iPhone AIM - So Close... Yet... Still So Far?

[sanford]

Me too ,,.... but AIM is the standard for most and all my friends and contacts are with them as well ....

like others have said its hard to switch when everyone you know is still on AIM ....

I cant wait to have the iPhone app. for Aim/iChat

AIM is used a lot by Mac users because of its compatibility with iChat, which will not interoperate with MSN or Yahoo.

And all text-based IM is about the dumbest, most annoying way to communicate with someone when you want something that begs more immediate response than e-mail. It was great when it was the best personal computing technology could support. Apple pioneered widespread implementation of voice and then video over IM networks, even including cameras in almost all Macs, first returning to the convenience and tradition of the telephone, then improving upon it with video. Now iChat, AIM, Skype, MSN, Yahoo, I'm sure there are others all support quality voice and video communications for free, and still people who use IM mostly refuse to use these much-improved features.

E-mail is much the same as posting a letter, but faster and far more convenient, while still allowing for a gap in reply. You can even make the case that the ubiquity of e-mail has the potential to improve literacy, so long as people aren't too lazy with their compositions all the time. SMS is a fast if not outstandingly convenient way to get a short message to someone when you don't have the time or are not in the place for a phone call. Text-based IM is a children's trend that began with children or adult computer-centric types and has unfortunately persisted. You can actually do other things with a voice-based IM system; even walk around with a wireless headset. All for free. Constantly switching back and forth from your work to typing messages into a window, when two far betters ways to go at it via the same computer application or widely available, is about the most obstinate, idiotic failure to incorporate into routine life useful advances in modern technology I've yet experienced.

Text-based IM wastes time and contributes to attention deficit and concentration issues, even in adults -- no, not ADD or ADHD or any other pop, nebulously defined behavioral syndrome of the moment; I'm talking about the plain, old ability to focus and stick to something until you've seen it through.

 

[EarthDawn]

WOW... very well said !!!!

 

[aloofman]

Now iChat, AIM, Skype, MSN, Yahoo, I'm sure there are others all support quality voice and video communications for free, and still people who use IM mostly refuse to use these much-improved features.

The last time I checked (someone can correct me if I'm wrong), iChat and Skype were the only ones that could do video and audio chat at the same time on the Mac. My recollection is that Yahoo Messenger couldn't do audio during a video chat.

Then again, I stopped using chat clients at home quite a while ago, so maybe I'm behind the times.

 

[batchtaster]

It was great when it was the best personal computing technology could support.

Newer <> better.

I still write emails in plain text. I refuse to get involved in polluting people's mailboxes with hideous fonts, bad formatting, inconsistent sizing and other such nonsense. It's useless frippery, pisses people off and makes it hard and annoying to read. Communicate simply and clearly.

If you want to actually talk to someone, use a phone (you know these things actually do that?). Video and audio chat is still regularly spotty enough on any service, particularly when networks and services are all different, that you cannot reliably predict whether it will work, let alone whether the person will be in any kind of presentable state.

Text IM's strength is its asynchronicity. Send a text message, person reads it when they read it, and responds it if/when they get around to it. Just like SMS except without all the paying of money. And there are more of those sent than phone calls. I am also curious how you think they would accomplish video chat on this iPhone.

ObTopic: Apple announced during the WWDC keynote that they would not be allowing background apps, but they would be hosting a "push" service for all applications. This would apply not just to messaging apps, but to any app that wants to make use of background notifications: the third-party sends an event to Apple's server, which then pushes it to your iPhone. A single background process, part of the OS, that handles everyone's alerts, notifications, etc. Thus, this AIM client could handle incoming messages while not running, as long as they're using Apple's official methodology.