Now given up on IM+. Thank goodness for trials...
Why? What some of the options are supposed to do and how they work isn't clear to me. The UI isn't good. As someone on the 7-day trial (version 8.4.0 trial on a BB 9700) it's a painful experience just experimenting. So far I've even logged one support support call uneccessarily because I didn't realise the option for "Apply notifications while in background mode" only seems to apply to 'chosen' contacts...
So other examples are:
1. Does 'auto away' work in "IM Push" mode? Seems odd that I can be 'away' with IM+ fully active, and never be 'away' when IM+ is in a "semi-off line" mode?!
2. What's the implication of NOT ticking 'Delete Old History'? Where are the history files saved? How big to they have to get before being deleted automatically?
3. When I change my "Global Status", how do I "unchange" it back to it's 'automatic'/default setting so the status changes after x minutes?
4. I guess there is no setting for a unique status when the BB is holstered?
5. If I set 'When idle, keep IM services connected for...', when does this apply (what does 'idle' mean)? When 'Away'? When 'in background'? When in 'IM Push' mode? When 'wireless connection is lost'? Some combination of the above!?
6. There is an 'auto-reply' message in 'Stay connected mode'. What's "stay connected mode"? Is this the mode when wireless connection is lost? Or "IM Push mode"? When "idle" (whatever that is)?!?
Are there REALLY all these modes, or is the terminology used in the UI really confusing. Or is it just me?
Then there's some really odd version control...
I installed the 7 day trial from wap.shapeservices.com on my BB 9700. It's v8.4.0
I then saw on BBAppWorld, there's a v8.4 30 day trial (note the lack of a .0 at the end - and it seems to be 200KB larger at 1.3MB instead of 1.1MB), so I thought I'd reinstall with that. It doesn't work. The BB's trackpad doesn't register clicks in any dialogue from IM+. No number of uninstalls, reboots, reinstalls seem to help. But when the IM+ app comes up the IM friend icons are nicely larger compared to the txt size and the header bar is also larger.
After un-installing the BBAppWorld version, I reinstalled from wap.shapeservices.com and I was thankfully back where I started.
Why are BOTH versions 8.4 (.0) with different sizes?!? Very confusing.
And the final nail in its coffin was the fact that I found Facebook IM terribly unreliable. Facebook users see me go offline every time they try and send a message (and I don't see their message). They see me go online (briefly) when I send them a message (which they receive). I then appear to go off line again. At the BB end all appears well...
... and I'm expected to pay premium price for all this? No thanks.