Everyone’s favorite little natively installed IM chat application for the iPhone is finally, well, final. We’ve been watching Apollo IM since the early days of third-party, natively installable iPhone applications, and we’re glad to see that it’s finally grown up. Apollo IM has gone to version 1.0 and is now available through Installer.app (we just hope the impending iPhone update doesn’t kill these native apps).
Apollo IM v1.0 includes ICQ, MSN, and .Mac support, multiple simultaneous logins, “Away” status, and is now as stable as a rock. In terms of aesthetics, Mobile Chat might be the best bet if an iChat-esque interface is your cup of tea. But, when it comes to pure performance and usability, Apollo IM is where it’s at.
Apollo IM v1.0 isn’t just an update to the pre-1.0 Apollo IM client, the old client needs to be uninstalled altogether before you download and install the new Apollo IM client. Do it now. It’s definitely worth a try.