Hands-On Preview Of Torch, A Native iPad Campfire App
June 4, 2010
The AppAdvice crew spends a lot of time group chatting in Campfire. Thanks to the variety of apps available for iPhone and Mac OS X which help us utilize this service, we have all been able to basically go anywhere and still stay in touch as a group (for better or worse). However, when the iPad launched, no native Campfire app launched with it. Attempting to use a solid iPhone Campfire app like Ember in double pixel mode on the iPad with the iPhone keyboard is just painful, so we have resorted to waiting patiently for something else to come along. The wait, however, is almost over.
Torch by Tod Cunningham is a native iPad app that allows you to chat through 37signals' Campfire web service. For those of you unaware, Campfire is like your usual instant messaging service, except it allows you to password-protect rooms and bring in large groups of colleagues in order for everyone to chat away as if they are in the same room.
Torch allows you to access this wonderful service on your iPad natively. The interface is simple enough where anyone can use it, and powerful enough to make chatting with large groups a breeze.
Upon first launching the app you will be asked to enter your basic Campfire information, including a URL, username, and password. Once you are all signed in, the chat feed for the room you are in will be displayed in the large open area in the middle of the screen. You can participate in the conversation via the usual message field, and even add one of three sounds to drive your point home.
The menu bar at the top of the screen allows you to logout so you can sign into a different group, quickly jump from room to room, view a list of people currently in the room, or view past conversations by date.
Torch can be operated in both landscape and portrait modes, and is extremely responsive and intuitive. It may not be the flashiest iPad app you have ever seen, but it gets the job done and done well, and that's all we can ask for at this point.
Torch for iPad will be hitting the App Store on June 11th for $4.99.
According to the developer, new features will be added via updates based on user feedback. Features currently being considered are filters, search, transcript caching, the ability to monitor multiple rooms via a single view, message badging, and more. I for one will be throwing my vote in for search and message filtering. What do you folks think?
