AOL Unveils Version 9.0

kinetic · Dec 4, 2002, 04:42 PM

AOL lifts curtain on version 9.0

By Jim Hu
Special to ZDNet News
December 4, 2002, 4:19 AM PT

NEW YORK--America Online on Tuesday previewed the upcoming version 9.0 of its flagship AOL service, showing off an early rendition of the software that includes many new personalization and multimedia features.
AOL 9.0 won't be released until fall 2003, and its precursor, AOL 8.0, came out just weeks ago. Still, company executives touted the pending upgrade as one example of much-needed changes to the premium service.

The sneak peek was part of a presentation by AOL executives during parent company AOL Time Warner's analyst and investor day here. The media giant outlined its plans for turning around AOL, which has suffered heavy revenue losses and stagnant subscriber growth, in addition to other financial issues.

Key differences from past versions include a broad palette of customization features that let users tinker with the look and feel of the service, as well as a feature that lets users organize a personalized My AOL homepage with custom news, e-mail and entertainment links, among other things.

AOL 9.0 also will offer better file management options and give users more control over photos, video, music and other media. Notably, the service allows for significant file-sharing options in conjunction with its popular instant messaging service. The IM service also gets an overhaul in the preview version: Users can access address books from within the messaging client and use e-mail, in addition to the standard real-time chat, to contact friends.

With AOL 9.0's file management system, users can drag and drop media files to forward to friends as attachments in e-mails or IM messages.

Many of the features appear aimed at catching up with rivals. Yahoo, for example, has long offered custom My Yahoo pages allowing members to set preferences for news headlines, weather, sports scores and other customized content.

In addition to new features for the dial-up version of the service, AOL showed off some broadband enhancements for AOL 9.0.

AOL's high-speed media player can be expanded to fill the entire screen and promises to cut down on "buffering" delays associated with Internet streaming.

AOL 9.0 also offers new community features, including an e-mail invitation service that lets members include links to online ticket sales for concerts and other events.

nForcer · Dec 4, 2002, 06:48 PM

Same sh!t, different version

kinetic · Dec 4, 2002, 08:15 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by nForcer
Same sh!t, different version

LOL! Not a fan then?

nForcer · Dec 4, 2002, 11:21 PM

LOL! NO

Here are some of my fav logon audio files AOL should be including...

-Welcome, you've got mail! (I hope you don't have stocks!)

-Welcome, you've got the AOL virus!

-What the fuk? why aren't you using MSN?

Kelsenellenelvian · Dec 5, 2002, 12:01 AM

Look ma version 8 sucks so much that they are already getting a new sh!ttier version ready!!!

AznMouse23 · Dec 7, 2002, 07:21 PM

Yay...another AOL...wutever...dun really care....

Dec 4, 2002, 04:42 PM	#1
kinetic DriverHeaven Senior Member Join Date: May 2002 Location: Manchester England Posts: 2,559 Rep Power: 0	AOL Unveils Version 9.0 AOL lifts curtain on version 9.0 By Jim Hu Special to ZDNet News December 4, 2002, 4:19 AM PT NEW YORK--America Online on Tuesday previewed the upcoming version 9.0 of its flagship AOL service, showing off an early rendition of the software that includes many new personalization and multimedia features. AOL 9.0 won't be released until fall 2003, and its precursor, AOL 8.0, came out just weeks ago. Still, company executives touted the pending upgrade as one example of much-needed changes to the premium service. The sneak peek was part of a presentation by AOL executives during parent company AOL Time Warner's analyst and investor day here. The media giant outlined its plans for turning around AOL, which has suffered heavy revenue losses and stagnant subscriber growth, in addition to other financial issues. Key differences from past versions include a broad palette of customization features that let users tinker with the look and feel of the service, as well as a feature that lets users organize a personalized My AOL homepage with custom news, e-mail and entertainment links, among other things. AOL 9.0 also will offer better file management options and give users more control over photos, video, music and other media. Notably, the service allows for significant file-sharing options in conjunction with its popular instant messaging service. The IM service also gets an overhaul in the preview version: Users can access address books from within the messaging client and use e-mail, in addition to the standard real-time chat, to contact friends. With AOL 9.0's file management system, users can drag and drop media files to forward to friends as attachments in e-mails or IM messages. Many of the features appear aimed at catching up with rivals. Yahoo, for example, has long offered custom My Yahoo pages allowing members to set preferences for news headlines, weather, sports scores and other customized content. In addition to new features for the dial-up version of the service, AOL showed off some broadband enhancements for AOL 9.0. AOL's high-speed media player can be expanded to fill the entire screen and promises to cut down on "buffering" delays associated with Internet streaming. AOL 9.0 also offers new community features, including an e-mail invitation service that lets members include links to online ticket sales for concerts and other events.

Dec 5, 2002, 12:01 AM	#5
Kelsenellenelvian Master of my own Destiny Join Date: Aug 2002 Location: EverDawn Kingdom,TruEarth Posts: 1,395 Rep Power: 0	Look ma version 8 sucks so much that they are already getting a new sh!ttier version ready!!! __________________ [color=#0000ff] Download Windows Post-Install Wizard v4.3.8 and WPI Lite v1.2 Here [/color][color=red][color=blue][/color][/color]

Dec 7, 2002, 07:21 PM	#6
AznMouse23 DriverHeaven Newbie Join Date: Dec 2002 Location: SF Posts: 13 Rep Power: 0	Yay...another AOL...wutever...dun really care.... __________________ Evil will always triumph because Good is dumb. The unexamined life is not worth living.

Dec 4, 2002, 06:48 PM	#2
nForcer Twice the fun! Join Date: Jul 2002 Posts: 1,404 Rep Power: 0	Same sh!t, different version

Dec 4, 2002, 11:21 PM	#4
nForcer Twice the fun! Join Date: Jul 2002 Posts: 1,404 Rep Power: 0	LOL! NO Here are some of my fav logon audio files AOL should be including... -Welcome, you've got mail! (I hope you don't have stocks!) -Welcome, you've got the AOL virus! -What the fuk? why aren't you using MSN?