AOL launches new mobile portal, leaves WAP in the past 16
Sat, 24 Jul 2010 12:06 pm EDT 
Welcome to 2010, AOL. The internet giant turned media giant turned hopeful contender for hearts and minds has relaunched their mobile website, and thankfully left behind the relic of dumbphone past known as WAP. Wireless Application Protocol, or WAP, was meant to deliver online media (well, mostly text and some pictures) efficiently to older phones with their poor browsers and limited bandwidth. In this era of advanced WebKit browsers like those found in webOS, iOS, and Android, as well as the advent of speedy 3G tech, WAP just doesn’t cut it anymore.
AOL has seen the light and rebuilt their mobile site to deliver better HTML-based content goodness. Like Yahoo!, AOL has been busy retooling themselves as an information and media portal, and the new mobile version of the site easily shoehorns that portal to millions of smartphones across the world. AOL also released new apps for iOS and Android, but a webOS app was nowhere in sight. Of course, it’s still AOL, but it’s not the mailing-more-than-a-billion-CDs-to-your-house AOL of years past. Worth a shot? Check it out at m.aol.com.
Source: AOL Mobile
16 Comments
hope to see a webos app
AOL is still around?
It's not 'AOL' anymore, it's 'Aol.' ...cause that is just so much more hip and cool...people still say 'hip' right???
I'm afraid it is... I was working on a client's computer, who is a regular AOL user. Not the website, I mean the full application AOL. And to think her computer is running like s**t. I showed her how much quicker it was to use firefox, but she resisted the change.
And of course, those good ol' CD's you would get in the mail every single day. 30 days free, 60 days free, 90 days free, and it goes on and on and on... I give you AOL: the single biggest cause of global warming!
Does anyone know how he gets his phone to show the batter percent?
Battery percent is a patch. You install patches via webOS Quick Install (or Preware once you have webOS Quick Install). Look in the homebrew section.
Why is an app for webOS necessary? For sites that have an app I've found it most of the time to be equivalent to their mobile site. A good example is Bank of America whose mobile site is functionally identical to the app. Facebook's touch site is about on par with the webOS app; it even links to image comments properly, and m.facebook.com gives you control to remove comments you've left and post links.
Their content is still boring and bland. Riding the elevator with co-workers going to Engadget and Joystiq must be depressing for the Aol folks.
nice app
They really just need to stop already. No one has ever liked AOL, even former AOL dial-up customers. It was a necessary evil for awhile and now they're obsolete and can't seem to let go.
Sorry, I just hate AOL so much for the way they used to run their customer service that I can't seem to accept them for anything other than "that evil dial-up company".
+1....hundred fifty dollars that they stole from my Moma. Like I said below, they mastered scamming people.
AOL is still around?
They were nice to "ride on" for a while back in the day. But now,,,,,, Aol is still around? I guess cashflow must be good.
Good for you AoL. You can do iiiiiiit.
wow I had a 4 letter screen name.....loooonnngtime ago with cassette s
I'm still waiting for Synergy to work with AOL's calendar and contacts. An app would be nice because, well, apps are nice. They mean mindshare for webOS if nothing else.
I respect the opinions of the AOL haters here and Lord knows they ain't shy, but I'll stand up for AOL. I've been an AOL customer for years, primarily for email now, and it's fine. It's not perfect, but they're constantly improving it.
Have you ever given money to AOL?
B/c if you have you'd know how evil there are.
When you would call to cancel service, the call would just be "dropped." Or they would ask for the PIN and say it's false, and the security answer, like "What High Schol did yu go to?" they would tell you your answer wrong and hang up.
All-in-all it took my Mom about 10 phone calls spanning an 2 hours for 5 days to finally get them to cancel the internet.
It showed up on her debit card for 5 months after that ltm.
They were a scaming company whose side effect was dailup.
I get it, and I remember those complaints vividly. You bet, I gave them money as a longtime subscriber but of course the cancellation Hell never happened to me because I never canceled the service. But my point is as far as I know those problems happened quite a while ago (5? 10 years? I don't know when your case happened) and the company has changed a lot since then. Most glaringly the service is available for no charge now. I'm not asking you to forgive and forget, I'm just suggesting that yes they sinned in the past, but in my experience they're working on transforming themselves for the better.
Companies can change. Look at Palm. Look at Apple.