Trillian (instant messenger)

From Free net encyclopedia

Template:Infobox Software Trillian is a multiprotocol instant messaging application for Windows created by Cerulean Studios that can connect to multiple IM programs from one client, such as AIM, ICQ, MSN Messenger, Yahoo! Messenger, IRC, Novell GroupWise Messenger, Bonjour, Jabber, and Skype networks (the latter four with Trillian Pro which allows for additonal plugins).

Initially released July 1 2000 as a freeware IRC client, the first commercial version (Trillian Pro 1.0) was published on September 10, 2002. Trillian's creators have promised to continue to support and maintain a free version of Trillian, and it will remain a closed-source application.

The program was named after Trillian, a fictional character in The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams.

Contents

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Plugins

Trillian is a closed-source application, but the Pro version can be extended by plugins. Plugins by Cerulean Studios itself include spell-check, weather updater, a mini-browser (for viewing AIM profiles), e-mail checker, Winamp song title scroller, stock exchange monitor, and RSS feedreader, as well as a plugin for the Jabber and Bonjour networks. Others have developed various plugins, such as a games plugin which can be used to play chess and checkers, a protocol plugin to send NetBIOS messages through Trillian, a plugin to interact with Lotus Sametime clients, a plugin to interact with Microsoft Exchange, a POP3 and IMAP email checker, or an automatic translator for many European languages to and from English. There is a plugin to interact with Skype, SkyLlian, but it needs Skype to be installed in order to be used.

Plugins are available for free and are hosted at the main Trillian website and on the Trillian members plugin forum, but will only work with the Pro version of Trillian.

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Other features

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Representation

Trillian represents each client with a different-colored sphere. Prior versions used the corporate logos for each service, but these were removed to avoid copyright issues, although some skins still use the original icons for the mediums.

(* Indicates that a plugin and Trillian Pro are needed)

Image:Features screenshots 2x2 zoom1.jpg

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Activity history

Trillian Basic and Pro both come with Activity History. Basic logs the history as text files. Pro has a History Manager which shows the chat history and saves it as XML-files (as well as plain text files). It allows the user to add bookmarks for revision later on. XML-based history makes the log easy to manipulate, searchable and extendable for future functions.[1]

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Time travel

Trillian Pro also has the so-called Time Travel feature, allowing the user to record, and subsequently review, pause, rewind and fast forward live video and audio sessions.

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Instant lookup

Starting with version 3.0 in both the Basic and Pro suites, Trillian makes use of the English version of the Wikipedia free online encyclopedia for real-time referencing using its database of free knowledge. The feature is employed directly within a conversation window of a user. When one or more words are entered (by either user), Trillian checks all words against a database file and if a match is found, the word appears with a dotted green underline. When the user points their mouse over the word, the corresponding article is downloaded from Wikipedia and displayed on screen as a tooltip. When the user clicks on the underlined word, they are given the choice to visit the article online. This easy access to information creates an impression of omniscience within an instant message window, a condition jokingly referred to as Trilliscience.

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Emotiblips

Emotiblips™ are the video equivalent of an emoticon. During video sessions, the user may stream a song or video to the other user in real time. There is no special kind of file, either - MP3s, WAVs, WMVs, MPGs and the like will work fine. QuickTime MOV files as Emotiblips are not currently supported.

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Hidden Smileys

In version 2.0 to the current, the default emoticon set contains emoticons that don't appear in the menu but can be used in conversations. Some of these are animations that can only be appreciated in Trillian Pro, but all of them can be used regardless. A few such emoticons are:

  • (woot) - A little smiley leaping into the air and waving his hand.
  • (dance) - A smiley doing the victory dance.
  • (cheer) - A smiley waving his hands up and down as though cheering.
  • (worship) - A smiley doing the 'I'm not worthy!' bow.
  • (angel) - A smiley with wings and a halo.
  • (devil) - A smiley with bat wings and horns.
  • (santa) - A smiley resembling santa.
  • (hug) - One smiley hugging another.
  • (handshake) - One smilie shaking hands with another.

A comprehensive list of smileys can be found here.

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Version history

July 1, 2000
Initial Release, 0.50 of Trillian as an IRC client.

August 11, 2000
Version 0.52 released with more IRC-specific features.

November 29, 2000
Version 0.60 released with AIM, ICQ and MSN support. Many other features were also added.

December 23, 2000
Version 0.61 released. Includes Yahoo! Messenger support.

January 28, 2001
Version 0.62 released.

March 23, 2001
Version 0.63 released.

June 04, 2001
Version 0.635 released.

June 20, 2001
Version 0.6351 released.

December 05, 2001
Version 0.70 released. Initial support for file transfers.

December 18, 2001
Version 0.71 released. As first major IM client, Trillian included the ability to encrypt messages.

January 29-February 20, 2002
Versions 0.72x released. Fixed AIM connection problems.

June 7, 2002
Version 0.73 released.

September 10, 2002
Version 0.74 released.
Trillian Pro version 1.0 released.

September 9, 2003
Trillian Pro version 2.0 released.

December 17, 2004
Trillian Basic and Pro versions 3.0 released.

February 24, 2005
Trillian Basic and Pro versions 3.1 released.

Unknown, 2006 (most likely)
New version of Trillian to be released (as confirmed by Scott Werndorfer on The Cerulean Studios' Blog).

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See also

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External links

cs:Trillian de:Trillian (Instant Messenger) es:Trillian eo:Trillian fr:Trillian it:Trillian (software) hu:Trillian nl:Trillian (instant messenger) no:Trillian pt:Trillian ru:Trillian fi:Trillian sv:Trillian (datorprogram) zh:Trillian

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