One of common negatives highlighted in iPhone reviews is the lack of messaging capabilities in the iPhone. All is not lost though as Cerulean Studios is developing Trillian Astra specifically for the iPhone.
So if you are interested in adding instant messaging to your iPhone experience enroll for beta testing of the application.
Before I give you more details on how you can start beta testing, let me give a brief on Trillian in case you are not aware. Trillian is a fully featured, stand-alone, skinnable chat client that supports AIM, ICQ, MSN, Yahoo Messenger, and IRC. It provides capabilities not possible with original network clients, while supporting standard features such as audio chat, file transfers, group chats, chat rooms, buddy icons, multiple simultaneous connections to the same network, server-side contact importing, typing notification, direct connection (AIM), proxy support, encrypted messaging (AIM/ICQ), SMS support, tabbed chatting, system-tray notifications and alerts, and privacy settings.
It is not yet clear about the features that will be available in the Trillian Astra which is being specifically developed for the iPhone but it should definitely give you an option to chat with your friends on AIM, ICQ, MSN, Yahoo Messenger, IRC etc in real time thus unlocking the messaging capabilities of the iPhone.
The screen as seen in the image above looks quite good to call it a truly iPhone Application. So if you are interested in participating in the Trillian Astra beta program, click on this link and it would be great if you could share your experience in the comments below.
I would like to beta test this
I have an unlocked (using AnySIM software) Mac version 1.0.2 iPhone. I'm also using AT&T, but without the specifically signed-up for iPhone contract.
Here is my problem, I can seem to IMAP my Yahoo e-mail using the "mail" icon on the iPhone. I have successfully IMAP Gmail, but it give a message of "Cannot Connect Using SSL" when I tried to configure Yahoo email. I tried using "other" instead of selecting "Yahoo" to set up the account. Once in the configuration screen on the iPhone for "incoming mail server" I put the host name of "imap.apple.mail.yahoo.com" and for "outgoing mail server (SMTP)" I put the host name "smtp.apple.mail.yahoo.com". Is either of the host names for incoming or outgoing servers wrong? Is there another name that might work? Is this a common problem if you have an unlocked iPhone, in that it won't sync with Yahoo mail?
Thanks for your help.