When Mobile Colloquy hit the App Store over the weekend, Twitter quickly became (appropriately enough) all a-twitter over the application. Many Mac-based IRC users use the desktop version of Colloquy as their client of choice; they were familiar with the name immediately and were curious to see what the iPhone version had to offer. Some were a little bit dismayed, however, as the desktop client is open source and free to use, but Mobile Colloquy is both open source and $1.99. How can that be?

Best Mac antivirus. Social Networking. Colloquy 2.3. A quality IRC client for Mac. By Mark Wilson. Colloquy is an advanced IRC, SILC and ICB client that is open source.

Open Source does not always equate to being free. Companies often charge for OSS to cover things like future development and support costs. Regardless, the software's source code is still freely available and compilable to do as a user sees fit. Mobile Colloquy is no different: the source is available for download, you can compile it, and if you have developer certificates, you can even install it on your iPhone for free. The license even says you can download the source, modify it, create your own application, and charge for it if that's what you want to do.

With that out of the way, let's talk about what Mobile Colloquy brings to the table. This isn't the first time we have seen Colloquy on an iPhone. Back in 2007, there was a version of Colloquy available for jailbroken iPhones. However, while the developer responsible for that is also on this team, this is clearly a more mature project.

Mobile Colloquy makes great use of a two-tab interface that allows you to navigate the entire application by tapping either Connections or Colloquies in the tab bar. It is somewhat refreshing to not be inundated with a flooded tab bar, and this simple means of navigation throughout the app shows a refreshing attention to detail during the UI development process. It's easy to make more tabs; it's hard to make things work well on fewer tabs.

You can add a connection by tapping on the Connections tab and then tapping the '+' button in the navigation bar. From there, it's pretty straightforward if you have ever used an IRC client before. Here, we can set up our host, a description for our host, nickname, real name, set the connection to autoconnect, autojoin rooms, and change a variety of advanced settings. For example, you can also change the server port, turn SSL on or off, and set up authentication.

Some have argued that there should be a precompiled list of servers to choose from and the client should automatically display all the channels on a given server. When it comes right down to it, though, there are hundreds of IRC servers, some of which have hundreds of channels; I'm not sure the nitpick is all that realistic.

Once your server information is all plugged in and you are connected, the Connections tab shows you which servers you are connected to plus the amount of time connected. You can disconnect from a server by swiping or touching the 'edit' button in the navigation bar and delete one with a second swipe.

If you set the application to join a room automatically, it should already be there once you click on the Colloquies tab; otherwise, you can add one by touching the '+' in the navigation bar. This gives you the opportunity to join a chat room or message a specific user. Once you join a room or message, the correspondence appears sorted by server connection in alphabetical order. Active conversations are set in a normal type, while disconnected conversations are faded out. Under each room or conversation, the last two things said are displayed, as well as the number of unread items since you last viewed the entire conversation.

Just like server connections, you can leave channels and conversations by swiping or by touching the 'manage' button in the navigation bar. Once you touch the desired channel, you are greeted with a pretty traditional IRC view.

The great part about Mobile Colloquy is the fact that the entire application can be used in either landscape or portrait mode—something I have been clamoring for on all text-entering apps for some time. Turning your device into landscape orientation results in about a 50 percent (8 vs 17) loss in readable lines without the keyboard and almost 66 percent (3 vs 8) when the keyboard is out. The loss of reading space may be a deal breaker for some, but it works if you don't have the keyboard extended all the time. I consider it a small price to pay for text entry that doesn't force you to squeeze your hands into a tiny space. Once you are in a channel, a member list can be viewed by touching the icon on the right side of the navigation bar. Once you have the list, you can search it in realtime, get WHOIS information, or send a private message. Hitting the Colloquies tab at any time will bring you back to the list of conversations.

Username autocomplete is handled very well in the application—Mobile Colloquy pops up a suggestion box when you begin typing a name, much like the word suggestion system Apple uses throughout the OS. Similarly, emoticons are handled the same way. The app offers more than just your standard emoticons and some of the Emoji icons are also available, but there is currently no list of supported ones.

Idl 7.0 download. One of my favorite features is the built-in browser that allows you to click on a link and not leave the application, forcing you to lose all your connections.

Mobile Colloquy's feature set doesn't end there. If you enter the Settings application, you will find you can further tweak your IRC experience. Here, you can change your default identity, quit message, toggle join events and leave events on and off, chose a transcript style from a list of seven, add highlighted words (your name is highlighted by default), autojoin on kick, turn off landscape mode, turn off autocorrection, and much more.

Unlike Rooms for iPhone (read our minireview of Rooms), Mobile Colloquy does not offer a way to stay connected to a server when the phone is asleep, but there are ways around that. (Edit: Mobile Colloquy stays connected while the device is asleep or locked.) One feature that Rooms has and Mobile Colloquy does not, however, is the ability to save chat logs. For me, this isn't that big of a deal in a mobile IRC client, but some others feel differently.

Overall, the UI in Mobile Colloquy is superior to Rooms, and the addition of landscape typing makes this my favorite of the two. If I had one complaint, it would be that the settings for the application reside outside the app; adjusting them forces you to lose your connection and then reconnect over and over if you want to do any tweaking (especially with transcript style). Still, Mobile Colloquy is certainly the best chat-related application I have used on this platform thus far.

Name: Mobile Colloquy (iTunes Link)
Publisher: Multiple Developers (Original Colloquy Developer not involved)
Price: $1.99
Platform: iPhone and iPod touch