If you're into instant messaging in a big way, you'll probably want to take a look at the free Trillian chat app, which, like others, lets you IM with friends on multiple networks, like Yahoo, AOL, Windows Live, Google Talk, and so on.

On Thursday, Trillian-maker Cerulean studios announced two pieces of interesting information. If you're an iPhone user, hang in there or skip to the end.

First, the company is readying a beta version of its chat app for Android phones 1.6 and up. As with other Trillian apps, it will manage chatting through Yahoo, Google Talk, Windows Live, Facebook, AIM, ICQ, Jabber/XMPP, and MySpace IM.

As for features, it will include the usual suspects of avatars, sorting contacts, status bar updating, and come configuration over the organization of the buddy list. Trillian for Android will also include tabbed conversations, which will make it easy to switch among multiple chats, and the all-important gallery of emoticons. Photo transfers are also in the features lineup.

Those who sign up for the Trillian Android beta should expect some activity "in a few weeks."

As a second piece of news, Cerulean Studios also announced an update to its iPhone app that optimizes the IM client for the iPhone 4. Specifically, it ties into the iOS 4's multitasking capabilities and bakes in multiple sign-in support for Windows Live Messenger. It's also optimized to look good on the iPhone 4's "Retina Display" with its 326 pixels per inch.

Originally posted at Android Atlas

Opera surprised the mobile world when it overhauled its Opera Mini browser for Java phones last September. The tremendous improvement brought the browser a more attractive interface and sophisticated features, like tabbed browsing.

On Thursday, the browser company released an update to Opera Mini for select Nokia phones.

Opera Mini 5.1 tweaks the browser skin to allow more Web pages to be open simultaneously. Back-end updates have addressed scrolling speed in particular and processing speed overall.

In a press release, Opera "highly" recommends the update for handsets with limited memory or smaller screen sizes. The update targets performance issues, like out-of-memory errors or open Web pages that require reloading to view.

As for the models being called out, Opera specifically names the following handsets as ideal candidates for the update:

• Nokia 5130 XpressMusic

• Nokia 6300

• Nokia 2700
  

• Sony Ericsson K550i

• Sony Ericsson W810i
  

To download Opera Mini 5.1, point the mobile browser to m.opera.com.

Mozilla's first public beta for Firefox 4 debuts support for future-Web tech, lays the groundwork for better security features, and launches a brand-new look that should be eerily familiar to users of Opera and Chrome.

Want to try it out for yourself? Download Firefox 4 beta 1 for Windows, Mac, and Linux.

Remember Early Edition, the iPad app that presents your RSS feeds in an attractive newspaper-style format? Well, I've shelved it for now while I indulge my fascination with Blogshelf, a blog and RSS reader that has a dazzling iBooks-style presentation.

Designed for "casual users," Blogshelf ($4.99) offers roughly the same experience as browsing the magazine shelves at the library. It comes with about 20 popular blogs--Autoblog, Cinematical, Serious Eats, and so on--already configured, but you can line your "shelves" with preselected blogs from 18 categories.

It also has a search option to help you find and add other RSS feeds--all you do is type in some keywords or a URL.

But it's Blogshelf's presentation that elevates it above most other newsreaders I've tried. When you tap any blog on your "shelf," the app presents you with a beautifully formatted scrollable list of entries. When you tap an entry, you get a page that looks like something straight out of a magazine.

As you'd expect, the app lets you e-mail articles to friends, mark articles as favorites, and adjust the font size. You can also adjust your iPad screen brightness with a simple pull-down control and choose between black and white backgrounds.

However, I have a few gripes with Blogshelf.

First, it doesn't have a refresh button or an option to change the rate at which the app automatically fetches new content. One blog in particular, TUAW, failed to update for days.

Some news feeds, usually the ones you add manually, show only a brief description of each post. Others fail to show thumbnail artwork, even though photos are present within the posts. However, this may have more to do with the mysteries of RSS than with Blogshelf.

Thankfully, for any post you're viewing, you can tap View Original Article to see the actual Web page--or View In Safari if you want to switch to your Web browser.

Because it's limited to 90 blogs, Blogshelf may be too limiting for hardcore readers. But for "casual" folks like me, it's just about the ultimate way to browse and read blogs on an iPad. 

Is there a feed reader you like better? Talk it up in the comments!

Originally posted at iPad Atlas