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AOL is a company on the ropes, swinging wildly in hopes of a knockout. Happily, the new AOL 9.0 Optimized connects. New subscription plans let you pay a relatively small monthly fee to get a ton of content you can't get anywhere else: streaming video, subscription-only Web sites, and sneak previews. AOL also offers more security and privacy, new antivirus scanning, stronger spam filters, and a sophisticated new e-mail interface. Unfortunately, AOL's interface remains a too-cute, resource-hogging mess of windows, menus, screens, and toolbar icons. We still find MSN easier to use, but current AOL users and serious Web content junkies will enjoy this upgrade. We recommend the $14.95-per-month, all-you-can-stream AOL for Broadband package over the too-expensive dial-up options.
Setup and interface: 6
For new users, installing AOL 9.0 Optimized takes between 10 and 15 minutes. (Existing users have a simple download.) As with previous versions, however, it's fully automatic, and your job--choosing a screen name and a password if you're new and establishing a connection--is short.
AOL's new Welcome screen includes a QuickView option that provides more streamlined, customizable content.
The new AOL Welcome screen is flashier and includes a new tab called QuickView. Click it, and you'll see a less-graphical, modular screen that offers a customizable view of news, weather, movies, and the like. We definitely prefer QuickView's cleaner, information-rich screen, and you can set it as your default start-up page, which is a nice touch.
When it comes to everyday use, AOL still allows far too many windows, with no easy way to move between them. Every time you type a URL in the AOL Web site field or play with your instant-messenger settings, for instance, you open a slew of new windows. You can cascade or tile the open windows, but we'd prefer simply to reuse them--or use an application switcher similar to the Mac OS X Dock.
There's e-mail buried under there somewhere...help!
AOL 9.0 Optimized offers so many tools, scattered haphazardly throughout the interface, that it's not unlike a scavenger hunt to find the right command. For example, the instant-messaging icon on the toolbar is only for composing an IM; to access your buddy list, you must click the Community menu above the toolbar (there's no keyboard command). The toolbar's Music icon takes you to the AOL Music welcome screen, but this is not the same tool as AOL Radio; you access that from the Welcome screen or by finding its icon on the toolbar--there are so many, you can't view them all at once. While you can customize part of the toolbar, the icons on the left half of the toolbar are fixed.
Weirdly, none of AOL's major features are accessible from the so-called QuickStart menu, which holds links to news and other content that's duplicated on the Welcome screen. We think AOL should ditch that collection and aggregate all of its major tools into a single menu.
Features: 9
The profusion of features in AOL 9.0 Optimized gets even more stupefying when you add those of AOL Broadband. These include news and music videos, movie previews, articles, weather, and TV updates, to name a few. The Welcome screen offers links to streaming radio, the video center, and Hot Picks, such as movie or television previews. Despite the abundance, we really enjoy the amount of available video (all at one price), and the access to otherwise subscription-only magazine Web sites. Our favorite broadband feature is Radio@AOL. It offers an amazingly long list of stations, excellent audio quality, and lots of nice usability touches, such as song info. We do wish you could load it up, say, at work, without having to launch the entire AOL package.
The new version's more practical tools include beefed-up antispam filters and a new Spam folder that contains filtered bulk mail. You can block images and URLs from anyone who's not in your address book or even restrict all incoming e-mail to approved senders. A new antivirus feature scans all incoming and outgoing e-mail attachments (using McAfee VirusScan); you can add antivirus protection to your files and hard drive for a monthly fee. The Safety icon in the toolbar leads you to features that include parental controls, articles, and a mesmerizing ticker that counts a day's worth of blocked spam. Another security feature requires a little more work: the free firewall from McAfee, which you must download yourself. We wish AOL would build it into the program for maximum protection.
Our favorite unobtrusive tool: Radio@AOL. Just choose one from the many, many stations and enjoy excellent audio quality.
In AOL 9.0 Optimized, IM and other features get a face-lift. SuperBuddies, for instance are new three-dimensional, animated instant-messaging buddy icons. AOL and IM also include AOL Expressions, which are customizing options and themes, such as new sounds, toolbars, and emoticons. IM offers new tools for voice chat and video sharing--but there's no live video accompaniment, as in iChat AV or MSN Messenger 6.0.
AOL 9.0 Optimized also promises an intriguing new blogging tool called AOL Journals that will let users get into the blogging craze with personalized, diary-style Web sites. This tool wasn't available in the release version we tested, however.
You'll find all your security options, as well as articles, in one place. We just wish you didn't have to download the firewall separately.
AOL Mail looks more sophisticated in 9.0 Optimized. The new Manage Mail tab offers an alternative interface to the standard New Mail view. It looks similar to Outlook Express, with a hierarchical folder view and an optional pane on the far right where you can read and respond to e-mail. The Quick Read pane, as it's called, is not a preview pane; messages won't show up there unless you open them. We'd prefer an Outlook-style preview pane. The Mail program also includes a new search tab that narrows down relevant e-mail messages as you type in a search term--a fast, handy searching method that worked perfectly in our tests.
Of course, AOL's entire mail and calendar feature set changes dramatically if you download the free AOL Communicator, a standalone e-mailer and PIM that includes advanced e-mail tools and views and integrated instant messaging. Stay tuned for a separate review of Communicator.
Performance: 8
AOL says its AOL 9.0 Optimized should be faster and more responsive, and the prerelease version we tested was acceptably speedy. The multiple windows opened quickly and minimized even more quickly. In our anecdotal tests, however, Internet Explorer loaded graphics-heavy pages such as CNN.com and vw.com more quickly. We noticed a few jitters and missing features, as well; some sections of the QuickView pane aren't editable, and when we clicked through to Top News headlines, the result was an odd, poorly rendered news ticker. In Radio@AOL, the station list failed to load on several occasions. However, when we streamed video or audio, the connection was seamless and smooth every time. The video quality in particular is excellent; AOL 9.0 includes a new media player.
Service and support: 9
AOL includes a fairly comprehensive built-in help system, such as tutorials and a link to its new diagnostic tool, called Computer Check-Up (which we didn't evaluate, since it was in beta at press time). The tech-support articles are thorough and easy to read, and best of all, AOL has made its toll-free phone support available 24/7.
In typical AOL fashion, the Help menu opens a new screen, with tutorials, resources, tips, and contact information.
Introduction
| Screenshot
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Setup and interface: 6
For new users, installing AOL 9.0 Optimized takes between 10 and 15 minutes. (Existing users have a simple download.) As with previous versions, however, it's fully automatic, and your job--choosing a screen name and a password if you're new and establishing a connection--is short.
AOL's new Welcome screen includes a QuickView option that provides more streamlined, customizable content.
The new AOL Welcome screen is flashier and includes a new tab called QuickView. Click it, and you'll see a less-graphical, modular screen that offers a customizable view of news, weather, movies, and the like. We definitely prefer QuickView's cleaner, information-rich screen, and you can set it as your default start-up page, which is a nice touch.
When it comes to everyday use, AOL still allows far too many windows, with no easy way to move between them. Every time you type a URL in the AOL Web site field or play with your instant-messenger settings, for instance, you open a slew of new windows. You can cascade or tile the open windows, but we'd prefer simply to reuse them--or use an application switcher similar to the Mac OS X Dock.
There's e-mail buried under there somewhere...help!
AOL 9.0 Optimized offers so many tools, scattered haphazardly throughout the interface, that it's not unlike a scavenger hunt to find the right command. For example, the instant-messaging icon on the toolbar is only for composing an IM; to access your buddy list, you must click the Community menu above the toolbar (there's no keyboard command). The toolbar's Music icon takes you to the AOL Music welcome screen, but this is not the same tool as AOL Radio; you access that from the Welcome screen or by finding its icon on the toolbar--there are so many, you can't view them all at once. While you can customize part of the toolbar, the icons on the left half of the toolbar are fixed.
Weirdly, none of AOL's major features are accessible from the so-called QuickStart menu, which holds links to news and other content that's duplicated on the Welcome screen. We think AOL should ditch that collection and aggregate all of its major tools into a single menu.
Features: 9
The profusion of features in AOL 9.0 Optimized gets even more stupefying when you add those of AOL Broadband. These include news and music videos, movie previews, articles, weather, and TV updates, to name a few. The Welcome screen offers links to streaming radio, the video center, and Hot Picks, such as movie or television previews. Despite the abundance, we really enjoy the amount of available video (all at one price), and the access to otherwise subscription-only magazine Web sites. Our favorite broadband feature is Radio@AOL. It offers an amazingly long list of stations, excellent audio quality, and lots of nice usability touches, such as song info. We do wish you could load it up, say, at work, without having to launch the entire AOL package.
The new version's more practical tools include beefed-up antispam filters and a new Spam folder that contains filtered bulk mail. You can block images and URLs from anyone who's not in your address book or even restrict all incoming e-mail to approved senders. A new antivirus feature scans all incoming and outgoing e-mail attachments (using McAfee VirusScan); you can add antivirus protection to your files and hard drive for a monthly fee. The Safety icon in the toolbar leads you to features that include parental controls, articles, and a mesmerizing ticker that counts a day's worth of blocked spam. Another security feature requires a little more work: the free firewall from McAfee, which you must download yourself. We wish AOL would build it into the program for maximum protection.
Our favorite unobtrusive tool: Radio@AOL. Just choose one from the many, many stations and enjoy excellent audio quality.
In AOL 9.0 Optimized, IM and other features get a face-lift. SuperBuddies, for instance are new three-dimensional, animated instant-messaging buddy icons. AOL and IM also include AOL Expressions, which are customizing options and themes, such as new sounds, toolbars, and emoticons. IM offers new tools for voice chat and video sharing--but there's no live video accompaniment, as in iChat AV or MSN Messenger 6.0.
AOL 9.0 Optimized also promises an intriguing new blogging tool called AOL Journals that will let users get into the blogging craze with personalized, diary-style Web sites. This tool wasn't available in the release version we tested, however.
You'll find all your security options, as well as articles, in one place. We just wish you didn't have to download the firewall separately.
AOL Mail looks more sophisticated in 9.0 Optimized. The new Manage Mail tab offers an alternative interface to the standard New Mail view. It looks similar to Outlook Express, with a hierarchical folder view and an optional pane on the far right where you can read and respond to e-mail. The Quick Read pane, as it's called, is not a preview pane; messages won't show up there unless you open them. We'd prefer an Outlook-style preview pane. The Mail program also includes a new search tab that narrows down relevant e-mail messages as you type in a search term--a fast, handy searching method that worked perfectly in our tests.
Of course, AOL's entire mail and calendar feature set changes dramatically if you download the free AOL Communicator, a standalone e-mailer and PIM that includes advanced e-mail tools and views and integrated instant messaging. Stay tuned for a separate review of Communicator.
Performance: 8
AOL says its AOL 9.0 Optimized should be faster and more responsive, and the prerelease version we tested was acceptably speedy. The multiple windows opened quickly and minimized even more quickly. In our anecdotal tests, however, Internet Explorer loaded graphics-heavy pages such as CNN.com and vw.com more quickly. We noticed a few jitters and missing features, as well; some sections of the QuickView pane aren't editable, and when we clicked through to Top News headlines, the result was an odd, poorly rendered news ticker. In Radio@AOL, the station list failed to load on several occasions. However, when we streamed video or audio, the connection was seamless and smooth every time. The video quality in particular is excellent; AOL 9.0 includes a new media player.
Service and support: 9
AOL includes a fairly comprehensive built-in help system, such as tutorials and a link to its new diagnostic tool, called Computer Check-Up (which we didn't evaluate, since it was in beta at press time). The tech-support articles are thorough and easy to read, and best of all, AOL has made its toll-free phone support available 24/7.
In typical AOL fashion, the Help menu opens a new screen, with tutorials, resources, tips, and contact information.
Introduction
| Screenshot
| Back to top
