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http://www.macnn.com/articles/03/10/13/aol.communicator/

AOL Communicator for Mac OS X released

updated 10:35 am EDT, Mon October 13, 2003

 
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today launched AOL Communicator for Mac OS X, a stand-alone, advanced communications application for AOL members that brings together enhanced e-mail, instant messaging and a full-featured address book into one integrated suite. AOL Communicator can consolidate e-mail from multiple AOL Screen Names--as well as POP and IMAP accounts--into a single application; it can be used alongside AOL internet services. Other functions include spam filtering, email management, a full-featured address book, and integrated AOL IM functions. AOL members using Mac OS X 10.2 and higher can download AOL Communicator at no additional charge from AOL Keyword: AOL Communicator.


by MacNN Staff

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  1. MacNN.com Reader

    Fresh-Faced Recruit

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    10/13, 11:25am | report spam | Reply |

    Whoa...

    Man, I'm gonna ditch my broadband and sign RIGHT UP for this new feature-rich version of America's favorite ISP... for people who've never touched a computer before.

    Oh wait, I don't have to- they've got AOL _for_ broadband, so they can help protect me from all you dirty Internet perverts. Can't you people just leave me and my poor AOL for broadband alone?

    No, I have nothing worthwhile to contribute- so it's the perfect comment for an AOL snippet!

  1. MacNN.com Reader

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    10/13, 11:43am | report spam | Reply |

    heh

    fuq aol. It sucked all the way back at version 3 and it continues to suck. Bloated, spyware, crippling, spam-ridden, annoying POS. Stay the h*** away from it.

    Anyway, what is this new app? Some kind of pathetic omission that the main app is c***? Why the h*** didn't they just do email right (spam filtering) or give you address book features inside the main aol app, instead of this s***? Now you need TWO apps to manage aol?? lol. I mean, who the h*** is going to use this if you're already using the main app?

    Completely pointless.

  1. MacNN.com Reader

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    10/13, 12:03pm | report spam | Reply |

    Not bad, and mostly ready

    AOL Communicator is actually a very good standalone mail app. It's the only application since Claris Emailer that handles both AOL and non-AOL (POP3 and IMAP) mail accounts, so those of use with several mail providers will like it for that. All of the good features you'd expect from a mail program, including a Bayesian spam filter (that you can train to be even more accurate). Any spam that gets by AOL's corporate filters, and there's a bunch, is usually caught by Communicator's spam filters. I've seen no false positives yet, in a couple of months of testing.

    Also, the software displays no advertising, and there's nothing "extra" (spyware, etc.) installed.

    They've made it much faster during the beta program, but it's still a little slow. Be warned. This could be due to AOL's attempt to make it look just like the Windows version (I think it's partially Java based). Another downside is that there are no links to the OS X address book, which seems lame. Maybe in a future upgrade.

    In short, it's a mail program every bit as good as Mail, Eudora, etc., but it handles AOL accounts. If you have both AOL and non-AOL, give it a try. It beats keeping the large-and-slow AOL client software running all of the time.

  1. MacNN.com Reader

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    10/13, 12:09pm | report spam | Reply |

    Why?

    I think we can all agree this is one thing we didn't want ported to the Mac.

  1. MacNN.com Reader

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    10/13, 12:13pm | report spam | Reply |

    It's based on Mozilla

    It's a Mozilla based product. The Mail&News component namely.

  1. MacNN.com Reader

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    10/13, 12:17pm | report spam | Reply |

    Re: Why

    "I think we can all agree this is one thing we didn't want ported to the Mac."

    You are wrong. I know of many people, including myself, who are glad that it has been released for OS X.

    And frankly, it is rather stupid for any Mac user to be opposed to having it available for OS X. If you do not like it and do not want it for yourself then fine, but why in the world would you want it to only be available to Windows users?

  1. MacNN.com Reader

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    10/13, 12:25pm | report spam | Reply |

    one annoying thing

    Having AOL as my first email account way back in 1992, I just haven't had the heart to let it go yet (but I have scaled back to the $4.95/month email only service, using only the web interface and NEVER logging on to AOL). So this application is really nice, as somebody else mentioned the first time since Claris Emailer that I can check all my accounts (work, personal, and AOL) all from one place. My wife will really appreciate that too.

    But WHY oh WHY does this AOL email program insist on keeping the AOL Address Book application open?? You cannot Quit the Address Book until you quit Communicator, it just Hides itself when you try to quit it. If these two are so explicitly attached, why not just make the Address Book PART of the email client (ala Entourage). And if the Address Book needs to be separate, why not hook it to Apple's Address Book?

    Otherwise it looks as if Communicator is as full featured as Entourage for email (maybe even a bit more). I'm planning to try it out for awhile, and though I was planning to switch to Apple's Mail once Panther comes out, I may end up going with this!

  1. MacNN.com Reader

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    10/13, 12:27pm | report spam | Reply |

    Unbelievable

    A company goes out of its way to create a free application for Mac OS X users, and people gripe about it, and attack the company for doing it? Weird.

    If you're not an AOL user, then don't use it. If you are, I guarantee you it's good news- anything is better than the built-in mail client for AOL's Mac OS X client.

  1. MacNN.com Reader

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    10/13, 12:59pm | report spam | Reply |

    Synchronize?

    The one question I asked AOL some time back was whether you can synchronize (combine) stored AOL Email from two different computers?

  1. MacNN.com Reader

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    10/13, 01:33pm | report spam | Reply |

    er, what''s an .exe fil

    I just went to AOL.com and tried to download AOL Comm.
    The link for that and AOL Latino are both straight to "xx_setup.exe".

    No hablo ".exe".
    Bummer.

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