Remember America Online? Yellow guy, blue triangle? “You’ve Got Mail!” No? Trust me, it was huge once — the dominant way a lot of Internet newbies first reached out across cyberspace. And after five years (yes, five years), AOL has finally rolled out a new beta for its main line AOL Desktop for Mac software.
After all this time, the actual upgrade’s features aren’t terribly thrilling (particularly for anyone who, you know, just uses a web browser for all of this stuff). There’s definitely still a market for an integrated Internet app that gets the basics — mail, chat and browsing — down well, and I’m always fascinated to see if AOL can ever start to gain back the kind of position it once held.
Here’s what’s in store, other than being “Leopard-ready”:
Fast Load Time: AOL® Desktop for Mac launches within seconds and enables users to begin browsing immediately, without signing in to the software.
Tabbed Navigation: Tabbed browser and AIM® windows offer easy access to content, and an uncluttered, organized view of all open windows.
Additional Email Options: A streamlined AOL Mail experience allows users to send and receive messages using multiple email accounts, including Apple Mac addresses, Gmail, Verizon and more from one Inbox.
AIM Integration: AIM is built in to the software, so users can view Buddies online, chat, and more while checking their email or browsing the Web.
Customizable Toolbar: An easy-to-use customizable toolbar gives users quick access to their favorite sites.
Yep, it’s only several years behind the cutting edge in browsing. Oh, and you can finally use other e-mail protocols. What a time to be alive. Anyone using the beta? What’s that all about?
8 responses to “AOL Remembers Mac Exists; Mac Doesn’t Return Favor Yet”
This is way better than the previous version of AOL, just in the fact that it loads instantly and you don’t need to sign in to use it. I never really liked the aol software for mac or pc due to the load time and the need to sign in. However, for basic web browsing and email this does the job.
Think i’ll stick with mail and firefox though!
“the dominant way a lot of Internet newbies first reached out across cyberspace”… Guilty! lol! That was in my PC days when I didn’t know any better! And when you had to pay something like 1 pence per minute (UK) for connection (which was a lot of money back then…)
Why is it though that AOL has such a bad press? I always hear people say stuff like “AOL is evil”; “Avoid Or Lose”. I’ve got a feeling it might have been about privacy and personal information? If it is I guess they’ve been trumped by Google!
After what we just experienced with Desktop for Mac, I would not recommend it to anyone.
We mainly use web for e-mail so AOL on pc worked well enough for years. Until we bought an IMAC last year (Tiger 10.4.11). The installed AOL for MAC was so primitive we just emailed on pcs, but then switched to Mac fulltime. We downloaded Desktop for Mac 1.0 which worked, then used it to set up mail folders on the IMAC in order to save work emails, a lot of them. Last week AOL started touting “improved” Desktop for Mac 1.1 via popup alerts, so we downloaded it and disaster struck. Incoming email showed erroneous senders and ccs;email sent to us bounced, sent mail didn’t work, etc. When we scrapped 1.1, all those folders full of saved emails disappeared–invisible to AOL for Mac as well as Desktop betas later than 1.1. AOL canned desktop 1.0, so we could not to back to it. The only way to read the email folders is to reinstall 1.1. AOL MAC techs were helpful, but no fixes worked. One tech explained that Desktop 1.1 was actually just a beta (which AOL does not state).
P.S. in July AOL is raising its rates, especially for those who need live help. Avoid or Lose.
what surprises me is that AOL is still trying to do it all. There are so many software programs for every function one wants to do that they don’t need to be making there own. especially one that saves everything in special AOL understandable formats etc. why not scrap the home software, work with what is installed on the computers when you buy them (both Windows and PC has such programs) and become a service company only. there is still a market for a truly national ISP thanks to folks moving and traveling more than before.