AOL has recently posted a beta version of AOL 7.0 on their ftp site under a director called “Jetsons,” which has since been removed. As of October 3, this directory is open for anyone to download the AOL 7.0 software.
Since AOL was kind enough to post this beta version online, we decided to review the software and post our findings. We found something quite remarkable in this software – improvements over AOL 5 and 6.
When you first run the software, a small dialog box pops up asking if you would like to make AOL your default application for e-mail, web browsing, newsgroups and CD playback. That’s right, CD playback. One of the newest features AOL has incorporated into AOL 7 is the ability to play CDs and .mp3s with an integrated version of winamp.
The next thing you notice when running AOL 7 for the first time is the modified sign-on screen. This screen has graphics to match AOL Anywhere’s sign on featuring the key graphic to make users feel their user name and password are safe.
The welcome screen and toolbar are only slightly changed. However, the radio icon on the toolbar is of interest. Clicking the radio icon leads you to the beta test of Radio@AOL, program apparently designed to bring live online broadcasts to AOL users, much like RealPlayer. In this section you have access to instructions on using Radio@AOL, a list of know bugs, a bug report form, beta tester surveys, and the beta test message boards. Unfortunately, the main Radio@AOL section has not been finished and only appears as a blank box.
AOL has also added a better method to report junk email. Users no longer have to even open the junk email they recieve. A new button appears on the inbox “Notify AOL.” This button allows you to forward the email to AOL without having to remember what email address it needs to be sent to and allows you to enter comments about the email.
In an attempt to be more friendly towards the computer illiterate, the inbox now hides email headers, allowing you to click on “Details” to view the headers of the email.
Except for some different graphics here and there, most of the rest of the software is unchanged. One last interesting change to the software is the incorporation of more AOL Instant Messenger features, such as viewing the away message of your buddy without IMing them and the use of buddy icons.
Overall, this version of AOL has many new features compared to the release of AOL 6. The only major bug is that the buddy list will sometimes fail to load, or when the list does load it will randomly crash. While the software seemed to run somewhat slower, it is only a beta version, and will hopefully be improved upon before the final release.
