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Free AIM Client Spotted on App Store

macduke

macduke

macrumors G5
Jun 27, 2007
13,142
19,682
freeny said:
The AIM will most likely be only usable via wifi...

MR should probably gear up and create a section devoted exclusively to iPhone apps. There will be a lot of chatter I assure you ;)

With the large amount of apps that will be available over time, it is almost certain that there will be hundreds of "Official whatever app" threads that will spawn...
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I agree...I like how every couple of days TUAW has an entire posting with all the new iPhone apps that have been announced and gives some brief descriptions. I know arn set up an iPhone gaming news site but i haven't really been there in awhile since I forgot the address. There is probably a link on the front page somewhere. I could have sworn that I saw some regular app coverage on there when things were first getting started. arn should advertise that site more. I'm going to go search for it now.
 
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Niiro13

macrumors 68000
Feb 12, 2008
1,719
0
Illinois
aerospace said:
I read on yahoo the iphone version of their chat app includes video.

...I'd post a link but theres no copy paste on my iphone!
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Yahoo??? Is actually coming out with a messenger already??? :D

Yahoo's like the slowest company to do anything (or is that just the Yahoo! Answers part =/)


Anyway, this isn't too much of news...AIM has always been free. It's news if it actually costs money.
 
lgivens

lgivens

macrumors newbie
Jun 5, 2000
11
0
Mac@AOL Blog

Hello Everyone,
I'm the product manager for the Mac products at AOL and you can get your news directly from the product/dev team by visiting the Mac@AOL blog (http://macblog.aol.com). You can subscribe to the RSS feed or get updates by mail.

We're very excited about the Apple iPhone App Store and I'll be in line for the iPhone 3G.

thanks...
Lee Givens
AOL Mac Product Lead
Mac@AOL Blog (http://macblog.aol.com)
 
matticus008

matticus008

macrumors 68040
Jan 16, 2005
3,330
1
Bay Area, CA
caliguy said:
Unless AT&T contacts AOL and tells 'em they want more money and makes them change the app. I wouldn't be surprised a bit. Twenty cents for extra texts instead of 10 - Just for the iPhone. Those guys make me sick.
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What are you talking about? Extra text messages are 20 cents on AT&T for everyone.
Mechcozmo said:
SMS data is just 7-bit ASCII text. It is, literally, just a few bytes worth of data. And unlike voice, QoS doesn't matter as much because if you drop the packet... just send it again.
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It's not part of the data package, I think, was the point. SMS does not use 3G or wifi. It's sent on the GSM carrier network, not via the Internet.

AIM messages naturally can't be SMS, both because the iPod touch doesn't have a cellular radio and because the SDK doesn't allow access to it anyway.
 
MacToddB

MacToddB

macrumors 6502a
Aug 21, 2007
926
0
Rochester, NY
megfilmworks said:
I think the reason AIM prevailed and MSN never got a foothold in the US was because of the early dominance of AOL here.
Click to expand...

Which is why "AMERICA Online" wasn't a great name if AOL wanted to expand outside this continent. I worked for 'em, indirectly, during the Sun/Netscape/iPlanet/AOL mashup.

I want to know who designed the button/logo... Ronald McDonald? ugh. :eek:
 
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Niiro13

macrumors 68000
Feb 12, 2008
1,719
0
Illinois
Consultant said:
Notification proxy is only for apps not on top. If the app is launched (on top, for lack of a better word), then it does not need notification.
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They know that. They're saying that AOL better come up with something to "mimic notification."

dacreativeguy said:
I did watch the keynote. But Steve said the notification proxying was coming 'later'. AOL better have another solution until Apple's solution is functional.
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MobileChat is actually doing something where if you close the program in any other way other than the logout button, the MobileChat server keeps you logged in and starts queuing the received IMs. When you go back into the program, you get all those messages. Course this also means that if you exited it for a day, you might get an IM a day late...but it's the best solution in my opinion. Makes the most sense. MobileChat had already tested this and it turned out good! :)
 
TwiceNightly

TwiceNightly

macrumors 6502a
Jun 20, 2008
540
472
It may be free, but I think all those apps are marked as "free" as a placeholder - Twitterific almost certainly won't be free will it, but it's marked as free on that screenshot.
 
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Eärendil

Guest
I still think MobileChat will be the best IM app.

I wonder how much will it cost.
 
Paix247

Paix247

macrumors 6502
Jul 26, 2006
363
1
Minneapolis
This is going to be GREAT! I only ever text my wife, so I have been paying $10 for unlimited mobile to mobile texting. They would not allow me to keep that feature when we get the new iPhones. Instead they wanted $30 for unlimited family texting! Now we can just use AIM instead!
SAH-WEET!
 
S

Slayerboym88

macrumors regular
Jun 9, 2007
140
0
Telp said:
If its not free or extremely cheap, it better bring something to the table that the AIM app cant.
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Agreed. I find it puzzling that people seem to expect to have to pay for AIM chatting all the sudden; I don't really understand the logic behind it whatsoever. Even when it started up, AIM itself has always been free. And since IM's are net based, and not SMSs themselves, I fail to understand why people think they're going to have to pay for it! Best of all, since it's AIM, it SHOULD have the ability to send SMSs as IMs, leaving you off the hook for even paying for them! (Now for that last part I can see it possibly being blocked, but the rest I am sure will be free.) If I end up wrong, than I will be truly surprised and disappointed.
 
A

anti-microsoft

macrumors 68000
Dec 15, 2006
1,665
6
Edinburgh, Scotland
Yvan256 said:
Too bad that almost nobody outside the USA uses AIM... Practically everyone I know uses MSN and/or ICQ. And even my ICQ list keeps getting smaller since people are switching to MSN (and I wish I knew why). :confused:

We got a standard for FTP, for email and for the Web, why can't everyone agree on an IM standard that also does audio and video?
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It's rubbish! I want all of my friends to switch to AIM so I can use the amazing iChat!
 
SkippyThorson

SkippyThorson

macrumors 68000
Jul 22, 2007
1,669
939
Utica, NY
cloudnine said:
Yeah, you're probably right... I think the person who was concerned about it being charged as a text message must have had a Moto RAZR (or something similar), where the provider basically had a version of AIM installed on it which treated IM messages as text messages. I had that on Tmobile and almost died when I got my first cell phone bill... Ugh. That version of AIM is basically just a different GUI for the text message application.

Death on a stick.
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No, I have the Edge iPhone, and simply assumed it would count as text. I used BeeJive in the month of march and ran up to 195 by the 30th. I looked back and couldn't remember using so many texts, but maybe it was possible. Since then I assumed that aim counted as SMS - and yeah, it didnt help hearing about all those old cheap phones that did just that.

Some people are confused by pricing on the 3G. Nope, not me. I'm just obliviously used to iChat.:)
 
Cnasty

Cnasty

macrumors 68040
Jul 2, 2008
3,336
2,106
I really hope the instant messenger apps use the data plan and not a text.

I know it sounds ridiculous why they wouldnt be, but like a poster said earlier. There was an AIM app on my old phone and I used it like a fool and ran up texts I didnt have. :mad:

I dont text at all and communicate with all my friends through AIM and one of the reasons Im getting the iPhone since I heard Meebo is awesome.
 
matticus008

matticus008

macrumors 68040
Jan 16, 2005
3,330
1
Bay Area, CA
Cnasty said:
I really hope the instant messenger apps use the data plan and not a text.
Click to expand...
They have to. The SDK does not allow access to SMS.
There was an AIM app on my old phone and I used it like a fool and ran up texts I didnt have.
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That's because it wasn't really an AIM client. In the days before direct Internet access on phones (back with those "media" applications and WAP browsers), the only way to do IM was via SMS. The documentation provided with these phones (and the AIM Mobile website) made this fairly clear.
 
E

ec51

macrumors 6502
Jun 28, 2008
462
5
SkippyThorson said:
No, I have the Edge iPhone, and simply assumed it would count as text. I used BeeJive in the month of march and ran up to 195 by the 30th. I looked back and couldn't remember using so many texts, but maybe it was possible. Since then I assumed that aim counted as SMS - and yeah, it didnt help hearing about all those old cheap phones that did just that.

Some people are confused by pricing on the 3G. Nope, not me. I'm just obliviously used to iChat.:)
Click to expand...

It really depends on the way the app is connecting and the app itself (AIM for BB, I believe also uses SMS). For instance, I use JiveTalk on my BB 8320 (WiFi) which can connect either on EDGE or WiFi. I have to set the preference. Since I used to have the "WIX BLOCK" on my BB, which blocked all edge connections (I did not have a data plan, so in order to ensure I did not run up a serious amount of data charges I had this block put on). I would then run JiveTalk on WiFi which did NOT count as SMS, it was strictly data (over WiFi in this case).
 
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