I started using WhatsApp last night

WhatsApp - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
My 1st device to start the WhatsApp with was my Samsung Galaxy S2. I sat on the bus going through Hamburg St. Pauli, and my mobile phone Internet connection wasn't really all that stable. It changed from 3G (whatever variant of UMTS) through E (EDGE) through G (GSM), and WhatsApp kept saying "Initializing …" for ages. I looked the situation up on the Internet, once I was at my place, and I was a little  worried. I decided to simply end the respective active application, to go through Wi-Fi on the Android device this time,  and start it again. In other words: no I did not attempt to wipe the installation on the device. WhatsApp came back almost instantly and successfully, and I had a registered account from then on.

Is it true, (quoting from the Wikipedia article) "that WhatsApp required users to upload their entire mobile phone's address book to WhatsApp servers so that WhatsApp could discover who, among the users' existing contacts, is available via WhatsApp"? Damn WhatsApp, if they dare to spam my contacts!

From the WhatsApp FAQ: "Is my device supported?" [link]
… We currently do not support tablets, computers, or Wi-Fi only devices, and do not plan to do so in the foreseeable future.

It's hard to say, where WhatsApp is really going to (how they want to make money), and why to prevent non-phones to get involved.

I think, for the time being, I am going to start WhatsApp only on demand.

In theory using "a general XMPP client" is superior over using separate dedicated ones. But WTF why do people use WhatsApp? They don't need to enter passwords, they don't need to find and add their contacts, as their contacts are simply identified by their mobile phone number. Enough "pros"? Not that I really suggest WhatsApp because of these reasons.

Google's chat client drops Jabber compatibility - The H Open: News and Features

Google's chat client drops Jabber compatibility - The H Open: News and Features

Multi-account XMPP (Jabber) client for Android: Xabber

Xabber - Android Market

Facebook Chat – connect your client

Facebook Chat

Facebook chat, Jabber, XMPP

Integrating with Facebook Chat - Facebook developers

Apple: iChat vs. FaceTime (XMPP?)

In his recent keynote Steve Jobs announce FaceTime for OS X as something new. But didn't we all wonder, why they didn't just extend iChat to allow us to talk to somebody using FaceTime on the iPad or iPhone? I would rather prefer that.

Actually I would like to know, whether FaceTime and iChat are XMPP base or whether Apple prefers to invent proprietary protocols. Even “embrace and extend” would be better than that. Hmm, I don't really mean “embrace, extend and extinguish”, but that's what “embrace and extend” sadly redirects to on Wikipedia. I mean: does the world really need yet another messaging standard? There is SIP around, and it should actually get replaced by XMPP, but that's not really going to happen for the next 15 years, I assume. Google and Facebook employ XMPP for Google Talk resp. the Facebook chatting facility, and I like that.

my blogs, my blog followers, my IM contacts, Jabber SPAM

I have no idea, how often my blog articles get read. I have no idea, whether my friends read my blogs. I am not too optimistic there.

But I do have quite an extensive list of IM contacts. And there is that nice book on XMPP resp. Jabber at O'Reilly's. Why not write an application, that takes my blogs' syndication feeds and broadcasts them to my IM contacts. Maybe that will make my IM contacts list quite shorter in a pretty short time. Who knows?

Maybe there is already some software out there, that does exactly that or just almost. Maybe you want to tell me.

SIP and international telephone numbers to get called at

You are living in country X, but you want to have a telephone number in country Y, where you can get called at. Some combinations of providers and governments won't allow it, but it's worth having a look at it. Some providers will charge you quite some Dollars, Euros, or whatever. Find out!
Here are some links:

• inphonex.com – that's the one, I use for my Brazilian telephone number
• sipgate.de 
• 12voip.com
• voipstunt.com
• voipraider.com
• intervoip.com

All this is possible at rather low prices nowadays through Internet telephony aka VoIP esp. SIP. Of course SIP is not the only VoIP protocol available on the Internet, there is also XMPP aka Jabber, which is more of a general purpose thing, because it also comprises instant messaging aka IM. XMPP is actively propagated amongst other esp. by Google, so I asssume quite some progress and change in this market. Yes, there are already quite some SIP telephones out there, but actually with a smartphone (Android, iPhone, iTouch) and the XMPP right app, you don't mind the assets of the early adopters, right?

What do I use it for resp. what do I like to use international telelephone numbers for? Well, e.g. calling from  Germany to e.g. Brazil or Urugay is awfully cheap nowadays, but calling from Brazil or Urugay to Germany is still expensive. Alright, I can initiate the calling a couple of times each day, but sometimes we like getting called by our beloved ones or business friends, and then it it's simple nice and/or necessary, that it's cheap to call overseas from within Brazil at a Brazilian telephone number. Got it?