Filed under: Software
AOL Desktop 1.0 now shipping for Mac users
The long and sometimes rocky history of the America Online client for the Macintosh -- a saga stretching back to the original AppleLink Personal Edition service, with a detour through a place called eWorld -- has now moved on to a new generation with the 1.0 release of AOL Desktop for Mac last week. We noted the test version (Cheshire) and the beta last year. For users of the online service, the rebuilt-from-the-ground-up client is worth a look.
New features include a revised AIM client that includes some of the bells and whistles long familiar to Windows users (Expressions), a Webkit-based tabbed browser, and a revamped Mail tool that strongly resembles the existing AOL webmail interface. Users of the older client can transfer AOL Favorites and AOL Mail from their local datastore with ease. AOL/AIM is free for BYO-broadband users and charges a monthly fee for customers who use AOL as their internet service provider.
The new version of the client requires a G4 or Intel machine and Mac OS X 10.4.8 or higher. If you prefer the "classic" client you can still download it from AOL, but it may look kinda clunky next to the new version. More screenshots and details at the AOL Mac blog, and see the continuation of the post for a video preview of the client.
AOL is the parent company of Weblogs, Inc. and TUAW.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 3)
Luigi193 said 1:56PM on 5-15-2008
What is the advantages of using AOL? Just curious...
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Ethan said 4:57PM on 5-15-2008
It simplifies the internet. Unfortunately my grandma doesn't have a mac.
eric f. said 10:14AM on 5-16-2008
precisely. perfect for the totally tech ignorant. I'm gonna have to get my grandma a Mac.
Ryan Kuhn said 1:58PM on 5-15-2008
How does AppleLink or eWorld have anything to do with AOL on the mac? From what I remember it's totally separate. I was a beta user for the AOL client on the mac way back since the early 90's (AOL client used to be ONLY for the mac, then 2.0 came color!, 2.5 web browser yay, 2.6 TCP stack...). From what I remember, it hasn't been that rocky except for the fact that their clients have really been poorly implemented for the past 10 years.
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Michael Rose said 2:07PM on 5-15-2008
The AOL "Quantum Link" client application was used to provision the AppleLink Personal Edition service from Apple. Later, Apple's eWorld service was built on similar AOL-licensed code via the APE contract.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AOL#History
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EWorld
Troy McClure SF said 2:07PM on 5-15-2008
...but why?!
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Zee said 2:03PM on 5-15-2008
It will be a cold day in hell before I ever download this...
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Ben said 3:11PM on 5-15-2008
Here here. I second that. Ugh.
Matt said 5:24PM on 5-15-2008
I will never touch another AOL product again...
Quine said 3:54PM on 5-15-2008
thirded.
aol is so bad my family canceled the service even after they offered 3 more months free. no joke. it's that bad.
Anthony said 4:29PM on 5-15-2008
It is ugly, I have ever seen
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K said 2:23PM on 5-15-2008
Negative nancy needs to work on using complete sentences.
juniper said 2:06PM on 5-15-2008
AOL has been struggling to stay alive it seems for quite a while... why don't they drop their old products and move on to the new, like that Video application they release... http://www.apple-group.com
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Nay said 2:16PM on 5-15-2008
And I would use this why?
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Luigi193 said 2:20PM on 5-15-2008
I almost feel bad for ragging on them... I feel bad for the dude in the video...
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okto said 2:32PM on 5-15-2008
Come on, Time Warner! How many people are smart enough to use a Mac, but dumb enough to pay AOL for a crap version of what the regular WWW gives you for free?
This has ALWAYS been true, actually. I guess before the WWW, AOL did have some sort of appeal, but I feel like after that they only survived on convincing technophobes either that the Web was scary, or that AOL provided better content.
So essentially, for the last decade-and-a-half of their existence, they've survived on lies and deceit.
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Blu-Sam said 2:36PM on 5-15-2008
All I can give the PRO about new AOL which much better and quick loading than classic AOL.
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Blaktornado said 2:41PM on 5-15-2008
"AOL is the parent company of Weblogs, Inc. and TUAW."
So I guess you can't give us a fair review of it :P
Ah well, it does look good, I must say, but I'm not an AOL user so I can't and don't really want to use it, lol.
although I like the unity of it all. It's basically Safari, iChat and Mail all in one, which is cool. Saves you opening all those apps and just having them unified :)
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Bill G said 2:49PM on 5-15-2008
I don't think I'd ever use that application, but since aol.com mail is accessible by any IMAP application, and has infinite storage, I think it's the best free email option out there.
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Nay said 2:54PM on 5-15-2008
Last I checked, I was able to access gmail via IMAP, and it's free.