August 30, 2006
AIM Pro 1.1 Gets Desktop Sharing
If you haven't already seen it advertised all over the place online, AOL's AIM Pro text/ VoIP IM client is available for free download. This version, which is aimed at business professional, is integrated with Microsoft Outlook, has added security, and has a One-Click WebEx meeting feature by which you can run presentations and collaborate on documents in real-time. The latter is basically application and desktop sharing. Of course, AIM Pro has text-, voice- and video-calling.
I downloaded a copy to both my desktop and laptop, and tried the voice calling first. It's hard to tell when you're talking to yourself, but the pc2pc call quality for my setup (over wireless router connected to cable Internet) sounded fine. I don't have two webcams, so I didn't bother with that feature, but I did try the desktop sharing. It's considerably slow, but it works. In fact, it shares EVERYTHING on your computer, so you'd better be working with people you trust. For me, it's great because I work simultaneously on both computers and was only the other day wishing I could view my laptop screen from my desktop. Well now I can, and I can share apps and transfer files without sharing my hard drives or folders - which possibly opens up my private network to wireless lurkers.
While AOL's been making a play into the VoIP market for a while, I saw no ability to call-out to PSTN phones. So Skype and company have nothing to worry about. And AIM does not have an open interface AFAIK, so companies like Vozin aren't going to be able to build bridge applications like Talqer, which gives Google Talk call-out capability.) Also, desktop sharing isn't a new feature - MSN Messenger had it several years ago, and there have been other ways to manage desktops remotely since at least 1996, if not earlier. However, it's all in a nice, free package, withe recognizable brand name, which will no doubt make a lot of the people it's intended for (business professionals) comfortable using it, especially if they for some reason do not want to use MSN.
I haven't previously used AIM a great deal, I know very little about past versions. Because of contacts I communicate with, I do occasionally chat using Gaim or Trillian on my AIM account. But if I can figure out how to speed up app sharing and get it to use a larger area of my desktop's screen, I might use it simply for remote access to my laptop. If you do decide to try Aim Pro 1.1, keep in mind that you need MS Outlook 2000 and SP 4 (service pack) to utilize the Outlook integration.
Desktop-sharing speed issues aside, there is a great deal of potential for businesses to communicate with customers using AIM Pro. For example, Leader's Bank in Arlington Massachusetts is already using AIM (though not necessarily Pro 1.1) to let customers communicate with their bank manager. If a customer has a question about services, etc., text mode is fine. But if they are having some problems with a web-based service, the manager can open up application-sharing (without relinquishing control of the mouse cursor) and walk through the necessary steps. Alternately, if the customer knows the manager well, they could allow the manager to control their own desktop, if the situation warrants it.
How AIM's desktop-sharing compares to other IM clients, I don't know, but I'll work on a comparison for the future.
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