RSSAOL Releases Second AIM 'Triton' Beta
By David Worthington | Published May 25, 2005, 3:28 PM
The second installment of Triton, the next generation of AOL Instant Messenger, has left AOL's beta sandbox.
As first reported by BetaNews, Triton is a replacement for the existing AIM 5.9 series client that has been rewritten from the ground up. Triton adopts an entirely new user interface that includes tabbed messaging corralled within a single window AOL has dubbed "IM Catcher".
The client will also catch IM conversations with a new session based logging capability called IM History. Beta 2, build 0.2.11, introduces that ability to clear IM History.
Other significant interface elements include Triton's "Quicknote" dialog that replaces the initial IM window, allowing users to choose what communication method they will use to contact a buddy. Quicknote also provides a snapshot of user information.
Through Quicknote, users can decide whether to link up with buddies by sending PC to PC instant messages, send e-mail through the AIM Mail service, send SMS text messages, or contact their buddy using AOL's Internet Phone Service when that feature becomes available in later builds.
Users can click and drag buddies to participate in multi-party conversations and more easily locate contacts with "Type down" searching in AIM's Buddy List. Triton will also sync up with address book contacts in some popular e-mail applications.
AOL would not comment on the specifics of its planned synchronization tools, but has already added presence to Microsoft Outlook in a beta release of AIM Sync by Intellisync. For the time being, AOL will provide a host-based address book.
Triton introduces a plug-in architecture for third party developers. Officially sanctioned plug-ins will be hosted by AOL at a developer's community Web site. AIM users can browse AOL portal Web sites using AOL Explorer, a Web browser that replaces the faceless AIM Today window. AOL Explorer is a mandatory installation that automatically runs AOL anti-spyware software as a service and may be set as the default Windows browser.
In Beta 2, AOL has further tweaked the Triton interface by adding a thumbnail view for all Buddy list contacts, as well as settings to customize the layout of advertisements including size and location. Other new features are live video and 3-D rendering. The release has expanded support to the Windows 98SE, Windows 2000 and Windows ME operating systems.
The AIM Triton Beta 2 client may be downloaded via FileForum.
can anyone say "lagmachine" ?
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|No doubt a new version of aol mal/bloatware.
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|Based on the screen shot, this appears to be nothing to talk about.
Hahaha....oh man...I crack myself up.
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|I really do think this is heading in the right direction. Optional ad placement gives the user a nice sense of power and the ichat like video chat is a nice start of things to come.
For those complaining about the numerous services, it's been said that they will work on cutting those down. The fact of the matter is, this is actually what the devs would prefer to call an Alpa stage build.
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|im being pushed forcefully into iChat adoption... I wish they'd make it work with yahoo and msn so I could ditch these other crappy clients too.
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|downloaded it this morning...
overall its a step in the right direction..
here are my complaints..
1)it registers at 2 windows down in the task bar.. which really isnt a big deal.. but would be nice if it was just one.
2) file transfers have been disabled or the feature hasnt been added yet. i use that alot..
3) it'd be nice if the "buddy names" on the left side of the screen would blink or go bold or something when a new message is posted.. right now they dont.. it blinks in the task bar but if you are talking to a bunch of different people.. you have to cycle thru them to find which one actually said something.
its a step in the right direction though.
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|Can you minimize it to the notification area ("system tray") yet like you can with the old AIMs? That's the only thing that bothered me about the first beta...
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|They shouldn't release stuff like this if it's so bug ridden.
Beta doesn't mean bug ridden, Alpha does. If it's in beta it should be at least a tad bit stable.
What's the same?
Bloat Bloat Bloat....
This client is craptastic. Use it if you like the smell of poo and you like to have your system resources used out of control. Use it if you like it when apps don't shut down.
I know 12 year olds who could write better code.
What a shame.......but then again......it's AOL so what do you expect? :)
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|Heh, why did this get a negative score you're absolutely right.
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|he didn't make his point eloquently.
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