If you want to use the webcam feature of the major instant messaging system, then it might be worth paying for the upgrade.
#VOXOX VS SKYPE UPGRADE#
The free Basic version only supports four IM protocols (AIM, ICQ, MSN and Yahoo) for other protocols you need up upgrade to Pro.
#VOXOX VS SKYPE PRO#
(The Pro version of Trillian will set you back $25.)įinal verdict: Trillian is a solid IM product, but in recent years has been showing its age. However, you'll have to pay to activate webcam functionality if you want to literally see your IM buddies. What sets it apart: Unlike the other multiprotocol IMs, Trillian supports the video chat capabilities of the major IM services (AIM, MSN, Yahoo). So if you IM a grinning monkey face emoticon to a friend who is not using Trillian, he may see gibberish instead.įor those of you who like to keep a neatly laid-out desktop, the Trillian app can be docked to either the right or left side of the screen. While these are fun to use, most of them are incompatible with the emoticon sets of the other instant messaging services. Trillian gives you a bunch of emoticons, too, which even includes cartoony animal faces and an icon of a VW bug.
#VOXOX VS SKYPE SKIN#
Quality of user interface: The default skin is colorful, though nothing special, with just enough flash to be interesting without coming across as confusing. But the developers of Trillian were renowned for quickly updating their IM to circumvent AOL's blocking. Throughout the early years of its development, Trillian sparked the ire of AOL, which tried many times to block Trillian users from connecting to AOL's AIM network. Trillian The quick rundown: Named after the character from The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Trillian, from Cerulean Studios, was released back in 2000, making it one of the grand-daddies of multiprotocol IMs. If security and privacy are priorities for you (like on an office or public network), or you just want to know what's running under the hood, Pidgin is the one to check out. A few stability issues seem to crop up (at least with the Windows version, perhaps because of GTK+), but such occurrences are usually rare.
Basically, if there's a spoken language anywhere on the planet, this multiprotocol IM probably supports it.įinal verdict: Despite its age, Pidgin has evolved into a highly regarded and popular IM app. Pidgin also supports a whole lot of languages.
#VOXOX VS SKYPE UPDATE#
Notable plug-ins include instant messaging through your Facebook account, Twitter update notification, encrypted messaging and telling your online friends what music you are currently listening to. What sets it apart: Pidgin is an open-source project, and, like Firefox, it has a community of users who have written lots of plug-ins, which add features to the app or enhance its interface. Mark Doliner, one of the developers of Pidgin, jokes that his messenger's simple interface "should blend in well with other office software, so it might not be immediately obvious that you're talking to friends when you're supposed to be doing work." (GTK+ is mostly used for Linux applications and is known for its no-nonsense and direct approach to presenting user interfaces.) Pidgin's staid skin selection may be because this IM relies on the GTK+ tool kit to run its graphical UI. It works well, but even the default set of emoticons is limited. Quality of user interface: Pidgin's interface is generally unobtrusive, sporting a basic, no-frill look. It runs on Windows and several Linux distributions. Its developers helped pioneer and fine-tune the idea of bringing multiple IM user accounts together under one app. Pidgin The quick rundown: Originally called GAIM before AOL raised a stink because of the trademark of its own AIM instant messaging service, Pidgin has been in constant development for 10 years (beginning in 1999).
0 kommentar(er)
