Now available. Auto-update should be firing for those of you running build 52; if you were lazy and kept running build 51 last week, you will not be able to connect and will not receive an auto-update notification. Build 51 users should download build 53 manually.

As we mentioned last week, build 53 introduces a large number of fixes and stability improvements for the AIM and ICQ engines; we’ve also squashed a fair number of problems with the iPhone and Web interfaces. Additionally, ICQ is now an available network for all online versions of Trillian Astra. Those of you previously having trouble with either the iPhone or Web interface, please try again and notify us via Bugzilla of any remaining/existing problems. There are still some performance issues on the iPhone edition if your contact list contains hundreds and hundreds of contacts, but we’re going to continue to attack the problem from a performance perspective and a design perspective; the iPhone isn’t incredibly useful if you need to navigate through 600 contacts anyhow. MSN, Jabber/Google, and MySpace will be appearing in future builds.

Have a great weekend!

Update: a minor crash bug was found after release, so we’ve released build 54 in response.

We continue to work on bugs and other improvements and have decided not to release a build until next week, when you will see a larger set of fixes and improvements.  Specifically, we are currently working on the AIM and ICQ engines and hope to eliminate most of the major and reported issues with both by the next build.  Other team members are also continuing development efforts on the final functionality pieces required for a larger launch; more detail on these as soon as we’re ready to unveil them.  Please keep the bug reports coming!

Is now available. Due to a bug we inadvertently introduced into build 51, auto-update will be disabled for this week’s upgrade. Build 52 fixes the bug, and subsequent releases should auto-update normally. Please manually download this new build from the location specified in your original invitation e-mail.

This is a light bugfix build – we are focusing on stabilizing our web and iPhone interfaces and simultaneously working at finishing some of the last major milestones on our list before we reach beta status. Once we deem the web server technology stable we will be taking steps to increase the tester base substantially. We realize we’ve been saying this for awhile now and appreciate all of your patience – we’re nearly there! Thanks, everyone.

There will be no build this week as we’ve lost some staff to vacation.  We continue to work on bugs and other internal task lists in the meantime.

In Trillian Pro news, we’ve launched a new purchase method utilizing technology from a company called TrialPay.  For those of you who have been interested in getting a copy of Pro but can’t afford the $25 price, TrialPay provides a new alternative.  The basic idea is that instead of paying us directly, you choose to sign up for a trial program offered by one of the many sponsoring companies that work with TrialPay.  This might be as simple as registering for a trial account with Netflix, signing up for the credit card you’d been meaning to sign up for anyhow, etc.  It’s a completely optional program and we’re not altering any of the other payment methods whatsoever. Once you sign up for the program of your choice, TrialPay pays for your copy of Trillian Pro and we activate your fully-functional member account.  Companies are constantly vying for your attention and business, and oftentimes are willing to “acquire” new customers for the “customer acquisition cost” of a free gift, a discount, buying a full-page spread in a popular magazine or publication, etc; think of this as a way for Company A to attempt to win your business by buying you a free copy of Trillian Pro.

We hope that those of you who are interested take a peek at what programs they’re currently offering – if it doesn’t make sense for you, you can continue to purchase with credit cards, PayPal, not at all, etc.  We will continue to monitor and fine-tune this purchase choice as we receive feedback and suggestions from our customer base.

You can learn more about TrialPay by visiting their website.

Thank you!

Today we’re pulling back the curtains and revealing two new interfaces for Trillian Astra; Trillian Astra for iPhone and Trillian Astra Web. We’ll briefly outline their intended purpose, their underlying technology, and their basic functionality and limitations below. We’ve also updated our main Trillian Astra website with some new graphics, design, and sneak preview contents that more accurately reflect our current progress. If you’re interested in our web interface, please visit the Trillian Astra website to give it a test run. If you’re an iPhone user and want to test our iPhone interface, you may do so by pointing your Safari browser to http://www.astra.im/iphone/.Please remember that these new interfaces are in very early alpha, and we may disable them for emergency repairs and tweaks without much (if any) notice.  Furthermore, these may be the most “alpha” quality products we’ve delivered to the testers thus far, so please be prepared for various bugs and usability problems! We’re going to be listening closely to the user feedback we receive in the next few weeks to ensure both of these interfaces meet the quality standards you expect!  Please be sure to let us know on the forums if you have any feedback whatsoever, including bug reports or general suggestions.  We’ll be working hard to fix issues and add functionality as quickly as possible.

We’d like to again extend our sincere thanks to all of our customers and alpha testers for your constant support and patience. We still have a few tricks up our sleeves before this thing is done, and one of our next steps will be to open the testing doors to all Trillian Pro customers with active memberships; if you’re a customer, please keep checking the blog for information on how you can join the Astra team. We expect to be finalizing this process in the next 1-2 weeks but will update you here if that schedule changes.

Technical specifications and other assorted geekery after the jump, including some current limitations that may be of interest to you. We hope you enjoy the new goodies!

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