Now Aimster is looking to give users of AOL's instant messaging software the chance to swap files.
Less likely would be an interface between Entourage and iChat, Apple's instant messaging software that uses America Online 's network.
Corporate versions of popular consumer IM software let employees send instant messages safely from behind company firewalls, handle archiving and screen for content.
Thanks to cheap Web cams and video-friendly instant messaging software, such as Apple 's iChat, keeping in touch via video is easier than ever.
Thanks to cheap Web cams and video-friendly instant messaging software, such as Apple 's (nasdaq: AAPL - news - people ) iChat, keeping in touch via video is easier than ever.
U.K. operator 3 has sold hundreds of thousands of so-called Skype phones, which have built-in support for Skype's voice and instant-messaging software.
Ultimately, FaceTime enhances rather than displaces the dominant instant-messaging software.
The Internet also helps Dell provide better and cheaper technical support with technology that allows buyers to log on to a Web site for instant answers and software fixes (see box, opposite).
Using so-called reality instant messaging, a software "robot" monitors what you and your friends are doing--watching the same TV shows on different sets, say, or downloading the same song from Eminem--and links all of you via cell phone.
Looking to solidify its dominance in the business communications market, Avaya on Wednesday unveiled a tablet device and new software designed to unite phone calls, instant messages and video conferencing in one easy-to-use platform.
FORBES: Avaya Unveils Android-Based Tablet, WebOS-Like Software For Business Calls
Although it is not (yet) legal to place buy and sell orders over instant messaging, Communicator's software lets financial professionals discuss sensitive information between two or more banking institutions or even one-to-one with individual clients.
Carl Tyler, a veteran of Lotus and IBM who now runs Instant Technologies, an enterprise IM software group, thinks one of the biggest etiquette breaches by Gen Y recruits involves newbies typing paragraph upon paragraph of chat.
Apple says the new software has 150 new features, among them an instant-messaging client called iChat that's compatible with America Online 's (nyse: AOL - news - people ) AOL Instant Messenger.
Google and Yahoo engineers publish software code for public consumption--a way to access their maps, say, or a temporary link to their search tool--and in a near-instant developers around the globe are building new software based on it.
The instant demo model also makes sense for big budget commercial software -- imagine if you could try a new video editing suite online, for instance.
ENGADGET: Gaikai enters closed beta, we get an exclusive first look
These are big bets, but the Internet's unique strength lies in letting users personalize their news, communication and entertainment online, in Web logs and instant messages, file sharing, search queries and personal software.
The Cryptocat Project has always stated that, with its encrypted instant messaging, it does not protect you against hardware or software keyloggers and that it does not anonymize you by default.
FORBES: Cryptocat Increases Security In Move Away From JavaScript Web Delivery
Software developers in the meantime are hoping Apple will start allowing applications, like instant messaging, that are always running in the background even when the phone is in sleep mode or being used for something else.
Don't worry about setting up AirPrint or otherwise jumping through software hoops: the Lab captures the screen and prints it to Polaroid-compatible instant film as a keepsake.
ENGADGET: Insert Coin: Impossible Instant Lab makes iPhone photos tangible
Its consumer IM software can let any user chat with most any other by "spoofing, " disguising instant messages as native to the recipient's system.
Sadly, we've yet to experience Nintendo TVii in our homes, as the Wii U we've got won't have any media functionality (Nintendo TVii, Amazon Instant, Netflix, Hulu Plus, etc.) until it receives a software patch shortly before retail launch on November 18.
ENGADGET: Nintendo's Wii U tablet controller and the death of your TV's remote control
Public Safety, a software developer in Winter Park, Florida, sells handhelds to police and airport security teams to perform instant background checks.
One of the first to benefit is expected to be Lotus Sametime, an instant-messaging add-on for firms that already license Lotus Notes and its related networking software.
应用推荐