astra

Trillian adds Facebook, IRC support to Astra

My favorite IM application, Trillian, has just put out a brand new build of its upcoming Astra product for alpha testers. New are Facebook notifications and quick shortcuts to jump straight to things like photo galleries and user profiles. Sorely missing from that, however, is Facebook's chat, which is what I think many Trillian users have been pining for (myself included). Free competitor Digsby has had Facebook chat integration since the beginning of May, shortly after the service was launched.

Scott Werndorfer, co-founder and head developer of Trillian, tells me his team is waiting on proper XMPP (Extensible Messaging … Read more

The software of spring

Spring is an exciting time for tech. A slew of products that have been hibernating in development cocoons are ready to emerge just in time for the flora to wake up, the the sun to turn on (at least here in the northern hemisphere,) and for techies to regain that bounce in their step. Here are eight downloads and Web applications we expect to see frolicking across computer screens this spring.

But why stop there? CNET editors have also slaved to bring you details galore on the season's top gadgets. Check out the latest in cameras, phones, laptops, and … Read more

Software that's ready for takeoff in 2008

It's hard to predict the next Twitter or Facebook, and that's what makes massive overnight, now-we're-worth-fifteen-billion-dollars success (or not) so gosh darn breathtaking. I mean, did Facebook know it was going to be Facebook?!

So my point is, we go on what we've got when predicting which software is going to turn heads. This list has been compiled partly by educated guesswork and partly by whimsy. Chances are, the software that ends up meaning something to people, we've never seen coming. It's probably not even a glimmer in its developer's eye.

If I turn out to be wildly off-base in my predictions, even better. Groaning at gross miscalculations from tech's crystal ball is part of what makes making them so much fun. Without further ado, here's the lineup.… Read more

Trillian Astra adds social networking to user profiles

If you're a Trillian Astra alpha tester, the newest build launched this weekend now has a clean and simple profile building tool. You can add a slew of Web services to your personal profile for others to see, including Facebook, Flickr, MySpace, Last.fm, and even your LinkedIn account. There are 13 in all, along with quick links to add your blog or personal Web site. The result is effectively a pretty looking link dump to all your online personas and services that others will see when they look at your profile. More importantly, however, it's the beginning … Read more

One IM to rule them all--wherever you are

Editor's note: This is Part Two of a two-part series on multinetwork IM clients. Don't worry, we haven't forgotten about all-in-one desktop chatting.

All-in-one IM clients have much to offer the instant messaging butterfly. They organize your contacts from multiple networks while enabling customizations, plug-in support, and familiar emoticons. However, desktop chatting isn't always the best solution for the jet-set crowd.

Users who work off multiple computers and tire of downloading déjà vu could opt for browser-based chat, while the handheld-dependent might prefer a sturdy third-party IM client to replace a weak, nonnative browser or the single-network IM most compatible with their device (for instance, Pocket MSN for Windows Mobile users,).… Read more

Trillian Astra gets desktop widgets

This nearly slipped by our radar last week, but in the latest build of the upcoming chat client Trillian Astra, Cerulean Studios has snuck in desktop versions of its widgets. Users can now place widgets in their Trillian buddy list or right on their desktop, similar to what you'd get with the Yahoo Widget engine, or other desktop widget tools. Users are also able to send them between the buddy list and desktop via right clicking, or they can simply drag and drop.

For now there are just five sample widgets, but assuming Cerulean Studios opens things up a bit, or goes with universal widget coding, Trillian users could get what is typically two applications in one, along with a wide array of desktop widgets.

Customizing the widgets is a little harder than it should be, as you can't just configure each one once it's on your desktop. Everything is handled through a preferences menu, although I'm assuming this will be changed as the application gets closer to release. Some sample widgets do look neat; the weather widget in particular is easy to read and fully animated. And the world-time widget shows when the sun is hitting your current location, which is totally nerd eye-candy.

Similar to other widget tools, Astra has a hot key that let users pull up all the running widgets at the same time. Pressing the Windows key and space bar accomplishes this easily, although it doesn't have nearly the same effect you get with OS X's Dashboard widget.

I wouldn't recommend you ditch your current widget engine just yet, since this is a brand-new feature on an application that's still in private alpha. I am, however, excited to see if this feature will be integrated into the forthcoming browser-free version of the app.

For more shots of the new widget runtime environment, keep reading.… Read more

New browser-free Web version of Trillian is coming

We recently covered the upcoming "Astra" version of our favorite multinetwork IM client, Trillian. In that story, we also reported that there's a Web-based version of Trillian in the works that will compete with Meebo (related posts).

We just heard that the Trillian Astra Web client is going to be much more than a Web page. As Trillian head developer Kevin Kurtz shows in a demo video, Cerulean Studios is prepping a sort-of-Web-based version of Trillian that requires neither a Windows installation nor a running Web browser. Based on Flash (but not the upcoming Apollo platform), the … Read more