The recent update to the Facebook app brought many desired featured a was a huge step forward from before. One thing notably missing was the lack of Facebook Chat.

Sure, it may not be on the usual list of Facebook app features that most platforms seem to follow, but for the webOS, something like Facebook Chat just seems to fit the mold, especially with synergy in the Messaging app.

Up until now, the only way to get Facebook Chat was via the messaging plugin, which may be a bit too much so someone only wanting Facebook Chat.

Well now, Facebook chat can be added with a single small patch! Robvanvliet in the forums discovered the neat little method of getting this to work and I released it in patch form.

Basically, apply the patch the go into the Messaging app. In there, add a new account with the username in the format <username>@chat.facebook.com with your password being your facebook password.  So take note, you’ll need to enable/set a Facebook username on your Facebook account if you haven’t yet.

This patch works by altering the hosts file on your device to make your device think "chat.facebook.com" is "talk.google.com". Thanks to Facebook’s chat service now using jabber (the same that GTalk uses) just adding a GTalk account in the Messaging app gets full Facebook Chat working!  Oh, and don’t worry, regular GTalk accounts will still work fine; there doesn’t seem to be any negative side effects of the patch.

Between the Facebook app and this Facebook Chat patch, webOS certainly has developed into possibly the most full-featured Facebook mobile OS out there!  While I’m not a Facebook fanatic myself, it certainly wouldn’t surprise me if this attracts some new webOS users. Good new all ’round.

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Yesterday brought some beefy new apps to the App Catalog. While we got the standard smattering of updates and cruft apps, there are some gems in there that I feel obligated to point out. First there’s the popular Gameloft game Real Soccer 2010, and a 3D fantasy adventure in Castle of Magic, also from Gameloft. But the real heavyweights here are Grooveshark and Epocrates. You all know Epocrates as the gold standard of medical reference apps, and Grooveshark is a sweet service that lets you upload your music to the cloud and listen to your entire library from anywhere you have an internet connection. Of course, there’s plenty more, and it’s all after the break.

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Yahoo Instant Messenger was officially announced to be join Palm’s synergy in the OS update accompanying the Pixi. But what about the other instant messaging protocols, like Live Messenger or ICQ? And what if you’re impatient, like many on the forums seem to be (not trying to insult, just being realistic here)?  Well, there may be a hack-style solution in the near future.

The WebOS instant messaging is powered by an open source library called libpurple.  Unfortunately, for a while Palm was not meeting the GPL requirements, leaving 3 header files out of their opensource postings.  This prevented people from modifying the source to support more IM protocols.

Well, a little over two weeks ago, Palm finally complied, and since then, Australian developer Greg Roll has been hard at work expanding what’s capable on the WebOS.  The above screenshot is the result of his work: Live Messenger, Yahoo IM, and ICQ support.  Better yet, if all things go well, Greg will also have Facebook Chat added in the first public release!

Right now there are a few unfortunate bugs that Greg is working to address:

• Attempts to link your new Live Messenger, Yahoo IM, or ICQ contacts to an existing contact will result in your Pre freezing.
• After such a linking, that contact card will look completely blank white, in essence uneditable.
• After such a linking, the Live Messenger/Yahoo IM/ICQ contact will be the primary contact for that person.

To echo the sentiments of Tim Carroll of PalmInfocenter, just don’t link these contacts and you’ll avoid the above issues quite handily.

Greg has told PreCentral that this hack isn’t ready for release yet, but to expect it soon, and hopefully with Facebook chat.  He also says that with the full access to libpurple that Palm has finally given, virtually any of the libpurple supported IM protocols could be integrated into the WebOS.  In fact, Greg Roll is considering making an IRC application for webOS based off the new access.

This is certainly a huge step forward for webOS’ instant messaging capabilities. Between this, the virtual keyboard, and video recording, it’s an exciting time to be with the WebOS.

Thanks to Greg Roll, and PalmInfocenter

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