Nambu, a company based out in San Fransico has developed an iPhone app that connects users to a host of services, including FriendFeed.
While I was not too impressed with their Twitter feature (as Twittelator and Tweetie have spoiled me), I was excited by the ability to post upon FriendFeed (as FriendFeed’s web app was less than inspiring).
What I loved
One great thing I loved about Nambu was the ability to easily find your friends based upon their image icons.
This really makes it easier to sift your friends from “the noise” (as text links can get old after a while).
Nambu also boasts a decent FriendFeed search engine (although it is not as impressive as the one they have for Twitter).
Also through Nambu, users can read and comment upon their friends mini posts, and even mark which mini posts that they like.
Last but not least, Nambu allows you to translate foreign FriendFeed posts into English (although I am not sure if it’s built internally or powered by Google translate).
What I hated
While the overall function was great, the color scheme may come off as depressing to some users.
Also whenever posting within the app upon FriendFeed, there was no way to hyper link your post (note: to be fair, the FriendFeed iPhone web app does not either, but Nambu’s rival does).
The lack of image support is also something also I found to be dissappointing, although Nambu may include this feature in a future update.
While I love the fact that Nambu has a status count alerting you as to how many posts you have not read, it would IMHO make more sense if that appeared outside the app (similar to what Apple’s email app has).
Last but not least there is no way to view rooms within the app, which leaves out half of the fun of FriendFeed.
Aspiring Rivals?
Nambu does have one aspiring rival in the FriendFeed space called WebFeedr, which allows users to create posts (hyperlinking included), as well as visit rooms and search through all of FriendFeed.
Costing only $1, WebFeedr’s two greatest weaknesses are it’s inability to view comments on FriendFeed (which was a deal breaker for me), as well as the lack of image support.
Conclusion
Nambu is a solidly built iPhone app which will probably satisfy heavy FriendFeed users who just happen to belong to the cult known as Twitter.
While I have no regrets at paying $5 for the app, they may need to quickly brush up on their app as there are rumors that another FriendFeed iPhone app may be entering the arena (with image support included).