Trillian Astra Options

[impala454]

The new version of Trillian (still in beta) is now more readily available, if you go sign up here:

http://www.trillian.im/signup.html

I had signed up a few months ago, but did it again just now and immediately got the invite. If you want it and that doesn't work let me know and it gives me friend invites.

[impala454]

Not sure on the video chats for msn. I personally don't like the new default interface in Astra, but use the "Cobalt Minimal" skin (comes with it). I don't really care about all the features like checking email or web updated items, I just like the number of services it can connect to and use. The whole "one messenger to rule them all" kinda thing. So far it's pretty seamless with the ones I have it connected to: AIM, yahoo, gmail chat, facebook chat, and my nasa IM service (jabber based).

It's also nice to customize the chat window and make it very simple. For me, all it is is a damn box, with a input textbox. That's it. Type in the box and hit enter. No smileyface dropdowns or bunch of extra BS. I format the text to use tahoma 9pt, black, plain, boring. My username shows up blue and the other person's shows up red. And the contact list just shows names, and a colored icon indicating which service they're on.

I just haven't seen any other apps for windows which will use all of those services seamlessly and still be as customizable. I'll take some screenshots at home and post em.