Even if you don’t speak Dutch, it shows some of the use of our iPhone app (which you can download here).
Another app, Layar, is presented in the second part of the item. They are doing some pretty cool stuff in the field of Augmented Reality, which you can see while taking a walk around pretty (and eBuddy hometown) Amsterdam.

Cheers,

JJ

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

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

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.

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!

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!

eBuddy is available in more than 30 languages, thanks to our translators who volunteer to translate eBuddy.

Today it’s International Translation Day:  “The translation day was established in 1991 by the Fédération Internationale des Traducteurs (International Federation of Translators). The date of 30 September was chosen as it is the feast day of St. Jerome (347-420 AD), patron saint of translators, interpreters and librarians. The day celebrates and promotes translation as an essential activity in contemporary society – but one which too often remains invisible and ignored. Each year a particular theme, highlighting a different area of translation, is adopted” (source: http://www.worldaccent.com)

That’s why we picked this day to put a spotlight on our translators.

Here is a BIG THANK YOU for all of you 2354  translators who have helped translating eBuddy in your own language!

Since we have so many translators  we are not able to mention everyone by name. But we want you to know that we are very happy to have a committed group of users at eBuddy who help translate our homepage and Messengers into languages from all over the world!

eBuddy Translations Team

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

We have just released a minor update of eBuddy Mobile Messenger: version 1.4.1. This version contains no major changes or sparkling new features, but it is definitely an improvement of the previous version. It will make chatting on eBuddy just that little bit smoother

First, we have been working on reducing memory usage. On some phones people would get ‘out of memory’ errors after some time, while using eBuddy. Or on SonyEricsson phones eBuddy would become unresponsive after a while. This should not happen anymore.

Second, we have been improving the support for all phones with a full keyboard, like the Nokia E71. Particularly the problems with the backspace key have been solved.

Finally, tons of small things have been improved that make chatting on eBuddy more reliable and easier.

To get this new version, go to http://get.ebuddy.com with your mobile phone. If you encounter any problems or want to suggest a new feature, place a comment or send an e-mail to feedback_j2me@ebuddy.com.

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 -

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

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.

Since we launched our app we’ve gotten a lot of feedback. We highly appreciate all your input and take it very seriously. We want you to have the best, reliable, instant messaging experience on your iPhone. With your help we found a few issues and have been able to fix them, thanks for all your input!

A new update is now available in the App Store with the following improvements:

• - Fixed issues with special characters: In certain languages with special characters (such as an ‘é’ or Chinese symbols) these were displayed as a question mark. Special characters should now appear correctly.
• - Setting for Recent Chats: We added a setting so you can now choose whether or not you want to show the Recent Chats group in your buddy list.
• - Setting for Shake-to-Buzz: You can now choose whether or not a buzzer is sent when you shake your phone in a chat.
• - Show blocked buddies as offline: Blocked buddies were shown as online, sometimes cluttering up your buddy list. But now they’re shown as offline, so you can make them go away by hiding offline buddies in Settings
• - Fixed an issue with push notifications: In certain special cases push notifications (those alerts for messages after you leave the app) didn’t arrive on your phone, but we made some changes so this shouldn’t happen anymore.
• - New network icons: The network icons for MSN, Yahoo, Facebook, etc. have been improved; a bit of eye-candy so eBuddy looks even more pretty
• - Minor bug fixes

We hope this update makes your chat experience with eBuddy even better. A new major update is coming soon, so keep an eye on the App Store!

Btw, if you don’t have our iPhone app yet: eBuddy is available as a free download in the Apple App Store now.

As always: Enjoy messaging everyone, everywhere on your iPhone and iPod Touch !

- Ivar

Thousands of Fans
About two months ago, we announced our Facebook fan page, which now has almost 60,000 fans. On Twitter we now have almost 2,000 people following us. And on top of that on this blog already 3,200 comments were posted!

Number 1 in 40 countries with iPhone
In the first week after launching, our iPhone application reached the number one spot in the App Store in 40 countries (in the Social Networks category). In 31 other countries we were not number one, but made it in the top 10! Seventy one countries, that’s 35% of the countries in the World.

2,500,000 people on the web
This many people log in every day to the eBuddy Web Messenger to chat with their friends or family. 2.5 million. Did you know Cuba expects to welcome that amount of tourists to the island this year?
You can do the math yourself to calculate that per week, month, year, …

900,000,000 friends
If we add up all your buddylists together we would have more than 900 million friends. That’s how many buddies you all together have on your list. Nine hundred million, which is roughly the amount of people living in North- and South-America together!

1,750,000,000 messages per week
All our Messengers are used a lot, in one week we process more than 1,750,000,000 messages in total. Yes, that’s one billion and sevenhundred and fifty million messages. In other words, you, our users, use eBuddy to send and receive 2,900 messages every single second! Wow!

4.1 billion phones supported
The estimated amount of active mobile phones in the world. And you know what!? eBuddy Lite Messenger works on all of them! If you want me to prove it, just point your phone to http://m.ebuddy.com and see for yourself.

By the way, if you also like numbers, we still have vacancies.

Cheers,
Vincent.

eBuddy is all about connecting people and today we donate part of our advertising space to help Pifworld connecting people to make a positive change.

On Pifworld you can choose a project you really care about and support this by donating a small amount of money. It could be anything from enabling kids to go to school, to protecting endangered animals or even building a massive wild life park. The donation can be as little as 5 euros. Best of all, 100% goes to your project.

Next, Play It Forward by inviting all your IM buddies to join and support this project together. Imagine if millions of eBuddy users donate 5 euros and play it forward to their friends, who in turn invite their friends to do the same … it’s power in numbers!

Join Pifworld today & help us spread the word to create a better world >>>

Together we can do almost everything, imagine the power of that

Update July 21st 2009: We would like to thank everyone who voted for us, even though we did not win the AppAward. Winning prizes is great, but being able to offer a great app to our users remains our focus Keep an eye on the App Store as we will frequently work on updates to give you an even better chat experience.

Hey everyone,

It was just last Thursday when we launched the eBuddy for iPhone app and our app is already nominated for an award

The eBuddy app was selected from the 50,000 apps available to receive a nomination for the AppAwards in the ‘Best Instant Messaging App’ category. These AppAwards honor the best iPhone and iPod Touch apps that have been developed since the launch of the App Store.

Vote for eBuddy now >>>

You can vote for eBuddy in the ‘Best Instant Messaging App’ category. Make sure you click  ‘Submit’ on the bottom of the page to cast your vote

The winners will be announced on Monday, July 20th, 2009. Voting has already started and will end this Sunday the 19th, so please vote now.

Thanks!

Faster login

We have been working extensively on speeding up the login process and made it three times faster than before. You will especially notice this when you have a long buddylist, are in an area with bad coverage or have a slower connection.

Less data usage

Some of you you told us that eBuddy uses too much data out of your mobile data plans. Although eBuddy was already pretty data efficient, we took a good look at it and found some more things to squeeze. Now eBuddy even uses less data than before.

Choose your own colors

Last, but not least, we also built in a brand new feature. You can now choose the color theme of eBuddy, to make it look the way you like it or match the color of your phone. And there is plenty of choice: blue, pink, green, purple, red, orange or black.

As usual we also made eBuddy compatible with more phones.
Download or update eBuddy Mobile by pointing your phone to http://get.ebuddy.com 

We’re very happy to announce (drumroll please!)… that eBuddy is now available as a free download in the Apple App Store: eBuddy for iPhone!

You can already use eBuddy to stay in touch with your friends in many ways: on a PC, on your Google/Android phone, and many other phones – and now on the iPhone and iPod Touch too .

The eBuddy for iPhone app offers you the best chat experience with reliability, speed and great features:

- One buddy list for MSN, Yahoo, AIM, ICQ, Google Talk, and Facebook
- Stay online when you exit the app
- Get push notifications for incoming messages when you exit the app*
- Reconnect automatically if connection is lost
- Get offline messages after reconnecting
- Get new message alerts & typing alerts in the chat screen
- Easily switch between chats by swiping your screen
- Shake your iPhone or iPod Touch to send a buzzer

* Note: Push notifications for incoming messages are only available if you have iPhone Software Version 3.0 on your device.

Here are some screenshots:

Other features of eBuddy for iPhone (and iPod Touch) include:

• - Display pictures, personal message and status
• - Emoticons & buzzers
• - Sound & vibration
• - Multiple IM networks
• - Multiple accounts for each IM network
• - Easy buddy list management
• - Group chat support

And coming soon:

• - Landscape mode
• - Free and frequent updates

We already had a special browser-based iPhone/iPod Touch version of our Lite Messenger (and it will remain available), but now the eBuddy app will give you a chat experience designed especially for your iPhone or iPod Touch.

Give it a try, and don’t forget to let us know what you think! In the app simply go to ‘More’ and then ‘Tell us what you think’ to give us your feedback, or just send an email to feedback_iphone@ebuddy.com.

eBuddy is now available as a free download in the Apple App Store. Enjoy messaging everyone, everywhere on your iPhone and iPod Touch !

- Ivar

Update July 10th: You win some, you lose some… and this time we lost.
We didn’t win “The Europas” yesterday
To everyone who voted for us: Thanks, we appreciate it! Maybe next time

Hey everybody,

eBuddy is nominated for “The Europas” - TechCrunch Europe Awards 2009!

These tech innovation awards honour the best web & mobile companies and startups from Europe, the Middle East and Africa. To win these awards, we need help from YOU

So, show your support for eBuddy & vote for us in both categories:

• - Vote eBuddy for Best Web Application
• - Vote eBuddy for Best Mobile Application

The winners will be announced at the Techcrunch Europe Awards Ceremony in London on Thursday, July 9th. The voting has already started and closes on Wednesday July 2 this week. Please vote now!

Thanks!