Open AIM Newsletter August 2009

Welcome to the Open AIM Newsletter. It's been over a year since the last edition, and there has been a lot going on with the AIM product and Open AIM program. In this edition, we'll feature some of the people who make AIM happen, places you can go to learn more about what's going on, and some of the tools available to help you build your next AIM-enabled application.

Going forward, we plan to send out a newsletter once a quarter and we'd like to include topics that you'd like to hear about. Please take a few moments and let us know what you'd like to see in the newsletter by posting comments in the Developer's Dialogue forum.

Until next time,
The Open AIM team

AIM for Windows Mobile provides smartphone users with the most usable Mobile AIM product in the market with a rich feature set. With Open AIM, we have integrated a multitude of AIM features and developed a client that looks and feels like the desktop AIM client. Get more information and try out AIM for Windows Mobile 1.2.

Features in AIM for Windows Mobile include:

• Full Buddy List support (60 groups and up to 1000 buddies)
• Buddy Icon support
• Custom status and away messages
• Offline messaging support
• Ability to send IMs to mobile phone numbers directly from the client
• Over the air (OTA) updates

Beta News

We just posted the latest Beta for our upcoming AIM for WinMo 2.0 release, which includes the new Lifestream feature! Check it out and let us know what you think.

Use Twitter, Facebook and AIM Insider to follow AIM videos, links, audio, photos, quotes, and more around the web in real-time.

• Twitter
• Facebook
• AIM Insider

We are proud to announce that the AIM Running Man is back! The Running Man was the icon for our Instant Messaging application and remained so until 2004, now he's back! Please review the approved AIM Running Man style guide.

AIM for Mac 1.5 was launched on June 30th with the features our users have been asking for - AIM Conversation Logging, Custom Buddy Icons, Group Row Themes, and Growl notifications. Nearly a week later on July 6th, the AOL Mac Team launched AIM for Mac 2.0 Beta 1, featuring AIM Lifestream. The 2.0 version of AIM for Mac will introduce a redesigned Buddy List header that will accommodate the AIM Lifestream. Get the Beta of AIM for Mac 2.0 and leave a comment on our Mac blog.

As many of our developers know, AIM Money is our revenue-share platform that allows you to make money from ad views generated in your Open AIM application. The more ads displayed, the more money you make. It's that simple. There are no fees to participate, and monthly payments are issued only via PayPal. You must have a valid PayPal account that has been affiliated with your AIM Money account. Without this you will not be able to get any accrued funds.

Follow these steps to affiliate your PayPal account with your AIM Money account:

• Log into your AIM Money account here.
• Click on "View my Account." (you will need to be signed into the AOL network)
• Under "My Account Balance," click on "Setup Pay Me Now" and follow the instructions.

The new Open AIM SDK 1.8.2 supports Windows, Linux, Mac OSX and Mobile! Check out the new cool features of this release and try out the samples! Get more details about the SDK.

Did you know that AIM 7 is built using the same AIMCC libraries that we give away free to developers? With this release, AIM introduces Lifestream, the ability to upload pictures with your status message, more colors and themes to choose from, and improved product stability. In addition, AIM is now supported on Windows, Mac and Windows mobile. To get more details, check out known issues, or to give your own feedback, check out the AIM 7 Beta.

The Open AIM Program is now more open than ever. We've made quite a few changes to the program and we encourage you to learn about them now. Effective immediately, the Developer Agreement has been updated to remove the requirement to incorporate "two features out of a list of five" (the "2 of 5"). The 2 of 5 was required when developing and deploying an AIM Custom Client (including mobile versions) or a Web AIM application. Although no longer required, we encourage you to incorporate as many of the AIM product features as possible to create application stickiness and resonance with AIM users. Additionally, we have detailed requirements on how developers using third-party libraries and protocols can access the AIM Network, and we have outlined the proper use of our Open AIM Authentication APIs.

Our new AIM Partner website has launched and we welcome you to check it out. The AIM Partner site provides information about the AIM Partner programs that are available, in addition to information about how current partners are leveraging the AIM network to enhance their business communications and collaboration. If you are interested in a partnership with AIM, contact us today for more details.

Review the latest articles, FAQ's, and code samples that are available for developers using Open AIM. Visit our site for more details.

Rizwan Sattar

Rizwan is one of the developers of AIM Express, the web-based AIM experience built from the ground up using the WIM API. His first experience with WIM was when he built an early desktop RIA prototype application using Boxely, an in-house user interface platform. Using WIM, Rizwan is able to rapidly add new WIM features to AIM Express, such as AIM Blasts, and incorporate the user's Lifestream into the app.

In March 2008, Rizwan was one of two developers at AOL invited by Apple to help announce the launch of the iPhone SDK. Working under intense pressure with an unfamiliar SDK, he and Todd Brannam were able to design and implement a working AIM app for the iPhone in only 2 weeks. This was largely possible due to the simplicity of the WIM API allowing them to focus on building the app interface and make the user experience compelling. One of Rizwan's career highlights so far has been receiving a personal handshake and a "thank you" from Steve Jobs after the iPhone SDK launch.

Rizwan finds working with WIM and open standards a fulfilling part of his job. The AIM Express team has open-sourced 'wimas3' the wrapper library for WIM used by AIM Express, at Google Code. Rizwan can be followed on Twitter as rizzledizzle for random AIM/AOL-related musings, or he can be contacted directly through AIM (SN: rizwansattar04)

We have an AIM Developer Forum where you can share your experiences using the SDK as well as post issues and problems encountered. We monitor the Forum daily and will answer all queries promptly.