AOL has turned into something that simply won’t die despite an apparent lack of a business plan. They can’t even give away accounts for free with their bring your own access plan. The latest beta version called Cheshire is available for download.
A WebKit based browser is built-in. Clicking the IM button opens iChat. Their built-in email client looks… um… exactly like Mail.app when composing (witness the attached picture). That email can be accessed through any IMAP email client like (surprise, surprise) Mail.app.
What does that leave? Well, you get AOL Radio (which you really should be able to access through the web), AOL Pictures, and some Parental Controls. I’m really just not seeing anything compelling about their suite anymore. As AOL tries to better use Mac OS X services that what they offer really isn’t all that special anymore. Place your bets. How many days before it’s axed completely?
I don't want it canceled. Any development by a big name company for mac will attaract others and that is what we need. Also with the number of PC users switching to mac we may see an increase of people using aol software!