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AOL Tests Video Instant Messaging
An anonymous coward writes "AOL, which only last week asked the FCC to forget about some of those mandatory restrictions put into place in order to clear its merger with Time Warner, apparently isn't wasting any time. In a move that circumvents government-imposed limitations on "advanced" multimedia services, Instant Messaging Planet is reporting that AOL has already started beta testing video messaging services with "push-to-talk" and "record-and-forward" features."
If it has faster framerates and quality than Yahoo Messenger, I'm sold.
It seems most of the world uses AIM, though they stick with OTHER IM clients for their perks like videoconferencing.
All they are attempting is a catch up with MSN messenger & yahoo. This doesnt look like a big money maker given the competition.
Siggy Say, Siggy Do
Netmeeting and h323 video stuff is there from a lot of time but people still prefer using mirc or icq. I dont think most people is happy to show theit face (especially in the morning...).
When did AOL suddenly have the ability to forget what the FCC ruled?
Seriously, is the FCC a useless appendage to the government?
Look at how Radio has deteriorated in the last 20 years.
I still get interference between cordless phones, wireless videocameras, and 802.11 wireless.
Look at the way cursing is handled on tv.
SeXygrl4u:Hi, I'm Cindy and I just got a digital camera. I took some REALLY hot photos of myself. Come see my webcam at http://www.goatse.cx.com!!
Well, now imagine the IM of the future.....
(cue video of fat balding man in a blonde wig and a schoolgirl's outfit. (voice of man talking in heavy N.Y. accent)
SeXygrl4u:"Yo, I'm Cindy, and i just got a new camera to take some freakin pictures with. Check them out on my site OR ELSE! There's some really hot pictures of me playing with my girlfriends. Together, we are some of the hottest teens on the WEB!"
Innovation indeed..............
Buy Steampunk Clothing Online!
"Hi!! I'm a 14 y/o cheerleader lookin' to cyber. Wanna videochat?"
[Goatse guy comes on screen.]
"Ahhhh!"
AOL's gonna need a puke emoticon or two.
I'm a signature virus. Please copy me to your signature so I can replicate.
The push to talk feature skirts the "No videoconferencing" rule since you're recording a short video clip and sending it over. It's not live really.
Can anyone give me the name of a product that fits this criteria? Linux version?
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I wonder if they're going to learn from the folly that was 'Microsoft Netmeeting'.
That degraded into a place of seeing countless people jerking off, flashing and other lude acts.
Be you Admins? nay, we are but lusers!
You can actually get the latest build of this beta software from Keyword: beta. Once you are accepted the code name of the application (AOL for BROADBAND / AOL PLUS / AOL SERVICE PACK 1 / AOL 9.0) is actually named Blue Hawaii. The GUI is all blue, And the service has totaly gone through a new face lift from the 8.0 version. I must say I do like the features they are implenting. As the question asked before about the video streams, if both users have broadband connections, the video is actually as good as MS Netmeeting. Its not always the speed of the service, but the frame rate of your camera. Cheaper the camera, slower the frame rate. This beta also includes the many of the fun features of AIM. File transfers, Direct Connect to send pictures, Voice Chat, and a new feature (Webcams). I'm also going to add the latest beta of AIM has resolved most of firewall issues people were having. There are 3 different ways to connect to someone now. It solved all of my issues with my home network firewall and my office firewall. Looks like AOL is on the right track to getitng its service going. The next major feature will be McAfee implenmented into the email service like msn and yahoo currently do. That beta test is going pretty smooth. I just cant wait till they start streaming movies. These large trailers they keep releasing (animatrix / matrix) Rumor is its just a test of what kind of bandwidth they will need. Start small, then go big I guess. Should be intresting how AOL begins the climb back to the top. and out of curiosity, I know we all love to hate it, how many of us actully DO USE AOL? steve
Agreed. Hopefully they do learn, and we get those features immediately rather than slowly degrading into it.
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Have you looked at Jabber?
Opensource:
http://www.jabber.org
Commercial Support:
http://www.jabber.com
You can set up a Jabber server, connect securely to
it from Jabber IM clients, and (if you wish) have the
server translate out to AIM, MSN, Y!M, etc.
Translations to other services will not be secure, of
course, unless the external server supported such a
thing ( to my knowledge Y!, MS and AOL do not ).
Maybe I'll actualy enjoy receiving porno spam IMs.
Oh, baby.
Do any of these instant messaging systems/protocols support the exposure of a different online "status" to different groups of buddies?
For example, I use Messenger at work, and it would be useful to allow my colleagues to see me as "Online", whilst my friends outside of work see me as "Busy".
I think Buddy Groups would be easier than having to create a separate account (one for work and one for use with friends), and in particular if you have a large number of friends on IM you don't want to have to set your status to Busy for them individually.
Then at lunchtime, I can quickly set my "Friends" Buddy Group to show me as "Online"...
its amazing that AOL is circumventing the FCC rules, I was pretty disapointed when AOL IM protocol wasn't forced open during the merger but this is ridiculous. To brashlly declare it doesnt hold a dominant control over IM, have they forgotten about AOL IM & ICQ???
News.com article
"The petition argues that AOL's IM services, AOL Instant Messenger and ICQ, face more competition from Microsoft and Yahoo, both of which have launched video conferencing features on their respective IM clients. The petition also disputes the order's original argument that AOL's dominance would increase given the lack of interoperability, now that MSN and Yahoo have amassed millions of users as well.
"There is no longer any plausible reason to conclude either that AOL is dominant or that the market is in danger of 'tipping' to AOL," said Northwestern University professor William P. Rogerson, who provided an affidavit on behalf of AOL Time Warner. "
also alarming, William P. Rogerson is the Chief Economist of the FCC
By using video cameras and incorporating it into the newly released AOL broadband, they are trying to apeal to a certain niche. I would think they would have studies to tell them that this is a horrible idea and it will not work becuase guys can't pretend to be girls and ugly girls can't pretend to be really hot. I'm sure I don't need to point out that short film - "The Parlor"
People just won't use it. Those that do and happen to be good looking will get so sick of people without webcam's spaming them with messages all day long they will just take it down.
SOrry AOL - not this time.
I'm a frequent user of AIM, ICQ, IRC, Yahoo IM, and MSN Messenger.
That being said, I used to use IRC all the time. I had a lot of friends there and it seemed like the place to be. Unfortunately, the packet kiddies have made it extrordinarily unreliable.
ICQ was the next place I frequented. Unfortunately, it's a haven for spammers. It's the only IM service I get spam from. It's pretty reliable, but most of the people that are relatively new to the internet don't have ICQ numbers. So it's not particularly useful anymore, although a few years ago, it too was the place to be.
I've used Yahoo IM, but unfortunately it seems rather pointless to me. I don't know why, I've just never been a fan of it. Yahoo's official client seems rather slow and I have problems connecting to the service rather often. I also find people I know just don't use it that much.
That brings me to the two I use a lot now, those being AIM and MSN Messenger.
I like AIM. I really do. Its client for Linux is rather lacking, but a lot of people have it. It doesn't seem as bloated as ICQ, but it still has a lot of features. And you can bet just about anyone online has an AIM SN. The service is rather reliable, too, I've found.
As for MSN Messenger, it's really become my favorite IM service. I know I'll probably get modded down for being pro-Microsoft, but it does everything I need it to do and aside from the few times it's gone down for maintainence, it's also rather reliable of late. I like it more than AIM just because it doesn't have the rather stupid features like warnings. I've never really understood that or the rate limiting feature. I mean, I know how they work but I don't get the point of them. I've never seen warnings used against obscene or harassing users. I only see them used when someone is mad at someone else and does it as a way to get back at them. MSN doesn't have these stupid features. That's why I like it. And most people I know have MSN Messenger, too.
As for Netmeeting, as an op in some teen channels, I see lots of requests to chat on Netmeeting. I get sick of seeing the requests. It's a home for perverts. Yahoo is turning into that, too. Video chats are nice, but with a low quality webcam and an upstream that just sucks (128 kbit) and lots of friends on dialup, it's rather pointless. And no amount of compression will make it much better without making the quality thoroughly suck. Forget it.
I'll still use AIM, but it's just another pointless feature I'll never use.
Ciryon