Apollo IM will someday be native IM for iPhone

We know how you feel: If it’s not iPhone unlocking-related, it’s something about the interminable hacks. Face it: with little new from Apple that doesn’t contain the words “bug” and “fixes,” mad hax0ring is the hottest thing going right now.

Since its release, we’ve been eagerly awaiting the day that we could instant message directly from our iPhones, without having to resort to any of the numerous web-based Internet client. And with the arrival of Apollo IM, the iPhone’s first native instant messaging client, I am here to tell you that today…is still not that day.

Admittedly, Apollo is pre-beta (version number -1, to be precise), so the fact that it doesn’t really work very well at all is to be expected. I did, on one attempt, get it to load t least part of my buddy list, but when I tried to add a second account, it objected strenuously. At that point, it basically froze whenever I tried to use it, requiring that I uninstall and reinstall the app (tip of the hat to the Nullriver folks for making this a breeze). Besides the crashing, the fact that you need to hit a “keyboard” button to bring up the keyboard, and other sundry bizarrities, it’s pretty clear that this isn’t going to sate anybody’s thirst for MobileiChat…yet.

That said, I’m glad the Apollo team is hard at work on this, and I wonder if they’ll beat Apple to the punch (murmurs say MobileiChat is on its way).