AOL Desktop for Mac Launched
Posted May 6th 2008 10:15AM by Lee Givens
Filed under: AOL Desktop for Mac, Announcements
It's Official: AOL Launches New Desktop Software for the Mac
New Software for Mac is Latest in Series of Enhanced Mac-Compatible Applications and Products Released by AOL
The AOL for Mac team is pleased to announce today that we are officially launching the new AOL Desktop for Mac software (http://mac.aol.com). Built from the ground-up by Mac users and for Mac users, the new AOL Desktop for Mac marks the first all-new and thoroughly modern desktop software launched by AOL for the Mac in more than five years.
AOL Desktop for Mac offers an all-in-one mail, messaging and Web browsing experience that is light on the desktop, loads in record time, and offers a variety of new features and functionality -- many of which were recommended by our beta testers and AOL Mac users. Highlights of the new software include:
- New, Fast-Loading Web Browser: Built using the same technology that supports the Safari and iPhone Web browsers, the new AOL Desktop for Mac software is armed with one of the fastest-loading browsers available. And because it shares Web components with the Mac OS® X operating system, it will never become obsolete.
- Exclusive New Version of AIM: Developed exclusively for the Mac, the new AIM application in AOL Desktop for Mac works alongside the new AOL Browser and Mail, offering users an enhanced text-based instant messaging experience that now includes many of AIM's most-popular features, such as Buddy Info, AIM Expressions and Buddy Fly Out.
- Easy Transition Tools: New functionality allows for fast, easy transfer of AOL Favorites and AOL Mail (from AOL for Mac OS X personal filing cabinets), as well as icon "tooltips," and a new AOL Support Portal for Mac.
- Tabbed IM and Browsing: Tabs on the browser and IM offer easy access to an uncluttered and organized view of all open windows, helping users stay organized and save time while online.
AOL Desktop for Mac is the latest addition to AOL's recently-released library of Mac and iPhone compatible products, including AOL Mobile Search optimized for the iPhone, AIM for the iPhone and Xdrive Desktop Lite. AOL Mail is also accessible on the iPhone. AOL has a long history of developing and supporting software and services specifically for Mac products, and originally debuted its service on the Mac more than 20 years ago.
The video posted below highlights several of the new features included in the new AOL Desktop for Mac. I encourage you try it for yourself at http://mac.aol.com. It is compatible with Mac OS X, Leopard and Tiger (i.e. Mac OS X 10.4.8 or higher), and will co-exist on your desktop with AOL for Mac OS X.
Link to High Resolution Version (QuickTime .MOV 1440 x 900 - 24.3MB)
Download AOL Desktop for Mac Screenshots
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About The Team
Welcome to the Mac@AOL Blog. My name is Lee Givens and I'm the Product Lead for the Mac and iPhone products at AOL. You can find the latest information on AOL's software development on the Mac and any cool happenings at AOL. The purpose of the blog is to create a feedback loop so we can hear from our loyal AOL Mac users. Managing a blog is a lot of work, so I enlisted support from the whole team...the Mac team is made up of dedicated Macintosh developers, QA engineers and Product folks.
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Reader Comments (Page 2 of 2)
21. I just downloaded AOL Desktop for Mac, but can't figure out how to save my e-mail. The "Help" page says to click the Save drop-down menu, but I don't have the whole row of Read, Save, Keep as New, Report Spam, and Delete buttons on my window. Why is this? Am I missing something?
Posted at 5:26AM on May 14th 2008 by JSO
22. I'm on a MAC and keep getting error code 800 when importing favorites. The HELP section only provides solutions for a PC where do I go what do I do?
Posted at 5:54PM on May 14th 2008 by No Spam Pleas
23. Please for god's sake release a new AIM client. I love what you just released but it misses the mark in a few annoyyyyyyyying areas. For one, NO AUDIO VIDEO SUPPORT!!!!!!!!!?????????? Two. NO FILE SHARE SUPPORT?!?!?!?!?!?!?! three. NO PHOTOSHARE SUPPORT?!?!?!?!?!?!?!!?!!?!!!?????!
K that's all for the AIM.
The browser is awfully fast. But it is terribly inconvenient. You took out a "duh" feature from webkit. And that's typing a keyword in your addressbar and the browser going right to the website. Didn't all of AOL's old clients do this? Weren't they the first ever? Now it's the only browser available for mac that doesn't. Kind of embarrassing.
All in all:
Please stop making us feel like AOL hates Mac users. Stop catering to Microsoft users so much. It's really really really offensive.
Posted at 4:30PM on May 15th 2008 by adam
24. Let me add my voice to those begging for a stand-alone AIM client. Can you separate the client from AOL Desktop for Mac and release it?
Posted at 11:59PM on May 15th 2008 by Scott K
25. My e-mail is scrambled - literally. Sometimes I open a message and find a message
unrelated to the From/Subject/etc. The message that belongs with the heading information
is GONE. I've had other frustrations including little blue boxes with question marks in them instead of graphics and no hyperlinks - and a few yes! moments, but all are
overshadowed by my disappearing and scrambled e-mails. Included in my scrambled e-mails was the confirmation to my first attempt at adding a comment to this blog. So I'm trying again.
Posted at 7:23PM on May 17th 2008 by Sandra Laurenson
26. On my top-of-the-line G4 Powerbook this AOL program is a joke! Ten second delay for each keystroke! Worst program ever! Why make a PPC version if you can't get performance any better than this?
Posted at 10:56AM on May 20th 2008 by DavidG
27. I have sent numerous comments to "User Comments" on AOL Help. I hope someone reads them; however, here are a few of my comments about the new AOL Desktop version. It doesn't have many of the features of the old AOL mail like: Blind cc, Return receipts, Problems with entering a large number "to's" (after 4 or 5 entries the screen becomes highlighted and one more entry will erase all entries), no ability to insert a hyper link.
I do like some of the new features having to do with the ability to search old messages, the ability to block senders with an easy one clik selection and the better web browser.
Posted at 3:20PM on May 22nd 2008 by JKLOCK
28. I have two macs, both running different versions of the AOL browser. On both of them, whenever I try to load any webpage, the browser window opens, and there's just an asterisk there. I can't find documentation of this bug anywhere. WTF?
I know this isn't really meant to be a support forum, but I can't find one of those for Mac AOL either.
I've had this problem for YEARS... and as AOL has moved more and more of their support and their options pages to HTML, the program gets less usable and the catch-22 gets more comically ridiculous. I don't see any way to even try to CHANGE the choice of web browser embedded in AOL when the web browser options are on a web page and my AOL won't display it!!!
I thought switching to AOL Desktop might fix it... no luck. I have one Mac running the old AOL software and one on AOL Desktop, and neither can display web pages!
Maddening.
Posted at 5:35AM on Aug 16th 2008 by Joel
29. Hi- I just switched to AOL Desk top and found it lacks something that was very helpful to me before the switch. When I clicked on switch screen names (I have seven) it told me how many e-mails I had in each screen name without signing in. I can no longer see how many e-mails I have without actually switching. This can meaning switching in and out of all screen names dozens of times per day often needlessly. Is there any fix for this?
Posted at 3:57PM on Jun 9th 2008 by smithbrown
30. Sorry if this is a duplicate of my message but I couldn't tell if it had posted so am sending it again.
I tried the original version of AOL Desktop for Mac about 4 - 6 weeks
ago but quit using it after a few days because of all the problems and
went back to using AOL for Mac OSX. I just installed the new AOL
Desktop for Mac 1.1 update and immediately encountered a problem.
When I open the "Sent Mail" window, the messages that I had sent from
my AOL for Mac OSX were there but all the "TO" e-mail addresses were
wrong. When I clicked on a message and opened it, the incorrect
e-mail address would momentarily be in the "TO" line in the e-mail
along with the correct recipient's e-mail address. It would quickly
disappear though, leaving only the correct recipient(s). When I
closed the message, only the correct names appeared in the "TO"
column for those messages I had opened. All the others still had
incorrect e-mail addresses. Because of this, I am shutting down this
new version of AOL and going back to the AOL for Mac OSX. I truly
hope you will get the bugs out of this. I did notice there is now a
drafts folder, which is nice. Wish I could check out all the other
features, but am afraid to after finding this one problem. It does
not bode well.
Posted at 8:40PM on Jun 29th 2008 by Neva Cochran
31. I have ben using AOL on my MacBook for about a week now, but have been using the AOL program on a PC for well over 10yrs!
The mailbox when using my mac is painfully slow! It takes a very long time to load a message for me to read, and takes a very long time to move messages into folders "on my mac" also takes forever to delete messages!!
Can anyone please tell me why, and if this is normal??
Posted at 2:10AM on Jul 13th 2008 by Niro
32. Please advise me... regarding why my mail is so so slow :(
Posted at 2:12AM on Jul 13th 2008 by Niro