AOL Releases AIM 6.0 Beta

[Slimy]

The first beta edition of AOL's version 6.0 of its Instant Messenger client was released for public testing today. When the beta cycle is completed (AOL has yet to set a date), it will likely replace AIM Triton 1.5 and become the company's primary consumer IM product.

Under the Triton system, users chose what kind of conferencing they wanted using tabs, and then chose their participants. With the AIM 6.0 front end, there will be a single, integrated buddy list. This way, the user's attention is centered on the target of the message. Buttons along the bottom of the AIM panel denote what context of chat the user wants to launch: audio, video or text.

Source

AOL AIM (formerly Triton) 6.0.4.5 Beta:

AOL AIM is the next generation release of AOL Instant Messenger. Using the AIM Buddy List feature, see when your buddies are online and available to instant message. The sleek new design takes instant messaging to the next level. With screen name linking, Mobile IM, Quicknote mail, an integrated Address Book, and much, much more, instant messaging is more accessible, powerful and more fun than ever.

AOL AIM has the following other editions available: AOL AIM Pro.

Latest Changes:

Fixes several issues reported against the last Preview release, including the various formatting issues that affected the IM compose field and the My Buddy Info window

Several UI changes to this build, especially with Enhanced IM features such as Live Video, Instant Images, Talk and Voice Chat

Layout of the IM window has also been changed

Tabs have been replaced with buttons at the bottom of the IM window

Web cam selector which has been added to the Enhanced IM settings

Download

[bangbang023 Veteran]

Hmm, now to find out if this is a newer build than the beta version I have now.

edit: Seems to be.

[Dane]

installing now, Wonder how long to ad hack gets done now haha.

[bangbang023 Veteran]

Jesus christ, what is wrong with the UI guys? This looks utterly retarded. I would love to know who though these buttons fit the rest of the UI:

The entire title bar area looks much much worse than it did just one build back. Hell, right above the ad, you can see where the old grey and that new grey color were poorly attached. I don't know if someone on that team is bored or what, but he needs to stop now.

Edited September 30, 2006 by bangbang023

[[bear]]

The entire title bar area looks much much worse than it did just one build back. Hell, right above the ad, you can see where the old grey and that new grey color were poorly attached. I don't know if someone on that team is bored or what, but he needs to stop now.

That might be the ugliest waste of space I've ever seen. (the titlebar)

[bangbang023 Veteran]

http://aim.weeworld.com/

I have to admit, those are pretty cool, though. Also, file sharing is now a slim bar like the typing notification and direct connect is in a separate window so you dont have to maximize the IM window to see the pictures being sent. Very cool of them to listen to our suggestions on that front.

It seems that video chat support is broken, though. I keep getting an "unknown error has occurred" message

Edited September 30, 2006 by bangbang023

[viciv]

-_- downloaded.. really ugly, sigh...

[ZonoBurk]

LOL @ UI. Was gonna post this yesterday when it was released. I couldn't wait. But forgot Neowin was down.

I hope "6.0" gets better than this (UI). JEEESH!

I wonder why it's 6.0 NOW? I thought "Triton" was a "new begining". Hmmm. Wierd, but ok.

There's going to be a lot of feedback on this. :)

[ZonoBurk]

Oh yeah from the BetaSite:

09/29/2006 - A new version of the AIM? 6.0 beta software is available for download. The version number of the software is6.0.4.5>.

This build fixes several issues reported against the last Preview release, including the various formatting issues that affected the IM compose field and the My Buddy Info window. There are several UI changes to this build, especially with Enhanced IM features such as Live Video, Instant Images, Talk and Voice Chat. The layout of the IM window has also been changed. Tabs have been replaced with buttons at the bottom of the IM window. Another big change is a web cam selector which has been added to the Enhanced IM settings.

There are other exciting changes slated for this series of beta tests for AIM 6.0. Some of the features you asked for will be added to the software in subsequent beta releases. Also, please stay tuned more information on our sweepstakes for this test. We will be giving exciting prizes and gift certificates to beta testers.

Please let us know via the Bug Report form or Message Boards whether issues you encountered and/or reported against the previous build of the software have been resolved in this build. We are particularly interested in your feedback on the UI changes and performance of this build of the software.

Also, don't forget to check the News & Updates section regularly for our latest polls. The questions contained in this section are rotated frequently, the idea being to get your feedback on the hot topics of discussion. A Developer's Corner AOL Journal, accessible from the button panel, is also available for you to interact with our developers. A Troubleshooting section with a list of fixes for common is also accessible from the main area. As usual, the AOL Beta team will answer your questions and concerns as quickly as possible.

We look forward to your insightful feedback

[Randolph]

FINALLY font "Arial" size "10" works now when sending to AIM 5.9 users. =]

Toasters need work still.

Logs disappeared!?!? But when you change the values in Config, it still logs to My Documents / My AIM Logs.

Still can't format my AOL screen name. (N)

aolsoftware.exe slowing my PC down out of no where??

[mancode20]

Is there an offline installer for this? I noticed the download is very small. Also, does this mean Triton Beta 1.3.30.1 is now obsolete? I know this is an upgraded Triton with a new name, but is there any reason to use the older Triton over this? Like perhaps better performance. Maybe this build is missing important features that the old Triton has. Let me know! Thanks in advance!

[Bawx]

Screenshots?

Edited September 30, 2006 by Bawx

[bangbang023 Veteran]

FINALLY font "Arial" size "10" works now when sending to AIM 5.9 users. =]

Toasters need work still.

Logs disappeared!?!? But when you change the values in Config, it still logs to My Documents / My AIM Logs.

Still can't format my AOL screen name. (N)

aolsoftware.exe slowing my PC down out of no where??

logs still work fine for me.

[Randolph]

logs still work fine for me.

If you upgraded of course they will. But when when you fresh clean install nothing in reference to them is there. Unless you goto the hidden config setting and browse your logs through My Documents style. :no:

[Bawx]

Fixed.

[SULAX50]

FINALLY font "Arial" size "10" works now when sending to AIM 5.9 users. =]

Toasters need work still.

Logs disappeared!?!? But when you change the values in Config, it still logs to My Documents / My AIM Logs.

Still can't format my AOL screen name. (N)

aolsoftware.exe slowing my PC down out of no where??

Figures we release this when I am away at Yahoo Hack Day. Now that I am back on the east coast, I am glad that we got this release out the door. I am also glad that we are getting feedback like we are. That's not to say I am happy to read you guys ripping us, but feedback like this is what our UI guys need to see. I am glad that the font stuff finally seems fixed.

So what can we expect in beta 2 and beyond? Well getting more feedback will help determine that. Maybe the fixing of toasters, logging officially in the client, no more aolsoftware.exe, or even more open AIM goodness, of course I may just be dreaming all these things up.

[bangbang023 Veteran]

Greg, just so you know, we do appreciate the areas you guys have listened to us on. Seeing the separate window for Picture Sharing is definitely a good thing. One bug I noticed: If a user sends an invite for anything and then cancels the invite, the little invite bar on the iM window doesn't vanish completely, just the accept, deny buttons. So you're left with an invitation that you cant deny or accept and that technically no longer exists.

I've also experienced some stability issues, but I'm trying a clean install to see if the problem corrects itself.

[SULAX50]

Greg, just so you know, we do appreciate the areas you guys have listened to us on. Seeing the separate window for Picture Sharing is definitely a good thing. One bug I noticed: If a user sends an invite for anything and then cancels the invite, the little invite bar on the iM window doesn't vanish completely, just the accept, deny buttons. So you're left with an invitation that you cant deny or accept and that technically no longer exists.

I've also experienced some stability issues, but I'm trying a clean install to see if the problem corrects itself.

I bet this is a known bug with this build but I will confirm with the UI guys just to be sure. One other thing we "may be" working on is a better install experience. I will leave that open to your interpretation. I actually think the overall direction for the UI is a positive one, so while this one release may have some valid critisism, lets see what we come up with in subsequent releases.

[azntennisplaya87]

the whole UI has been getting worse regarding the buddy list. This new dark grey theme doesnt match with the rest of the application. the title bar and menu bar has a lot more wasted empty space now. i liked it a lot better when the File, Edit, View menus were indented a lil bit and not under the aim icon. I also liked the old blue max,min, close buttons. the old UI was a lot better in my opinion and seems that some people on this board agree with me. There are also a lot of inconsistencies, some windows have the new theme and some have the old one.

There used to be a silver gradient background behind the find in buddy list box but now that's just plain white below the ad. The Buddies/Address tabs were removed. Overall, the quality of the buddy list UI has gone way down since the 1.2 builds. The whole buddy list window looks both messy and mismatched - like a bunch of designers all tried to shove their own opinions and ideas in there with no real consensus.

But i love the new file transfer and the fact that all the text/font problems are fixed. The program also seems much quicker.

hm..another idea: maybe the buddy list would look a lot cleaner and continuous if the ad was at the bottom of the window.

Edited October 1, 2006 by azntennisplaya87

[azntennisplaya87]

i found a bug.

when my buddies sign on they dont show up where they are supposed to on the buddy list. they are in the correct group but they show up out of order. only when u refresh the buddy list by showing/hiding mobile buddies or something like that does it reorder them to the correct order you placed them in

[bangbang023 Veteran]

It keeps crashing on me if I go away for an extended period of time

[Randolph]

i found a bug.

when my buddies sign on they dont show up where they are supposed to on the buddy list. they are in the correct group but they show up out of order. only when u refresh the buddy list by showing/hiding mobile buddies or something like that does it reorder them to the correct order you placed them in

Same here. I was wondering why my buddylist is out of order.

[MrCobra]

Jesus christ, what is wrong with the UI guys? This looks utterly retarded. I would love to know who though these buttons fit the rest of the UI:

...snip...

The entire title bar area looks much much worse than it did just one build back. Hell, right above the ad, you can see where the old grey and that new grey color were poorly attached. I don't know if someone on that team is bored or what, but he needs to stop now.

The issue I have with this and the many programs out there is the 'skins'. Why can't everything be a native Windows interface with the option to skin it?

IMO this version looks like utter crap.

Figures we release this when I am away at Yahoo Hack Day. Now that I am back on the east coast, I am glad that we got this release out the door. I am also glad that we are getting feedback like we are. That's not to say I am happy to read you guys ripping us, but feedback like this is what our UI guys need to see. I am glad that the font stuff finally seems fixed.

So what can we expect in beta 2 and beyond? Well getting more feedback will help determine that. Maybe the fixing of toasters, logging officially in the client, no more aolsoftware.exe, or even more open AIM goodness, of course I may just be dreaming all these things up.

BETA 2? You'd think with all the BETAS that Triton went through then with name change that something as simple as the UI would be better. They should hire some of the skinners around here for the work.

[bangbang023 Veteran]

I think I managed to track down the causes of my crashing while away. It seems to be coming from Gadgets (I had av props and mytunes enabled). As soon as I disabled the plugins, AIM has been running along smoothly.

[mancode20]

I'm loving this new version of Trito...I mean, AOL AIM. What does the name mean now? AOL=America Online. So AIM=America's Instant Messenger? Suppose it's better than America Online, America Online Instant Messenger, cause that's just redundant. Maybe it should be touted as that from now on. AIM=America's Instant Messenger. As everyone else said, the ability to view pictures in a seperate window and as a slideshow is a great, much needed feature. I tried it out with a friend and it works nicely. Great addition! It also seems to be running pretty smoothly. My only complaint is what everyone else is saying, the ugly UI! Particularly on the minimize, maximize, and close buttons on the main program window and on chat windows. I like the way those buttons look when you view someone's info, a light blue color. Perhaps it should be like that on all the windows. That one little change would make the UI so much better and fit the rest of the program. I'm going to add another minor complaint, my screenname is in lower case letters when people message me. I'd like the first letter to be capitalized. That's a real small, nitpick, though. Keep up the good work!

Edited October 1, 2006 by mancode20