Tag Archives: AIM

AIM MusicLink version 2.1.0.5

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UPDATE 6/9/08 11:00PM EST – The latest AIM MusicLink can be found at the home of AIM MusicLink. (http://www.gregsmind.com/musiclink)

Hot out of the oven for the new year is a new version of AIM MusicLink. I have added a few new features for AIM MusicLink including logging. I now write to an HTML file the time, song, and player so you can keep track of what you are listening to. In addition, I have added code into the installer to confirm that iTunes is installed where AIM MusicLink thinks it should be. If it is not found, then I warn you that iTunes support will not work.

I have tested AIM MusicLink using AIM 6.5 and the latest AIM 6.8 Beta released yesterday. I am using the latest version of iTunes, the latest version of WinAmp, WMP 10 and 11, Yahoo Jukebox, and MediaMonkey. AIM MusicLink also supports Songbird, RealPlayer, and AIM Tunes if you play AIM Tunes outside of the broswer via WinAmp.

By default song logging is turned on, and to turn it off you can access the preferences for AIM MusicLink via the ‘Actions’ menu in the bottom of the buddy list. In the same menu you will see a link to open up your AIM MusicLink Log. Here is a link to what my log looks like. Here are some screenshots from the latest release.

DOWNLOAD AIM MUSICLINK v2.1.0.5

I have added the logging purposely to see if we can narrow down where people say AIM MusicLink is not working for them. If the song is successfully logged, it means AIM MusicLink found the song, but setting it on our host failed. If there is no log item, then AIM MusicLink could not find the song for a variety of reasons.

As always I appreciate the feedback, so please do not hesitate to share it. If AIM MusicLink is not working for you please share the details of media player version and AIM client version.

AIM 6.8.1.5

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This morning we released a new AIM beta, version 6.8.1.5. You can read all about the release here. The major addition in this release is a feature called Real-Time IM. Real-Time IM lets you and your buddy see what the other person is typing in real-time, as it is being typed, right in your IM window. It is like seeing a preview of an IM. Normally, you can’t read a message from your buddy until it is sent and appears in the IM window. But with Real-Time IM, you see each letter your buddy is typing in the IM window even before it is sent to you. The only requirement is that both of you and your buddy needs to be using the AIM 6.8+ client for this feature to work. Here is a screenie that shows how to access the feature:

You can download the client here. As always feedback is appreciated.

AIM is now on the Sony Mylo

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This week at CES, Sony announced their Mylo2 Personal Communicator. Mylo was originally released last year and included some messaging, media and browsing capabilities. In the Mylo2, they have added AIM, Flash video support, and tighter audio/video integration. The thing I want to focus on, of course is the AIM client in the device. The Open AIM platform was used in building this client. This is the same library that is in AIM 6.5, AIM Lite, AIM Pro, etc. Its always neat seeing the platform implemented on technology other than PCs. For more information on the platform check out http://developer.aim.com. Here is a video and an image of the Mylo.

New Year’s Treat…AIM.app for the Mac

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Happy New Year everyone, and today we have some exciting news to go along with the new year. The AIM Lite team has been hard at work on various different projects, and we’re proud to announce a preview version of our favorite — AIM.app.

Download AIM.app for Mac

This is a native Mac AIM client with a large feature set. It’s made for Mac users, by Mac users, and I think you are all going to like it.  This client is used by the Open AIM development team to test the API.  AIM Lite is the test client we use on the Windows side of the house.  Much like MFC Buddy whose source code is shipped inside the Windows SDK and is available via the AIM Gallery, AIM.app’s source code is available in the Mac SDK.  As always you can download all of our SDKs and read all about our API on http://developer.aim.com.

This is the first public release of the client — but for those Mac developers out there you can see old versions in source at the OpenAIM developer website here. You can also see full release notes here.

AIM.app also supports plugins! Try out KidIM, which allows parents to setup a simple IM environment for kids. Try that our here

As always, we thrive on feedback. Just like in the windows version of AIM Lite, please send us feedback via the AIM.app Help menu.

Here are the screenshots:

Slow News Week…but busy week for me.

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It has been chaotic this week, as I was in San Fran for 23 hours on Monday and Tuesday and came back on Wednesday to pack up my office for a move a few offices away. The pack up provided lots of humor as I found documents and designs back from AIM 2.5. Lots of great memories of the original AIM architects writing up how things work. 🙂

Out in California I saw a few interesting things. First, the Netscape fish tank was really full of life on Monday, and I thought I would grab a picture:

You can watch the live feed of the tank here.

On the way back home taking the train from the rental car garage to the terminal, I spotted the new JetBlue plane that allows you to read email and send IMs via your Blackberry or Yahoo. While this seems like a very limiting service, it was weird to actually see this plane in person with the big Yahoo and Blackberry logos painted on the side:

Last but not least, we released a new AIM 6.5 beta refresh client this week available here. This build has some minor tweaks and some additional small features. I am working on putting together a new version of the AIM Skinning tool I wrote earlier this year. I am hoping to get it out the door after Christmas when I have some free time between the holidays.

AIM Web Chat

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Yesterday someone on campus introduced me to a new version of our web chat powered by Userplane. Mike and his team did a great job on making a smooth and easy to use web chat application. Just log in with an AIM identity, and choose a room you want to join, or even better just join in the chat mixer, which is one giant room where anything goes. Once you get into the chat room, you can see the previous conversation so you can catch up on what you have missed. There is also the ability to broadcast a video image from your video camera or audio from your mic. Check it out.

AIM Mailbag Part II

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Last time on AIM Mailbag, we covered versioning, mobile privacy, colorizing screen names and of course the Mac AIM experience (or lack thereof)…and now the mailbag conclusion.

Q: What are some of the new key features being implemented in the upcoming versions of AIM?

A: I always love these questions, but hate answering them because plans are always changing but in addition since this is a public forum, I cannot share all my cards. With that being said, we continue to make important improvements in connectivity both with regards to just signing in through all sorts of network topology as well as for p2p activities like live audio and video. I think you will see improvements in how developers can interact with the client via plugins, which means that users will have cool add ons and extensions to make their AIM experience more fun. Tighter integration with mobile messaging is in the works, as well as handling all different types of mobile data. Like I said, it is not fun being vague, but we are working on some good stuff that will definitely get you excited in using AIM.

Q: Is AIM coming any closer to being inter operable with GTalk?

A: I was asked this same question in Dublin at MashupCamp a few weeks ago, and I will give the same answer. Both of us continue to work on an interop solution and when there is more to share you know you will be able to find it on this blog.

Q: There haven’t been a lot of AIM custom clients. Are you planning to introduce any yourselves?

A: My team is not actively writing any new custom clients, we have AIM Lite, however we have numerous partners who are writing custom clients right now. I am not sure how many full feature AIM clients you will see on Windows, but other platforms are actively being worked upon. Hopefully our partners will be sharing some news real soon.

Here is a quick list of some custom clients:

– AIM

– AIM Lite

– AIM Pro

– Playlinc

– PCD Lounge

Q: My AIM MusicLink is still not working at all it will not show what song i am listening to through iTunes, WMP 11, or Yahoo Music Jukebox.

A: I have to say this one issue has baffled me. Here is what I am guessing is going on, first if you set yourself away and are expecting MusicLink to work, it will listen for your music, but updating the status will not work. Second, if you have installed iTunes in a directory other than the default path (c:program filesitunes) then MusicLink will not work because we need to import the interfaces to access the iTunes API. So if you have iTunes installed in a path other than the default please point it to the default and then all should work. For the other players I have tested against the latest WMP and Yahoo Music Jukebox as well as 10 of my independent testers and we have not been able to reproduce this case unless we are set as away. If you are experiencing problems what would help beyond AIM version and media player version is to make sure you note what your status is (away, idle, invisible, mobile, etc), and if you are signed in on multiple locations.

Q: Who is AIM’s chief software architect?

A: I never comment on personnel here at AOL, but from the Open AIM SDK point of view I am the lead evangelist/dev guy for Open AIM, thus the reason you will see me at conferences, etc.

Q: What do you and people from AIM dev and IM-Host dev team think about alternative clients that use directly OSCAR protocol, not AIMCC?

A: Interesting question. For those who do not know, OSCAR is AIM’s proprietary protocol for communication. OSCAR is very complex and has lots of antiquated and unused things in it, some of which are specific to AOL clients going back to AOL 5.0, and some of which are deprecated. Much like the reason why we did not open up the low layer libraries in AIM known as COOL, we feel like from an elegance and simplicity view, the Web AIM APIs and AIMCC provide a more manageable way of writing clients. In addition, things like libPurple and other libraries do not always interact with the protocol properly. Anyone notice that their buddy lists are not always displayed properly or that Adium does not do file transfer properly? As we evolve the protocol obviously things like Web AIM and AIMCC incorporate the changes immediately, while the unofficial libraries are slow to get these changes if at all.

AIM Mailbag Part I

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I got a lot of questions, both on the blog and via the Wimzi widget on the right side of the blog, as a result I am going to break down the Mailbag in to two parts. Thanks for all the questions, and remember you can always ask questions not just when I am doing a mailbag. On with the questions:

Q: Could there be a way to have for privacy reasons the Cell/Mobile Icon be a preference where you can shut it off on your own will when connecting via mobile.

A: There is a preference in the Privacy Settings (AIM Buddy List Menu: Edit | Settings) to allow, or not allow others to see that you are mobile. If you uncheck that box, people will not see the icon. However if you are forwarding your IMs this preference will not work, so what happens when you set up mobile forwarding, is that you have an option of adding a group that can only send you IMs. This is accessible in the Mobile Settings accessible in the same way that Privacy Settings can be accessed. When the group is added to your buddy list, you can add buddies to the group, and only those buddies will see you online as mobile and be able to IM you. Here is the Mobile Preference window:

Q: Beta testers have been asking for actually colorized Screennames in their buddylists… like a buddy sound call it a buddy color. I am sure there is alot of technical issues to work out on that.

A: We actually have this in the API, in the IAccBartItem interface under the prop AccBartItemType_RichName. The only client that supports this is the AOL 9.0 client in both displaying the text and setting the text. What is interesting about this code is that it is very complex and a maintenance nightmare. I actually had the task of reverse engineering the protocol for this feature to support it in OpenAIM, and it was no picnic. In any case here is a screen capture of what custom colorized Screen Names in the Buddy List looks like in AOL:

I am not sure if we will ever add this to AIM/ICQ, but if we do, it will be different from the way AOL did it.

Q: You are probably sick of hearing the quesion…Is there any new info you can give on AIM for Mac?

A: (No I am not sick of hearing this question as I type from my MacBook Pro) 😉 In case you are not aware Open AIM has a full API available on Mac (Linux and Win Mobile as well). The Mac SDK contains a full Mac AIM client written by one of the engineers on my team, the only issue is that you have to compile it yourself via XCode. I am very confident that by the end of the year at the latest I will be able to share some news regarding a Mac Client.

Q: Why did you do aim 6.5 refresh instead of just going to aim 6.6 and also how come you skipped 6.2,3, and 4?

A: I wish I could say we engineers decide on version numbers for the client releases we do, but we do not. In the old days when I first started on AIM during AIM 2.5, we, the engineers, definitely tried to control the versioning based on features we added and bugs we fixed. So when we did bug fixes and minor features we would increment in tenths (AIM 3.0 to AIM 3.1). If we did a major release like when we moved to host based buddy lists we incremented by the whole number (AIM 3.5 to 4.0). In the case of Open AIM, my team chooses version numbers based on when we modify or add to the interfaces. For example when we release multiple versions of Open AIM 1.3 the differences are non-interface changes (mainly bug fixes). For the client, there is no exact reason why we skip version numbers, it may be related to business/marketing or technical reasons.

So that is the mailbag for tonight, I will get to more questions tomorrow where we will cover new features, GTalk, custom clients and the always popular why will my AIM MusicLink not work.

Post Thanksgiving Thoughts

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A quick post today on some developments over the weekend. First, we continue to research with Microsoft the Vista issue, though as I mentioned in the post last week, all indications are that this issue is not related to AIM. For the user who reported that un-installing Vista Update (KB94169), are you sure that it is in fact the correct update? My research shows that KB94169 is a patch for Windows 3.x for “IBM 4226 Printer Emulation.” If we can get that actual patch ID we would definitely appreciate it, as would the engineers in Redmond.

I have been getting a lot of feedback on AIM Music Link which is terrific. I have been looking into reported issues with Yahoo Jukebox, iTunes 7.5 and Windows Media Player 11. I am unable to reproduce the problem that status does not update. The only thing I can think of is that you may be away when playing the song. I have seen issues where status will not update when you are away.

For the person asking if I could add support for Zune, I spent a hour this afternoon looking into this, and have not found any API associated with the Zune Media Player version 2.1.888.0. I even looked into screen scraping the song, and so far no luck. If someone has figured this out, please share, and I will definitely add the support.

Lastly, I want to do a mailbag this week, so if you have questions you would like answered about AIM, Open AIM, or just general questions about social networking and media, please just leave a comment below, and I will get to as many of the questions as I can.

Happy Turkey Day

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Thanksgiving Day is here and while I am not going to make a whole blog post on “what I am thankful for,” I do want to thank Ted Leonsis for some Caps tickets on Monday night. The Caps stink, but the game provided an opportunity for one of the AIM Product Managers to get up on the JumboTron not once but twice. First she competed in a contest, which she won thanks to high crowd approval ratings, then she managed to get on the “Kiss Cam.” Ryan you represented yourself and AIM proudly, and provided a bunch of good laughs.

One item that caught my attention on Facebook yesterday is a new application called AIM Buddy Info. You can check it out on my Facebook profile here. The application will show status icon, status message, buddy icon and buddy info. There are some settings associated with it so if you do not want to expose some of the features that is possible. This is definitely a great way to share AIM information in Facebook.