Palringo is one of our favorite instant messaging systems out there despite the odd requirement that you create a Palringo-specific account to use it. That new login is looking less burdensome, however, now that Palringo will be bringing live location information to the latest version. They plan to help your friends and family know where you are when you are messaging them, making it easier for meet ups or friend locating. Now when you instant message your boss about being late, you better make sure it’s from your house computer and not your girlfriends.

The app will be getting real specific in regards to the location. It gets all the way down to your suburban track homes and your street levels.You always have the option to turn off the locator, but how much stalking fun could you have with that? Palringo Local is hitting Windows Mobile first and eventually getting rolled out to other platforms (you'll need GPS to get it going, natch). Windows Mobile users that have a current version of Palringo will get an automatic update so keep your eyes peeled. The best part is all this location based services will still fall in the free category. Don’t have Palringo? Pick it up here and let us know how much fun it is tracking and being tracked.

Traveling to a foreign land and don't care much about roaming data costs? Check out this neat trick: you can use MSN messenger as a translation service with the new version of Windows Live Messenger Translation bot. Once you add the mtbot@hotmail.com you can start chatting to get translations. Currently supported languages are:

• English to/from: Arabic ,Chinese Simplified ,Chinese Traditional ,Dutch ,French ,German ,Italian ,Japanese ,Korean ,Portuguese ,Russian (RUS->ENU only) ,Spanish
• Chinese Simplified <-> Chinese Traditional

If you have your (Windows-based) laptop with you, then you might also be interested in Windows Live Accelerator for Internet Explorer 8 Beta. This allows you to browse over to the Italian web page your friend designed and read through instructions like a champ. All you have to do is highlight what you want translated then click on “Translate with Windows Live” and voila! Italian to English made easy.

via liveside

Well this was unexpected, or, as BGR put it, “hell freezes over.” AOL has released a new instant messenger client for Windows Mobile. It looks... good. Looks like we've got buddy list management, real custom status updates, and a few more bells and whistles built in. No auto-updates, though, so if you join up for this Beta be sure you check back often to get the latest builds.

Naturally, you'll want an unlimited data plan with this. Notable: doesn't appear to work especially well with the Touch soft keyboard, so don't go replacing your current IM client just yet.

It should be compatible with anything WM5 or later and it's a free bit o' software, so go on and give it a go:

Information and direct .cab download (it's 1.1. megs, though!)