| Issue #64/Aug. '00 |
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Navigate: | My Mac Online | The Archives | September 1997 | Software Review - Excite PAL | |
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By Dustin Roberts
Excite PAL
Well, once you get so fed up with AOL
(because they offer some great new pricing
but fail to upgrade their system) and actually
get an ISP, it just gets lonely. Sure you've
got e-mail, but that's not as fast as IM's. There
are IRC channels, but getting the software to
work right on your Mac just never seems to
work out very well.
Well, now there's a cure for all ISP users out there. Never again will you feel lonely. Now you can have that "special someone" bug you all the time! Yeah! Excite Pal, from Excite, allows you to send IM's across the Internet to other Internet users, and even America Online users! That's right folks, you too can annoy whoever is on your list, and vice versa!
Sound great? Well, here's the catch. You must download the software, register as a user (no fees involved) and then get all your friends to download it as well. (Visit http://www.excite.com for all the information you'll need) When you sign on to your ISP or AOL, launch the Excite Pal application and see who's on. How do you know who's on and who isn't? Well, each person creates a buddy list of sorts using e-mail addresses. You have to be on their list and they must be on yours. Plus, if they're online but have failed to launch Excite Pal, it won't work.
Now I tried this software with a couple of friends, and I must say that it's easy to use, and very fast! I even tested this application with people using Wintel PC's, both on AOL and Internet accounts. It works great!
Remember, this is free! What more can you ask for? Oh yeah, and for people like Tim, there's an invisible feature so people who want to talk to you can't do so if you choose not to let them. Go pick it up today and try it out. I guarantee you'll feel like you're on AOL again. But... is that a good thing or a bad thing?
Dustin Roberts (dustin@fuse.net)
Websites mentioned:
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Download #64
Read Online
There has always been one thing that I really
liked about AOL, and that is instant messages
(IM's). It seems that when you're a member of
AOL, you grow to hate them. You're online,
trying to accomplish something, and up pops
a darn IM from someone you were hoping not
to hear from. You respond, they respond.
You tell them "Hey! I'm busy! Leave me
alone!" Then you don't get a reply until
they're leaving and all it says is "bye." What
a pain, eh?