Shape Services’ IM+ v3.4 has finally found its way out of Apple’s review process and into the App Store. The long-awaited update contains a handful of new and interesting features, including speech recognition, but surprisingly it’s the new icon that’s causing a bit of a stir.
IM+ is a full-featured chat app for the iPhone and iPod touch that includes support for tons of services, including Facebook chat, Yahoo, MSN, AIM, ICQ, Google Talk, Jabber, MySPaceIM, Twitter, and Skype. The app also supports Push Notifications for all of its supported services. But that’s just the tip of the ice burg for this full-featured app, as it also features the ability to send photos, videos, geo-locations, voice messages as MP3 files, and so much more.
Shape Services chose to cram even more features into their all-in-one chat app in v3.4. IM+ now includes speech recognition, animated emoticons, the ability to copy text from chat bubbles, and a new icon. The Speech Recognition feature can be activated via the More tab and then go to Settings. In Settings you will find a Speech Recognition tab that when tapped will bring you to a menu where you can purchase the feature for $.99 per month. We’ve only had a short time to mess around with this new feature, but it does appear to work fairly well. At times you will have to go back and edit some of the text, but that can be expected. It can also take a decent amount of time to convert your speech to text, depending on if you are using Wi-Fi or 3G.
The new Speech Recognition feature will absolutely not be utilized by everyone, considering it is an in-app purchase, but the new icon can be seen by everyone and apparently that’s a problem. The new icon features the IM+ logo without any other colors or borders, so you simply see the icon and its reflection. Some users are upset that this takes away from their app page’s uniformity. What do you think?
New icon aside, the updated IM+ is worth a look if you are interested in speech recognition in your chat app, just be aware that it’s going to cost you. IM+ v3.4 is now available in the App Store for $9.99.
I don’t use this particular app, but the hoopla about this new icon is right, the icon is fugly and detracts from the appearance of the screen.
I’ll stick with BeejiveIM, they’re icon is beautiful
I prefer IM+ over BeejiveIM, but the icon for IM+ is ugly. They really need to change it completely. It looks like the Jesus fish bumper stickers.
“It looks like the Jesus fish bumper stickers.” It certainly does.
I like the icon… seems like much ado about nothing
I think people don’t have enough to do with their lives…
I agree it looks like a Jesus fish. As a matter of fact that’s what I figured the controversy would be over 9before I read the actual article).
I think that not having the same basic shape as most icons is not that big of a deal–but I’m surprised Apple didn’t think it was.
It may look like the jesus fish bumper sticker but i like the lack of background, its not a true lack of background place it in you dock and you will see what I mean, but it’s different and if more apps start doing it which I imagine they might it will fit in more
I don’t know why the application icon is such a big “controversy.” it sounds to me that you guys are under the impression that it’s the only app icon of it’s kind. I’ve got a good three or four apps that do the same thing. If you look at the icon within iTunes, it’s actually the uniform square as ALL apps have, it’s just got a black background. GuitarToolkit and others do the same thing. Apple won’t care that it’s not “uniform” because it’s technically in the format they’ve specified, just with a black background.
Actually, the new icon does bother me, just as the Snapture did. Was very excited when Snapture appeared on the app store, quickly ’snapped’ it, swapped it with the camera app, which went to the last page, but was dissapointed with the icon, so much that I have put the camera app back in it’s place, and deleted Snapture altogether, as it also didn’t do video.
So yes, even though it looks pretty cool on its own, it does spoil the uniformity of my screen layout. I won’t delete the app, but I will punish the app with a low star review, until they fix it
Actually, this is not the only app to have an icon like this. Peggle and many others have a black square around them to create this effect. Personally, I quite like it, but I can see why others wouldn’t.
I don’t think the argument is that it’s the only icon of its kind, it’s that the icon used to contain borders and have a blue background. Some people aren’t really into change.
Plus, the new icon is quite a bit smaller than others like it, such as Peggle, Bumper Stars, Snood, and all of the other round, borderless icons.
People upset about the icon need to get out in the sunshine more.
“Uniformity of icons” is pretty much why I don’t use half my apps as often as I’d like — hunting down the app isn’t worth the time to use it.
Agreed.
I’ve never cared about uniformity in my app icons. What… Do people organize their apps by icon color or something? LOL!
Documents to Go has such an icon. http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewSoftware?id=317107309&mt=8
I like the new IM+ icon or don’t like it any less.
I organize my apps together by kind ( eBay / PayPal, IM+ / Twittellator Pro / Facebook, The Weather Channel MAX / WeatherBug, all FLipside5, etc.
The ugly jesus fish icon is exactly why I don’t use im+. Being a graphic designer I just hate to look at such horribly designed logos. It really makes me throw up a little every time I see it. It’s a shame really because it seems like it’s probably a nice app but until they change their logo I will never know, or care.
What’s a Jesus fish? lol
It’s actually a Darwin fish used to poke fun at religious people.
http://www.stickergiant.com/Merchant2/imgs/450/b2214_450.jpeg
The issue for me is that with a jailbroken phone and a lighter colour background, the icon is actually not as tall as a normal app icon. So it looks ridiculous.
This blog is pretty much turning into a directional tool for other stuff I write. ,
Bejeweled 2 also has black background icon.