trillian

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

Four vulnerabilities affect two IM apps

On Thursday, Zero Day Initiative announced four flaws affecting two instant-messaging applications, three affecting Cerulean Studios Trillian Pro, and one affecting IBM Lotus Sametime. Zero Day Initiative is a part of TippingPoint and is controversial in that it pays researchers for finding flaws.

The first flaw in Trillian affects the header parsing code for the msn protocol and could allow remote attackers to execute arbitrary code. The advisory states "when processing the X-MMS-IM-FORMAT header, certain attributes are copied into a buffer located on the stack without any length verification which can eventually lead to code execution with the privileges … Read more

Featured Freeware: Trillian

Cerulean Studios' Trillian has long been one of the top multiprotocol IM clients. The program offers simultaneous access to the fab-five chat clients: Yahoo Messenger, MSN Messenger, ICQ, IRC, and AIM, but still doesn't support Jabber/Google Talk in the basic version. For that, users will have to upgrade to Trillian Pro.

Despite lacking this major chat protocol, Trillian's interface is slick and sharp, a professional design that's way ahead of its competitors. Users can import passwords, buddy lists, and client preferences, as well as transfer files and encrypt chats. SMS text messaging and audio chat are … Read more

Video and hands-on review: Digsby IM

The shouts of indignation from defenders of the two big multiprotocol IM apps, Pidgin or Trillian, are a bit more hushed these days. The newest chat client in town makes them both look passe.

Digsby is a free beta release of a supercharged communications client that gathers up major IM networks like Yahoo, AOL, MSN, Google Talk, Jabber, and ICQ with Web mail and social networks. From a single skinnable interface, people can chat, check e-mail, update Twitter, and view MySpace and Facebook activity feeds. Instant messaging, e-mailing, texting, file transfers, and voice and audio chat can all be launched … 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

Power Downloader: Best adventures of 2007

With the holidays over and only a few days to go in 2007, Power Downloader decided to take a look back at the year to relive some of his more exciting adventures. Always knowing which software to download in a given emergency is never easy, but having Download.com at his disposal definitely helps when on the trail of an Internet bad guy.

Looking through his case files, Power Downloader remembered the time when he had to get a new laptop computer. As with anytime Power needs to get a new computer, he knew he wouldn't be comfortable until … Read more

Trillian's IM client heading for Mac OS X

Macworld reports that Trillian is heading to the Mac, after being doomed to a Windows existence for many years. I'm not sure how welcome it is since Adium already fills that role (multi-protocol chat client) for OS X, but if it can give Adium a little competition, all the better.

It's still in the early stage of development, but I'll give it a spin when it comes out, and let you know whether it's worth a download.

Trillian is coming to Mac OS X

Cerulean Studios announced Friday that Trillian is coming to Mac OS X. The company is quick to point out its previous statement from last year, "We will never port Trillian to Mac OS X," remains true--they remade the Trillian UI from the ground up for Mac fans.

Trillian for Mac OS X is still a very early version, so we can't list it on Download.com just yet. This build will only work for those who have set up their Astra account and contacts list through the Windows version. As a first build, they expect Trillian for … Read more