Greg’s Mind

New AIM Logo

We pushed live a new AIM build last night that sets the stage for some good things in the near future.  The first change that I am glad to share is that the AIM Running Man is back.  When I started on AIM almost 10 years ago, the running man was the icon for our messaging app and remained so until 2004, now he’s back.  You will see the new running man icon all over the place including OpenAIM, aim.com and AOL properties.

AIM 6.9 also takes your AIM buddy feed to the next level by replacing the orange feed indicator icon with the “favicon” of the most recent update.  For example, if I were to upload a picture to Flickr, instead of seeing the old orange icon next to my screen name, you will now see the Flickr favicon.

New Feed Indicator

AIM 6.9 also supports better ways of finding friends and adding new connections in your buddy list via Add Buddy and our first time user experience.

For OpenAIM developers wanting to build plugins for the latest release, we will be doing a new Open AIM SDK in the very near future with the latest API additions that coresponds to the AIM 6.9 release.

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There have been a few newsworthy items over the past week surounding the OpenAIM program.  Seeing articles titled “AOL’s IM Opens Up While Microsoft and Yahoo Hunker Down” makes me feel really good about what I have been building over the past 10 years.  We are almost at OpenAIM 2.0’s one year anniversary, and we continue to innovate in the space where both developers and consumers are going to benefit from AIM’s openness.

In the above article I mentioned, the article discusses Meebo (an OpenAIM 2.0 launch partner) launching Facebook Chat integration inside Meebo.com.  OpenAIM gets a nice nod a couple of paragraphs later when the discussion moves to messaging services opening up.

Gradually AOL’s AIM network began to get in on the action, first with Open AIM 1.0 (which really wasn’t open at all, as it was primarily concerned with plugins and status updates) and later in 2008 with Open AIM 2.0. The second iteration of Open AIM offers third party web services like Meebo and native clients like Adium a sanctioned way to access the network.

We want to continue to reach out to the development community to give them the best in breed tools so AIM users have the best experience online whether it be via our flagship AIM Windows client or on iChat or on Meebo.

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A few people have been asking me about AIM Lite as it has been over a year since we last did a release.  I wanted to take this opportunity to clear up some stuff with AIM Lite.  The idea of a light-weight AIM client pre-dates my 9+ years at AOL, by a few months, but it really came to surface in the winter of 2006 during the AIM Triton project.

When we created AIM Lite it was done as an exercise to improve the architecture that was used to connect Open AIM to the user interface elements.  Things like displaying IMs, rendering 1000 buddies in a Buddy List, and composing IMs were improved in AIM Lite.  Now much of that knowledge resides in the AIM client, and has been available to everyone since last year’s AIM 6.5 release.

AIM Lite also gave birth to a feature everyone benefited from in June of 2008.  AIM Lite featured a type of AIM Plugin called AIM Widgets (AWI).  These AIM Widgets led us to developing AIM Modules, which are a super set of AWIs in functionality and features.

I can’t say we will never touch the AIM Lite code base again, and for those who still use AIM Lite, we have no plans to decommission it either.  Hopefully this clears up any misconceptions behind AIM Lite, and if you are looking for a simple AIM experience, check out the AIM Express client.  The best part is that there is no download for the client, as long as Flash 9 is installed.

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A lot of users have been asking me about the AIM Buddy Feed that appears in the Buddy Info window.  Some people are wondering how to turn off their buddy feed, while others are wondering if they can do more with it.  First, lets look at where the Buddy Feed appears in the AIM client.

When your buddy has a new feed item an orange icon will appear next to their name:

If you click that icon, it will open up the buddy info window for that user.  You will see something like this:

The area circled in red is the AIM Buddy Feed.  In this area your friends can see what plugins you have installed or if you have updated your AIM Profile.

For those that want to turn off AIM Buddy Feeds, skip the next two paragraphs.

If you are reading this you want to know more of what you can do with your AIM Buddy Feeds.  Our buddy feeds allow you to share with your buddies stuff you are doing outside of AIM and AOL.  If you are on Twitter, Flickr or MySpace you can add those accounts into your AIM Buddy Feed.  The way to modify or manage your feed is to use our Manage Feeds page.

If you are a developer, and are wondering if there is a way to get your content into AIM Buddy Feeds, the answer is “of course!”  In the latest Open AIM SDK available on the Open AIM website, you can access the IAccBuddyFeedManager and create a new IAccBuddyFeed item.  Then using the BuddyFeedManager, you can Push that new item.

If you want to manage the privacy for your own AIM Buddy Feed, you can do this in the AIM client by opening your Preferences and choosing the Privacy tab.  There are checkboxes at the bottom of that dialog for you to check or uncheck.

Sometimes I just like to view all of my friend’s feeds at one time on one page, and we have that too.  We also have a page that consolidates all of your feeds so you can what you are doing .

admin AIM, Open AIM AIM, Buddy Feeds, OpenAIM

I have posted the latest version of AIM MusicLink, version 4.1.0.0.  If you are an existing AIM MusicLink user, you will get prompted for auto upgrade.  You can ignore the upgrade, or get it later.  You can get an upgrade via the Check For Upgrade button via the AIM MusicLink Preference window.  You will only be prompted once.  There are some real key feature and bug fixes in this release.

• AIM MusicLink now supports an option to set your status in “Artist – Song” format and “Song – Artist” format.
• Fixed a long standing bug with Windows Media Player not reporting the correct song.  This was due to an issue with the Windows Media Player API passing incorrect data in the MediaChange event.  I discovered a work around this Microsoft bug.
• Fixed bug with RealPlayer song status being set with a missing leading character
• Fixed bug with Uninstaller not unregistering the AIM MusicLink dlls.

Here is a screen shot of the new preference panel showing how to change the status format.

AIM MusicLink Preferences 4.1.0.0

You can download the latest AIM MusicLink here.

To read all about AIM MusicLink or to get questions answered make sure to visit the AIM MusicLink homepage.

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On Tuesday we posted the latest AIM for Mac client, Beta3, on our beta website.  AIM for Mac was first released a month ago, and in that time we have made a bunch of changes.  The application is built on top of the Open AIM Cocoa framework that is available as part of the Open AIM Mac SDK.  Here are some highlighted changes in Beta 3:

• Redesigned Buddy List header area and added Quick Status and Away toggle
• Find Buddy search box is now toggled using the magnifying glass icon
• Will now auto-format phone numbers so users can send IMs to SMS text message capable phones**
• Fixed issue for Tiger users to correctly display status messages on the Buddy List
• Preference window will now remember size/screen position
• Fixed auto-accept file transfer preferences when user closes and reopens application

You can download AIM for Mac Beta 3 here.

As always we appreciate feedback on how this client is coming along.

** – I find it interesting that Google Talk launched IM to SMS as a very very burried feature in GTalk today.  It will be 5 years on December 17th this year that we released IM to SMS for AIM.  I along with our mobile team in Seattle and our AIM Host team in Dulles brought this great feature to the client oh so many years ago.

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If it was up to you, who would you and your friends vote for? AIM Vote 2008 lets you cast a virtual ballot for Obama or McCain and then view how the other buddies on your buddylist with this plugin are voting right now.

This morning we published AIM Vote ‘08 to the gallery, so get out there and make it known who you are voting for.  The vote total dynamically updates, so you can see in real time the results.

Download AIM Vote ‘08 here.

And next week go from the virtual AIM voting booth to the real voting booth, make your voice count.

admin AIM, AIM Module, AMO, Open AIM AIM, AIM Modules, AMOs, OpenAIM

Last week we launched the latest AIM 6.9 beta, so I am a week late posting on this, as I was away last week.  We have changed the UI to be more graphical in nature and given users back some space on their buddy list.

But in the better late than never category, here is the change log:

• Sign in as invisible: Sign into AIM without letting your buddies know. You can see your buddies online, but they won’t be able to see you. As always, you can IM them at anytime to give up your secret. To become available to all your buddies, click the closed eyeball icon on your Buddy List®.
• New sleek, light weight design: Let us know what you think of the new colors, new buttons and overall look and feel. We’ve been busy removing those menus you don’t use too.
• Manage your Buddy List: We’re giving you back more Buddy List® real estate. Find buddies in your list is now collapsed. Reveal it when you need it by selecting the keyboard keys Ctrl + f.

You can download AIM 6.9 Beta 2 here.

As always feedback is appreciated.

admin AIM AIM

This morning we just pushed live a new beta AIM client for the Mac.  You can check out all the details here, but needless to say we are excited to share this application with you.  This builds on our commitment to developing software for Apple hardware, whether it be AOL on Desktop, AOL Radio or the AIM iPhone app.  Here are some of the features for client:

• AIM Experience: Users can customize their AIM for Mac experience with AIM Expressions – Change your AIM sounds, wallpaper, emoticon set or Buddy Icon.
• Favorite AIM Features: AIM File Transfer, Tabbed IM conversations, friendly names, AIM Groups, AIM Blast groups are supported.
• Easy Access to Mail: With a single click, you can view your mail in AOL or AIM webmail.
• Speed: Download, install and launch AIM for Mac in seconds.

AIM for Mac is built on top of the Open AIM platform, using the Mac SDK.

Download AIM for Mac here.

As always we appreciate feedback.

admin AIM, Mac, Open AIM AIM, Mac, OpenAIM

Going on vacation with the family and having no internet accessibility is always a challenge.  Awaiting my return was about 1000+ email I had to catch up on, then there were all my feeds to read, I also could not prepare adequately for my fantasy football draft this week which could hamper my fun over the next 18 weekends.

Apparently we did a whole bunch of releases while I was gone, so for now I will just post a summary, and get into more details in follow up posts.

1. AIM Express 7.0 is now live and released.
2. AIM 6.9 Beta 1 is available on our beta website
3. AIM for Windows Mobile is out of beta and available for everyone to try.
4. AIM MusicLink 4.0.0.0 has now over 1 Million users in just 25 days.
5. AIM MusicLink now supports AOL Radio and Shoutcast Radio, for details check out the AIM MusicLink homepage.

I will dive into details on these releases over the next few days.

admin AIM, AIM Express, AIM MusicLink AIM, AIM Express, AIM MusicLink, AIM Windows Mobile