I have been working on atoChat recently, here is the current changelog for v0.7!:

• Installer updated with new skin
• Now almost XHTML compliant
• JavaScript moved to its own .js file, instead of being in the index.php
• All the ajax calls are much more stable now, it uses jquery
• Help screen updated, looks much better now
• showsmileys() will now only display image files. Good for when windows makes that annoying Thumbs.db file, then atoChat ends up thinking it's a smiley.
• Cleaned up all the files and includes
• now using atolib library
• Update checker updated
• Color picker added instead of dropdown menu
• Central PHP script for the chat is no longer central
• Protocol changed to a more efficient one. This will allow reasons for kick/mute/ban/etc
• Added a send button
• atoChat now uses jquery for effects/ajax

Some of that might not make sense to unless you're a web developer, but hopefully the changelog proves that at least some progress is being made on atoChat! Still no idea when it will be ready to be released. All people who donated will receive it 2 weeks in advance, and it's still not too late to donate! (The donation button is on the atoChat page). With all of that said, I bid you farewell. Hopefully the next news post I make will be something along the lines of: "OMG, atoChat v0.7 has been released!!!111"