlining, and the color of your choice. A variety of emoticons are also included. Designed to translate back and forth between the various services, some get lost in translation.
Quick texts are included, along with the ability to add your own favorite phrases. There is an option to send files, but I was unsuccessful in sending one from one WLM account to another. I was equally unsuccessful in receiving a file, although the options appeared to be working.
My favorite of the chat options, though, is the ability to cross conference. I got into quite a nice conversation with me, myself, and I in this manner using two WLM accounts (one on my Treo and one on my laptop), and a yahoo and AIM account on my laptop.
While it might have been more fun with actual other people in the conversation, the results were, nonetheless, quite spectacular. Each desktop client received the conference appropriately, and from the desktop perspective, you couldn’t tell that the conference included participants from other messaging systems.
There are a variety of options available, and multiple ways of accessing them, depending on what you want to do. When you first install Mundu, the preference wizard takes you through the main settings, but there are advanced settings beyond that, including a proxy setting – perfect for those users still trying to get the most out of T-Mobile’s t-zones.
As you can see, you can really customize the way Mundu works for you.
I mentioned earlier that Mundu works exceptionally in background mode. One of the options included is a schedule so that you don’t leave Mundu running in the background all the time. While you might be tempted to leave it running constantly, the biggest downfall of Mundu 4 is that it eats your battery like no other app. Even with Bluetooth turned off, Mundu running in the background reduces my battery level by 1% every ten minutes – and I’m using a Seidio 2400 mAh battery.
My only other complaint with Mundu at this point is that despite the fact that I have not checked Alert me when I login successfully, it insists on letting me know each successful login. I have checked the box to AutoLogin when Disconnected, so if there are problems, I can get quite a number of notifications. On the bright side, this doesn’t happen often, and of the services I’ve been connecting to, the only one that seems to regularly lose its connection with the server is AIM. Each service seems to bring its own issues with it, and that must be one of them. But since I don’t intend on leaving Mundu running overnight again any time soon, I won’t worry about reconnection notifications.
Mundu is very good at delivering offline messages, and has the option of saving them. I’ve noticed that on the occasion where AIM disconnects and a message comes in while I’m offline, Mundu has it waiting for me upon my return.
Mundu interoperable messenger does not integrate with the alert manager, so make sure you use the loudest alert available as well as vibration, because if you miss a message, you’ll never know it unless you go into the app. No blinking LED, no Butler reminder.
Mundu has improved a lot, and is a great little IM client. Its benefits far exceed its negatives. This is a fairly strong and dependable IM application that will make sure your instant messages all get to you – instantly.
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I had more than less than favourable results from Mundu. The poor customer support plus the half built applications makes me think twice before using them. I still utilise Verichat which is more than sufficent for me.
Mundu creates bloated applications that waste space as well as power.
In my opinion nothing but wasted apps from a talented company.
I love my mudu application… it allows me to AIM w all my messagers and not use my texts out of my plan the only dwn side to it is that when you use it make sure you have a good size MB plan i only had 1MB and i went over not by much but I did I know have a 5MB plan and i have no problems….
I only bought v 3 a few weeks ago and it has been ridiculously buggy and difficult. You should be warned when purchasing that a new version is due out as well.
I’ve been using MunduIM since version 3. It seems that Mundu is an app people either love, or hate, and few fall in between. This makes me wonder if the program is sensitive to the differences in models (600/650/etc) as well as version (Verizon, Sprint, etc) of your device. Some features I’ve never had trouble with won’t work at all for others.
There are some undeniable issues I’ve found using ICQ: For one, offline messages are not supported for ICQ. Mundu support tells me that this is because they use the TOC2 protocol, and hope to address this in the future. Also, changing the group for an ICQ contact will delete the contact from the ICQ server. Hope you remember the contact number! Again, Mundu support promises a fix. Only time will tell. I have been able to work around both issues as Mundu supports Jabber, and I can access ICQ via a Jabber gateway.
BTW, Jabber support is the most under-reported feature of the new Mundu. Not as elegant as Chatopus (for example you cannot establish or configure your Jabber accounts from within Mundu) but meets my needs.
Warts and all, Mundu4 is one my favorite palm apps.
I just purchased within the last few days this app, especially since the price break they are offering now made it particularly appealing. I find that the app works well overall. I see the same issue with connecting and being alerted that the reviewer notes, but don’t find it to be a big problem. My main concern which leaves me not using it in BG or even in an active mode, is the tremendous drain on the battery life. Within a few hours I found my battery was almost completely drained. Had I not been at a location where I could recharge, I would have been dead in the water. Thus, I’ve decided to use it as a need only app, meaning that I will make it active when I need to initiate a conversation with someone. Not exactly my idea of IM’ing, but what else can one do with the battery sucking feature of this program?
The death of VeriChat looms large over my Treo!! This new version of Mundo comes close (previous versions were AWFUL!!), but is still waaay short on the necessary features. I have the trial version now and I’m just not sure I can commit yet. My biggest gripes:
- Timestamps!!
- Alert on ‘initial’ incoming message
- Better selections for vibration and audible alerts
- A working auto (scheduled) logon/logoff feature
- YahooIM connection cuts out frequently and doesn’t reconnect (my AIM is always connected)
- Ability to edit ‘nicknames’ for contacts — HUGE!!!
Still, this is the best option, so we probably don’t have any choice.
Hook it up Mundo!!
Alli’s review is on point!!! Verichat’s passing is a huge loss, but I really, really, really like Mundu! The only gripe I have is timestamps ( I only see it with the view saved messages) and the alert you feature when a particular buddy signed on that Verichat had. I am sure with time, Mundu will add features to this app. and hopefully become even better than Verichat!!!
I found something interesting that Mundu is especially great at. It seems that Mundu was programmed specifically to RESET YOUR TREO! What a piece of garbage. Do NOT bother with this app.
I found something interesting that Mundu is especially great at. It seems that Mundu was programmed specifically to RESET YOUR TREO! What a piece of garbage. Do NOT bother with this app. I’m a geek, and if it doesn’t work for me, then there’s something wrong with it. It’s not happy with something else on my Treo 700p, or with the Treo itself. Poor programming, considering all the other programs to this date have played well together. Mundu had to spoil the party.
I found something interesting that Mundu is especially great at. It seems that Mundu was programmed specifically to RESET YOUR TREO! What a piece of garbage. Do NOT bother with this app. I’m a geek, and if it doesn’t work for me, then there’s something wrong with it. It’s not happy with something else on my Treo 700p, or with the Treo itself. Poor programming, considering all the other programs to this date have played well together. Mundu had to spoil the party.
I found something interesting that Mundu is especially great at. It seems that Mundu was programmed specifically to RESET YOUR TREO! What a piece of garbage. Do NOT bother with this app. I’m a geek, and if it doesn’t work for me, then there’s something wrong with it. It’s not happy with something else on my Treo 700p, or with the Treo itself. Poor programming, considering all the other programs to this date have played well together. Mundu had to spoil the party.
I own the treo palm 700wx I want to download an instant messenger program into my phone and I can’t find any programs I need help