Update: If you experience any crashes at startup, please disable automatic login at startup. This is only temporary; an updated version with a fix for this issue will be released as soon as possible.

Hi iPhone & iPod Touch users,

Drum roll, please! Just for you: a big new update of eBuddy for your iPhone & iPod Touch, available in the App Store now! We hope you’ll enjoy all of the improvements:

• - Faster & secure login: Logging in is now a lot faster - depending on the quality of your connection, of course! We’ve also improved security.
• -Push notifications up to 1 hour: You can choose to stay logged in and receive push notifications for incoming message up to 1 full hour!
• - Saved chats and messages: Your chats stay open until you close them, including all your messages. Never lose any conversations!
• - Clickable links in chats: When someone sends you a link, just tap on it to go directly to that link without exiting eBuddy.
• - MySpace IM added: You can now chat with your MySpace buddies as well. Just add MySpace to your chat account and you’re good to go.
• - Start a group chat: Invite multiple buddies to have a group chat with you directly from the chat screen.
• - Clickable pictures sent by other eBuddy users: You can now view pictures sent to you by fellow eBuddy users directly in your chat.
• - Many other improvements and bug fixes.

We‘ve also been listening closely to all your feedback, so don’t worry: a new update is coming soon, which we think will more than live up to your expectations! Here’s one hint: eBuddy will “go wide” .

And for those of you who don’t have our iPhone app yet, eBuddy is available now as a free download in the iTunes App Store.

Happy Messaging!
Ivar

About six months ago, we announced our Twitter page and our Facebook fan page.

We are happy to announce that we now have more than 8.000 followers on Twitter and
more than 100.000 fans on Facebook!

To put it in perspective: that’s two football stadiums full of eBuddy Fans.

A very BIG thank you for joining and supporting us on Facebook and Twitter.

If you already are our friend or follower then you probably know that you can nominate us every day for the Mashable Open Web Awards 2009.
And if you haven’t nominated us yet, simply sign in to your Twitter or Facebook account, go to Mashable mention eBuddy, and select “Best Mobile Application” from the drop down menu. It’s that easy

To everyone who hasn’t connected with our eBuddy community yet: talk or just connect with us on Facebook and Twitter to keep in touch to receive updates, news or anything eBuddy related.

See you soon on Twitter, Facebook and eBuddy

Nadine

We have just updated the Beta version of our New Web Messenger to the latest version. Thanks to the great feedback we received from our early users of this version, we’ve done some nice improvements.

Besides many minor updates, these are the major changes:

-    We now support all emoticons for all networks
-    More themes have been added by popular demand
-    Drag and drop contacts into groups (for specific networks only)

Try this new eBuddy Messenger at http://www.ebuddy.com/newmessenger. Use the link below the Messenger to send us feedback or feature requests!

Happy chatting,
Vincent.

PS. Remember this is still work in progress, so you might find things that do not work for you. That’s why your feedback is important to us! For more info, see my previous blogpost.

You were probably wondering what has been going on with the eBuddy Web Messenger lately. Besides some small updates you have been seeing over the last couple of months, we have been working on a completely new Web Messenger.

We had a couple of reasons to build it from the ground up again. First, it has been over two years since we’ve launched our current Web Messenger. In those two years, browsers have advanced, computers got faster and web technology evolved quickly. Second, your expectations of eBuddy are also changing. Lots of users send us emails every day with new ideas and requests for new features. Finally, we just wanted to make something cool

So we decided to take advantage of all the new technologies and create the next generation Web Messenger. We already built in some nice new features, like setting your display picture with your webcam and better sound controls. Also we have completely redesigned the interface and made it a lot faster.

A personal favorite of mine are the Themes. With Themes you can change the look of the Messenger just the way you want it. In the mood for a pink background or rather prefer orange with funky dots? Change it with two simple clicks. How cool is that? But you’ll notice a lot more has changed!

Today is the first day we are showing this new Messenger to you. Remember, it’s not finished yet, and there is still work to be done. Also things might not work on your machine. But we think it works fine in most cases. Therefore we would like you to tell us what you think about it. What do you like and what do you hate about it? We hope you love this Alpha Version ^? of the new eBuddy Web Messenger.

Now go and get ready to use the next generation eBuddy Web Messenger at http://ebuddy.com/newmessenger. Make yourself heard and complete the survey in the Messenger!

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Hi!

This week we released a whole new version (1.3) of eBuddy for Android in the Market. Here’s what we changed:

• - Faster & secure login: Login now takes you to your buddy list much faster . Plus, it’s even more secure than before.
• - Auto-login: Not only the login speed and security is improved, but you can also choose to automatically login when you start eBuddy.
• - Typing indicator: You can now see when your buddy is typing a message, right from the chat screen.
• - Back-key improvements: We added some new ways of navigating the app with the back-key. For instance: you can now exit from the login screen using the back-key.

We’re already seeing some really great comments from you guys about this new version in the Android Market. For example:

Thanks for those kind words !

If you have an Android device, such as the HTC Magic, T-Mobile G1, or the HTC Hero, you can already download eBuddy for Android from the Market or directly with your barcode scanner:

Enjoy!

- Ivar

Hey everyone,

Today we have released a new version of eBuddy Lite Messenger: the most versatile messenger that you can use straightaway from your phone browser (m.ebuddy.com).

We have completely redesigned the look & feel in this new version:

• - With a new navigation structure you can easily access the most used functions
• - The fancier color scheme makes eBuddy Lite Messenger look much better
• - We improved the settings menu to make it easier for you to change the settings
• - We’ve also fixed some bugs and made minor improvements

So why not try it out yourself? It’s easy to get started:

Simply surf to m.ebuddy.com on your phone and you are ready to go!

We hope you like it, and as always, please keep those ideas coming. You can share your thoughts on what we should add next by clicking on “Please let us know what you think”, after logging out on Lite Messenger.

Cheers,

Rob

PS: Did you know that you can use eBuddy Lite Messenger on any device that has internet? eBuddy Lite Messenger even works on your PSP, Nintendo DS(i), internet-enabled television and many other devices!

Hi all!

Last week Archos introduced their latest multimedia device to the world: The Archos 5 Internet Tablet. It’s a very cool portable media player that’s built to surf the Web.

And here’s the best part: eBuddy is already on the Archos 5 Internet Tablet! So everybody who gets one can use eBuddy to stay in touch with their friends, right out-of-the-box .

Here’s a video of the Archos 5 Internet Tablet in action:

As you can see it combines Internet, entertainment, TV, and GPS in one device. And with eBuddy installed you can also use it to message everyone, everywhere .

Before you run to the store to grab one of these great devices: It will be available soon. But no worries… if you have a phone such as the HTC Magic or T-Mobile G1 you can already download eBuddy for Android from the Market or directly with your barcode scanner:

I hope you enjoy using eBuddy on the new Archos 5 Internet Tablet !

- Ivar

Update 20 August: eBuddy for iPhone 3.1.1 is now available in the App Store. This new version fixes the issue with Group Sorting.

Hi,

We found a major bug in eBuddy for iPhone 3.1.0 (the update that we released yesterday).

* What happens?

Everything works fine except …. when you enable Sort buddy list by Groups, the app crashes at startup

* How can you fix this?

Just delete the eBuddy app and re-install it:

1. Tap and hold the eBuddy icon on the Home screen until an “X” appears on the upper-left corner

2. Tap the “X” and tap “Delete” to confirm you want to delete the eBuddy app

3.  Tap the Home button

4.  Go to the App Store to find eBuddy and re-install it.

If you have still have problems using eBuddy, please send an email to feedback_iphone@ebuddy.com and we’ll try to solve it for you.

Note: Do not enable “Sort buddy list by Groups” in Settings.

We are working on an update to get group sorting working again and we’ll submit it to the App Store ASAP. We’ll keep you posted on when the new update will be available.

We apologize for this and thank you for your patience!

- The eBuddy Team -

Hi!

A few weeks ago we released an update of eBuddy for Android (version 1.1). If you have an HTC G1, Magic, MyTouch 3G or Hero phone, this update is for you . It includes these improvements:

• - LED notifications: You are notified of new messages with a blinking LED light.
• - eBuddy icon in status bar: You can choose to keep the app icon in the status bar, so you can easily switch back to eBuddy when doing something else.
• - Improved connection: We also made some major technical changes to allow you to stay connected longer.

So far this is really working out. Many of you have let us known that you now stay connected to all your instant messaging networks (MSN, Facebook, Yahoo, Google Talk, AIM, ICQ, and MySpace) all the time. Even if you lose internet connection for a minute eBuddy reconnects automatically once the signal returns.

Great stuff, huh?

But wait, there’s more!
It doesn’t stop there… we just released another update (version 1.2) of eBuddy for Android to the Market . What has changed in version 1.2?

• - Support for MySpace IM: Many of you requested us to include MySpace in our supported list of IM networks and we listened . You can now also chat with all your MySpace buddies on eBuddy.
• - Several improvements: It’s all in the details . For instance, we improved the status bar notifications, and updated the network icons so they look even better than before.
• - Many bug fixes: If you had any issues with eBuddy before, chances are you won’t have it with this version.

We really hope you enjoy the latest updates. You can download eBuddy for Android from the Market or directly with your barcode scanner:

Please send us any feedback you may have on feedback_android@ebuddy.com, and as always:

Enjoy messaging everyone, everywhere with eBuddy !

- Ivar

Hi all,

Two weeks ago we released eBuddy Mobile Messenger version 1.3. Unfortunately we found some bugs after releasing this version; and a lot of users sent us valuable feedback, that helped us quickly identify the problems. We have been working very hard to get things right again and we released a new version of the Mobile Messenger.

eBuddy Mobile Messenger version 1.4 solves the following common issues:

- On some phones it was impossible to access the ‘Settings’ and to change your Display Name and Custom Message. This shouldn’t be a problem anymore.
- You can view the custom message of your Buddies again via the ‘View Profile’ menu.
- No more duplicate Yahoo! buddies in your list.

To update your version, go to http://get.ebuddy.com with your mobile browser. Sorry for the inconvenience.

Thanks,
Vincent.