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The new version of AIM notifies you when a new instant message arrives.

Good news on the IM front: AIM (Free Edition) and BeejiveIM 3.0 are among the first instant-messaging apps to support push notification, meaning you'll get alerted to new messages even when the apps aren't running.

If that sounds a bit familiar, it's because we reported on AIM's use in push-notification stress-testing about a week ago.

It also follows the news that uberpopular texting app TextFree was first out of the SMS gate with push support, allowing users to get new-message notifications while the iPhone is off or doing other things.

AIM offers a fairly robust feature set for a free app. It supports multiple screen names and works with AOL, ICQ, .Mac, and MobileMe accounts. It keeps you logged in for 24 hours and gives you the option of receiving notifications via SMS for those times when you're logged out.

I particularly like how you can finger-swipe between different chats. Of course, those features have been around for a while. The big news here is push, and in my tests it worked flawlessly.

I haven't been able to test BeejiveIM 3.0 yet, which is notable for its cross-platform support of AIM/MobileMe, Facebook, GTalk, MSN, Yahoo, and just about every other chat service known to man.

Thankfully, the developer lowered the $15.99 price tag, though it's still on the pricey side at $9.99.

Of course, when you take into account the money you stand to save on SMS charges, that might just be the deal of the century.

Are you geeked about push-enabled IM? If so, what's your favorite app? (Feel free to list those that haven't received the push treatment just yet.)

AOL has been fairly criticized for its purchase of Bebo in 2008 for $850 million. Since the acquisition, Bebo has been rolled into a group at AOL called People Networks. As we wrote yesterday, Bebo now has spiffy new features. But that doesn't make it worth $850 million.

I sat down with Joanna Shields, president of AOL People Networks, about the division's longer-term strategy. Shields was brought in by Bebo's venture investors to "package and sell" the company, she told me. She obviously did that, and quite capably.

"We sold at the top of the market," Shields said. She's stayed there to make the acquisition pay off for AOL, and there are clearly a lot of people who are curious about her plans for doing so.

The goal for the People Networks group, which includes Bebo, AIM, ICQ, SocialThing, Yedda, and Goowy Media, is to "connect people with everything they care about," Shields days. Before she came to AOL via the Bebo acquisition, she says the various social properties in AOL were operating as islands. To an extent they still are, but she's trying to bring all the pieces and parts together into a system that's useful for people, and that will pay back for AOL.

That goal to connect people explains why the team is evangelizing the social aggregation features of Bebo so strongly. People are on a lot of networks, not just Bebo. Shields realizes, though, that becoming another social aggregator is not the ticket to riches. It's useful, but you don't become Facebook by aggregating Facebook.

Joanna Shields

(Credit: Rafe Needleman / CNET Networks)

AIM is the key
For the native audience that can drive Bebo and AOL forward, the company will rely on AIM and ICQ. AIM, which has 94 million global users, should have been AOL's social network, I said to Shields and to David Liu, GM of AOL People Networks and the leader of the AIM project. "It should have been our Twitter, too," Shields said.

As AOL announced yesterday, AIM users will be getting Bebo's more developed profile pages. In April an "integration version" of AIM will be released that will combine the AIM and Bebo instant messenger networks. Mid-year, a "revolutionary" new AIM will emerge that will allow access to not just AOL's own instant messaging clients, but others as well. I told Liu I use Adium on my Mac and Digsby on my PC (both are apps that support multiple instant messaging platforms, including Facebook's), and he told me that the new AIM client will be able to replace those. Also, "We'll have a better version of Twitter inside it," Shields said.

Shields indicated that there are no more social service acquisitions coming, so it looks like AOL will be building these new services with the people and companies it already has.

Liu told me that one of the key factors to AOL's future social success is the desktop client. "I can't say enough about how strategic it is have the client." Shields added, "It's that always-on pulse. It's a multiplier."

The group will continue to support both Web-based and mobile AIM clients, but they believe that having the rich client app is vital to staying in front of users.

AOL's People Networks group is aiming for openness. "We want to out-open everybody," Shields says, and indicated that upcoming products will support both OpenID for login and OAuth for third-party access. I did note that some of the products announced yesterday weren't completely integrated even with AOL's own products (the Life story function doesn't read in items from the Lifestream, for example), and she admitted that the integration among the different groups and products is a work in progress.

Worth $850 million?
Before talking with Shields and her team, I felt that AOL's Bebo strategy was scattered: I saw a lot of feature improvements, but no knock-out vision. After talking to Shields, I'm still not convinced that AOL has a killer social strategy.

The company is doing the right thing by finally trying to leverage its strong instant message platform, AIM (and also ICQ) and by taking good features from Bebo and layering them in to AOL. It's also smart to make Bebo and AOL more interoperable with other networks. These are solid moves and should help keep the AOL social products relevant.

But none of what I heard sounded like a threat to Facebook in terms of users, or to Twitter or Friendfeed in terms of innovation.

Mobile VoIP service Truphone announced Monday that it has integrated AOL Instant Messenger into its iPhone app. Besides being able to place VoIP calls, users can now log in to AOL and instant message other AIM users through the Truephone app. The software already includes support for Google Talk, Skype, Windows Live Messenger, and Yahoo Messenger.

Netbiscuits, a company that provides a Web software platform for mobile development and advertising, announced Monday that it has partnered with AdMob, the world's largest mobile-advertising service, to provide users with the advertising firm's ad placement tools. According to Netbiscuits, its software will offer users the option to integrate ads in mobile video and other media. The terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Google announced Friday that mobile-phone users are now able to modify Google Spreadsheets. According to the company, users can view, edit, sort, and filter spreadsheets on a variety of mobile devices, including the T-Mobile G1 and iPhone.

Today we have a new president to lead a new American path through what will be a tumultuous time. But President Obama won't be able to do it alone. He and his administration need to work together, and communicate with one another and the country, to ensure everything is running well.

That's why I've compiled a "cheat sheet" for the Obama administration, listing five services it should use in the White House. Sadly, it probably won't. Record-keeping laws and security concerns will ensure that none of my suggestions take effect.

AIM for White House staff

Why shouldn't the White House staff be able to communicate with one another over AIM? I'm sure many of them use it in their daily lives and bringing it to the White House to communicate quickly is, in my estimation, a pretty good idea.

Instead of forcing his staff to walk back and forth between wings and offices, what if President Obama was able to instant message his staff from the Oval Office. I can see it now: PrezObama312: "Where's the dossier on the Russian spy we've been tracking?" WHStaffer35: "IDK. BRB." PrezObama312: "K. G2G. L8r."

Wouldn't that be great?

BitTorrent for distributing government documents

I know BitTorrent has been the target of the RIAA and MPAA over the past few years due to its huge supply of copyrighted material, but why shouldn't the government embrace the technology and use BitTorrent to distribute information to the public?

Sure, there's always that issue of "pirates" running the service, but I don't see what all the fuss is about. Who will they tell? President Obama should look to BitTorrent as an ideal way to get the word out. The distributed network reduces the cost of running data centers by allowing all the network's users to share the load.

It makes sense to me.

Present.ly for internal microblogging in groups based on level

Aside from AIM, I think the Obama administration should use enterprise microblogging service Present.ly to allow White House staff and the president to communicate.

The real beauty of Present.ly is its ability to allow users to create groups. A top-level aide can put the president, vice president, and cabinet in one group so they can discuss world affairs in a Twitter-like format, and the rest of the staff can have their own group to take care of their own work.

Sure, someone might be able to hack their way into the president's Present.ly group ("Michelle10" is an easy password to crack, Mr. President), but it still would help the staff communicate far more effectively than walking back and forth between desks.

Did you see 24 Monday night? That's all they do.

Stickam for White House room streams

I don't know about you, but I'm not always convinced that White House staff is really working. I'm not even sure President Obama would ever really know if his staff is working. How could he? He's busy.

That's why he needs to install cameras throughout the White House and use Stickam to monitor his employees. At any given time, he can log in to Stickam, find the White House channel, and start viewing all the different rooms in the house.

I'll bet that would get everyone working.

Ustream with moderated chat for country-wide town hall meetings

Ustream is a fine video-streaming service that makes connecting with others simple and fun. It's also ideal for a White House town hall meeting where President Obama would be on camera and citizens from across the U.S. would have the opportunity to ask him questions in a moderated chat room.

I don't see any reason why the president shouldn't exploit Ustream in this way. He has shown time and again that he has a real desire to use technology to connect with the populace and capitalizing on Ustream to give citizens a voice would be just another example of him doing just that.

I realize that allowing citizens from across the U.S. to comment on the president's policies could be troublesome, considering millions would probably want to join in, but if the room had a cap on the number of people who could join, or an effective team that could moderate comments, I doubt it would be a problem.

I'd certainly like to join in on that chat.

Check out Don's Digital Home podcast, Twitter feed, and FriendFeed.

AOL on Monday quietly released a brand-new version of its instant-messenger application for Mac users. Called "AIM for Mac beta 1," it's a replacement for version 4.7, which has remained untouched since February 2004.

Back then gas was a little over $1.50 a gallon.

Unlike the changes in oil prices, those four years have amounted to little more than what was offered in previous iterations of the program, or Apple's iChat application which comes pre-installed in every Mac computer. In the new version users can change emoticon sets and tweak background chat wallpapers--all things that you can't do with the current version of iChat. There's also tabbed browsing and contact search which the previous version did not have. Otherwise, it's largely playing catch-up to the PC version, which has received the most attention and is currently on version 6.8.

Also worth noting is how much the market has changed since the latest Mac release. iChat and third-party applications like Adium, Digsby, and Pidgin have the upper hand with compatibility for other protocols. AIM for Mac is currently limited to AOL and Yahoo contacts, while the others support things like Jabber, ICQ, and XMPP. In a more frequently fragmented market, with newcomers like Facebook and Google, these open platforms simply end up being more appealing.

[via Macrumors and Ars]

AIM for Mac looks quite similar to iChat, although without the audio and video logos to let you know who is ready for media chatting.

(Credit: AOL Inc.)

AOL has upgraded its AIM Express software, an online Flash-based application that replicates many of the features of the regular downloadable software (add your own review here).

Among the new AIM Express 7.0 features are tabbed conversations, status messages, text-message support to communicate with buddies' mobile phones, and compatibility with Microsoft's Internet Explorer 6 and 7, Mozilla's Firefox 2 and 3, and Apple's Safari 2 and 3.

The software is an example of the growing utility and sophistication of Web-based applications. Instant messaging, though, is somewhat more amenable to the task: it doesn't require the heavy processing burden of a spreadsheet, and not being able to work while offline isn't a big deal given that the whole point of IM is to chat with contacts on the network. Moving applications online poses some compatibility issues with various browsers or with software foundations such as Flash, but it can sidestep myriad other compatibility issues such as operating-system compatibility.

AOL also announced a new version of AIM for phones using the Windows Mobile operating system, including the Motorola Q, Samsung BlackJack, and some Palm Treo models. CNET Download.com editor Jessica Dolcourt reviewed the AIM for Windows Mobile phones beta in June.

Palringo's the first multi-chat protocol app for the iPhone.

(Credit: Palringo)

The new iPhone app from Palringo brings an official multi-instant messaging client to the Apple device. It supports eight chat protocols and includes some useful iPhone-specific features, but also suffers from several irritating limitations.

Palringo can handle Apple iChat, AIM, Google Talk, Yahoo Messenger, Gadu Gadu, ICQ, Jabber, and Windows Live Messenger. Assuming you've got no problems with the iPhone keyboard, creating a profile for one of these accounts is as simple as selecting the proper icon and typing in your username and password. First, though, you must set up a Palringo account. Not to worry: when you open the Palringo app for the first time, it will redirect you to their Web site for registration.

When you receive a message, it gets dumped into the universal in-box at the bottom left corner of the screen. This may sounds chaotic, but I was surprised at how well it worked. The camera feature worked flawlessly, too. When you select a contact to chat with, tap the camera icon in the lower right corner and you can either take a fresh photo that will be instantly sent, or send an already-saved photo from your album.

However, do note that the photo gets uploaded to Palringo's servers and stored there for 10 days. Users must then download images to keep them. Click here to see the image that Jason Parker sent me from his iPhone.

Palringo offers a variety of status options, but no clear way to log out of one client.

(Credit: Palringo)

The big hang-up, if you'll forgive the pun, is that the app doesn't offer a way to sign out of an account once it's been created. You can change the status of an account to Invisible, Busy, or Away, with the default status being Online, but there's no way to be logged in to your AIM but not your ICQ.

Also, since the iPhone can currently use only one app at a time, you must be running the app to receive new messages. The phone vibrates when it does, but that won't do you much good without having the app always on. The promised voice-chat feature has yet to be implemented, too.

Even with these drawbacks, for people who don't have a jailbroken phone Palringo offers a solid and Apple-approved way to get access to all your IMs at once.

Who's Online on AIM

(Credit: iPhone Atlas)

Fulfilling a feature available previously with jailbreak applications, AOL is offering a free instant-messaging client, available through the AppStore, for the iPhone. In our brief testing, the client was a snap to configure, and worked well, but exhibited a few freezes.

When the AIM application is first launched, you are presented with options to use either the AOL instant messaging service or MobileMe. Once you've made your selection, however, we couldn't find an easy way to go back and configure another account.

AIM chat screen

(Credit: iPhone Atlas)

Buddy lists are displayed with icons, status messages, and the typical blue iPhone interface arrow, which allows you to initiate a chat with a buddy or add a buddy to your favorites. The blue icon doesn't, however, allow you to access an active chat with said buddy. For that, you'll need to tap on the "IMs" button at the bottom of the screen.

The AIM application adds a preference pane to the "Settings" application, allowing you to change your screen name and password and control whether or not your account signs off when the AIM program is exited. If the option to sign off is turned off, IMs will continue to stream in while you work in other applications, and be displayed in the "Active IMs" window.

AIM My Info screen

(Credit: iPhone Atlas)

Tapping the "My Info" button allows you to set your Avaialble/Away status, as well as establish a status message. There's also a neat feature embedded here: you can tap on your buddy icon to bring up an option to either take a photo with the iPhone's built-in camera and use it as your buddy icon, or choose an existing photo from your iPhone's library and use it similarly.

As aforementioned, we experienced a few freezes in perfunctory use of AIM. If you experience such a freeze, hold the iPhone's Home button down for several seconds to force-quit the app.

AOL plans to launch a new program called AIM Money on Tuesday that lets programmers write applications that run in the AOL Instant Messenger buddy list--and lets programmers get a cut of any resulting revenue.

The move is made possible through use of an open interface in AIM 6.8, another new development. Version 6.8 also includes "mini-applications" that run at the bottom of the AIM buddy list window; 150 new CBS radio stations in AOL Radio; and restoration of the ability to save and import buddy lists, a feature that helps move a to a new IM identity.

As the computing industry has discovered the possibilities of applications running on the Internet, companies are rushing to curry favor with programmers hoping those companies' online offerings. Other examples of the idea are Facebook, Google and other members of the OpenSocial consortium, and the Yahoo Open Strategy.

Ultimately, richer applications can mean more users, more activity, more advertising--though the more lucrative elements of the strategy is largely rhetorical than real at this stage for many. AIM, however, has a well-populated list of active users, unlike many start-ups.

AOL announced the interface in March with its Open AIM 2.0 developer program, which lets programmers write software such as the mini-applications that plug into AIM's own chat software, bots that can communicate with humans on the network, Web-based AIM interfaces, and software that show when AIM members are available online through the service.

The revenue for programmers comes through sharing money generated by an advertisement that can appear along with programs that use the new AIM features. AOL serves advertisements using its Platform-A ad network and pays developers through PayPal.

To use the AIM API (application programming interface), developers have to use two of five AIM elements. The ad is one. The other four are bundling the AIM browser toolbar; providing access to AIM Expressions that customize the AIM interface; displaying the AIM Dashboard start page; and displaying buddy info.