Great news - we have another AIM for Mac beta ready with changes based on your feedback. Use Check for Updates in the app or download the beta here: http://beta.aol.com/projects.php?project=aimmac

AIM for Mac 2.1 Beta 6 provides a number of important bug fixes, including:

• Accessibility fixes including shortcut keys for Add Buddy and File Transfer.
• Tweaks to improve the Facebook Chat experience.
• Fixed issues regarding the Connection Port.
• Improved performance with regards to AIM Sounds.

We hope you enjoy the new beta and thank you for your time and feedback.

Best wishes,

The AIM for Mac Team

Hey, what's all the growling about? After many requests from AOL users (and a bunch of employees), we've added Growl support to AIM for Mac 1.5 (Beta 3).

Growl is a user-controlled (go to http://growl.info to download growl) notification system that works with a variety of great Mac apps. You can control the look and placement of your notifications for all apps that support Growl.


We've also added the ability to see what your Buddies are doing on some of the most popular social networks and RSS feeds (Twitter, MySpace, Delicious, YouTube, Flickr, etc). To use the new AIM Buddy Updates feature (replacing Buddy Info), all you have to do is go to Buddy Update and add your accounts. Now when you update your favorite social network, your Buddies will see a new icon next to your Screen Name on their Buddy List.

We've also heard from a number of users having issues with connection issues. We spoke to a bunch of our loyal beta testers and the connection issues are fixed.

Note to all users of AIM for Mac Beta 2: The AOL Mac team has made changes to the automatic update system we introduced in Beta 1. With the new changes, you may see the following error when using the "Check for Updates" in Beta 2: "Update Error! The update is improperly signed."

If you've encountered this issue, please download AND install Beta 3 directly using the 'Download Beta 3' button on the AIM for Mac beta site. The automatic update mechanism will work properly when upgrading from Beta 3 to the next version.

Wait, there's more! We've added a new AIM Welcome Window that will give users a quick snapshot of what's new in that version of AIM for Mac. Stop by AOL Beta Central and download AIM for Mac 1.5 Beta 3 today!

Here's our Fixed issues and change list:

Bugs Fixed
• Fixed various connection issues.
• Fixed various crashing issues reported by our Tiger users.
• The Offline Buddy group is now sorted alphabetically.
• Reduced and optimized overall application size by 30%.

Other Changes
• AIM for Mac now supports Growl notifications (built-in translucent notification window will be available if Growl is not installed)
• When your buddies have a new update from Twitter, Flickr, or AIM, we display an icon (favicon) next to their screen name on the Buddy List.
• Changed the name (title) of the Buddy List window to AIM.
• AIM for Mac Welcome Window will now launch at startup to promote new features and services (Welcome window can be disabled via checkbox)

Thanks!
Lee Givens
AOL Mac Product Lead

Why does AOL require users to update their Mac OS X systems? We get this question frequently and more noticeably when we release a new update or beta. Our outstanding Mac QA team builds test cases on each of our "supported" OS versions. We run the same battery of tests on current and future releases of Mac OS X.


AIM for Mac 1.5 (beta 1) is now enforcing the minimum Mac OS X system requirement of 10.5.3 or higher due to the following basic reasons: OS and Application stability and faster release schedule. When we encounter an issue with a 10.5.0 or 10.5.1 update, we can either try to fix the bug with a workaround or test it the fix on a future release of Mac OS X. Our goal is to produce the best quality software in the most optimum release timeline.

So, if you're running Mac OS X 10.5, 10.5.1 or 10.5.2, please use the Mac OS X System Update or go to Apple's Mac OS X download site for the most current update. For all future releases of AOL Mac software, we'll be supporting Mac OS X 10.5.3 or higher.

For those AOL users who haven't upgraded their Leopard system to 10.5.4 or higher, could you please drop me a comment below? Is it the size of the download? You like to wait for other to test updates prior to installing?

thanks!
Lee Givens
AOL Mac/iPhone Product Lead

If you're a Mac developer and interested in integrating AOL's Open AIM into your application, you can download the source code for the Cocoa WIMFramework.

This Objective-C/Cocoa wrapper implements the logic for AOL's openAIM WIM protocol. Protocol documentation and AIM Network license requirements can be located at http://developer.aim.com

Description
If you want to integrate AIM into your Objective-C based application, this project is meant to make it easier for you. We're using it ourselves to build some AIM experiences.

This library is just beginning. We will be continuing to make available enhancements. The Framework concentrates on making the WIM AIM server protocol easier to consume. It does not make any assumptions about user interface.

Take it for a spin!

Lee Givens
AOL Mac Product Lead

Macworld Expo 2008 was one of the most busy and energetic shows I've been to in the past few years. Attendance and exhibitors were up double-digits from last year.

You can see the excellent floor traffic on Day 2 from the AOL meeting room on the Mezzanine of Moscone Center.



The MacBook Air was the highlight of the exhibits. Take a look at the 6-10 deep line around the MacBook Air (left side of picture-under the EPSON sign).



In my next post, I'll give you an idea on the VIPs Apple invites to the Steve Jobs keynote.

thanks...
Lee Givens
AOL Mac Product Lead

We had a great Macworld Expo this year and met some great Mac-friends. In the Steve Jobs Keynote line (3:00am PT!), the AOL Mac Team starting arriving. Below, we got a great shot of some our new friends (I think I may have run into a few of them at a previous Macworld Expo). I can't believe they look so excited and the keynote is still 5 hours away!

Interested in creating cool Dashboard Widgets? AIM Fight is a technology demonstration that shows you how to implement a complex algorithm to see how popular you are in the AIM network.


Here's the description from the AIM Fight developer's site:

Using a complicated algorithm, AIM® Fight crawls through the depths of the Internet to answer the all-important question that plagues us all: How popular am I right this second?

Check out the work being done at AOL's Developer Network (http://dev.aol.com/). The technology behind the new AIM Fight widget is covered thoroughly and the developer provides the sample code. If you have no idea what's behind JSON, Prototype JavaScript Library and Script.aculo.us you can just download the new widget.

Additional AOL Widgets:
AOL Music Video Dashboard Widget
AOL Top 100 Videos Widget (Adobe AIR application)

Happy Thanksgiving!
Lee Givens
AOL Mac Product Lead