As we reported yesterday, America Online is planning a beta test of a Mac OS X version of its services. Now we’ve found out how to sign up as an AOL beta tester.
Log onto your AOL account and type the keyword “beta.” A sign-up screen for beta testing will appear. You register to be a beta tester there by completing a survey. Once you’ve signed up, if your application is accepted, you’ll receive an e-mail notification confirming this.
The questionnaire for the OS X beta test has two questions: Do you own OS X? Do you plan to use AOL on OS X. Note that there’s no beta available for download yet — and AOL won’t work from the Classic environment.
“I’ve been a beta tester since 1994 and, interestingly enough, for many, many months before AOL 5.0 was introduced, there were many betas, updated every few weeks, or days, but there have been ZERO AOL 6.0 betas,” Eric Krauss told MacCentral (he, along with Gene Steinberg, sent us the info on signing up for beta testing). “None. In fact, AOL is STILL posting 5.0 betas (bug fix ‘refresh’ releases). As a Mac user, I really feel like a second-class citizen on AOL. Maybe that’s why I rarely use it.”
The lack of betas for version 6 is interesting as AOL has said that a completed version of 6.0 for the Mac should arrive in July. No estimated time of arrival for the OS X version.