AOL/AIM Mail Product Insider Blog

Many of you may have read the article in USA Today (found here: http://www.usatoday.com/tech/products/2008-04-15-google-gmail-webmail_N.htm) on AOL Mail’s feature that allows sending of large attachments via email.  Here are some more details on how you too can use Xdrive to send up to 5GB of attachments.

How can you start using Xdrive to send large attachments? 

First, Xdrive is only available in Beta for now, so access your AOL Mail account at http://beta.webmail.aol.com.

Start composing email as you normally would by clicking on “Compose.”  After you click on “Attach file” browse and select your attachment.  You will notice an updated dialog box:

If you would like to upload via Xdrive, simply select the check box towards the bottom of the dialog.  For files over 16MB, your attachments will automatically get uploaded via Xdrive.  If you don’t already have an Xdrive account, you will see a brief confirmation dialog.  Be sure to click “I Agree” to create a new account.  When you are done, click Send and your attachments will be sent along with your email.

When your recipients receive the email, they will see the attachment(s) as a link.  All they need to do is click on the link to retrieve the attachment(s) via Xdrive. 

What is Xdrive? 

Xdrive (http://www.xdrive.com) is a 5GB personal hard drive on the Internet. You can get easy backup and secure storage, just like an external hard drive, but without the worry of losing or damaging a piece of hardware.  You can simply upload files to Xdrive and securely access your files anywhere over the web.  You can even share your files with your friends and family by allowing them permission.  All this, for free.

Enjoy,

Rose

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We know how much you rely on WebSuite for Mail, Calendar and Address Book.  That's why we want to keep making it better for you.  After months of hard work, the WebSuite team is excited to launch another release of Websuite Standard and WebSuite Basic, codenamed “Goa.”  (Did you know Goa is a coastal, tropical island and the smallest state in India?)  

Here’s a preview of the new things you will find in your Inbox:

Safer Mail

For your protection, WebSuite has been blocking images from unknown senders.  We have now added link blocking as well.  No more worrying about clicking a link that could take you to inappropriate content or a phishing site.

Performance

We know you want things fast, and making WebSuite faster was the focus for "Goa" – from loading WebSuite to reading and sending messages.  For the techies among you, we've upgraded the entire Standard application to the 1.0 version of the Dojo toolkit for snappier performance!  You also may have noticed that the “Unsend” and “Status” features were removed from this WebSuite release.  Because of the way these features were implemented, they were preventing us from achieving the best product performance. So, we made the difficult decision to remove them from WebSuite.  If you are a hardcore “Status” user, or have an “Unsend” emergency, you can still find these features in our integrated clients (AOL 9.1 and AOL Desktop).

MapQuest

Love MapQuest?  We do too.  That’s why we’ve put WebSuite and Mapquest together.  Need directions to your next party?  When you add a location to a new event in Calendar, we will parse your address and show you where it is on a map from Mapquest.  Voila! 
(Feature currently not available in Basic version) 

AIM Integration

The IM windows you minimize within WebSuite will now flash when you have new incoming IMs so you will never miss a message again.  We also added a new IM button to your read and compose mail views that alerts you when your friends are online.  When you start writing a new message, WebSuite will check whether your buddies are online and the button will light up if they are, allowing you to IM with them in real time.
(AIM currently not available in Basic version)

Calendar

You asked for it, we’ve got it!  For those of you who love and use our Basic version, you will be glad to hear that we added AOL Calendar to the fast product many have come to love.  Just as in the Standard version, you will be able to view your personal calendar in month, week or day view.  Make it even more fun by sharing it with your friends and family.  Best of all, AOL Basic Calendar is fully accessible.

For those of you using the Standard version, we’ve got something for you too.  AOL Calendar now supports importing calendars from any iCal (.ics) URL and similarly exporting any public calendars as iCal files. 

AOLJournals

Do you use AOL Journals?  If so, WebSuite now provides 1-click access straight to your Journals page.  Start sharing your stories with the world!
(Panels not available in Basic version)

And more…

Safari 3 users will now be able to use the Rich Text Editor to make all their emails colorful and pretty.  More features (including Drafts for AOL accounts and a “Keep Me Signed In” option) will be coming in the next few weeks, so please stay tuned.

Hope you love “Goa” as much as we do.  Enjoy and let us know what you think.

Rose

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Written by Tom Lynch, Business Manager, AOL Mail

When is an email address more than an email address?  When your email address works for you by expressing who you are and passing along your sentiments to family, friends and social contacts.

Use an email address that means something. Sign up for a LuckyMail email account and let your email spread good fortune and cheer.

Try it out today!

Curious what else is available?  Click here to find the email address right for you.  Get the email address you want on both sides of the “@”!

Tom

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Written by guest blogger Rose Kwok, Product Manager, AOL Mail

By now, you have probably already sent emails with attachments using AOL  Up ‘til now AOL has supported a total email and attachment size of up to 16MB.  But what if you want to send your mom all your pictures from your recent trip to Europe?  They add up to about 1GB of storage space!

No worries, you can now send large attachments (of up to 5GB) along with your email, thanks to the new AOL Webmail & Xdrive integration.

What is Xdrive? 

Xdrive is a 5GB personal hard drive on the Internet. You can get easy backup and secure storage, just like an external hard drive, but without the worry of losing or damaging a piece of hardware.  You can simply upload files to Xdrive and securely access your files anywhere over the web.  You can even share your files with your friends and family by allowing them permission.  All this, for free.

How can you start using Xdrive to send large attachments? 

First, if you don’t already have one, create a free Xdrive account.  Sign up for one here:

    http://www.xdrive.com/

When you are back in Webmail, compose email as you normally would.  After you click on “Attach file” browse and select your attachment.  You will notice an updated dialog box:

If you would like to upload via Xdrive, simply click on the check box towards the bottom of the dialog.  For files over 16MB, your attachments will automatically get uploaded via Xdrive.

The best part is that your attachments will also be backed up and stored securely in your Xdrive account.  Never lose an attachment again!

When your recipients receive the email, they will see the attachment, which can then be retrieved via Xdrive. 

Get started now!

Want to be the first to try out this new feature?  It’s only available in Beta.  Check it out at:

    http://beta.webmail.aol.com 

Enjoy and happy holidays!

Rose

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New with AOL 9.1 is a unified Inbox with unlimited mail storage. If you’re a current AOL user, you can switch to an Inbox view of your messages at any time, and with unlimited storage you can keep as many e-mail messages as you want!

You will also see improvements to AOL’s award-winning spam detection.  If we suspect the person sending the e-mail is not genuine, AOL will block the e-mail until you tell us you want to see it.

Want to learn more about AOL 9.1 and download the software?  Here’s where to go: 

http://daol.aol.com/software/91

Enjoy and thanks for choosing AOL! 

Seth

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Don’t want to enter in your screen name and password each time you want to read your emails on your computer?

There’s an upcoming new feature that we’re internally calling “keep me signed in.”  It does what it sounds like.  If you choose to turn on that feature, it’ll keep you signed into your account until you manually click the Sign Out link.  This will be a very handy feature because you can skip a few steps in the login process.  With this feature, you’ll be able to go straight to http://mail.aol.com (use a book mark for single-click access)and you won't be prompted for a password.  You decide whether this is desired for your situation--for some people (like me), speed and convenienceis king since mail security isn't a worry for me on my personal computer.

Whenever you’re done with reading your emails, don’t click the Sign Out link because if you do, then you’ll have to enter in your password again the next time.  Instead, just exit or close the browser normally.  Note: Clicking the Sign Out link or deleting the browser cookies will require you to enter in your screen name and password again the next time--handy for when you're on a public computer. 

This feature will be coming out next month along with even more features that many of you have been asking for.  So stay tuned for more details.  Enjoy and thanks for choosing AOL!

Tae

"The AOL Mail Blog Guy"

http://mailblog.aol.com

Keyword: mail blog

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