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Technology Stocks : America On-Line (AOL) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: country bob who wrote (38462)	2/3/2000 8:25:00 PM
From: Captain Jack	Respond to of 41369

cb-- well,, not being a user of AOL I have no comment butdo not believe I would be happy if an 'upgrade' downgraded my use... this sounds much better.. 3. A NEW AOL! By Kevin Prigel Details regarding America Online's next software release have emerged. The key features of AOL 6.0 (code name "K2") are cable and satellite access support. This functionality is especially interesting when you consider that at the time that AOL 6.0 was being designed, America Online did not yet have a cable platform. It looks like America Online knew it would get the cable opportunity somehow. It just ended up at option #3 (after open access, and an AtHome merger failed). Here are AOL 6.0's key features, with a look at the financial impact of each feature: Cable and satellite support. America Online's investment in Hughes, and purchase of Time Warner are largely incompatible with AOL's current operating environment. AOL 6.0 will allow the company to leverage both broadband access pipes, and offer users the expected ease of use of the AOL environment. America Online has the chance to quickly penetrate up to 13 million households with cable access, and many million more with satellite (rumor is that the company is having approximately 300,000 dishes prepared). The bottom line impact of a full deployment could be equal to AOL's current income, but realistically could boost net income by at least 15% over current expectations. Voice-over-AOL support. Although this has not been formally outlined in any notes we have received, AOL 6.0 does have a feature separate from "IM" and "Chat" called "Talk." It looks like AOL will be moving into the voice-over-IP arena. Lower support costs. America Online 5.0 is not the user-friendliest version of America Online ever. AOL 6.0 has improved on the current version with usability studies that improve the navigation bar, especially "AOL Help," and "Internet," and the "Buddy List" functions among others. "Accessibility" support. America Online has been the target of lawsuits due to the fact that its software does not support common accessibility features for the disabled. AOL 6.0 will support voice recognition technology to address this issue. Designed for Windows. There has been much speculation surrounding AOL releasing a Linux version of their software, and freeing themselves from the reigns of Microsoft. For now, that remains the subject of speculation. I would rather see AOL progressing on the net front, than battling with Microsoft on the operating system front. Still wondering exactly what AOL 6.0 will look like? For the most part it will resemble AOL 5.0, with a few minor revisions. The toolbar has been slightly revised, with a focus on usability. America Online now supports URL and keyword "auto-complete," similar to Internet Explorer. The "Buddy List" will have an array of right click features, which will allow easier access to "IM," "Chat," "Talk," and "Locate." The mail center will finally allow you to sort mail by properties other than date. Certain "AOL Top Picks," including banking, business news, and stocks will be available offline and online. The preliminary public release date for AOL 6.0 is August, 2000. Look for more information from StreetAdvisor.com as the company reveals more important details.