Yet as the long-anticipated Astra finally emerges, we have to wonder is it "too little, too late" for this company?

What's to Like in Astra

After years of development, you would expect to be blown away by Astra, wouldn't you? We might not go that far, but we can say that Astra is a solid multi-protocol IM client. It supports the usual IM networks (Yahoo, Google, ICQ, Windows Live, AOL, Jabber/XMPP) as well as other services like MySpace, Facebook, Skype, and Twitter. You can even use the program to keep tabs on your various email accounts, both web-based and POP3/IMAP.

New to the software are a couple of different reply options - a standard reply and a "quick reply." You can choose which one you want by clicking the corresponding button on the pop-up notification. A standard reply opens the main chat window while the quick reply opens a text field in the pop-up window where you can type out your message.

The Astra software is extensible, too, and comes pre-loaded with a Widget Gallery where you can pick and choose widgets to add to your contact list. Some of the widgets include a countdown timer, a weather widget, and a flickr widget.

What's Annoying

Despite having 40 themes to choose from, I just couldn't get comfortable with Astra's UI. Your experience may differ. The problem has to do with a lack of contrasting colors in the themes, leaving some text so light, it was nearly impossible to see. The default font size didn't help either. Other buttons like the dash (-) and the plus sign (+), to collapse or expand windows, were so small that they, too, became nearly invisible.

Another annoyance has to do with email notifications. If you click on the new email pop-ups to read your latest message, Astra opens your inbox in a new browser window...with every pop-up you click, that is. After checking your email a handful of times, you're left with a crowded web browser filled with inbox tab after inbox tab.

After Three Years, This is All We Get?

The main problem with Astra is not that it's a bad IM client. It's solid, it does a good job, and it even has some nifty features to boot like the widgets or the "meta-contact" feature which lets you merge multiple contacts into one for friends that have identities on numerous networks.

The problem with Astra is that after being in development for this long, we expected something downright revolutionary. Something divine. What we got instead was a rather ordinary piece of software that can't even come close to capturing the excitement we once had as we anxiously awaited its release years ago.

Maybe we've outgrown the need for multi-client programs anyway. Really, most of our friends are on Google Chat or Skype these days and those that aren't are on Twitter and Facebook. It's not really that much of a hassle to open the appropriate program, or send a tweet when we can't IM, or even just write on their wall.

In fact, while we waited for Astra, we watched Twitter grow from tiny startup to international sensation. At this point, we'd rather tweet than IM in many cases, and while, yes, we can do that from Trillian, we can do it from a number of other Twitter clients, too. Today, it's almost like Trillian doesn't just compete with Digsby and Meebo, but it also has to fight the TweetDecks and Mixeros of the world, too.

In the end, there isn't anything particularly bad about Astra, there just isn't anything truly amazing either. We doubt its release will change our current habits, but that's just us. If you think you'll use Astra, tell us why in the comments. Or if you feel the same as we do, let us know that as well.

The new Zoho Chat 2.0 is no dumbed-down client. It offers most of the features that you have come to expect from your IM desktop applications. You can send files, record your chat history, customize your theme, and more - just like regular IM apps allow. It does a few cool tricks, too. For example, you can type in a new event in the chat bar at the bottom of Zoho Calendar to create a new appointment on the fly. In Zoho Meeting, you can launch desktop sharing with others from within the IM application. (Windows only for now.)

The chat tool is also able to send you notifications from activities that take place within Zoho itself, including document sharing notifications, unread chat messages and more - definitely a handy feature. Future releases for chat include plans to introduce even more IM networks, most notably Skype.

This release represents a major upgrade of the chat application in Zoho. Current Zoho users can try Chat 2.0 here as of today: chat.zoho.com.

There's nothing wrong with clicking on such a link, but when the site that loads as a result, Viddyho.com, asks for your Google Talk username and password in order to view the video - then you should know that trouble is afoot. Surprisingly, a whole lot of tech savvy people fell for it today. Update: The Harvard Crimson says it has unearthed the person responsible for the Viddyho worm.

The Tech Issues

We do think there are some big issues to discuss here, too, though.

The fact that many otherwise tech savvy people are falling for this trap shows that legitimate experiments in user authentication (like OpenID) still have a whole lot of explaining to do and secure APIs need more adoption. This could just as easily have been Facebook or Twitter that hijacked your Google Talk account - we give them our passwords and just trust that they won't.

What's even better is that you can click on the notification in the Activity Stream to see all the relevant details. If the item was an image, for example, you can preview it or download the original. For blog posts and wiki pages, you can click to read the item that was updated. Plus, you can download any files that have been added straight from the Activity Stream to your desktop.

However, the cyn.in desktop client isn't just about automated notifications - it allows for those personal updates, too. But this is the enterprise, mind you, so we're not calling them "tweets" here - they are "status updates" instead. Guided by the prompt "What are you doing?" anyone can quickly set their status update which is then sent into the Activity Stream to update everyone else.

Taking a page from Jaiku's book, the client also includes a threaded discussions feature. Any item in the stream can be commented on whether it's an automated update or a personal status update. The replies can be viewed in a pop-up sidebar to the right of the original Activity Stream, just as with photos, wikis, and blog updates. Like FriendFeed, when someone comments on an item, that item bubbles up to the top so everyone is immediately alerted.

As any Twitter user could tell you, no microblogging product would be complete without search, and cyn.in is no exception. When you need to find something that had been posted before and has since fallen off the page, you can enter in a query straight into the desktop client itself. The results returned are ranked for you according to the percentage match and you can scroll through them just as you can with the Activity Stream.

The cyn.in client is beautiful implementation of how microblogging could (and perhaps should) work for businesses, but it's the client's integration with the cyn.in team collaboration suite that makes it so worthwhile. Of course, the decision to move away from your company's current collaboration suite is not one to be made lightly, so you should review the suite's features before deciding if it's right for you.

Other enterprise microblogging clients include Yammer, Present.ly, and Status, but none offer an integrated collaboration suite, too. Cyn.in is open source, but it can also be purchased as a hosted service or as an enterprise appliance.

We especially like Yuuguu because only the person actually sharing the screen has to install any software, while everybody else can just use a flash-based web interface to see your screen. Too many other free screensharing tools make both sides install software on their machines.

The IM functionality works just as advertised and is similar to most other multi-service IM clients. It is, however, not as fully featured as some other clients like Digsby, Trillian, or Adium. You can not send files to other users, for example.

Some Limitations

We noticed a few minor limitations to Yuuguu, though none of them are real deal breakers. If you have a dual-screen setup, for example, only your first screen can be shared on Yuuguu. Also, you can only add one IM account per service to Yuuguu. If you use more than one Google Talk account, you will have to choose which one to add to Yuuguu.

Overall however, the IM integration works very well and adds a new degree of functionality to a tool we already liked a lot. If you are looking for an easy to use screensharing tool, you could do a lot worse than giving Yuuguu a try.

The Palringo app for the iPhone is small enough to download over Edge or 3G. To get started you'll need to have a Palringo account. If you don't already have one, there's a link available in the app that will take you to the registration site. Registration is quick and easy and no confirmation email is necessary to respond to.

Supported services for Palringo include:

• Windows Live Messenger
• Yahoo! Messenger
• AIM
• Gadu-Gadu
• ICQ
• XMPP / Jabber
• Google Talk
• iChat

Conversing with Friends

The user interface for Palringo is fantastic! Adding networks and friends to each of the services is quick and easy. All of your online contacts are shown together alphabetically regardless of service. When you receive a message, you'll see a small mail icon pop up in the lower left corner accompanied by a chirping notification sound. Press the mail icon and you'll see a list of all your conversations along with a notification of which ones have new messages. You can leave conversations open and simply swipe your finger across the screen to switch from one conversation to another. You can also send an image from your camera or albums on your iPhone to friends.

Goodbye AOL and Hello Palringo

Palringo for the iPhone is a great application to have and highly recommended. According to Palringo's description of the app,

"Using Palringo uses hardly any data: just one megabyte is sufficient for Palringo to send and receive the equivalent of about 4500 SMS messages, 32 picture messages, or up to 15 minutes of voice messages."

KickApps is currently being used by quite a few high profile affiliates, including NPR, ABC Family, as well as a number of professional sports teams.

Just about a month ago, Userplane itself announced that it was going to make white label plugins of its chat tool available for Drupal, Wordpress, Joomla, as well as a number of other platforms. Userplane is already available on Friendster, Date.com, and MySpace.

Advertising

Interestingly, KickApps will feature "non-intrusive, relevant advertising on the chat and IM clients by Userplane." KickApps affiliates who would like to have more control over the advertising would have to go through an advertising buyout directly with Userplane.

IM for Web Sites

Just about a year ago, we prognosticated that IM for web sites was a trend worth watching. Since then, some of the sites we wrote about at the time, such as 3bubbles.com, have gone under, and others have failed to gain a lot of mind share. Even me.com, which now hosts Apple's MobileMe, was once supposed to host a white label social networking application. Clearly, it takes a large and established community to make IM within a closed off silo a success.

Quite a few of KickApps' affiliates are large enough to make IM a useful feature for their communities, though for most of its smaller affiliates, chat will probably be more of a gimmick than a useful feature.

There is a lot of movement in the web IM market. Just last week, Google launched its Lively 3D chat rooms for web sites. Yet, while this is a nifty application, it will probably remain a niche product for special occasions (if that), as few publishers have the number of dedicated and connected users who would actually want to spend a lot of time chatting with each other on IM.

What Meebone basically does is display the Meebo web app in an AIR window, somewhat akin to what Fluid does on the Mac.

As we reported in March, Meebo is becoming more and more of a mainstream application and chances are that quite a few users are using it on their desktops already and not just on the go, so having a desktop client for it actually makes sense for a lot of users. It effectively clones the look and feel of the web app, so even novice users will feel right at home with Meebone.

While it might not be a good choice for IM power users, Meebone would be a great choice for those who are looking for a basic IM client that can handle multiple accounts and services.

UPDATE: Due to demand in the comments, Pidgin and Miranda have been added. At time of adding, 3651 votes had been cast. Apologies to fans of those two IM clients for the omission.

UPDATE 2: Also added iChat (3983 votes cast).

Photo credit: BigBlue