Make sure you know exactly what you install with AIM.
(Credit: Dong Ngo/CNET Networks)The new update of AOL Instant Messenger, the AIM 6.8 Refresh, came out Tuesday with a new feature that allows you to send photos to cell phone users. I decided to try the new version out, mostly because I wanted to get rid of the annoying update notification.
Once the installation was done, I found out that the neat-sounding feature is limited to people using certain types of cell phones within the T-Mobile network.
None of my buddies meet the criteria so I didn't get to try it out, but I am not terribly impressed with the idea of this new feature, especially when cell phones these days can be used to easily check e-mail or receive multimedia messages. If anything, I am concerned.
The installation of the new AIM, much like that of any other instant-messenger app, still wants to significantly change the settings of your computer, including installing the terrible AOL toolbar, change the default home page to AOL.com, and change the default search engine to that of AOL (which is also terrible).
Make sure you pick the custom installation and uncheck all the boxes of features you don't wish to install before proceeding.
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CNET Networks)
After the sophistication of desktop chatting, mobile instant messaging services often tend to look like rough, rickety wire frames. Not so for AOL's first house-made application for mobile phones, a rich AIM client for Windows Mobile phones versions 5 and 6.
Released earlier this month, the IM application is in beta stages and there are plenty of known issues, including the one that number-locks the keypad on T-Mobile Dash phones and made for a dead-end first attempt. Past that obstacle, AIM for Windows Mobile phones offers a graphics-rich chat space with a few extras beyond basic messaging.
There's a status bar, AIM bots for guided chatting, and some light account management. There's also a visual solution to multiple conversations that earns a big, juicy point for creativity. Tabbed conversations and blinking messages are the norm for mobile IM, but AOL has opted to account for each open conversation by a buddy icon lined up along the left edge of the screen. During chats, each buddy icon is overlain with the number of awaiting messages, plus or minus an optional auditory accompaniment.
View, block, or tattetale on unsolicited messages.
(Credit: CNET Networks)The Windows Mobile application will also let users take advantage of text mode to send an SMS instead of an IM. This option was ghosted out during my testing, but I'm assured that by the end of the beta period, the feature will replicate the desktop experience.
Since IM wouldn't be IM without emoticons, AOL has taken care to include those, too. Emoticons are easy to add with a pop-up selector next to the text input field, but are too emo for my taste with their heavily bolded expressions. Tiny sizes don't help.
In fact, readability has been sacrificed in AIM for Windows Mobile in exchange for achieving a familiar desktop feel. Those with strong eyesight and no aversion to squinting shouldn't overly mind. Likewise, chatterboxes who prefer a greater graphical environment should weather the few extra nanoseconds it takes to switch between conversations.
AIM for Windows Mobile is a notable effort that serves AIM loyalists well, though with basic functionality. Let's hope future versions integrate with the phone camera and file system as well as with SMS.
If IMing friends from mobile to mobile is faster and cheaper than sending SMS messages, then IMing photos, videos, and music clips is even better.
Fring announced this week an update to its Symbian 9.1 and Symbian 9.2 offerings (sorry, Windows Mobile) that lets registered members swap files. This is the first I've heard of file-sharing from any mobile IM service, though saving the best perks for members is common to others, like EQO, that have far grander ambitions than simple all-in-one chat.
Share photo and videos files with fring friends.
Much like file-sharing from desktop chat apps, fring (it really is lower-case) files ride the Wi-Fi, 3G, GSM, GPRS, or EDGE wave between phones, but for fringsters only. Fring will ferry files over to the computer, too, via an Internet connection and MSN. Fring's neat, attractive offering clearly shows the direction in which mobile phones are headed: away from syncing, MMS, e-mailing a file to a middleman uploading service, and pushing media to a Web site. Though fring doesn't yet offer any of those forms of mass socializing, it does share media on an exclusive, individual level that's a good choice for users who prefer their privacy, and who can also convince their friends to use one more social service.
If that's not enough fringing for you, fring friends can stalk you through a fringME! widget you embed on a Web site, blog, or profile, which will disclose your whereabouts and give buddies an easy way to chat from their desktops. The updated Symbian version also uses its artificial noodle to determine which one of seven languages the user may need, and install accordingly.
Windows Mobile users (review) can still make free international calls to other fring members, IM through major chat networks, use Skype, and read and update Twitter.
The fring application is free to download from the PC or over the air, though carrier charges apply. If you're planning to try fring and don't have an unlimited data plan yet, now's the time to upgrade.
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