AOL releases beta of new Mac interface
AOL has released 
a beta version of its new Mac client, known as “Cheshire”.
I don’t have an AOL account, so can’t really put it through its paces, but AOL makes some strong claims:
Cheshire is designed to make it easy for users to read and write email, surf the web, listen to AOL Radio and dial up to the Internet. Cheshire includes AOL’s Parental Controls and works seamlessly with Apple’s built-in applications like iChat and iPhoto.
The interface is nice and plain, one hopes by design, but perhaps it only reflects the app’s beta status.
The web browser works fine (even without an AOL account to log into):
It’s possible that an existing email client has influenced the look of the app’s email interface. There’s a hint of it in the mailbox view:
The layout of the new mail window makes the influence unmistakable:
It’s a Universal binary and comes bundled with AOL Radio for Macintosh (some kind of iTunes-esque app?) and AOL’s Pictures plugin for iPhoto. It only runs on Tiger.
It you have an AOL account and a taste for adventure, you can download it from AOL’s Greenhouse web site .
Or if you have an AOL account but like the look and feel of Mail.app and Apple’s other iApps, take a look at AOL’s Service Assistant.
[Via TUAW ]
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December 19th, 2006 at 1:00 pm
FWIW, AOL Radio taps into internet radio, much like iTunes, but also makes available XM radio. It has some nifty features, like previewing the name of the currently playing tune on another “station” without having to switch to it, preset buttons for favorite stations (with Dock support in the Mac version), & excellent sound quality. There are even live links to iTunes Music store (as well as one to AOL’s competing service) & a Growl-like option for tune change notification.
The only downside is a modest sized advertising banner at the bottom of the window (which you need never see if you hide the app) & a brief startup delay as it updates the station list.
IMO, this is reason enough to get a (free!) AOL account, even if you never plan on using the email account, the online storage, or anything else AOL now offers. You don’t need the new beta software or the old AOL client for AOL radio — there is a stand-alone app for Macs at the AOL member’s download site.
Note: Some of my remarks apply to this app, not the beta, which I haven’t tried.
December 19th, 2006 at 1:55 pm
Here’s a valuable thing to notice…:
The version of AOL Radio previously (and perhaps still) available separately is version 1.1 (105). The version included with Cheshire is 1.1 (119).
The first immediate thing I noticed, is that XM channels that were at 64 kpbs AACPLUS in the 105 version (and sounded great) were now playing at 16 kpbs, a SIGNIFICANT loss in quality.
So, DON’T update your AOL Radio program.
December 20th, 2006 at 3:58 am
I downloaded both Cheshire and the stand-alone AOL Radio (105) application and both offer the same stream quality. While occasionally the stream started at a lower bitrate, simply restarting the stream usually got it going at full 64 kpbs quality. From my tests, the quality was not downgraded in the (119) version.
December 28th, 2006 at 4:15 pm
+1 on what Eric says. The version of the Radio app doesn’t affect the bitrate of the streams. Hopefully they’ll fix this bug. Worth noting that there’s a lot of full bitrate radio available on my free account that wasn’t high quality before.