AIM 6.9 Gets Social

AOL today officially released AIM 6.9 for Windows, introducing new features that integrate AIM with other social networks, including Twitter, Facebook and YouTube. This new version of the venerable instant messaging program acknowledges and embraces the fact that people aren’t just on a single social network — they have a presence across many networks — and keeping up-to-date with your friends, family and associates shouldn’t require you to visit a dozen different web sites. The real social network transcends any single brand.

AIM remains free to use, supported by advertising that appears in the buddy list and chat windows. AIM 6.9 requires Windows 2000 or newer, 512 MB RAM for enhanced IM functionality, Flash and IE 6 or newer. You can download it here.

Alternate versions for Mac, Linux and web-based IM are still available, but haven’t been upgraded to match the functionality of their Windows counterpart. 

Do you use AIM? Will you upgrade?

Social Network Wars

With Myspace, Facebook and other social networks all vying for attention, what can the average Joe do to maintain his sanity? This week’s Sunday Funny is a video that wouldn’t be funny if it weren’t so true: Social Network Wars. 

Read more

Sunday Funnies: Emoticon War

Communicating via instant messaging or text alone has challenges. You don’t get to read the body language or see the telling smirk on the other person’s face. And so emoticons were born — a shorthand code to help inject text messages with emotions. And thank god — without them this entire video would be irrelevant. 

Enjoy this week’s Sunday Funny: Emoticon War. Read more

Avoid Phishing Worms on WLM

Thank you to Jonathan Kay for giving his permission to repost his full blog entry from MessengerGeek on Live Spaces here for our BigBlueBall members. This is valuable information of which every WLM user should be aware. This is a wonderful explanation of what to watch out for, and what to do if you think you’ve been compromised.

As the most used instant messaging service in the world, it’s become more and more common to find your contacts sending out virus, spam and worm links through Messenger. There’s a lot of different types and different steps for removal, but the one most recently affecting people is a “phishing worm”. Read more

Sunday Funnies: Twitter Frenzy

Welcome to a new series at BigBlueBall we’re calling the Sunday Funnies. With everything that is going on in the world of social media, sometimes you need to sit back and have a good laugh. Each week we’ll be sharing something fun — just for the helluvit.

This week, Jon Stewart and the Daily Show on Comedy Central skewer the Twitter frenzy that has taken hold of the news media. Read more

Secret Moves of Antisocial Smartphone Users

Renny Gleeson gave this 3-minute presentation at TED, outlining how smartphones can lead to dehumanizing behavior by expecting availability. Just because we can be available, doesn’t mean we should be. As Gleeson notes, “…the technology we use to connect, actually separates and isolates.”

How available should we be? What about the here and now? Poignant for both mobile phone users and the people creating these brave new technologies.

Half Baked Twitter Idea

As Twitter continues to build momentum with no visible business plan, others have tapped into twittermania to produce real products. BakerTweet is one such product. It’s a hardware device marketed to bakeries. It allows them to turn a dial to broadcast a tweet to their followers when they’ve pulled something fresh from the oven.

http://www.vimeo.com/3972081

Ok, putting aside the obvious issues (if a baker is sophisticated enough to use Twitter, why not simply make the announcement from their PC or mobile phone), there is something that feels wrong about basing a hardware device on a technology that could change tomorrow. 

Is BakerTweet half-baked or are they really on to something?

12 Steps to IM Productivity

Instant messaging can be a time-sucking black hole… or an indispensible productivity tool. Here’s a 12-step program that can give your productivity a boost (meetings not required!). 

1. Get a new instant messenger. Most people stick with whatever IM they started with — often AIM or WLM — without really thinking about what their needs are and considering their options. And there are a lot of options for instant messaging today. What worked for you as a student, may not be best suited for your needs in the workforce. Consider where your contacts are (the networks you’ll need to communicate on); the tools you need to colloborate (will text chat suffice, or do you need video, audio, file tranfer or other advanced features); and your operating environment (PC, Mac or Linux; mobile devices; public computers). 
      
2. Manage your identity.  Oh sure, when you were a teenager, “NumberOneJonasBrothersFan” was a great screen name. Not so good for grown-ups (basically anyone between the ages of 17 and dead). Keep it simple and professional. Your future boss is watching. You may even want to consider having one account for social contacts, and another for professional contacts. 
      
3. Manage your contact list. Don’t let your contact list get out of control — it’s your address book, not a popularity contest! Categorize your contacts (friends, family, co-workers, associates, etc.) and periodically take a machete to your list, ruthlessly pruning the old contacts you really don’t know or care about. This alone can save you a ton of time. 
      
4. Keep the world at bay! Now that you’ve got a meaningful list of contacts (Step #3), you want to keep out the rest of the world. Most instant messengers will, by default, allow anyone to contact you. This can be a huge waste of time and productivity. Take a few minutes to configure your instant messenger so that only people on your contact list can IM you. You’ll thank me later. 
      
5. Use your status wisely. If you’re going to be online, use your status to indicate your availability. If you can’t be disturbed, say so. Your contacts will appreciate knowing you can’t reply right now. Some IM programs even allow you to set a different status to different groups, so you could be “available” to co-workers during working hours, and “away” to friends. 
      
6. Establish a “quiet time.” Just because you can be online 24/7 doesn’t mean you should. Create some boundaries that give you blocks of time to focus on the task at hand. This rule works well for checking email, too! Along with that, configure your instant messenger so that it does not load automatically when you start your computer. Use it when you need it. 
      
7. Consider a multi-protocol instant messenger. If your contacts are spread across multiple networks, consider one of the many multi-network IM programs. You usually sacrifice some functionality, but you free up system memory and save having to switch between multiple applications. Good choices include Adium (Mac OS X), Digsby and Trillian (Windows), Meebo and eBuddy (web-based, multi-platform). 
      
8. Hire a virtual assistant. There are a number of IM “bots” — automated IM assistants — that can keep you informed with weather, stock quotes, news and much, much more. You can find tons of IM bots online, or even create your own IM bot in five minutes.
      
9. Manage your to-do list. Whether you are a GTD-fan or just like to maintain an online task list, there are a number of great ways to automate task create and reminders via IM. IMified will let you post to Remember the Milk, Delicious or even post to your blog!
      
10. Communicate with care. It’s easy to forget that emotions such as humor or sarcasm aren’t always obvious in a short text message. Your contact cannot read your body language or see the smirk on your face. The normal visual cues that let them know you are joking aren’t there. It’s you’re responsiblity to communicate clearly. Take a little extra time and choose your words wisely. And adding a smiley doesn’t necessarily cover all your sins.
       
11. Go mobile. Most phones today, even the “dumb” ones, will allow IM functionality. Mobile IM lets you cut loose from the desk, but remain connected. Depending on your phone and IM network, you may incur SMS or data costs, so use it wisely and remember to honor your quiet times. You want to use IM as a tool, not become a tool yourself. 
       
12. Go offline! Maybe the best advice of all is to unplug. And probably more often than you think you need to. Get a little face time with people, or simply pick up the phone and call. Sometimes IM just gets in the way when a phone call or face-to-face conversation will save time and reduce miscommunication. 

Looking for more tips for IM productivity? Check out these great posts at WebWorkerDaily, lifehacker. and makeuseof.com. What are your tips for IM productivity? Leave a comment and let me know!

Yahoo! Messenger Now on iPhone

Last week at CTIA, Yahoo released Yahoo! Mobile and announced Yahoo! Messenger for the iPhone. Well, now the popular instant messenger is officially available for download via iTunes.

The new iPhone application is available for free and gives you basic instant messaging capability with a few nice extras. Of course, you can see who is online and chat with your friends. You can also share photos, or view an archive of recent conversations. 

Yahoo! Messenger for iPhone also has a special idle state, so if you answer a phone call you will continue to receive IMs. As long as you return to Yahoo! Messenger within 10 minutes, you can pick up your conversations right where you left off. It’s not quite running in the background, but it’s a nice extra until Apple provides the long promised push notifications sometime this summer. 

  

  

It’s interesting that Yahoo! now has three applications available for the iPhone that all give you the ability to send and receive IMs on the Yahoo! Messenger network: this app, OneConnect and Yahoo! Mobile. They all have a slightly different flavor, but it seems that Yahoo! needs to sort out their iPhone strategy. 

Note that unlike it’s desktop siblings, Yahoo! Messenger for iPhone will let not you chat with your Windows Live Messenger (formerlly MSN) contacts. For that, you need a multi-network program like BeeJive, IM+ or Palringo. But if you primarily use Yahoo! Messenger and don’t need to connect to other IM networks, this app should suit you well.

Useful Links

• Download Yahoo! Messenger for iPhone
• BigBlueBall Yahoo! Messenger support forums

Thanks to our forum member Youngistaan for the tip!

Yahoo! Mobile Now Available

Yesterday at the CTIA Wireless conference in Las Vegas, Yahoo! announced the availability of Yahoo! Mobile supporting over 300 devices, and provided a sneak peek at Yahoo! Messenger for the iPhone.

Yahoo! Mobile comes in two basic flavors, an application (available for iPhone, Windows Mobile and a few others) and a web-based mobile version for everyone else. They share a similar look, and do a pretty amazing job of integrating services from a wide range of popular choices. News, email (including Gmail), instant messaging, social networks — they are all available. 

In related news… Yahoo! Messenger for iPhone

Announced yesterday–but not yet available for download–was Yahoo! Messenger for iPhone. This is somewhat curious, as Yahoo! Mobile (including the iPhone version) and Yahoo! oneConnect (which is also available for the iPhone) already support Yahoo! Messenger. So with this “new” product, you now have three ways from Yahoo! to connect to Yahoo! Messenger. And that’s not even considering all the third-party options (Nimbuzz, Beejive, Palringo, etc.). 

Granted, Yahoo! Messenger for the iPhone is more full-featured, but the multiple products still leaves me wondering if they have a cohesive plan for all these products. Check out the video demo:

http://www.vimeo.com/3951867

Useful Links and Other Opinions

• Yahoo! Mobile – official site
• Sneak peek: Yahoo! Messenger for iPhone – Yahoo! Messenger Blog
• Yahoo! Mobile for Web Launches Across More Than 300 Devices Around the World – Press Release
• Yahoo Gets It Right: New Mobile Website, iPhone App Launch – Search Engine Land
• Yahoo Takes Mobile, Messenger to iPhone – PC World
• Yahoo Rolls Out iPhone App at CTIA Wireless – eWeek

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