Filed at 8:23 p.m. ET
SAN JOSE, Calif. (Reuters) - Apple Computer Inc.(AAPL.O) on Monday previewed a new bundle of free programs focused on connecting users, including an instant messaging application called iChat that will work with America Online'sInternet communication program -- the world's biggest.
The iChat program and other features, which generally focus on improved communications, will debut late this summer with an upgrade of Apple's operating system.
Chief Executive Steve Jobs said that Apple's close cooperation with AOL, which has the biggest instant messaging service, set a milestone for cooperation. ``It is the first time that AOL let anybody in under the tent,'' Jobs said.
Apple has struggled to broaden its appeal beyond the hard core of approximately 5 percent of U.S. personal computer buyers who own Macintoshes, with its new operating system and free applications.
The iChat application will make it easier for users to send pictures to each other, and the program is closely integrated with the new address book, which is also part of the operating system update.
The computer maker, which was showing off new software at its annual developers conference, also introduced a new version of its QuickTime media player and e-mail software.
It also debuted a set of technologies called Rendezvous that tightens the bonds between computers on a home network or other local network by letting them find each other automatically and share files.
DIGITAL HUB
Two computers logging onto a Rendezvous-compatible home network would find each other and display each other's files. One user could play the second's music, without having to search for it, while the second could view the other's photographs. Normally such a connection must be established manually -- and slowly.
Apple hopes to persuade other technology companies to adopt Rendezvous so that all sorts of devices would learn to find each other on networks.
Aiming to make the Mac the ``hub of a digital lifestyle'' that can manage digital music, video and photos, the company has rolled out a slew of free applications, such as iTunes jukebox and iPhoto digital photo software that run on OS X.
Jobs, known for his skills as a corporate showman, ceremonially laid the previous version of Apple's operating system, OS 9, to rest in a casket that rose up out of the stage as billows of smoke emerged, prompting hoots of laughter from the audience of programmers.
The next series of free programs from Apple will only work with the new version of OS X, code-named Jaguar.
``It helps customers to move up to the latest and greatest operating system,'' Philip Schiller, Apple's worldwide product manager, said in an interview at the conference.
Apple also showed off a new Address book and said it would launch a powerful new server, in an industrial rack-mounting configuration, on May 14.
