Aim 7.2 Beta With Facebook Integration; Chat with Facebook on AIM; Custom Skin Support

Aim 7.2 Beta

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

Aim 7.1: Changing Screen Name Colors

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.

AOL Email Footer Lawsuit: Fairchild v. AOL, Cecchini v. AOL.

The History thus far:

On March  2006, AOL placed advertisements in the footers of all AOL member emails. Since then it sparked a petition gaining  900 signatures against the idea.

In May 2008, AOL notified a limited number of subscribers by allowing the option to remove the advertising footers at AOL Keyword (http://footer.aol.com). It is amazing even to this day, I was never notified of this keyword.

Around October 2008, AOL was hit by a lawsuit. The case, Cecchini v. AOL LLC, stated, “AOL attached advertisements to over 100 million emails without the subscribers’ permission.”

Frank Cecchini believes, an AOL customer paying $25.90 a month should not see any form of advertisements placed within their email. I pretty much agree, it is  understandable to place advertisements inside free email accounts, but I don’t think it is fair to paying AOL customers. I feel paying customers shouldn’t see advertisements on AOL websites, but I digress.

Proposed Settlement

An email from a related case, Fairchild v. AOL was released this week. Fairchild et. al v. AOL started around May 2009, and has since been placed within Cecchini v. AOL. It appears since August 24th, 2009, the lawsuit has moved to the proposed settlement phase. Here the courts will decide if AOL should pay over $250,000 for legal costs and fees, in addition to $103,000 it must pay to charity, among other things.

AOL’s Proposed Requirements

According to the email, AOL is required to notify it’s members about AOL Keyword Footer (http://footer.aol.com). They must also inform current and new members (upon registering for an AOL account) the option to remove the advertisements. This notification will continue every six months for two years.

User Response

Well I must admit, there isn’t much buzz about this subject but people have been forwarding this email around. I’ll wait until a few more days to get a response. So far I see it has been pretty negative. I think paying AOL members are bummed that they won’t get any share of the money.  I think sending a portion of the money to charity is a nice touch, but it would be nice to get something back… (or does this make me sound greedy?)

[via joemanna and court house news and Cecchini and Bronster]

read more

Miss AOL Ficlets? Try Ficly!

Ficlets was an idea brought up by AOL developer Kevin Lawver. Essentially you and several authors will continue a multi-part story that spans as long as there is interest.  The site came under fire when AOL announced last year that they would be shutting it down.

During AOL’s restructuring and downsizing, they decided to let a few properties go. This evidently ended up with the message board fiasco we had a few months ago, but that’s beside the point. Kevin Lawver has relaunched his new site Ficly.com!

The best part of the site is how you really don’t have to register. The site uses OpenID, you can ironically use your AOL screen name to sign in. Now we’re off to finish up our 20 part telenovela!

Aim 7.0 Releases With Larger Buddy Icons

Today the next generation of the popular instant messenger platform released with a brand new version called Aim 7. It’s an early beta that will showcase some new features.

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