Exclusive: Hands-On Walkthrough Of AIM For iPad
April 2, 2010
When speaking to the AOL team, you could really tell they were just as excited to provide a fully iPad-optimized AIM experience as we were to have one. AIM for the iPad is an entirely new product by AOL. It was written from the ground-up to provide the most enjoyable and personal social experience as possible. One of the most obvious ways they were able to accomplish this was by making the app available for free and having it run without ads, although there is always the possibility of ads being included in the future.
When you first launch AIM for iPad you will be provided with the ability to log in to your AIM, MobileMe, or .Mac account just like the iPhone version. Once logged in you will see will instantly see how this clean iPad interface layout will help you stay connected to all of your favorite social networks effortlessly.
The app basically has to two sides that operate on different levels but still allow you to easily keep track of everything that is going on. The two sides are meant to separate AIM from Lifestream, and can be toggled between via an icon in the upper right-hand corner of the screen. Tapping the icon will flip the interface over and reveal either AIM or Lifestream (depending upon which side you are on), creating two separate yet connected interfaces.
The AIM portion, or AIM side, of the app allows you to view active IMs, compose messages, and view your buddy list depending on the orientation of your iPad. In portrait mode you are simply given your active IM list on the left-hand side with the message portion to the right. Your buddy list can be accessed via a list button located in the upper right-hand corner of the screen that displays a popover with all of your buddies and groups. In landscape mode the list button is gone and your buddy list is simply displayed on the furthest panel to the right.
When someone attempts to contact you via AIM, an active IM will show up on the left-hand side. A short preview of the message will display within the icon so you will know if the message is urgent before even tapping on it. A badge number will also appear on top of the icon telling you how many messages await.
AOL has really done a good job keeping everything simple in AIM for iPad while still providing you with all of the information you need. The badges that appear in active IMs also appear over the Lifestream icon and vice versa.
And now for the other side, Lifestream.
Lifestream is AOL's social network aggregator. It can currently be found in the company's iPhone apps and even as a standalone app. The idea of Lifestream is to allow you to connect to multiple social networks, including Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, Foursquare, YouTube, and more, all in one area.
The Lifestream side of the app looks basically like the AIM side, but instead of active IMs on the left side you have Lifestream views. Here you can choose to view all Lifestream updates, your own updates, or your notifications.
The main Lifestream feed can be filtered to show only specific social networks or all of them at once. Here you can respond to comments, like comments, view photos or videos, and chat with anyone on any of the networks you have specified and your action will show up on your recipients respective service. You can also update your own feed and have that single message sent to all of the networks you have requested.
Like many social networking services, you can also share your location with friends and even follow a location as you would a person, allowing you to see who checked in at that specific location and when. When sharing your location, the app will use the iPad's built in GPS chip if you have the Wi-Fi+3G model, and if you have the Wi-Fi-only model, the app will utilize its core location services. Either model should work just fine, because even during our tests over Wi-Fi, the app was able to find a location directly next door without a hitch.
As I stated earlier, AIM for iPad is all about the two sides; one side is for Lifestream and taking care of all of your social networks in one place, and the other is for chatting on AIM. No matter which side of the app you are on, you won't miss out on an update or message thanks to all of the badging.
That's all of the social networking features, but what about other features? AIM for iPad gives you the ability to customize your background with dozens of built-in themes that should suite anyone's tastes. Just like the iPhone app, it also allows you to change how long you stay logged in for without any activity, gives you the ability to toggle push notifications on or off, allows you to set your away status, and more.
AIM for iPad is clean, customizable, and allows any social networking junky to be efficient, and that's really what it's all about. AIM for iPad is the embodiment of what we had hoped iPad-optimized apps would be, at least at launch.
Since AIM for iPad completely free and includes no ads whatsoever, you may as well go download it right now in preparation for your iPad's arrival; you won't be disappointed.
