AOL has updated its instant messaging app for the iPhone and the iPod Touch with entirely new features for the iPad. It’s obviously bigger, for one, which gives AIM a little more room to breathe, showing your active chats, the person your talking to and your contact list all in side-by-side panels. You can also keep up with your social networking feeds from sites such as Facebook and Foursquare, and upload pictures to AOL’s Lifestream service if you’re into that. While it’s a no-brainer for AIM to come to the iPad, it unfortunately highlights one of the devices weakest points: no multitasking.

How many times have you found yourself IMing and only IMing instead of surfing the web, listening to music, or doing any number of other things while you chat? Our answer? Never. If you’re going to chat on the iPad, that’s all you’re going to be doing — and with a virtual keyboard, to boot.

In the end, AIM for the iPad (and for everything else) is free, so there’s no harm done. Our crossed fingers are just getting sore hoping that iPhone 4.0 rumor becomes official, then spills over to the iPad.

Via Macworld