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Apple instant messenger to work with AOL

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CIOL Bureau
New Update

SAN JOSE: Apple Computer Inc. on Monday previewed a new bundle of free

programs focused on connecting users, including an instant messaging application

called iChat that will work with America Online's Internet communication program

-- the world's biggest.

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The iChat program and other features, which generally focus on improved

communications, will debut late this summer with an upgrade of Apple's operating

system. Chief executive Steve Jobs said that Apple's close cooperation with AOL,

which has the biggest instant messaging service, set a milestone for

cooperation. "It is the first time that AOL let anybody in under the

tent," Jobs said.

Apple has struggled to broaden its appeal beyond the hard core of

approximately 5 percent of US personal computer buyers who own Macintoshes, with

its new operating system and free applications. The iChat application will make

it easier for users to send pictures to each other, and the program is closely

integrated with the new address book, which is also part of the operating system

update.

The computer maker, which was showing off new software at its annual

developers conference, also introduced a new version of its QuickTime media

player and e-mail software. It also debuted a set of technologies called

Rendezvous that tightens the bonds between computers on a home network or other

local network by letting them find each other automatically and share files.

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Digital hub



Two computers logging onto a Rendezvous-compatible home network would find each
other and display each other's files. One user could play the second's music,

without having to search for it, while the second could view the other's

photographs. Normally such a connection must be established manually -- and

slowly.

Apple hopes to persuade other technology companies to adopt Rendezvous so

that all sorts of devices would learn to find each other on networks. Aiming to

make the Mac the "hub of a digital lifestyle" that can manage digital

music, video and photos, the company has rolled out a slew of free applications,

such as iTunes jukebox and iPhoto digital photo software that run on OS X.

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Jobs, known for his skills as a corporate showman, ceremonially laid the

previous version of Apple's operating system, OS 9, to rest in a casket that

rose up out of the stage as billows of smoke emerged, prompting hoots of

laughter from the audience of programmers.

The next series of free programs from Apple will only work with the new

version of OS X, code-named Jaguar. "It helps customers to move up to the

latest and greatest operating system," Philip Schiller, Apple's worldwide

product manager, said in an interview at the conference.

Apple also showed off a new Address book and said it would launch a powerful

new server, in an industrial rack-mounting configuration, on May 14.

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