Trillian Astra, build 104

Are we the only ones who care about this product? I only put it like that because I feel just because there is a cost associated with a "premium" version of the product people are immediately turned off. Trillian v3.x, don't get me wrong amazing product but...was odd to pay for and I personally settled for the free version. The premium features weren't attractive enough to merit $25.

However when I got word of Astra I was one of the first to sign up, but one of the last to actually get into the test program (build 53). We’re now on build 104 and it’s nothing short of amazing. Enough to where I decided to throw $25 Cerulean Studio’s way for a product that is only in beta. That’s right, I’m paying money for a product that isn’t even finished. It means that much to me.

Here’s my problem, what the hell is this company going to have to do to garner more attention than it already has. I know Trillian has a strong following, but this following consists of the elite, the nerds, the computer folk, the friends of computer people. I haven’t seen people outside of the tech industry casually use this thing. It seems when it comes to college, networks are running rampant and people are running dozens of clients. No one even thinks to Google “combine buddies into single list.” It just strikes me as odd I suppose. By the way, that was my initial search query when I discovered Trillian way back in the days of build 0.74.

Here’s the competition, Adium. It’s doing Astra’s services for free. It’s combining all contacts into a single buddy list. Here’s my argument for Astra and what I feel is it’s infinite superiority…it’s a freaking cloud service. Cerulean with this version of Trillian has unveiled the Astra network, a proprietary IM network with a ridiculous amount of power. Hi-def video conferencing, tablet PC doodling support, Insert screen captures/video captures instantly just to name a few. The problem, who the hell uses the Astra network and more importantly who is going to? It would be Cerulean’s dream no doubt to get the masses to switch their primary IM clients to theirs, but even when Astra goes final I’m skeptical that will happen. Not to say anyone is planning on it, but what company doesn’t want their product to own the market? Facebook, Twitter, Myspace, Skype, AIM, MSN, Yahoo, irc, Google, IMAP,POP3, this list does go on and Astra brings it all together brilliantly. Updating status to Facebook/Twitter from a single location?! It’s brilliant, I never even login to these sites anymore Astra is my dashboard to Web2.0.

I digress, cloud service, cloud service. The long envisioned dream of the Astra network as showcased in the single (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BOKQF864DS4) YouTube video by Cerulean Studios shows off a version of the messenger that lets you sign in via a web browser and then, completely exit the browser with Astra remaining running as though a native app on your desktop. Ridiculously amazing. For this reason alone I threw money at Cerulean, I’m mobile quite a bit and look forward to being able to sign in ANYWHERE and maintain all my custom features of my local desktop version.

Testing was closed for invitation only, however it seems they’ve gone unofficial public beta. Head on over to their sign up page and from what we’ve been told you’ll immediately be granted entrance. Give this thing a whirl. http://www.trillian.im/signup.html.