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Daily Mac App: Trillian
When Cerulean Studio made an alpha version of its Trillian software available for the Mac in early 2010, I wasn't very impressed. There were no buddy icons, the product didn't resemble the images released for it, there was no group chat support, a good many of the options didn't work, therer were no chat logs and more. At the time, I recommended sticking with Adium or Pidgin. I'm very pleased to say that nearly two years later, Trillian has developed into a solid text-based instant messaging client for the Mac. Trillian is available as a free download in the Mac App Store now, and it has gone through a vast number of improvements. While there's still not as many features as Adium, it's a solid client. Like Adium, it has integrated Facebook and Twitter, and I actually like these features better on Trillian than Adium. It also syncs with the free Trillian for iPhone, which means you can start a conversation on your Mac and pick up where you left off on the iPhone if you need to run somewhere. The sync is the standout feature for Trillian, and for those of us who need to maintain IM sync on the go, that might be the feature that gets you to use this. You still have to register for a Trillian account if you don't have one, but since you gain syncing ability for chats and settings, it's not as nitpicky of an issue as it was for me last year. Some of the cons I found last year still exist. There is still no group chat ability, which prevents Trillian from adding IRC. It's light on customization, for that you'll need Adium. There's no audio/video/Skype integration, but that's something I've lived with regardless because I use Adium. Not all the buddy icons come through OK, the most success seems to be the ones associated with AIM and Yahoo accounts. You can log chats now, which that alone makes it worth considering for me as a Mac client. I like the way the chat logs are handled. Right click on each user, and you can access the history, including a calendar for easy access to certain dates. Trillian Pro is available for $12 a year, which allows chat logs to be stored in the cloud and no ads, though there are currently no ads in the Mac version anyhow. If you need a solid text-based IM client with updates handled through the Mac App Store and syncing, Trillian is a good way to go. If you want more features and customization, stick with Adium. If you want audio, video or Skype, you'll be stuck juggling multiple clients regardless.
Daily Mac App: Adium
Instant messaging is an essential part of modern communications. On the Mac, we're blessed with the excellent iChat, but Apple's built-in IM solution doesn't connect to every protocol, so that's when we turn to Adium. Adium is a great long-standing piece of open-source Mac software. The reason it's so good is that it connects to almost every IM protocol under the sun. Gtalk, Facebook IM, Live Messenger, Yahoo, AIM, Jabber, IRC, you name it, Adium will let you chat using it. The Swiss Army Knife of chat clients, Adium not only lets you connect and chat, but does it in a very customizable, yet Mac-like way. You've got Growl support, plugins, a menu bar icon, sounds, notifications and alerts for every action and a highly recognizable icon, even if it doesn't scream "chat" to you at first glance. Setting up Adium couldn't be easier. Select the desired protocol, plug in your login details and you're good to go. Your buddy list is downloaded from the respective sites and blended together in one list. You can sort by protocol or create your own groupings. Cross-protocol chat isn't possible for those that don't have interoperability, but that's no fault of the chat client. Adium is purely text-based, there are no built-in options for video or audio chat at the moment, but you can send files for protocols that support file transfer. Adium is available for free from the Adium team's site, and works great on almost all versions of OS X including Lion. If you've got friends spread across a plethora of IM protocols, let Adium simplify things and get you chatting to them all from one great client.
TUAW's Holiday Gift Guide: 10 must-have apps for a new Mac
Welcome to the TUAW Holiday Gift Guide! We've sorted the treasure from the junk and are serving up suggestions to make your holiday gift-giving a little easier. Once the gift-giving holidays arrive, the lucky among us will find new Macs among our haul. Part of the fun of owning a Mac is acquiring some goodies to go with it. In this post, we'll focus on software. Specifically, the 10 apps you'll absolutely want on your new machine. WIthout further delay, here's our list (all prices are USD). 1. Quicksilver (free) [The Quicksilver page appears to be down, here's an alternate. - Ed] This is absolutely, positively the first piece of software I install on every new Mac. In fact, I dislike using a Mac without it. Quicksilver is a utility which, at first, appears to be a launcher. That is the most popular way to use it. Assign a hotkey combination to elicit its minimal window (there are several designs to choose from), type the first few letters of your target app, hit return and presto! Your app launches. This also works with URLs, contact names and phone numbers...on and on. Plus, the more you use it, the smarter it becomes. Now I can just hit "Command-Space-T" to open TUAW, even if a browser isn't running. It's a huge time-saver. Of course, that's barely the beginning of what Quicksilver can do. A huge number of other apps offer Quicksilver support. For instance, you can upload files via FTP with Transmit, launch AppleScripts, move files, compose email messages and more, all with a few keystrokes that will get so finely sewn into your muscle memory that conscious thought will be removed from the process. Not a bad start; our first gift suggestion is supremely useful and free! Now, on to number two.
Adium 1.4 ships with support for Twitter, better group chat features
The duck is amuck: the versatile & free multi-service Mac IM client Adium has reached a new milestone, version 1.4. The new version includes support for Twitter messaging, full IRC support, improved group chat services and bookmarks for persistent chats, an update to the underlying libpurple chat library, and many other tweaks and fixes. The new build requires Mac OS X 10.5.8 or newer. Adium supports popular chat networks such as AIM/MobileMe, Google Talk (along with all other Jabber/XMPP-based chat services), MSN and Yahoo! Messenger; it also connects to Facebook chat and other services like QQ, Gadu-Gadu, Lotus Sametime and Novell Groupwise. No, it doesn't do voice or video (or FaceTime), just sweet old text like our forefathers intended. The Adium open source project keeps chugging along, despite a severe resource crunch and shortage of development hours. If you're a savvy Mac programmer with an interest in the topic, the team would welcome your energy and contributions.
How to: Facebook chat in iChat or Adium
Last week, the fine Facebook folk let us know (via the Facebook Help Center) that you can now sign in to Facebook's chat service using iChat. Of course, the free Adium client has directly supported Facebook chat since version 1.3 (released in 2008), but this step opens up a much wider range of clients for the service. Facebook's chat service is powered by the Jabber/XMPP open source chat protocol. Many networks (such as Google Chat) rely on Jabber, and for this reason chat clients like iChat and Adium allow for the setup of a generic Jabber account to facilitate the widespread use of Jabber. The process is simple. First, create a new generic Jabber account pointed at Facebook's Jabber server. The username to use is your Facebook username (which you can find on the Account Settings page) and the password is the same as your Facebook login password. Next, point the server to "chat.facebook.com," configure the port to 5222 and un-check the box for "Use SSL." After it's all said and done, you should be able to communicate with your Facebook friends using iChat without being logged in to Facebook with a browser. [via Cult of Mac & 9to5Mac]
What's that menu item mean on my Mac?
Ever since you've started using your Mac, you've been looking at those icons towards the top right of your display in your menu bar. These items can direct to many different things, from connecting to a wireless network, to finding items on your Mac. These items not only can be clicked on to show a pop-up menu to perform actions, they can also indicate activity depending on what that icon if for. Here's a summary of some of the most widely-used icons, some menu items you might not have seen before on your Mac, common applications that have uses for menu items, and some extra functions in these items. Spotlight: The Spotlight menu item provides an easy shortcut to finding files on your Mac. Clicking it will show a search box directly under the menu bar, and will provide a summary of results when searching. This icon will also indicate when your Mac is indexing new search results, like when you plug in a external hard drive, by a pulsing dot inside the magnifying glass. Bluetooth: This icon (which is a Bluetooth logo) will show the current status of Bluetooth on your Mac. If Bluetooth is turned on, it will simply show the Bluetooth symbol. If it's turned off, the item will appear faded. If the Bluetooth part has been unplugged, it will slow a line and it will also appear faded. If your Mac is connected to a Bluetooth device, it will show three dots along with a faded Bluetooth logo. If your Mac is connected to an Apple Wireless Keyboard or Mouse, there will be a low battery warning displayed on the icon if their batteries are running low.
New Trillian alpha available for the Mac
A Mac version of Cerulean Studio's Trillian has been years in the making and as of this past Friday, the alpha build of the software is finally out in the wild for Mac users to try. A private alpha has been available since 2007. Since I dropkicked PCs out of my household five years ago, I've switched between iChat and the wonderful Adium. Trillian has a lot to live up to when it comes to instant messaging on the Mac. Adium, to start with, is free. Trillian costs Windows users $25USD to get full access to all of its features (the Alpha version for Mac is free). As stated when the original alpha was released, Trillian is rebuilding its software for OSX from the ground up. I downloaded a copy of the alpha to try, and I am not impressed. While Cerulean Studios did warn that the alpha version of Trillian is lacking features, the entire experience was just unpleasant. No buddy icons from any of my IM accounts came over and the program looks nothing like the picture included with this article (taken from Cerulean Studio's blog announcement.) Having one-button clicks to access your different accounts is nice -- when it actually works. The most glaring of the missing features is no group chat support, which will be a turnoff for many. Other missing features include a lack of voice and video support, chat logs and more. You have to sign up for an Astra account to even start using the IM client. When I was on Windows, the free version of Trillian was my IM client of choice. The Mac version has a lot to live up to, and maybe it could hold its own against its Windows big brother one day. But for now, I'd recommend sticking with much better, and free, alternatives such as Adium and Pidgin. [Via Lifehacker]
Giving or getting a Mac for the holidays? 10 apps every new Mac user needs
All new Macs come with great bundled software. Between the iLife suite, Safari, iTunes, and TextEdit, plus the ability to access and use cloud applications for free, almost all of the most basic modern computing needs get met for most users. That said, having used four different Macs over the past seven years, there are several applications that don't come with OS X that I find myself immediately loading onto a new Mac. Most of these are big-name apps that you've probably already heard of, but it's still pretty amazing how much extra functionality you can eke out of a Mac with only ten additional programs, and all of them (save the last one) are free. Whether you're buying a new Mac for a relative this holiday season or getting a new one for yourself, these are ten applications you should download as soon as that shiny new machine loads the desktop for the first time.
Anomalous AIM Activity Afflicts Adium, Aggravating All
For the past several weeks I've noticed some rather strange behavior with Adium, the free and open-source multiservice IM client. On random occasions I suddenly appear invisible or offline to contacts in my buddy list while logged into my AIM account. And I'm not alone. Not a day goes by that I don't find myself asking a friend or co-worker why they are not online, only to learn they share the same problem. Either that or they're all making this up in effort to avoid conversing with me -- I have that effect on people. The only cause to this problem, or pattern to its occurrence, I can come up with is a loose theory that it happens during periods of inactivity. My hunch is that when you appear "idle" AIM somehow misinterprets this as a disconnect. Locally you remain logged in, but AIM thinks otherwise. Luckily I may have discovered a workaround. Launch iChat (quitting Adium is not required) and go into Preferences. Click on Accounts. Make sure your AIM account is selected, then click on the Security tab. Changing any of the settings in this options panel, then returning them to their original state, somehow magically vexes the problem, at least so far as I can tell. I don't know whom to point fingers at in this case; AIM or Adium. Both begin with the letter A, so that makes each of them equally culpable in my opinion. Wherever the guilt may lie, I just want the problem fixed ASAP.
Adium 1.4 beta brings Twitter support and other goodies
Our favorite multi-service messaging client, Adium has issued two awesome updates. For OS X 10.4 Tiger users, or users who just want to use the most "stable" Adium release, the team has released Adium 1.3.4. This version boasts and updated core library and an updated Facebook chat plugin. The Adium blog states that this will likely be the last update for OS X 10.4 Tiger users. If you're running OS X 10.5 Leopard and you want to get a taste of some new Adium features, the first beta of Adium 1.4 is also now available. The big news with Adium 1.4 is Twitter support! As Megan reported back in March, Twitter support is something the Adium team has been working hard at implementing for quite some time. In addition to Twitter, Adium 1.4 also supports IRC, enhanced group messaging (independent styles and whatnot) and a slew of other improvements and enhancements. You can check out the whole list here. I haven't really been able to try out the Twitter integration, because I think I follow too many people (Adium crashed after the 2000 or so Growl notifications went haywire), but it looks like a great way to at the very least integrate all of your messaging profiles in one place. What are your thoughts on the new Adium beta?
Apple prototyping "iPhone lite" and MacBook Mini / media pad for Verizon?
Hot on the heels of yesterday's reports of Apple and Verizon dealings comes some tantalizing, but still unconfirmed, new details from BusinessWeek. According to the publication, the gang in Cupertino has prototyped two devices for the carrier. The first one is a smaller, less expensive device that's been dubbed as "iPhone lite" by someone who's apparently seen it in person. The other is called a "media pad" (Joggler, anyone?) for music, photos, HD video, and placing calls over WiFi. Details are scant beyond that, and while that pad sounds a lot like an iPod touch to us, we can't help but wonder if it has something to do with those 10-inch displays that Quanta's rumored to be manufacturing. Don't put too much stock into this, as the reports could end up being all for naught, but one thing's for sure: you can bet the suits at AT&T are keeping a very, very close eye on this. In other, even sketchier and likely unrelated rumors, a listing for "MacBookMini" has popped up in Adium's statistics. While we wouldn't normally think anything of this -- as TUAW correctly notes, anyone can edit their computer IDs -- it was from these pages that we first heard the name MacBook Air. Chances are this is nothing, but with all this talk of 10-inch screens and media pads, it kind of makes you wonder. [Via TUAW; image courtesy of Frunny]Read - BusinessWeekRead - Adium stats
Dept. of deja vu: MacBookMini found in Adium stats
Reader Josh sent along this little note -- nothing too important, just something for you to file away for future reference. He just wanted us to point out that way, way down in the stats for Adium, the IM client for everyone who's not using iChat, there is one surreptitious listing for a "MacBookMini."Now, I assure you, we're thinking the exact same things you're thinking: these stats are totally bunk, anyone can edit their computer ID to be listed as anything they want, and one stat on Adium's page does not mean that Apple is coming out with some sort of revolutionary miniature laptop. And we agree with you -- it's almost certainly nothing of consequence. Or, that is, we would completely agree with you, except for one thing: it's happened exactly this way before. A little computer called the MacBook Air first showed up in Adium's stats, and people argued those exact same things at the time, and it all turned out to be real.You might say that makes it doubly likely for someone to tweak their computer's settings to show up as some legendary Apple test machine, and again, we'd agree with you. But it's a big world out there -- unless you work at 1 Infinite Loop, you have no idea what Apple is testing and working on right now. Like I said, we just thought we'd let you know. Just in case.
Twitter integration for Adium in process
In a recent blog entry, Adium developer Zac West discusses the progress of integrating Twitter into the multi-service instant messaging client's already abundant offerings. "The current base of Twitter clients often leave something to be desired, behave in a weird way, or just add an additional application you need to keep open," West explains before detailing how Matt Gemmell's MGTwitterEngine is being used to provide Twitter for Adium.The concept is quite different from existing clients, but makes perfect sense for Adium. Twitter feeds can be followed or unfollowed by adding and removing them from your contact list. If you IM them, it'll send them a direct message. Your Twitter feed comes displayed in a group chat that you can keep open or closed as you need it. It's also very easy to reply to random Twitter links that you can find online. West hopes to build in additional features such as autouploading an image to TwitPic when it's dragged into an IM window. I would love for some of the additional features that are found in TweetDeck, such as TweetShrink and translation at the click of a button, to be added as well.Read the full details, complete with screenshots, on the official Adium blog.
AIM for Mac releases version 1.1
Does anyone still actually use AIM to sign in to their AIM account? I've found the AIM Express client useful occasionally when I happen to be on a strange computer (though nowadays I mostly use the AIM iPhone client when I'm AWOL), but on the desktop it's been Adium for longer than I can remember.Still, if you'd rather do the official way, AIM for Mac 1.1 is out now. There are a few bugfixes -- ICQ accounts had an issue signing in, apparently, and there were a few font and display issues fixed. And there aren't too many new features, though you can now leave notes in "Edit Buddy" fields and the Buddy List search got improved. Unfortunately, it looks like, according to the screenshot they posted, the Buddy List will also blur out all the names on your Buddy List, which seems really inconvenient.The app itself is still in beta, though you can't really go wrong with instant messaging -- either your messages get through or they don't, right? You can download it now, or if you're already using the 1.0 client, you'll get notified automatically.Disclaimer: TUAW is owned by Weblogs, Inc, a division of AOL. We were kidding about that blur thing, AOL -- we know it's just for the screenshot.
Adium users disconnected from MSN
Late yesterday evening, users of the latest build (1.3.2) of the Adium multiservice chat client found themselves unexpectedly at a loss -- connections to Microsoft's MSN IM service stopped being accepted as of about 8 pm Pacific Time, according to a post on the Adium blog. The cause appears to be some kind of change on the server side that is blocking Libpurple (the underlying Adium communications library) clients using version 15 of the MSN protocol, so Adium isn't the only app affected.Users are advised to either roll back to Adium 1.3.1, which uses an older library that's still working, or use the official Messenger 7 client instead. The Adium team says they'll update the post when they have more details. Update 4pm ET: Reports are that Adium's MSN connectivity is working again. Thanks to everyone who sent this in.[via SmokingApples]
Start iChat (or Adium) without logging into services
Have you ever wanted to open iChat or Adium to check a chat log, account setting, or other information, but didn't want to connect to your instant messaging services? Rob Griffiths at Macworld offers a great tip on how you can easily do this, and it won't annoy your online buddies with incessant signing on/off. Before clicking on iChat or Adium, hold down the shift key and continue holding it until the application launches. When the app opens, none of your accounts will be logged in. You can then manually login to individual accounts as necessary. Try it and see!
Mac 101: Tabbed windows in iChat
New to the Mac? Welcome back to our Mac 101 series, which explores the basics of Mac OS X, provides tips and tricks, and dives into key features of Apple's bundled tools. As a Mac user, you've got several options for chat clients -- Adium, Fire and IRC are all worthy -- but in this post we're going to focus on Apple's iChat. Create an account When launched for the first time, iChat will prompt you to create an account. You've got five options, namely MobileMe AIM Jabber Google's GTalk Jabber Make your selection and enter your information. If you're new to instant messaging, simply click the "Get an iChat account." Now your account is ready to go. Among my favorite features of some of the non-Apple chat clients: tabbed windows. This allows you to collapse all of your open chats into a single window. That way, there's no need to have two or more windows open. Here's how to enable this in iChat. From the Preferences window, check the "Messages" tab. Next, select "Collect chats into a single window." That's it! Now, iChat will list all of your open chats in a drawer along side your chat window. To move from one to the other, just click your chat partner's name.
Adium 1.3.1 released
It was just last week when our favorite multi-service instant messaging client was updated. Now Adium has been updated to 1.3.1. While there aren't any major new features in this version, some big bug fixes improves the application's usability. Here's some of the major bug fixes in this version: Facebook timing out when attempting to connect is now fixed Avatar not updating in open message windows after change is now fixed Stopped Adium from crashing when updating an account password You can read the full release notes here, and get the new version by downloading it from Adium's website, or by opening the application and going to Adium > Check for updates. Thanks, Eric!
Adium 1.3 released
Multi-service, open source and free chat client Adium received a new point release tonight, with new features and a redesigned interface for viewing contact information. Adium 1.3 features the following goodies: Get Info Window is now called the "Contact Inspector" The aforementioned Contact Inspector has a newly redesigned interface that allows for faster retrieval of contact information Facebook chat is now integrated into Adium 1.3 Standard contact window list now features a search box (found by pressing command + F) Improved MSN support with personal messages Speed improvements Multiple bug fixes To download this new revision of Adium, just visit the Adium website and click the download link. If you would like a complete list of all the changes in Adium 1.3, just visit the Version History page.
Adium releases new beta version, now even more psychic
Adium has a sweet new beta version available this morning. If you don't automatically see 1.3b2 when you check for updates, then make sure you've enabled "Update to beta versions when available" under the General tab in the Preference pane.Several new features have been added, including: Enhanced psychic abilities -- it opens a chat window as soon as a contact begins typing a message Filtered search in the Contact list Apple Address Book integration (access under Advanced tab in Preferences) Integration with Facebook chat (enable in the Accounts tab under Preferences) The latest Growl and libpurple updates Additional information (such as "Last Seen" and Apple Address Book notes) added to the Contact Inspector Fixed issues include the linkification of enclosed URLs, a memory inefficiency, and a pesky tendency for closed chats to suddenly reappear. All told, there are more than 150 improvements and enhancements to Adium, one of the hardest working chat apps out there.
