Lampiro

Lampiro is an XMPP client (the protocol used by Google Talk and several Jabber servers) for mobile devices, with advanced features that turn them in terminals able to control remote peripherals and to interact through menus and wizards with applications and services running on the server. The ratio behind it is the same as web browsers: a universal client that interacts with a remote server, without the need for additional software to access upcoming features.

Supported XMPP features

  • Secured connections with the employment of the state of the art cryptography techniques (TLS and HTTPS)
  • Robustness of the connection through HTTP channel granting message delivery
  • Presence handling
  • Instant Messaging from and through any other XMPP client (Google talk, iChat and many other public Jabber services)
  • Structured interface with remote applications (ad hoc commands, dataforms)
  • Communications with proprietary messaging systems (MSN, ICQ, Yahoo! Messenger and others if supported by the employed server)

Advantages for the user

Lampiro brings to the mobile devices all the advantages of Instant Messaging, as:

  • Asynchronous communications, with delivery of presence related messages
  • Store & forward of messages to avoid the loss of any event even if offline.
  • High speed and interactiveness of the communication
  • No limits in the message length
  • Reduced costs (every sent or received message costs less then 1/10 of an SMS even with the most disadvantaging rates, typical costs are between 1/30 and 1/100 of an SMS; virtually gratis in case of flat rates)
  • Push of data to the client, using a secured and related channel
  • Always online: employment of the same IM user used on the desktop
  • Chances to receive notifications and news from many external services with the only expense of the network connection
  • Ease of interaction with external services: no more
    • complicated codes to insert in SMS, but only the choice of menu options and guided form inputs

Advantages for the service provider

Lampiro implements many of the most advanced XMPP features that turn it in a platform able to provide on demand services toward mobile clients (easily extensible to the desktop with the aid of standard XMPP clients or to the web through Kometo):

  • Data Forms and Ad Hoc commands: it allows to create employable services from mobile devices as easily as a web page code is written (an XML template is defined for the commands and a class to handle the user input)
  • Single sign on: every XMPP server validates the message sender and authenticates the users at connection time; subsequently they can interact with many services present in their own contact list without executing further logins
  • Plug & Play: by handling its own XMPP server it is possible to add/remove services from every client address book, allowing the automatic deployment of new solutions without update the client
  • Data push: through Lampiro it is possible to execute the push of every kind of information toward mobile clients, independently from the device network address (i.e., Blackberry email style push)
  • BOSH Connectors: the delivery of messages is granted through the employment of this XMPP extension, even in case of unreliable network connection (not all the server support this feature, Bluendo offers a BOSH proxy, Araneo, able to connect every XMPP server)

How to get the client

At the moment the client is available for mobile devices with J2ME clients, but the Symbian Series 60 and Windows Mobile versions are under development. The client comes in two versions, that will be soon downloadable from this site.

  • Lampiro Free. This client is free and fully functional: exploitation of every XMPP servers, included Google Talk, dataforms support and ad hoc commands. The only limitation is the access to the server only through the Bluendo proxy and the employment of only unencrypted and uncompressed communications.
  • Lampiro Pro. With respect to the free version it includes the chance to access directly to every XMPP server without intermediate proxies. If the server supports it Lampiro Pro exploits a compressed and secured channel, hence decreasing connection costs and guaranteeing communication privacy.