Recently, I started exploring the potential of using bots on my website to interact with my visitors. After accomplishing that task, I thought that it might be worthwhile to explore what other bots still exist out there that might have some useful features. Most people have their chat client always open and sitting off to the side or at the bottom of the screen, so why not put that chat client to use while it’s open?

The Ebb & Flow Of Chatbots

If you’ve ever started using chatbots even just a few years ago, you’ve probably noticed that a vast majority of them have fallen by the wayside. All sorts of bots that used to let you do things like search different search engines, get task reminders or get RSS feeds via IM are now no longer active. These days, it’s pretty difficult to find a service that offers up RSS feeds via IM.

That seems to be the case for Gtalk bots, but not so much Twitter. Kyle wrote about 10 Twitter bots here at MUO back in 2008, and those Twitter bots are mostly all still active. But in my opinion, having access to information in Google Talk is really useful, and thankfully there are still some really good Gtalk bots out there.

ExclaimBot

If you just want to make quick updates to your Twitter profile, then ExclaimBot is the way to go. It’s actually spelled “excla.im“.

What I like about this Bot is its simplicity. You visit the site, provide authorization for it to post to your Twitter account, and you’re done. Just add exclaimbot@appspot.com to your friends list in Google Talk, and everything you send that user will get posted to your Twitter account instantly.

The only drawback is that you won’t be able to automatically shorten URL links, but using some external service like Bitly, that’s not a problem.

Now you don’t have to open a new browser or any desktop client to post a quick Twitter update, just type it up in Gtalk, hit enter and you’re done. Another good service for this, by the way, is ChitterIM. Either service works just as well.

Google Guru

If you’re looking for an all-around useful bot that does a whole list of tasks, you can’t go wrong by adding guru@googlelabs.com to your buddy list. Send the command “weather boston, ma“, and you’ll get the current weather conditions, as well as a quick forecast for that area. Send it “define ironic” and you’ll receive a definition of the word. Type “web Android” and you’ll get a Wikipedia blurb of the term as well as a mobile link to full search engine results.

There’s just a short list of commands available – score, weather, define and translate – plus you can type in math calculations and the guru will solve it for you.

Get RSS Feeds With Push-Bot

After hunting around for hours to find a Gtalk bot that would serve up RSS feeds via IM, I was really excited to discover that Push-Bot is still available. Most of the popular ones written about at sites like Lifehacker and Labnol are no longer active, so I was getting very disappointed before discovering Push-Bot.

Using the service is ridiculously easy. Type /subscribe or /unsubscribe followed by the URL to add or remove a feed from your list. Use /list-subscriptions to see all of the feeds that you’ve subscribed to. Whenever one of your feeds updates, you’ll get a message in Gtalk from Push-Bot with the update and a link. This is my favorite Gtalk bot.

Xpenser For Tracking Business Expenses

At this point in my life, I have to track several areas of expenses. When I’m off to training for my day job, I need to keep track of all costs so that I can fill out an expense report. For my online business, I need to track all expenses for tax purposes. In either case, Xpenser gives me the convenience that I need to record those expenses right from my phone using Gtalk. This is my second favorite Gtalk bot.

First, you’ll need to sign up for an Xpenser account where all of your entries will get logged.

After that, add xpenserbot@gmail.com to your buddy list. All you have to do is send it the expense, the amount, and ending notes. The bot will fill out that record for you on your expense report in your Xpenser account.

You can log in later to see all of the entries you’ve made while you were away from your computer.

This is easily the fastest and most convenient way to log expenses right away before you forget. Firing off a one-line instant message is even easier than most of the mobile apps available today that will do expense tracking for you.

Take Quick Notes With MayaFile

If your memory is anything like mine, then the mayafile Gtalk bot will be a lifesaver for you too. Using it couldn’t be any easier. Just add talk@mayafile.com to your buddy list, and then use the command “store <note>” to store the message you want to remember later.

Then, just type “find” to see all of your notes, or use “find <keyword>” to retrieve a specific note or notes using a keyword search. It’s like having a memory in your Gtalk client.

Have you ever used any of these IM bots? Do you know of any others that work well in Gtalk? Share your thoughts and insights in the comments section below!

Image Credit: Shutterstock

True, I could go for a desktop client, and I do use Miranda IM on my personal computer, but many times I have to use other computers, and I can’t always install whatever I want. What then? I set out to find in-browser solutions that will solve this Gtalk problem once and for all. Read on to find out what they are.

Gtalklet [Chrome]

Gtalklet is  a Chrome add-on, and is one way to shed Gtalk’s dependability upon Gmail. With Gtalklet, you get the best of both worlds: You don’t have to install a desktop client but Gtalk is still available and visible all the time.

Start by installing the add-on and accessing the settings. You can do this either by clicking the grey circle at the bottom right corner of Chrome and then clicking the cog icon, or through the Chrome extension list.

You can now fill in your Google credentials. Gtalklet should also work with Google Apps accounts, which is a big plus.

Now you can sign in by clicking the green circle at the bottom right corner. After authentication, your contacts will load and a plus icon will appear. Clicking on it will let you search for contacts to chat with. The search runs as you type and is very fast.

Simply choose a contact and start chatting. The chat windows will follow you to any tab you’re on and you can have multiple chat windows at any given time. You can easily change your status to available, away or busy. Clicking the small arrow will sign you out.

When someone initiates a chat with you and their respective chat window it closed, a small alert will appear in the corner. Clicking on it will open the chat window.

You can also choose to enable desktop notifications. This is an especially useful feature, if, like me, you tend to miss chats for lack of notifications. With Gtalklet, not only do you have the chat window on every tab, but if you minimize Chrome you get pop-up notifications. You can choose to disable these if you find them annoying, but I can’t think why you’d want to.

You can move the whole thing to the left side of the browser if you’re used to it that way in Gmail. You can also choose certain websites on which the chat windows will not appear. The websites below are included as default, so don’t be surprised if Gtalklet doesn’t appear on Facebook when you start it up. You need to remove it from the excludes first.

Gtalklet worked very well when I tried it. Everything was quick and smooth and it truly upgraded my regular Gtalk experience. If the extension doesn’t appear after installation, try restarting Chrome. Everything should work like a charm after that.

Gtalk In Sidebar [Firefox]

Since I’m also a Firefox user, I tried to find a similar solution that works on Firefox. There is an add-on – gTalk Sidebar – but it works only on Firefox 3.6 and downwards. So what are Firefox users to do?

While I couldn’t find a slick solution like Gtalklet, I did find a way to have Gtalk around no matter which tab you’re on. This worked for me on Firefox 6.0.2.

To start, you’d need to head your browser to:

http://talkgadget.google.com/talkgadget/client

And click the star to add it as a bookmark.

Now you need to tell Firefox to always load this bookmark in the sidebar. To do this, find the new bookmark, right click it and choose “Properties” from the menu.

Now check the box that says “Load this bookmark in the sidebar”.

And that’s it! Next time you open this bookmark, you should be seeing your Gtalk chat in the sidebar, which will stay there no matter which tab you’re on. You can change its size as you see fit.

True, there are no desktop notifications, and the sidebar eliminates some of your browsing space, but if you’re an avid Gtalk user and simply don’t want to install a client for it, this will definitely make life easier for you.

Tip: You can do the same trick with Facebook chat. Simple create a bookmark to http://www.facebook.com/presence/popout.php and follow the same directions from there.

Bottom Line

Gtalk turned in-browser chatting into something we all do. Some, like me, opt out and start using third party apps like Miranda IM. But I still need to use the in-browser chat when I work on a different computer, and the advantages are numerous. I was surprised not to find more solutions to the Gtalk problem, but I’m happy with the ones I found – especially Gtalklet. I will go as far as saying that if you really need Gtalk in your browser all the time, you should switch to Chrome just for this add-on.

Think I’m wrong? Know of better solutions to chat on Google Talk online? Share in the comments!

Partychapp is a bot that relays a conversation to all of those that are connected to it. In addition to relaying the chat to all of your friends, it has some fun features built into it as well. There are two ways to set up your own Google Talk chat room with Partychapp.

Set Up a Chatroom with Your Web Browser

You can set up a chatroom directly from your browser if you log into Partychapp with your Google Account. Once you log in with your account, you’ll be taken back to the Partychapp web page, but you’ll see a button that says Create a new room. Click on the button, and you’ll get a simple form to create your new chat room.

The form is self-explanatory. Just pick the name for your chat room, decide whether or not you want it to be public or private, enter the email address of anyone you would like to invite to the room, and click Create!

When you sign into Google Talk, you will receive a chat request from the bot (it will be yourchatroomname@partychapp.appspotchat.com, where yourchatroomname is the name of your chat room). Accept the chat request, and start chatting away with the bot. As others accept the request from the bot, they will say everything you say to the bot.

Set Up a Chatroom By Chatting With The Bot

If you don’t feel like logging into Partychapp with your Google Account and creating the channel through the web form, you can set up a new chat room by just chatting directly with the bot. Just add yourchatroomname@partychapp.appspotchat.com to your buddy list and start chatting with the bot. Simple enough. You can invite others by sending the command /invite yourfriendsemail@gmail.com.

Here’s what Partychapp looks like in action:

Fun with the Partychapp Bot

Not only does Partychapp provide you with a chat bot, but the bot has many commands that provide some additional functionality. To see a list of all the commands, just type /help and you’ll get a list of commands. The output from /help looks like this:

List of commands:
* /leave - leave the room
* /list - show members of room
* /help - shows this
* /alias name - rename yourself to 'name'
* /score target - see the score of 'target' in plusplusbot
* /reasons target - see why target's score was changed
* /me - describe what you're doing in the third person
* /invite email1@foo.com, email2@bar.com ... - Invite a list of email addresses to this room
* /inviteonly - Set the room to invite-only
* /kick - Remove a user or invitation from this room
* /status - show what room you're in
* /summon  - summons a person in the room by sending them an email.
* /undo - undo the pluspluses and minusminuses from your last message
* /debug [sequenceIds|clear] - if you don't know what this does, you probably shouldn't use it
* /stats - return system stats
* /graph-score   ... - prints a link to a graph of the changes to up to three targets' scores.
* /snooze (20s|45m|1h|2d) - snooze for a specified amount of time in seconds, minutes, hours, or days.
* search and replace handler - use s/foo/bar to replace foo with bar
* plusplusbot: handles ++'s and −−'s
* Message echo@ to hear yourself talk
* Found a bug? Let us know: http://code.google.com/p/partychapp/issues/entry
* Follow us for announcements at http://twitter.com/partychat

If you’re wondering what’s up with the slashes in the commands, it’s borrowed from the command syntax for IRC. IRC is an old-school Internet chat system that has been around since 1988. Even today, IRC remains a popular form of instant communication online.

Probably the first command you’ll want to use is /alias. Just type /alias YourAlias to change your name as others will see it. You can use the /invite command I mentioned earlier to invite your buddies into the chatroom. The /inviteonly command toggles the chat room from invite-only to public.

If you’re wondering what plusplusbot is, works very much the same as plusplusbot on Twitter. If you like something, you add a ++ after it and if you dislike something, you add a −− after it. For example, if you type Partychapp++, the bot responds with [YourAlias] Partychapp++ [woot! now at 1]. If you type Partychapp++, the bot responds with [YourAlias] Partychapp−− [ouch! now at 0].

You can see the score for any word with the /score command. In this case, /score Partychapp, you get Partychapp: 0. You can also provide reasons along with your ++/−− commands. For example, if you type [YourAlias] Partychapp++ because it’s cool, you get [YourAlias] Partychapp++[woot! now at 1] because it’s cool. You can then list all the reasons for scores if you type /reasons Partychapp++. In this case, the output looks like:

Partychapp: 1
increment by youremail@gmail.com (Partychapp++)
decrement by youremail@gmail.com (Partychapp−−)
increment by youremail@gmail.com (Partychapp++ because it's cool)

Another cool feature the bot has is search and replace. To search and replace, you type s/foo/bar to replace foo with bar. For instance, if you type on one line Partychatt and the next line you type s/tt/pp the bot responds YourAlias meant Partychapp.

What’s really cool (if you’re a geek like me) is that the search/replace uses regular expressions. Regular expressions, although cryptic and difficult to master, provide an extremely powerful mechanism for the programmatic processing and manipulation of text. There are several unix utilities that make use of regular expressions, as well as many programming and scripting languages (Perl, PHP, Java, JavaScript, PCRE, Python, and Ruby to name a few).

Partychapp is a great way to set up chat rooms with your friends. If you want to try it out, I’ve set one up called makeuseof. Just add makeuseof@partychapp.appspotchat.com to your Google Talk buddy list and start chatting away. If I’m logged into Google Talk, you just might run into me there.

Note: If you’re concerned about sharing your Gmail address with those that are already in the MakeUseOf chat room I’ve set up, do not use the bot. Your Gmail address will be announced when you enter the bot.

So what do you think of Partychapp in lieu of Google Talk’s missing chat rooms?

Today, I’m going to put in my own plug for Digsby, an application I use every day, by showing you six things Digsby can do that will save you time, energy, and RAM space.

Digsby has come to replace my use of several other applications ““ no longer do I need a Gmail window, Twitter window, Facebook window, and IM window open all at the same time. Instead, I just use Digsby!

Here are five features that make Digsby the only application you’ll want to always be open, besides just being the best multi-IM client out there:

Email Checking

Got a POP or IMAP email? Of course you do. That means you can use your email with Digsby. Setting up Gmail, Hotmail, or Yahoo with Digsby is incredibly easy; others are a little harder, but still entirely possible.

Once you set it up (under “Digsby” and then “My Accounts”), Digsby lets you check, read, and respond to your email without ever leaving your IM window. Mark emails as read, write them, or just head over to your Inbox to check them out- all using Digsby. I used to always have a Gmail window open to make sure I never missed critical email ““ now all I need is Digsby.

Twitter

After spending forever looking for the perfect Twitter client, I’ll tell you this- it’s not Digsby. But what Digsby is perfect for is reading Tweets. It’s a great way to stay on top of your replies and direct messages, as well as write tweets quickly. Digsby’s not the solution for power Twitter users, but it’s a great way to stay on top of all the Tweeting you do on a daily basis.

Facebookery

Just for the record, I love the new Facebook layout. But that’s beside the point. Using Digsby, you can do just about anything you would on Facebook, from right within the Digsby interface. You’ll be alerted when you have a new message, wall post, alert or notification. One click in Digsby, and you can see all the things waiting for you on Facebook. One more, and you’re sent right to a Facebook window within the Digsby application. Update your status easily, answer your wall posts, and stay on top of your social networking, all from within Digsby.

One of Digsby’s newest features is the addition of Facebook Chat. Now, you can chat with all your online Facebook friends from within Digsby. I love the idea of Facebook Chat (being able to connect in real-time with your friends on Facebook, which I have more of than IM buddies), more than I like the execution on the Facebook site itself. Digsby does a great job of using your friends list, and integrating it into its fantastic IM client to make chatting with your Facebook friends better and easier.

Socializing

Digsby’s options for social networking go far beyond Facebook. You can use Digsby to check your LinkedIn or MySpace account, and receive notifications, send messages, and interact with your network right from within Digsby. Each account gets an icon in your Windows system tray, and one click brings up a pop-up window letting you manage your social networks just as you would in a browser.

Got a new message? Digsby tells you about it, then lets you respond to it all without leaving the Digsby interface. It’s simple to use, not a memory hog, and an awesome way to manage multiple online identities from one place.

The Little Things

My favorite thing about Digsby is that its team pays such close attention to the little things: the small features that you never noticed before, but can’t live without once you start using Digsby.

My personal favorite is the pop-up notification box: when you get an IM, a pop-up comes up. Not exactly revolutionary, but what IS awesome is that you can respond from within the popup. No switching back and forth between IM windows and other applications ““ just type in the popup, and it goes away once it has been idle for a few seconds.

There are tons of features like this within Digsby: mass-changing of your status and away message, easy hiding and showing of the application, and endless customization of how it looks. I spent a while getting my Digsby to look exactly how I want it to, and big props to Digsby for giving you so many options.

What’s your IM client of choice? Why?

Photo: BigBlue

Most IM clients, or at least most good ones, require a downloaded client in order to work. That’s fine and good, unless we’re on a different computer, or don’t have administrative privileges on our work computers, or just don’t like extra clutter on our hard drive.

If you fall into any of those camps, here are five totally Web-based, totally free online instant messaging services that you might want to check out.

Meebo

Meebo is the most popular of the Web IM choices, and with good reason. This online instant messaging service works with AIM, Yahoo, MySpace, Facebook, MSN, GTalk, ICQ, Jabber, and even Flixster.

Meebo also offers group chat, a great mobile version (for iPhones and the like), and even access in your Firefox sidebar. There’s support for file-sharing, video chat, and much more – it’s as fully-featured, if not more so, than most desktop IM clients.

My experience with Meebo was that it works best with Facebook chat, and is definitely one of the simplest to use. It’s also incredibly well-funded, which means it’s likely to stick around for a while.

Whether you use it on the site or embed it on your own website, Meebo’s a terrific IM client.

Nimbuzz

Meebo’s not my favorite, though; that prize belongs to Nimbuzz. Nimbuzz is mostly making a name for itself as a client for your cell phone or iPhone (and it’s a great one), but it offers a fabulous Web-based messaging client as well. You can make calls, group chats, send files, and do anything you’d want to do with an IM.

Instead of logging in each time to every one of your networks, you can put them all into an account with Nimbuzz instead. Then, every time you log in, just enter one username and password, and log in to all your IM networks. You can put your buddies into groups, view them by network, or just lump them all into one list.

Though Nimbuzz only has a couple of unique features – like the friend locator, to see where people are – its simplicity of use and gorgeous interface make it my IM application of choice (on every platform – but let’s stick with the Web for now.)

The feature that really sold me, though, was Skype integration – nothing else has it, and Nimbuzz does it very well. It’s a great VOIP client, a great Instant Messenger, and the application to start with in my opinion.

imo.im

imo is a relatively unknown player on the Web IM scene, but is beginning to make some waves, and with good reason. My favorite things about this online instant messenger are within your buddy list, you can star buddies you talk to most, re-name and re-order buddy lists, search through your buddy list, and even upload pictures of your buddies to the imo interface.

There’s support for voice and video chat (fingers crossed for Skype soon), some great keyboard shortcuts, and a simple-to-use interface.

If their project list is any indication, there’s some spectacular stuff coming soon from this already-great client, so keep this one bookmarked.

KoolIM

KoolIM is the niche-IMr’s tool of choice. In addition to the standards (Yahoo, MSN, AIM, GTalk), it supports ICQ, Gadu-Gadu, Xfire, Jabber, and more.  If you’re a user of a small network, KoolIM may be your best – or only – choice.

KoolIM offers two options for chat – an embedded client, available right from within the browser window, or a popup client, which looks and feels a bit more like a desktop application, acting outside of your browser (but still as a browser window).

You can log in to one account at a time, or all of them by creating a KoolIM account. KoolIM also claims fame as functioning behind a firewall, which some other applications can have trouble with.

KoolIM’s simple, not particularly feature-rich, but is uniquely network-friendly among IM clients.

eBuddy

eBuddy supports a huge number of IM services – MSN, Yahoo, GTalk, ICQ, MySpace, and promises Facebook is coming soon.

When you load eBuddy, it opens a new window for you to chat in. Your chats and contacts are tabbed, and there’s even a chat history for your recent conversations.

eBuddy offers a bunch of client versions, including great ones for your cell phone. Much like Meebo, you can also embed eBuddy directly into your own website. eBuddy’s feature list really explodes when you create a free “eBuddy ID,” which gives you tons of fun and useful features – faster login, more emoticons, saved settings, and access to other premium features.

All of these applications and others do the basics well – they send and receive messages, notify you of new ones, and generally remove the need for a desktop application. If all you want to do is chat, any of these five will do – pick the prettiest one.  Each one though, has a few unique features that make it the winner for specific people.

Try one or a few of these – which web-based client do you use for messaging?

Photo Credits: gonzalo_ar

Many different companies have come up with many different ways for accessing each of these systems in different ways. Some of these include GoToMyPC, LogMeIn, Windows Remote Desktop, VNC and several other remote access tools that we have profiled on MakeUseOf.

However most of these require some type of firewall configuration, or cost money or are just incredibly insecure. One virtually unknown product, GBridge, provides remote access, file sharing, file syncing and backup capabilities, all only requiring a Google account.

GBridge uses what they call a ‘Revolutionary VPN Infrastructure’ to extend Google’s GTalk into a secure collaboration tool. Once the product is installed (Windows Only), it simply asks for your Google Talk account and automatically displays the rest of your GTalk friends that may or may not have the product installed. If they do have it installed, you may collaborate with them, using each of the tools I am going to describe below. This is all done with a simple install, and no firewall configuration.

Desktop Sharing

GBridge utilizes VNC to not only access your own computer, but also any of your friends or family PC’s to access them remotely and control their desktop. Again this only requires that they have GBridge installed and that they have a Google Talk account.

SecureShare

The SecureShare portion of GBridge allows for quick and easy access to any files on your additional computers with extreme VPN-like security. You can then again allow only certain friends to access these shares as well. Very handy for quickly transferring files without e-mail or FTP-like transferring.

AutoSync

Keep folders in synchronization across the globe. Removes the need to manually transfer and update files on a regular basis. With no size limitations, auto scheduling and even incremental transfers.

EasyBackup

Set up automatic scheduled backups to local or remote locations. Gives you peace of mind having your critical data stored off site somewhere.

GBridge is a very slick application that is very easy to setup on any Windows 2000, XP or Vista machine and gives you all the big capabilities of the remote access tools, plus much more.

Do you have any similar secure solutions like GBridge?

Presently, the feature only supports videos from Google Video or YouTube and it is available only in the Gmail version of Google Talk and not in the Google Talk desktop client.

The process, as all things Google, is simplicity itself ““ just drop the video URL into the chat window. A small thumbnail appears within the chat box with a preview and the loading button. Click the button and an inline video player opens up at the top of the chat box. So, a user can watch and discuss the video at the same time.

The previous way of doing things was to click on the received link and open it up in another window. Yes, we still do the same with most of the other chat services (Yahoo messenger 9 though does allow video sharing); Gmail now lets us continue chatting without browsing away to another page. That’s a time saver.

For the musically inclined like me, I use it to share some of the latest song bytes I find on the video sites. Also, one can upload home videos using a YouTube user account and then share it with a chat user. It makes for an entertaining chat session. Yes, the limitation of using video links from Google Videos and YouTube remains. Also, Google Video is on the wane according to some reports following Google’s acquisition of YouTube. But hopefully, as the feature catches on we might see more variety in the Google menu with other video sites being added.

Add this to the fact that Google has added voice and video chat to Gmail, this new arrow in its quiver is another user-friendly step forward.

Have you used this recent feature? Does it add or detract to the chat experience? Share your views with us in the comments area below.

Let’s also say that you have a major update to do and you can’t get a hold of the web host to change the password, because it’s 4:59pm on a Friday. What on earth can you do?

Well, let me point out a few tools that will allow you view passwords behind asterisk characters and let your employers know they have the übergeek for the job!

View One Hidden Asterisk Password at a Time

Most of the programs I came across worked the same way ““ open the locked program, open the password revealer, click on a button called ‘password reveal’ or some similar thing, then get the password.

Asterisk Key from Passware is one such solution. It will run on Windows 2000/NT/XP/2003/Vista and requires 64MB of RAM and at least a Pentium 300 processor. Seriously, if you don’t have at least that, send me a self-addressed stamped envelope and I’ll print you a copy of this article. You’ll get it faster.

What you’ll notice at first is that this is a piece of loss-leader software from a company that would like to sell you their other wares. Nothing wrong with that.

Once you have Asterisk Key open, open up the application you wish to recover a password from. In my case it was FileZilla. Once the locked program is open, you simply click on the ‘Recover’ button in Asterisk Key, and voila!

That’s great, but what if you have several applications from which you need to recover and view password fields? That’s where I find this next piece of freeware to be most useful.

Reveal Multiple Hidden Passwords

Asterisk Logger from NirSoft makes the process of recovering multiple passwords that are hiddent behind asterisk characters very easy. It works on Windows 9x, ME, 2000 and XP and with a little tweaking it will work on NT. I’m not sure about Vista, since I never made that leap.

The feature of Asterisk Logger that puts it above other asterisk revealer freeware is the fact that it logs the passwords AND shows the password in plain text right in the program you are using. Simply open up Asterisk Logger and start using those programs that you forgot the password for. Below you can see how Asterisk Logger reveals the password right in the program you are using as well as in Asterisk Logger.

You can see in the screenshot below that I opened FileZilla and Quicken to show you how it logs the passwords.

After a session on the computer with Asterisk Logger open, you can save the log to a text file to refer to it later. But remember to not tell anyone where the list is ““ that’s called job security!

Asterisk Logger does not work well with instant messenging applications though. But NirSoft has a pill for that too.

Reveal Instant Messenger Passwords

Yes, I am a NirSoft fanboy. If it works, it works. I searched for and tested others specifically designed for instant messaging (IM) software. They either weren’t really freeware or seemed sketchy.

MessenPass works.

“How well, Guy?”, you inquire. Well, I hate instant messaging so I haven’t used mine in about a year or so. I installed and fired up MessenPass and it not only found the password I was looking for, but an account I forgot I even made and its password as well.

Well, now you know my MSN username, so go ahead and add me. I probably won’t respond though. I am to IM what the old guy with the shotgun full of rock salt, sitting in a rocking chair, is to meddling kids. Get off my IM! Dagnabbit!!!

Got any other leads on cool freeware apps that reveal what’s behind those asterisks? Love to see them. Any stories about getting snookered by hidden passwords? I’d love to read those too.

That’s why I’m still on Windows Mobile, along with a massive portion of the rest of the world. Windows Mobile is one of the most-used mobile operating systems, but it’s been largely pushed aside as the iPhone has become more popular. The iPhone has all its great applications, but there are a number of fantastic, useful, fun and plain cool Windows Mobile apps as well.

Here are five free applications for Windows Mobile, many of which have iPhone counterparts, but that do their job at least as well as they do on that Apple-thing.

Evernote

My favorite “external brain”, Evernote helps you remember everything. With Evernote for Windows Mobile, all you’ll need on you is your cell phone. Just fire up the app, and you can create notes from pictures, text or voice. Search and browse your notes, share and edit them, and manage your head right from your Windows Mobile phone.

Unlike the iPhone (as best as I could tell), there’s also a link to upload a file, which means you’re able to send files to and from your Windows Mobile phone. It’s perfect for when you need to remember to buy something, how much something costs, something you need to do, or just about anything that comes into your head that you’d rather not fly right out.

Fring

Fring is the mobile IM client to end all mobile IM clients. It connects to most major instant messaging networks- AIM, Google, Yahoo, MSN, and the like. If you’ve got a Wi-Fi enabled phone, there’s even another killer feature- Skype. You can make VOIP calls with your cell phone, using Fring’s Skype support, and not use your minutes or plan, but simply by picking up a wireless signal.

Even without Wi-Fi, though, Fring’s a killer application for instant messaging, and can even update your Twitter status for you.

Tiny Twitter

Even though Fring can update Twitter for you, odds are Twitter users will want a bit more. That’s where Tiny Twitter comes in. It’s a Twitter cleint for Windows Mobile that also works on any Java-enabled device which covers some serious ground. Using Tiny Twitter, you can tweet without hitting your SMS bill (though you will incur some data charges without a data plan).

Tiny Twitter allows full access to your Twitter timeline, makes replying and messaging easy, and the “Inbox” view gives you a simple way to see and respond to tweets directed at you. Tiny Twitter’s the perfect Windows Mobile app for tweeting on the go, and is actually better than anything I’ve found for the iPhone.

The Core Pocket Media Player

TCPMP, as The Core Pocket Media Player is known, is the best way to watch movies and listen to music on a Windows Mobile phone. You can use it to stream media (again, watch the data charges), or to play a huge variety of formats of both video and audio. It’s a no-frills application with a small memory footprint that’s dead simple to use, and one road warriors won’t want to be without. Especially when you add the use of a memory card, TCPMP works with your phone to make it a killer media player- small screen or no small screen.

Kevtris

What fun is a phone you can’t play with? The iPhone has a ton of great games, but let’s be honest – there’s never been a game as wonderful as Tetris. The blocks, the twisting, the narrow misses that leave you tearing your hair out – it’s just glorious.

If you have a Windows Mobile phone, you needn’t ever be without Tetris again. It’s a free download called Kevtris, and is a blast to play. There are three levels of play, and several different games you can play as well – all similar to Tetris. It’s a fantastic time-waster, and a game I like better than anything the iPhone’s thrown at me.

I’ve been a Windows Mobile user for a while now, and thanks to these applications and more, I don’t plan on changing anytime soon. There are applications to do everything that I need, for free, and plus – I just love having an actual keyboard.

Are you a Windows Mobile user? What applications do you have, and which do you envy of the iPhone?