Appletell

Facebook chat is a little awkward… it’s stuck in the browser, and even if popped out, it still runs in Safari. By closing the window, or moving to a new tab, you close your chat. Fortunately, Mac OS X makes it easy to run Facebook Chat separately from Safari. Here are the two easiest ways:

Web Clip in Dashboard
Simply navigate to Facebook, use the chat menu to pop out the chat in a new window, and choose “File > Open in Dashboard.” Then, arrange it as you please. I chose to make only my buddy list visible, so I can easily check who is online before starting to chat. When I wanted to chat, I either went to Facebook, or resized the widget to show the chat.

Fluid.app
This method is the better one for someone who wants to do heavier-duty chatting. First, download the free and awesome Fluid.app at http://fluidapp.com.  Then, launch Fluid, and type the following address into the field:

http://facebook.com/presence/popout.php

Give it a name like “Facebook Chat,” and save it. There you go! You now have a native Facebook Chat application.

Apple has sent out an invitation to press contacts inviting them to an iPhone/ iPod Touch SDK “Roadmap” meeting.

In an invitation sent to reporters, Apple wrote, “Please join us to learn about the iPhone software roadmap, including the iPhone SDK and some exciting new enterprise features.”

9to5Mac reports that “the event will largely cover enterprise topics like Exchange and Lotus Notes syncing.”

Apple on Tuesday released iPhone and iPod Touch Firmware 1.1.4, which was listed as 165 MB of bug fixes, but also likely laid groundwork for the SDK, which will allow for third party iPhone/iPod native applications. Currently the onyl way to get applications on the iPhone is through web-apps, which run through Safari and are not native, or Jailbreaking your iPhone/iPod Touch, which voids your warranty.

For all of you iPhone hackers out there, the first native (that means no Safari) AIM client for the iPhone has been released today. This means that it runs as a native iPhone application, and doesn’t have to be run through/with Safari on the iPhone. Named Apollo IM, the client has a version number of -1, and will be updated in the future to include the ability to transfer files, as well as MSN, Yahoo, Gtalk, and all of those other services that no one uses. Developed with Shimmer and PXL, the app can be installed with Installer.app, and auto-updates when needed.

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