After over two years of development, the popular new IM re-birth of Trillian known as Trillian Astra has come to the iPhone in a notable way. However, one may question whether it stands out from its competitors, particularly over cost.

Although other iPhone web messengers are available and do a great job, Trillian Astra has a layer of polish that is both engaging and fun for the end user. The interface is beautiful, feature packed and its simplicity over integration should be noted. Trillian for the iPhone is rather simply "clean, concise, and coherent". The catch? Currently priced at $4.99 the key question is this app value for money? In many ways yes; this is a feature packed app with a lot to offer and a serious consideration for iPhone users who IM on the go. If you only casually IM on your phone however, then you may struggle to find value in Trillian for the iPhone.

Visit the Trillian for iPhone website

Speedlinking posts are where I organise all my bookmarks and go over some small news items over the past couple of weeks (or in this case, a month) and write them up here. As ever we aim to deliver all news, no matter how mediocre they may seem, so let's get it out of the way in this post.

• eBuddy reveals statistics (17th July): It may interest you to know the popularity of the hit web messenger. Its new iPhone App reached the top spot in the App Store in 40 countries within the past week, their Mobile Messenger has been downloaded 25 million times and over 1,750,000,000 are sent with eBuddy each week. [Read more]
  
  
• Trillian Astra enters public beta (19th June): The IM buzz for several years now has been about the future of Trillian and we have been posting about it for a long time. The Windows and Web version has entered a public beta phase for everyone to try out. [Read more]
  
  
• 10 IM Apps for the iPhone (15th July): A recent article I came across at theAppleBlog gives an overview of the various IM apps available for the iPhone and presents a rounded and informed overview of each. [Read more]
  
  
• MessengerDiscovery 2.0.48 (10th July): The update provides 12 important bug fixes, new API features and an improved tray menu among several other things. According to Matt via his Twitter feed the update was due some weeks before, but was delayed as he had the flu. [Read more]
  
  
• LiveScratcher public beta (16th July): This week we talked about what TheBlasphemer was doing in 2009, where his new project, LiveScratcher was discussed. Now an early build has been uploaded for Messenger developers to experiment with. If your interested, give it a go. [Read more]

The Apple iPhone has dominated the media over the past couple of weeks, and it even seems to have wormed its way into the world of Messenger (despite it being a Microsoft product designed for Windows). The device is sure to change how those bulky, bloated palmtops are designed but that doesn't stop people getting into the inner working of the phone.

Although web messengers such as Meebo have added temporary support for the iPhone (by adding a submit button, rather than relying on a key press), there is one web messenger that is providing full support and is designed specifically for the iPhone.

Trillian Astra, the highly awaited new IM client, will provide an iPhone web messenger. It has been designed to look like other applications on the iPhone. Unfortunately you cannot get your hands on it yet, but it is suspected that alpha testers will receive a build this week.

It just shows how web messengers are evolving, and becoming much more portable. Just a couple of years ago they were rare, difficult to use and lacked in features. Now they have been seriously popular and huge money making scripts.

View screenshots of Trillian Astra for the iPhone in action
Learn more about Trillian Astra
Source: Cerulean Studios' Blog