trillian

Bye-bye, multiple chat clients

One of the most popular and customizable third-party clients in the multiservice chat category for Mac continues to impress. It supports multiple services, including AIM, Yahoo, MSN, Facebook, Windows Live, and Google Chat. Part of what made the original Adium so attractive was the multitude of IM service options, and that still forms the core appeal of this client. The interface is smooth and lean, fitting in well with the Mac OS. The client supports tabbed browsing, encrypted messaging, and you can transfer files to your buddies, though it can be hit or miss depending on what service you're … Read more

Trillian 5 adds Pro features for free

Trillian, the popular multiple-personality IM client, recently upgraded to version 5, giving it a refreshed interface, improved social integration, and, get this, all of the Pro features from previous versions, all for free. Now every user can enjoy themes, activity history viewer, and multiple location sign-in, along with the newly developed continuous client feature, which keeps chats synced across all devices. For now, these upgrades have only hit the Windows client (download) and the now free Android app (download). Mac, iOS, and Blackberry are all on deck.

While the idea of free is nice, as we all know, nothing ever … Read more

Halo: Reach on Xbox Live

Links from Monday's episode of Loaded: Google's Chrome Web Store opens to developers Halo: Reach is leaked early on Xbox Live Toshiba's SmartPad has pictures An ISP in the UK has a special broadband package for gamers HP confirms upcoming WebOS and Windows 7 tablets

Trillian chats up Android

Already available in one form or another for BlackBerry and iOS, Trillian launched the beta version of its multiprotocol instant-messaging client for Android on Thursday. Trillian for Android brings many of the desktop program's core features to Android 1.6 and above, including tabbed chats, emoticons, and support for a broad range of instant-messaging services.

To install the app, be sure that you've enabled installing from unknown sources under Settings, then Applications.

The app will work with AIM, Facebook Chat, Windows Live Messenger, Yahoo Messenger, Google Talk, ICQ, Jabber, WLM, and MySpaceIM, and because it natively supports Android … Read more

Chatting gets savvier

This week in The Download Dispatch, instant messaging gets upgraded. On Monday, the refurbished Trillian 5 beta for Windows was released to the masses. The all-in-one chat client (download) received a sleek interface makeover, adding LinkedIn and Foursquare social-networking services to its portfolio of social sites. In addition, this build makes entering, exiting, and registering the program a smoother process. Because this is not the final release, the application is not completely user-friendly; pinned functions and lengthy installation are just a couple of hiccups that we hope get sorted out in the next release. Digsby (download) also received an update. … Read more

Trillian 5 beta for Windows is now here, looking good

We caught wind of a refresh to the Cerulean Studios' Trillian all-in-one IM app a month ago, and starting Monday, the refurbished Trillian 5 beta for Windows is open to all.

As promised, Trillian 5 beta (download) now integrates with LinkedIn and Foursquare social networking services (access this from the handy accounts ribbon on the buddy list), and it improves the behavior of Facebook and Twitter feeds. Foursquare users on Windows 7 computers will be able to check-in from Trillian 5 beta thanks to Windows 7's GPS support. In addition to reading feeds, you're able to set your … Read more

Trillian all-in-one IM coming to Android, updates for iPhone 4

If you're into instant messaging in a big way, you'll probably want to take a look at the free Trillian chat app, which, like others, lets you IM with friends on multiple networks, like Yahoo, AOL, Windows Live, Google Talk, and so on.

On Thursday, Trillian-maker Cerulean studios announced two pieces of interesting information. If you're an iPhone user, hang in there or skip to the end.

First, the company is readying a beta version of its chat app for Android phones 1.6 and up. As with other Trillian apps, it will manage chatting through Yahoo, … Read more

Trillian 5 for Windows will finally look good

If you're like us, Trillian's multinetwork chat app has been one of those programs whose quite useful set of IM features could never overcome its outmoded, cacophonous interface. All that is about to change, and we couldn't be more relieved.

On Thursday, Trillian-maker Cerulean Studios announced work on Trillian 5 for Windows, a beta of which is expected to arrive in the next few weeks after the current round of internal testing.

The redesigned interface is a key improvement, and a teaser screenshot already reveals it to be cleaner, more modern, and easier on the eyes.

In … Read more

Upgrades and downgrades

Opera browser users will be pleased to know that the beta released two weeks ago, Opera 10.6, is coming your way in full force in a general release this Thursday. Version 10.6 incorporates an anti-malware detection system powered by AVG, more HTML5 capabilities, and improved performance overall.

In other upgrade news, Trillian (current version), the all-in-one instant messaging program, will soon be replacing what we think is a jarring, outmoded interface with a sleeker, more modern skin. The upcoming Trillian 5 is optimized for Windows 7 and will also include mobile-syncing features and an array of new social-networking … Read more

Hands-on: IMing with Trillian's BlackBerry beta

A new instant messaging app is on its way to BlackBerry smartphones, and it's name is Trillian.

Trillian-maker Cerulean Studios announced work on its BlackBerry beta in May, adding one more operating system for the multinetwork IM app that's already well-known on Windows, Mac, and more recently, on iPhone. Although we expect to see Trillian launch into public beta for BlackBerry phones running OS 5.x, we got to try it out this week.

The app closely resembles the screens we saw from the closed beta (see slideshow below). Trillian lets you quickly sign into accounts from a start screen, and gets you chatting with friends on MSN, Yahoo, AIM, ICQ, MySpaceIM, Facebook Chat, Jabber/XMPP, and Google Talk.

The feature set is basic at this point--not so unusual for a beta app. It can display avatar images, add emoticons, and send photos that you either grab from the image gallery or take fresh with your phone's camera. The app alerts you to new instant messages with a flashing LED light or with pushed e-mail alerts when the app is closed.

Trillian beta is easy enough to use, but not very elegant at this stage. You control the app with the BlackBerry's Back arrow and menu key, but unlike competitors, Trillian doesn't utilize a lot of on-screen buttonry. For example, competitors like Beejive do a better job alerting you to new IMs and who sent them, and makes switching among conversations possible from within open chat windows. Instead of being able to switch among open chats with a menu item, Trillian has you arrowing back to the buddy list and navigating to the developing conversation.… Read more