Review: Google Talk for BlackBerry
Cost: Free as always:)
[Rating:8/10]
Yea yea, you may say why rate, well it’s because I am Google fanatic and only use Google Talk. Anyhow, We jumped onto getting this installed and checked out when Ronen posted that there was a new version available.
As you may have noticed from the past there has been very little changes with the minor updates and even less change logs made available.
This time is no different when comes to the change log, which I don’t see Google’s logic in not providing this kind of information. As for the actual updates there looks to be quite a few noticeable changes, everything from GUI to Functional.
GUI Changes:
The overall look of the Client has been revamped from Login to Conversations, what will not seem much different though is the Contact List, this has pretty much remained the same, noticeable changes are:
- Sent and Recieved times of Messages at the top of the Chat (Mouse-over still there).
- ‘{Contact} is typing’ is also now shown at the top.
- Several Menu re-label’s, which inlude Settings, Email Chat and Send File
Settings and Chat History:
The menu label for Options as we know from the previous release is now labeled as Settings, this is where we see some nice additions with regards to Chat History:
- Save Chat History
- Group Message on Chat (Still figuring this out)
Save Chat History is one of the better changes, here you can save the Chat History to either the Media Card or Device. It saves to a new folder labeled simply as ‘im’ and saved as CSV files in the ‘\im\Googletalk\[YourName]\history’ and ‘\im\Google Talk\[YourName]\history\Conferences\ folders. I will put Google down on one thing in particular and that is the capitalization of words, they need to clean this up and be a little more consistent.
The current History that can be viewed in the Conversation is limited so reviewing the history in the past may have been a little tricky. This has been overcome with the saving of the history on the Handheld by being able to browse to the CSV file and opening it, which will open the earlier part of the Conversation in the Chat window. The CSV files are also accessible via browsing the SD Card when Mass Storage is enabled and the device is cabled.
Sending Files:
There is also not only a Menu Label change here for Sending Files but an addition to what can be sent, well, actually not so much What but Multiples of. The Send Media as we saw in the previous release has been re-labled to Send File (Wasn’t this in one of the earlier versions?). You can now send multiple files by selecting one at a time but it will list on one download for your Chat Buddy and it will save all files to location selected.
There are a few other changes but I will leave these for you to check out… 🙂
To download head on over to:
Nikolaus Not Registered
Posted: July 9, 2008 at 7:44 AM EST from my BlackBerry 8320
One thing to note is that the “Send File” option is not available for all contacts. Only about half of my GTalk contacts show that I can send them a file. Might be due to their version, or if they are on the web client or PC app, etc… Maybe someone else can offer a better explaination.
dualsub2006 Not Registered
Posted: July 9, 2008 at 8:53 AM EST
Google doesn’t make the Talk application for BlackBerry, RIM does. Missing change logs are RIM’s fault. If Google made the application it would be available for download from Google as the rest of the Google BB applications are.
Gareth Not Registered
Posted: July 9, 2008 at 9:11 AM EST
1. The Send File is the same for the DM Client, regardless of BlacKBerry. Cannot send to Non-GTalk Clients.
2. Goole/RIM, you may be right on that, my oversite….it was 2am when I finalized the post. :p The pouint however is that no formal product update is provided, especially when there are numerous changes.
Nathan Not Registered
Posted: July 16, 2008 at 8:54 AM EST
I can confirm that. RIM develops the application for its Blackberry. A friend of mine is one of the developers that works there.
Faris Not Registered
Posted: August 11, 2008 at 2:31 PM EST
I also do not have the option of sending files or sending media to anyone on my contact list ever since I downloaded the latest version of Gtalk for BBerry. Any clues as to how I can remedy this? Thanks.
Gareth Not Registered
Posted: August 12, 2008 at 3:04 AM EST
Hi Faris, I cannot really say, I have not seen any inconsistencies across either of my devices. I however just want to make sure that you are checking this via an open Chat session with a contact and not from the contact list itself?
Oliver Not Registered
Posted: October 9, 2008 at 9:27 PM EST
Google Talk 2.1.37 (453.5kb) is out:
http://www.blackberry.com/GoogleTalk/