Another bug has been affecting chat.aim.com users rather frequently. This bug has been appearing since the end of April and has not been fixed by AOL Staff. The bug is described below.

Users receive the error message:

There was an error sending your message. It may not have been sent correctly. Please try again.

There is a problem connecting to the chat. Trying to reconnect…

We have notified AOL’s twitter page and their response is below.  There is no easily available workaround available at this time. However you may optionally sign into AOL using a free screen name (that has an age above 18) and download the AOL 9.5+ client. Head to the chat area and start chatting within the AOL program.

Obviously AOL only allows horny 21 year old lonely females to chat.

AOL’s Response

Hello WBMike,

Thank you for your recent inquiry regarding message board error, I will forward this up to the tech manager. Thank you for your patience.

Thank you Shannon

Although she states “message board” when infact it is a chatroom. Hopefully the forwarded screenshot of the AIM chatroom will be passed along to the tech manager.

What is AOL Lifestream

AOL released a brand new update to AIM Lifestream, or should I say AOL Lifestream. It’s a service where AIM/AOL users can connect their social networking accounts, such as Twitter, Myspace, and even Facebook. If you use any of these services, AOL Lifestream allows you to publish your status updates to these networks. In essence, it streamlines the process of being on 3+ websites at once.

AOL Lifestream is also an app on iPhone and Google’s Android platform. If you are poor like me and can’t afford the two, you can join in the fun on different applications.

AOL Lifestream is available  through;

• AOL Lifestream
• AIM 7.2
• Aim for Mac
• Google Android
• Apple iPhone

The Lifestream application does not allow you to communicate to other AOL and AIM members through IMs. This application’s sole purpose is to view updates through different websites and allow you to input your thoughts by liking or commenting on them.

Using AOL Lifestream

When you enter a status update in your application, everyone who has you on their buddy list will see it. They are able to “Like” or “Comment” on it as they please. You’ll see a nifty little notification at the bottom of the AOL Lifestream application which shows you what new updates you have in social networking sites, as well as new comments from AIM members.

Clicking on the globe icon will show you a list of trending topics. These are just the most popular word in everyone’s status update. As you can see, AIM is popular amongst kids who are bored out of their mind with homework.

If you notice, there is a filter section that allows you to view only one network. If you want to see only twitter updates, type the word twitter. Or if you want to look up specific friend just type the first part of their name. In fact you can type shortcuts for the various things like twit, mysp, face, digg, photo, video, etc.

Removing AOL Lifestream

If you add random people to your buddy list, their lifestream updates will show up.

The screenshot above is a great example of someone who may not understand the functions of AOL Lifestream. If you add someone on your buddy list, you will automatically follow their lifestream updates. You can alternatively view anyone’s lifestream updates without following them by viewing their buddy info or inputting their screen name through:

http://lifestream.aol.com/stream/screenname

If you don’t want to see a certain person’s lifestream updates, remember to remove them from your buddy list.

If you want to turn off AOL Lifestream, head to the Settings Page. Clicking the trashcan icon will remove your connections to these services. Alternatively you can also click the drop down box and select “No one -Private”. Don’t forget the drop down box for the “AIM” service which will stop any of your status updates and away messages from showing up in the Lifestream tab. If you scroll down further you can disable commenting by selecting “Only You (private)”.

Thoughts

Generally I love the new design AOL is taking with the AIM website. All of the ads are gone and everything is streamlined. The same design style goes on to AOL Lifestream, now if only they could apply it to the message boards. As for the Adobe AIR Application, I do like how it instantly notifies me at the bottom of the screen. I’m not sure if this application is useful per say, it’s more like a time waster. It’s practical to use this service within the AIM program, unless you are mobile and have to rely on the iphone or android app.

It appears there are those who don’t know how to chat with Facebook friends on AIM. Yes despite how there’s a huge banner that asks if you want to use Facebook Connect. Well maybe you closed it out or you really don’t understand the process, so here’s how you do it very quickly.

Choose your version of AIM

You need to download or use a specific version of AIM to start this process. You have only three choices:

• Aim for Windows 7.2 Beta
• Aim for Mac 2.1 Beta
• Aim Express

These are the only three versions that include the new Facebook chat feature. While you are installing AIM, you can set up your Facebook account by going to the Aim Lifestream website.

Adding Facebook to AIM Lifestream

f Connect allows third party websites like AOL to sign into Facebook

Head over to AIM Lifestream:

• Enter your AIM login details.
• Click on Settings in the top right corner.
• Click ADD near the Facebook Icon.
• Click fConnect.
• Enter your FACEBOOK login details.

Once you complete the process, your AIM screen name will be synced to your Facebook account. This synchronization will appear on all beta versions of AIM that support this feature. So you do not need to repeat these steps for each client. You can also add as many screen names as you want to the same Facebook account!

Within your buddy list check for the Facebook icon and full names of your friends on the buddy list.

Facebook Status Update Through AIM

Click that little Facebook Icon

To send a status update through AIM, you must activate the Facebook icon within the status update box. If you hover over the Facebook Icon it will say “Also update your status on Facebook (updating is OFF/ON).” If it’s turned on,  it will first show up in your AIM Lifestream, and might take a while before it shows up in your actual Facebook profile. 

If you click that little +photos icon at the top right corner you can also add post images to your Facebook Status. Pretty neat!

Facebook And AIM Problems

A sample of issues that affect AIM 7.2. Pay particular attention to the ones highlighted in purple, as your very likely to hit these problems through daily use.

• There can be a delay in seeing your Facebook friends go online, offline or idle.
• If you have a very large number of Facebook friends it can take a minute to load your AIM Buddy List, and you will not be able to IM until the Buddy List is loaded.
• Messages sent to an offline Facebook buddy will not be delivered when they come online.
• When you login to AIM as invisible, you will see a non-working “Sign In to Facebook Chat” prompt under your Facebook groups on the Buddy List, and in the Buddy List menu.
• An empty Facebook Friends group will appear on clients that are not Facebook enabled/capable
• If you are using IM forwarding to send IMs to your mobile device, you will receive, but not be able to reply, to messages from Facebook friends.
• Occasionally the association between AIM and Facebook account is lost with no visible user notification
•  IMing Facebook friends while your AIM privacy is set to ‘Allow only users on my Buddy List’ causes IMs to be bounced back.
• Your Facebook friends’ status message from Facebook will not be shown in the AIM buddy list, next to their name.

Just like Bebo Friends, the “Facebook Friends“ buddy list group will get added to your buddy list and will stay permanently until you remove yourself from Facebook Connect.

Currently there may be a bug where your Facebook Friends group shows zero Friends online even though they are supposed to be on. As this bug is currently being researched the suggestions would be to ensure “online presence” is checked on the Facebook Privacy page. Also check that your buddy list privacy settings are not set to allow only users on my buddy list.

Facebook Application Settings

Also check for the following:

• On Facebook.com, Click Account
• Click Application Settings
• Click Edit Settings Under AIM
• Ensure “Log into Facebook Chat on my behalf” is checkmarked.

As the settings on this page are straightforward, having one of them unchecked means that feature would not work within AIM. Is Publish to Streams unchecked? Well you wouldn’t be able to update your facebook status through AIM would you?

Today AOL released it’s newest version of AIM with version 7.2. This time it has integrated Facebook support. Wait a minute, wasn’t Facebook already integrated within Lifestream? Well the only new added feature in this version is that now you can see who is online on Facebook and chat with them.

Release Notes:

• Chat with your Facebook friends.
• Get your updates from Facebook, Twitter, and other social networks.
• Comment, ‘like’ and update your Facebook and Twitter status.

Aim 7.2 Beta with Custom Skin

When chatting with a Facebook friend, you will see the Facebook logo at the bottom of the IM Window. Facebook Friends also show up under their own category within the buddy list, optionally you can show their pictures as buddy icons.

Aim Lifestream

It looks as if your supposed to be able to click the Like button under all the Facebook status updates, however this feature wasn’t working properly at this time. It appears to only work under your own status update and not your friends. You can note that it says “Like” under the status I posted. To view your friend’s status updates, click the “Lifestream” button.

Aim 7.2 Skin Support

Congratulations! All custom AIM 7.1 skins are supported under Aim 7.2. The instructions will change based on the installation directory.

C:\program files\aim7\services\imApp\ver7_2_3_10

Back again after 4 months of translating Japanese to English.

This time we’re going to change screen name colors for Aim 7.1, and it’s going to work without signing off.

AOL loads a certain CSS file each time you re open an IM window.

So feel free to go far beyond this tutorial and customize the colors of AIM as you see fit. This page will get rid of that ugly brown color they use for your screen name.

Before we Start

This tutorial requires a certain skill level. You must be able to do the following on your own.

• Navigate folders in Windows Explorer.
• Understand the process of opening a file in notepad.
• (Vista Only) Changing File Permissions under Administrator.
• Understand the process of copying and pasting text.

If you are unable to do these tasks please do not continue this tutorial.

Unlocking Vista’s Notepad: 

• Open Notepad with Administrative privileges by clicking Start, All Programs, Accessories, and then right-click Notepad and select to open as Administrator.

Preparation

Unlike Aim 7 Beta, Aim 7.1 has made the process of editing screen name colors very easy. All it requires is pasting a few html colors within the a CSS file.

The first step is to find the default.css file that controls screen name colors.

This file is located in the folder:

C:\program files\aim7\services\imApp\ver7###\content\im\ 

Simply copying and pasting the above path will not work in Windows Explorer. You must manually navigate to the folder using My Computer if you have Windows XP or Computer in Windows Vista.

Program Files, Vista users may see Program Files (x86), if you can not locate the AIM 7 folder, try the other Program Files folder.

Ver7### represents your Aim 7 version number which you will instantly see if you navigated to the folder manually.

en-US is the language and region folder.

Screen Name Color

Open Notepad (Vista users must open as Administrator) then drag the file, default.css, into notepad. You are going to look for the line below…

.color_font-header_local, .color_font-header_local_inline
{
color: #864F04;
}

Highlighted in brown in the code above is your screen name’s default color. To change your screen name color, replace it with an html color code of your choosing.

.color_font-header_local, .color_font-header_local_inline
{
color: #b2bf16;
}

I have now changed the color to #b2bf16 to match my new AIM  7 skin. You can of course edit the screen name color of the person you are iming by changing the color on the line below it.

.color_font-header_remote_0, .color_font-header_remote_inline_0
{
color: #e49600;
}

To summarize, .color_font-header_local changes your screen name’s color. Whereas .color_font-header_remote_0 will change the person you IM.

When you are done you must save the file.  For your changes to show up, close ALL IM windows, you don’t need to shut down AIM, then re open them. Even though you have completed the tutorial, you can also edit other colors as well.

Screen Name Status Color

If you still have default.css open,  look for this line.

.color_font-screenname_status,
.color_font-state_status,
.color_font-timestamp_status
{
color:#5D6E87;
}

Editing that html color will change the color of the status message. Here I changed the color to pink to match the website.

So you’ve been enjoying AIM 5.9′s incredibly familiar red and blue screen name colors. AIM 7 replaces the screen name color scheme yet again with a pretty natural green and a horrendous brown color.

Fear not, you can change these screen name colors to any color you wish to use.

You will do this by editing one extremely long file with notepad. So let’s get started!

Preparing your files

The first step is to find the file that controls screen name colors.

This folder is located at

C:\program files\aim7\services\imApp\ver7###\resources\en-US

Simply copying and pasting the above path will not work in Windows Explorer. You must manually navigate to the folder using My Computer if you have Windows XP or Computer in Windows Vista.

Ver7### represents your Aim 7 version number which you will instantly see if you navigated to the folder manually.

en-US is the language and region folder. Obviously if you are using the Spanish language of AIM7, the folder’s name would change to sp-US, or french would be fr-FR. This last folder will be instantly obvious if you manually navigated to the folder.

As you reach that folder open notepad. You will drag the file strings.xml into notepad.

Strings.xml controls a lot of stuff. It’s imperative that you do not try to edit anything else in this file unless you know what you are doing. You might want to expand notepad’s window a bit so you can see what you are doing.

Changing Your Screen Name Color

Search for the line below.

<string name="imForm.history.header.local.color">#864F04</string>

Note the HTML color code is highlighted in brown. Use the HTML Color Code site to insert a color of your into this area. After you are done you can save the file and RESTART AIM.

Changing Other Screen Name Colors

Similar to Aim 6, you can edit the colors of other screen names. Remote.color is located a tad below the local.color so it should be easy to find. Remote.color.0 represents the person who IMs you. Any number higher than 0 represents chatroom screen name colors.

    <string name="imForm.history.header.remote.color.0">#0172F3</string>
    <string name="imForm.history.header.remote.color.1">#0052a3</string>
    <string name="imForm.history.header.remote.color.2">#0860A8</string>
    <string name="imForm.history.header.remote.color.3">#F91361</string>
    <string name="imForm.history.header.remote.color.4">#0197B5</string>

The colors of the first 5 screen names in a chatroom are already highlighted for you. You can change any of them by typing any HTML color code you want. After you are done save the file and RESTART AIM.

It seems the message they are focusing on this time is to keep the program light on resources. The last time this was done was for AIM Lite. Redesign appears to pay some homage to Yahoo and Facebook.

We’ll have an indepth of review of this new beta at another time. Here are some of the new features you can expect with Aim 7 beta.

• New Look
• Larger Buddy Icons
• Built in Buddy Icon Maker
• Larger status entry screen
• New Advertisement locations

[via AOL Beta]

Aim 7 Customization, Skins, and More

• About Me:
• Code Snippet
• Gigya’s My Stuff

Doesn’t code snippet already allow flash?

Well it does, but you may have noticed your Playlist.com code may not fully work within the code snippet. Sure the graphics pop up but the flash code itself is missing. Here’s an example of Code Snippet using the proper embed code.

As you can see in the picture above, the music player doesn’t show up even though the embed code is correct. The Code Snippet module allows flash but under a very specific code. What makes this code difficult, is that you will have to cut and paste the flash code into bebo’s special format. We’ll take you step by step on what you need to do to get Playlist.com and other flash examples working correctly.

Please pay attention to the steps carefully. Playlist.com code insertion is listed on the second page.

How does Bebo handle Flash?

Bebo uses flash through it’s own SNML protocol. SNML is pretty similar to HTML, but there are some slight differences. You may have noticed that both the About Me and Code Snippet modules say SNML. This is where you would paste Bebo’s SNML code.

Step 1: Find your src=

The first thing you must locate is your src= code. This src code begins immediately after the after the equal sign. Highlight the code your flash application  gave you. You must highlight from the first quotation mark up to the next quotation mark. After you highlight this code, right click and press copy. The example below shows a Vimeo video code.

<embed src="http://vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=2072369&server=vimeo.com&show_title=0&show_byline=0&show_portrait=0&color=14c963&fullscreen=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" allowscriptaccess="always" width="400" height="225">
</embed>

The code that follows src= is highlighted in blue. This is the code you will paste into Bebo’s flash code in Step 2.  Use the scrollbars to see where the blue code begins and ends. Note there are only two quotation marks.

You should not have more than 2 quotation marks at this point. Later on we can add more quotation marks.

Step 2:  Bebo’s Flash Code

<sn:swf swfsrc="insert swf or flash src code here">

Take the blue code you copied in Step 1 and replace it over the purple text in Step 2.

Step 3: Paste your flash SRC code inside Bebo’s SWFSRC code

<sn:swf swfsrc="http://vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=2072369&server=vimeo.com&show_title=0&show_byline=0&show_portrait=0&color=14c963&fullscreen=1">

If you insert the code correctly you will have it show up like this. There should only be 2 quotation marks in your entire code up to this point.

Advanced abilities

Bebo’s flash code can also scale by width and height. You can do this by adding this to your code.

width="xxx" height="xxx"

Replace xxx with the number of pixels you want it to be. Your code could end up looking like this.

<sn:swf swfsrc="http://vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=2072369&server=vimeo.com&show_title=0&show_byline=0&show_portrait=0&color=14c963&fullscreen=1" width="199" height="160">

That about end it. If you need more help the next page will explain the exact same method with Playlist.com

]]> http://bumped.org/tek/2009/04/11/adding-flash-and-mp3-codes-to-bebos-code-snippet/feed/ 2 http://bumped.org/tek/2009/04/01/aol-message-board-closings-generates-frustration-and-anger/ http://bumped.org/tek/2009/04/01/aol-message-board-closings-generates-frustration-and-anger/#comments Wed, 01 Apr 2009 23:47:49 +0000 WBMike http://bumped.org/tek/?p=1020 In a previous post on the People Connection blog, AOL announced changes would be coming to the AOL Message boards. These changes included a new look for popular message boards, while the other boards would retire. On March 31st, the entire message board system was down. On April 1st, the old format boards re-appeared for a few moments then quickly vanished.

It seems AOL will be moving some message boards over to their blog network as seen with Fanhouse forums. Other message boards will be under AOL’s many themed portals such as the AOL Autos and AOL Travel and AOL Developer Forum.

The complete list of available boards can be found on the People Connection page but a majority of the boards are missing. The highly popular Rants and Raves, This and That, Computer and Electronics,  and Religion boards, are interestingly missing. AOL has not released a statement whether those boards would return or if they have been retired.

Since many of the AOL Message Boards are down, users have huddled over to other websites. There’s currently an AOL thread on Yahoo message boards, while other members have started their own message boards on Yuku.com

If you got lost in the shuffle there is an active list of message boards run by AOL members maintained by Spiderswebhelp’s Website. Also another blog, Anti-AOL is covering this news story.

AOL Message Board Gathering Areas

17 Ways to Beat Boredom

Free Parking

AOL Travel on Yuku

The migration of AOL Profiles to Bebo didn’t go as smoothly as planned. For the most part there seems to be great lack of knowledge among AOL members over the inner workings of Bebo. AOL will have to address these issues in some shape or form. These issues were posted by members on various forums and websites.

Each issue is color coded based on whether a workaround exists or not. Workarounds are linked to the individual who found the solution. Unfortunately, I won’t be able to figure out all the problems you have with Bebo, However, if you find a solution to a problem please post in the comments section. I will keep this list up to date as I get notified of new details.

Updated: 5/12/09

Unable to change gender from Male to Female

Description:  Users have reported they are unable to change their gender from Male to Female. When a user changes to their appropriate gender, Bebo will reset as if the changes were not made.

AOL’s Response: No response from AOL could be found.

Workaround: No known workaround.

Bebo added extra numbers to my screen name or someone with my screen name is using my profile.

Description: Some screen names may find they have extra numbers added to their Bebo profile. Bebo will add extra numbers to your screen name if someone already registered your name before the Bebo transition. For example, if your screen name is “Sally”, and someone registered that name on Bebo before you, your Bebo profile will add numbers “Sally12″ so that both of you won’t have the same profile.

Bebo messages sent to the wrong AOL user who shares the same screen name. 

Description: There are some scattered reports of AOL users who have the same screen name with another Bebo member.  The AOL users who report appear to be confused that someone on Bebo registered their screen name before them and thus their screen name now has numbers added to it.

The complaints arise from AOL users who receive messages that were addressed to the original Bebo username. Unfortunately, we don’t have much information about this particular bug as very very few people reported it.  It’s possible that there may be a glitch where two Bebo users are sharing the same inbox, but their profiles are entirely different. If you have a problem similar to this please comment below.

Bebo did not migrate information and photos from AOL Profiles

Description: Some users reported how their profiles were completely wiped out when they transitioned over to Bebo.

Workaround: Lucien Iteratus posted a workaround where you can access your old AIM Profiles for a limited time. Essentially you should copy information from that profile over to the Bebo profile. This backdoor has been shut down by AOL. In April 09,  AOL has moved all AIM photos into Bebo.

• Copy and Paste the address below.
• Replace xx with your screen name
• http://memberdirectory.aol.ca/aolus/profile?sn=xx

AOL’s Response: AOL has not addressed lost information. AIM Photos have successfully transferred over during April, 09.

Unable to edit basic profile information.

Description: Some users are unable to edit their profile information.  When one tries to change this information the profile reverts back as if no changes were made.

Workaround: AOL Message board member Moondancer  posted a workaround. Click “Edit Profile” at your Bebo.com profile. In the “Name” text box, make the first letter uppercase. If you change the first letter to lowercase, Bebo will not allow you to save any changes.

AOL’s Response: No response from AOL could be found.

Buddy Group “Profile Friends” shows up in your buddy List and cannot be deleted. The message “An error has occurred please try again later” appears if you try to delete the group on AOL.

Description: Some users reported a buddy group called “Profile Friends” on their AIM Buddy List. Members are unable to delete the group. The screen names of your Bebo.com friends will get added to this group. Removing your friends from Bebo will delete them from your buddy list.

Workaround: AOL Message board member Soozy posted a workaround.  After April 6th, AOL has fixed this bug.

• Sign into Bebo.com with your AIM screen name.
• Click “Friends” at the top black bar in the website.
• All your friends will be listed with a Red X at the top right corner of their picture.
• Click the Red X to delete each of your friends from Bebo.com
• After you remove ALL your friends from Bebo.com, sign off of AOL or AIM.
• Sign back onto an official AOL / AIM program and the “Bebo Friends” group will be gone.
• The “Bebo Friends” group will reappear if you add a new friend to Bebo.com
• If you cancel your Bebo account, it will take 24+ hours before the buddy group is removed from your buddy list.

AOL’s Response:  “At this point we do not support deleting Bebo Groups” -dev forum

Recommendation: AOL should allow the option of turning on or off your Bebo Friends group. Currently there is no way to manually delete the group without deleting all your friends.

AOL Profile module, “Code Snippet”, is missing on some profiles.

Description: In this case the AOL exclusive module, “code snippet”, is missing for AOL/AIM profiles.  Bebo forbids adding AOL exclusive modules to your page even though your profile originated from AOL/AIM.

Workaround: No workaround exists yet. You can try an alternative application. If you entered text within Code Snippet before February, 2009, it will show up in your Bebo modules list.

AOL’s Response:  No response from AOL could be found.

Friends from previous profile are missing with Bebo update

Description: Some friends who were added before the Bebo migration do not show up now.

Workaround: Visit your friend’s profile and manually add them back.

AOL’s Response: AOL is aware of this issue and included it in a blog posting. AOL automatically updated the missing friends during a 3/20/09 update.

Unable to edit About Me and code snippet modules

Description: Some users are unable to edit the “About Me”  and “Code Snippet” module.

Workaround: Both “About Me” and “Code Snippet” modules do not support Internet Explorer 6. You will need to upgrade your browser to one of the choices presented on this browser upgrade page.

AOL’s Response: Bebo states some features are not supported by older versions of Internet Explorer.

Recommendation: Since other modules are compatible with IE6, these two modules should be reprogrammed.

[AOL/AIM  Bebo Migration Guide]

For a long time I’ve been asked how exactly do you remove graphical smileys and emoticons in AIM6. In Aim 5.9 the option was there but in Aim 6.0 it was removed.

A recent update to Aim 6.9 has reinstated this feature.

How to Disable Smileys in Aim 6

• Download and Install Aim 6.9 Beta 3
• Open Aim
• Click Edit at the top of the window.
• Click Settings
• Click Expressions
• Checkmark “Display Emoticons as text instead of images..”
• Click Save.

Checkmark “Display emoticons as text…”

Gigya’s “My stuff” Application

1. Go to: http://www.bebo.com/Profile.jsp?MemberId=5881631369

2. Click on Try this App

3. Press “Add Application”

Its pretty much just like Code Snippet. You add HTML code and it will display it for you.

Did you know you can add flash and mp3s to code snippet? Check out this handy guide!

[AOL/AIM Bebo Migration Guide]

1. Click Settings at the top of the page.

2. Click on “cancel my account”

3. Click “Yes, Cancel my Bebo Membership”

Here are some notes about canceling.

• You won’t be able to view most of your AIM or AOL friend’s profiles if they forgot to set the account to public.
• Be sure to inform your friends to set their profiles as public.
• You won’t be able to re-register the same AOL email address as a new account.
• To reactivate your profile you need to contact Bebo Support.
• It will take 24+ hours before you are fully removed from Bebo’s system. This includes the Profile Friends group on your buddy list and your status messages.
  
• Click Here to read instructions on how to remove Bebo Friends from your buddy list.
  

[AOL/AIM Bebo Migration Guide]

Did AOL notify users that AIM Profiles would switch to Bebo?

Yes, in fact, there was a yellow bar at the top of every profile giving you a preview for what the new profile system would look like.  There was really no way of avoiding that announcement if you used AIM profiles last year. I’ve also covered this in previous entry four months ago that you can read here in case you need proof. 

As it happens whenever AOL changes something, most users get disgruntled, they assemble their pitch forks and flames, they walk up to AOL’s headquaters and raise hell! The same thing pretty much happened when AOL changed “AOL Profiles” over to the same sytem AIM profiles used, but that’s another story.

Some have started their own petitions gaining over 3000 signatures about this event. I totally agree, the Bebo profiles are not user friendly for AOL users. Settings are pretty much scattered all over the place and there isn’t one central area for everything you need. Some users describe their experience with it as frustrating, confusing, and a piece of garbage. AOL will have to modify the Bebo setup to appeal to the AOL side. As for those who already exist on Bebo, they are quite used to it and understand how it works.

But I’m here to help. The likeliness of AIM Profiles coming back is slim, so we just have to make due with what we have. The next post will feature a guide to some of the confusing issues with Bebo. We’ll have a little walkthrough where you can ask questions and I’ll get back to you as I find out.

[AOL/AIM  Bebo Migration Guide]

With the Aim help forums down, we tackle a question thats been asked on other help sites. We’ll tackle the American carriers and see how much it would cost to use AIM. Let’s take a look into some definitions first.

What’s the difference?

SMS Text: SMS messages are quite commonly known as texts. If your AIM Mobile application uses text messages, you will get charged one text for signing on, one for retrieving your buddy list, and one for updating your buddy list.

Additionally you will be charged for sending an IM and charged for receiving an IM. If you take this route it should take you at least 4 text messages to sign on and off. If your a heavy AIM user, you might want to consider asking for unlimited texting plan.

Data: Data messages are sent over your mobile phone’s data stream. This is commonly known as 3G, Edge, or Wi-Fi. 3G and Edge is provided by your cellphone carrier. More likely than not if you use 3G or Edge, you probably have an unlimited data plan, but you should still check with your carrier to make sure.

If you use Wi-Fi, it’s for the most part free if you have your own coverage at home. However in public facilities companies may charge Wi-Fi access, luckily they require a password before you connect, meaning that you won’t get charged until you supply credit card info.

In Plain English Please?

Texting: You will get charged per text, unless you have unlimited text messages.

Data: You will get charged per kilobyte or megabyte, unless you have unlimited data plan.

Sending Text Messages from the Computer?

If your on the computer, AIM allows you to send text messages to cellphones for free. The person who sends text messages on the computer will not be charged. 

The person who recieves the text message will get charged. Before texting anyone, please make sure to ask them before hand if they have a texting plan.

Any differences between phones?

• What about the Blackberry?
  • Blackberry for the most part uses a data plan. However T-Mobile’s built in application will use text messages. You can however download different IM applications for blackberry. Read here for more info.

• What about Windows Mobile?
  • Windows mobile phones use data. AOL has provided a beta for AIM for Windows Mobile.

• What about the iPhone?
  • The iPhone uses data through Edge, 3G, or Wi-Fi. The iPhone has an unlimited data plan so feel free to use AIM anytime.

• What about my Cellphone?
  • The regular run of the mill cell phone will most likely use texting. However there are some crafty ways around this. You can sign onto Aim without using any text messages.