AOL Dusts Off AIM for Mac with a Visual Refresh and a Beta Tag

This week’s release of AIM for Mac 1.0 Beta might strike some as strange, given the fact that it’s 2008 and Mac OS X users have had years to grow accustomed to things like Apple’s iChat client and third-party creations like Adium, both of which have support for the protocol. But AOL insists that it is “one of the most requested applications from our users.” Because AIM for iPhone has been a popular download, apparently.

To be frank, there isn’t anything thoroughly impressive about this release - at least not in the way of outstanding features. While the company offers a Windows-friendly client that provides things like VoIP and video chat, as with many other messaging services on the Web, including Skype, users of AIM for Mac 1.0 Beta will have to remain satisfied with file transfers, AIM groups and AIM Blast groups and connections to AOL mailboxes and so forth (Just to note, personal experience has routinely shown the inability to successfully transfer files via AIM.).

If nothing else, AIM for Mac 1.0 Beta can simply be thought of as an option for those Mac users searching for AOL branding and find its heavily aged and underdeveloped predecessor, AIM 4.7 for Macintosh, too old and too tired and not thematically sufficient to run with other Tiger- and Leopard-level applications with at least some semblance of visual congruity.

From : http://mashable.com/