Category: AOL

This morning, I was fortunate enough to get a sneak peek at an alpha version of Winamp for Android. The beta version currently available from the Android Market is already a lot better than other media players, but judging by what I've seen today, it's going to get even better. For this alpha build, Nullsoft has focused on SHOUTcast integration. The implementation is still a little rough around ...

AOL -- our benevolent overlord -- has finally taken the wraps off its new homepage design. The new page, which was initially slated for launch on Monday, emphasizes AOL content from our sites like Engadget, Switched and DailyFinance, and also features heavy social integration. Apart from current trending topics, the page will also display activity from your AOL Lifestream if you've got an account ...

While the TechCrunch deal is the most exciting news I've heard from AOL today, it's not the only major deal to go down: This morning AOL announced its purchase of 5min Media, a massive video syndication company. When you go to the 5min homepage, it looks a bit like a mini-YouTube; that's not the exciting part. What's noteworthy about 5min is that they manually curate all of their content (over ...

AOL might be poised to acquire Brizzly creator Thing Labs, according to TechCrunch. Brizzly is a popular social client that started out as an alternate Web interface for Twitter, but has since expanded with an iPhone client and a Campfire-esque chatroom called Brizzly Picnics. Rumors were flying over the summer that Foursquare might be buying Brizzly, and Thing Labs' Jason Shellen had fun ...

AOL and Facebook have just announced one of the biggest and most useful social networking partnerships to hit the Internet since ... well, ever. Now, instead of having to use Facebook Chat -- which is frankly kind of clunky and obnoxious -- you'll be able to chat with all your Facebook buddies via AOL Instant Messenger. It's peanut butter meets jelly! Friends list meets buddy list! AIM meets ...

It's not quite the App Store frenzy by any stretch, however Palm's webOS App Catalog has hit an important milestone with 1,000 applications now available for the Palm Pre and Pixi devices. We're going to be covering some of these 1,000 in the coming days here at Download Squad, however we'd be remiss to not mention the 1,000th app which (quite by chance) happens to be from our comrades at ...

A few years ago I really thought that MapQuest was going to go the way of Kleenex or Xerox. When I asked people if they had directions, they'd say "I mapquested it." These days, Google Maps, Microsoft's Bing Maps, and other services are constantly getting new features while MapQuest sometimes feels like it's stuck in 2005. But in the world's slowest game of catchup, MapQuest added 360 degree ...

We've long been keeping track of AIM for iPhone (iTunes link) here at Download Squad: and today an all-new version has hit the App Store that adds the Lifestream features that are available via the Lifestream website. If you haven't tried the new features, Lifestream lets you add accounts from the likes of Twitter, Flickr, Facebook, Digg and YouTube - and any activity from those services appears ...

AOL has been experimenting with Twitter and Facebook integration in AOL Instant Messenger for a while now, letting you read your updates from those services, along with other feeds, from the AIM client. In the latest beta version, integration is going a step further, allowing posting from AIM to Facebook or Twitter. The big jump from read-only to read/write is just the latest in a bunch update to ...

Now that version 3.0 of the iPhone operating system allows third-party apps to take advantage of push notifications, we're starting to see some of the first major push apps popping up. AIM for iPhone, available as a free ad-supported app or a $2.99 ad-free version, now offers push notifications. Now AIM doesn't have to be open for you to see when you've got a new IM coming in. New push ...

AIM Blast is a new AOL Instant Messenger feature that makes me feel old, because I just realized that it's been a decade since I first wondered why there was no way to IM multiple buddies without opening a chatroom. Well, it's finally here, and it works pretty well. You can't make a Blast Group from within AIM, but if you go to blast.aim.com, you can set up and edit a group from there. Blast ...

Download Squad isn't alone when it comes to awesome redesigns -- today, Weblogs Inc.'s parent company, AOL, launched a totally redesigned AOL.com. It looks pretty great, especially when you compare it to the other portal offerings from Microsoft, Yahoo and Google. The biggest change comes in the form of allowing direct access to outside content -- including e-mail providers like Yahoo and Gmail, ...

On Monday, AOL (Weblogs Inc.'s parent company) announced that they are shutting down the AOL Hometown and AOL Journals services. AOL Journals members will be able to migrate to a new service, but AOL Hometown users have been instructed to back-up their files and prepare to go somewhere else. There have also been reports (but Wikipedia is the source, so keep that in mind) that Yahoo! GeoCties has ...

AOL's MapQuest is branching out and adding local content to its online map service. The idea is that MapQuest already lets you figure out how to get from one place to another. MapQuest Local lets you know what you might want to do when you get there. You can access MapQuest Local via a the Local button at hte top of any MapQuest page. If you've never visited the page before, MapQuest will try ...

Once upon a time, it looked like MapQuest was on the same path that TiVo, Kleenex, and Xerox had taken before it. If you were looking up directions using any web site, there was a good chance you said you were "mapquesting it." But now the pioneer in online directions faces stiff competition from Google, Yahoo!, Microsoft, and others. But it looks like AOL (the company that owns both MapQuest ...