iChat!

[gopher]

Well anybody know if iChat will implement voice and videochat which has been lacking in AOL's current IM for the Mac?

http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/020506/sfm116_1.html

So far if one wants these features one either has to use an IRC network or ISPq chat on the Mac.

[spuncan]

First AIM does support audio chat. My guess is that iChat will do what all iApps. do. It will elegantly and powerfully pack the current features plus a few new ones in to a simple to use comm. device

[Pismo]

What I really want to know is if iChat will let us use our existing AIM screen names. I'm afraid that it won't because no one would use AOL's AIM client if it did. I do not want to use my iTools account to chat with people. The only reason I use AIM is because every person I know uses it and nothing else. AIM was great in OS 9 but I hated sitting around waiting for a new release (beta) for OS X. The last release was back in December and a new version was released today. I don't care about video and voice chat. Not everyone has high speed internet access. I'm in college which has ethernet and at work we're on a T1 :D so I guess I'm lucky until I have to go home and use my dial-up. I don't want these apps to become bloated with features I don't want to use.

[ericb88]

is there a difference between ichat and downloading aim if i'm not on a network?

[shadowfax0]

Does anyone think that we will be able to remove iChat if we wanted to? Like I don't mind if they offer it on the OS, but when they say 'integrated', that gives me the shivers. What's a graphics professional going to do with a chat utility built into the OS? Nothing. But if you can remove it, then fine, that's all dandy, but if you can't, well, we can see how happy M$ makes people...

[Pismo]

I just read on Apple's website that users can use their mac.com user names as well as AIM/AOL user names for chatting. I wonder if iChat will support file transfers too.

[780pullman]

iChat has file transfer all the info on Jaguar can be found at the apple website under http://www.apple.com/macosx/newversion/
here is the quote from the apple site "As with other chat programs, iChat lets you exchange files".

[Pismo]

Originally posted by 780pullman
iChat has file transfer all the info on Jaguar can be found at the apple website under http://www.apple.com/macosx/newversion/
here is the quote from the apple site "As with other chat programs, iChat lets you exchange files".

Thanks 780pullman. I must have mised that. 10.2 is going to rock!!!

[Rower_CPU]

This might be tied in with the videoconferencing "iApp" we've been hearing about lately...iChat would be able to take advantage of the QT6/MPEG4 video in 10.2.

[cleo]

I have a couple of very specific concerns re: iChat.

1) Memory usage. Adium uses virtually no system resources, whereas iTunes... well.

2) Ads. I supposed that it is perfectly possible that Apple has paid enough for the use of the technology not to have to look at AOL ads constantly (as in the standard AIM client). But somehow I doubt it.

3) Screen names. What if two different people own "JohnSmith" @mac. com and @aol.com? How will it be determined who gets the rights to chat with it (well, obviously the AOL person will). Seems like it's not the best thing to be so loudly advertising that you can use your mac.com name when there's a good chance you won't be able to (given AOL's ungodly number of subscribers).

All in all, I'll certainly keep an open mind until I see this thing in the flesh, but until then, my opinion is that it's going to have to take something truly groundbreaking to get me to stop using Adium X.

[eyelikeart]

iChat looks pretty cool...hopefully it does things more efficiently than AIM currently does under X...

my question involves Mail....now that there's an Apple native app which does AIM chat...will Mail have the ability to handle AOL's mail??

[Rower_CPU]

Originally posted by eyelikeart
iChat looks pretty cool...hopefully it does things more efficiently than AIM currently does under X...

my question involves Mail....now that there's an Apple native app which does AIM chat...will Mail have the ability to handle AOL's mail??

It's hard to tell from the verbage on the Jaguar website:
Mail includes other enhancements that make it even simpler to manage your online life. Mail now automatically saves your drafts when you quit the program, and opens them again when you relaunch. You can apply multiple criteria to rules, and there are more rule options. You can search across multiple mailboxes, as well as store all mail in a single mailbox.

Guess we'll have to wait 'til August/September to see.

[cleo]

Ewwwww! I seriously, seriously hope that the screen shot on the new OS X page (http://www.apple.com/macosx/newversion/) is not the only way to use iChat. Talk about useless eyecandy. WTF.

[elmimmo]

About one year ago or a little bit more there was some sort of instant messaging engines community whose more known members where Yahoo and Microsoft claiming to be wanting to develop an standard for cross-client instant messaging (i.e. be able to instat message to others wheter they use MSN, Yahoo or whatever other client). They also claimed that the biggest obstacle to developing such standard was AOL position to keep its client closed from others, and having inot account that AOL also owns ICQ such a task resulted futile without the cooperation of AOL.

Now, this piece of news can mean two things to me. 1) Since AOL is letting Apple use its technology, opening its AIM to abroad screen names (mac.com), this might mean this is the beginning of cross-client instant messaging which I think would be one of the biggest and greater news related to the Internet since a long long time, making IM as easy and universal to use as e-mail; 2) None of the above, Apple is just supporting AOL's monopolistic and narrowminded point of view about IM, which I would find rather sad: I want to be able to IM with users of windows, linux, iPaq, Dreamcast, mobile phones or whatever other new gadget appears in a near future and that will only be possible with a public, free and standarized protocol upon which all the important parties agree.

Let's hope it is the first meaning, although, quite honestly, I doubt it.

[mcrain]

All this talk about this and that, but nobody has asked the really important question...

How many smileys and what types. I mean, will I still be able to make the clown, the skelaton, howbout the cowboy??

These are important issues that must be resolved!
:cool:

[sparkleytone]

notice that while aqua is still there in these screens, the brushed metal is taking a much more prominent rule than before.

[eyelikeart]

Originally posted by mcrain
All this talk about this and that, but nobody has asked the really important question...

How many smileys and what types. I mean, will I still be able to make the clown, the skelaton, howbout the cowboy??

These are important issues that must be resolved!
:cool:

hmm...how many more possible smileys can we endure do u think?! ;)

[jelloshotsrule]

Originally posted by spuncan
First AIM does support audio chat. My guess is that iChat will do what all iApps. do. It will elegantly and powerfully pack the current features plus a few new ones in to a simple to use comm. device

aim for os 9 supports audio chat, but not the os x version... this is from the website concerning os x's latest aim version (from today)

"These additional features, available on the previous AIM software, will soon be added to AIM for Mac OS X:

File Sharing
Talk
Stock Alerts
HTTP Proxy Support"

so, they still need talking and file exchange to even come close to os 9 version. we'll see if ichat can top all this.

[jelloshotsrule]

Originally posted by mcrain
How many smileys and what types. I mean, will I still be able to make the clown, the skelaton, howbout the cowboy??

These are important issues that must be resolved!
:cool:

it's just funny that this is coming from an adult tax lawyer.... haha.

i should've known that mcrain was a closet aim junkie.

[mmmdreg]

I'd like it if iChat was more an ICQ&AIM client because I know NOONE that uses AIM anymore...ICQ is what I use but since MS bundles its windows with MSN now, many more people are starting to use that, even if it's rubbish...so a cross-client client would probaby be the best thing...maybe iChat2 will be that...and since AOL owns ICQ, why don't they combine it with AIM and make 1 from 2...

[ibjoshua]

umm
is anyone else concerned about the fact that someone else has been using the name for years?

http://www.ichat.com/

[Mr. Anderson]

Originally posted by i_b_joshua
umm
is anyone else concerned about the fact that someone else has been using the name for years?

http://www.ichat.com/

Weird that. I wonder if a law suite is in the making?

Hey mcrain, check out all the smilies you can have at cgtalk.com, they have beerdrinking, thumbs up and a whole host of other, very cool because some of them are animated. But it might get a little too much. I think arn has selected a nice bunch for MacRumors.

[sjs]

more likely that Apple has already bought the rights to the name from ichat.com or has even incorporated some of their software or other property...

[Macmaniac]

Yet another cool i app! What could be next?

[big]

First AIM does support audio chat.

ummmm, in 9.x it does, how do you do it in X?

[eyelikeart]

Originally posted by big

ummmm, in 9.x it does, how do you do it in X?

AIM in X is still beta software....so there are still a few things to work out...

notice there are no smileys yet?!

[jelloshotsrule]

Originally posted by eyelikeart
AIM in X is still beta software....so there are still a few things to work out...

notice there are no smileys yet?!

there are smileys in the newest version, which came out yesterday.

still no file transfer/talk. and a few other internet protocol things.

[bobky]

Personally I dont see a use for ichat, unless it can use other protocols, I use icq and msn through proteus (even if it doesn't do file transfer...etc......yet). I know no one who uses aim.

but like elmimmo says, would be great if the was a standard protocol
:)

[sparkleytone]

AIM is a standard protocol. It just happens to be proprietary as well. The reason I say it is standard is because it has way more penetration than any other instant messenger. Not only are AIM users able to communicate, but all current AOL subscribers can communicate with AIM users and vice-versa.

Second, altho it is a nice concept to include other technologies such as Jabber/Yahoo/etc, one protocol makes it cleaner and quicker. I watched the video on ZDNet, and altho it was probably using Quartz Extreme and had great hardware, I'm hoping the avg iChat experience is nearly that fast.

Third, if they only adopt one protocol, then thats all they will have to worry about with Rendezvous, making communication much easier to handle.

Finally, I hate AOL as much as the next guy, but have yet to find a service that treats me better. MSN is spyware/bloatware/trojanhorse etc. Jabber is obscure. ICQ just sucks. Yahoo just never really made it into the market.

[bobky]

True, but it's a bit hard to get peeps using other IM's. the only reason i use msn is a few wintel friends use it, they're not pros just comsumers, who use whatever comes out of the box. I wouldn't paticularly mind using ichat (thinking about it), it's just I'll need 2 apps open to do the same thing (if I don't want to lose icq and msn contacts) which is a bit cr*p.

I agree with keep it simple, but until everyone uses one protocol, then I'd like it to handle atleast icq (don't AOL own icq?)

[aggemam]

Originally posted by sparkleytone
I watched the video on ZDNet, and altho it was probably using Quartz Extreme and had great hardware, I'm hoping the avg iChat experience is nearly that fast.


Where is that video? I can't seem to find it :)

--
Christian

[aggemam]

By searching for "Jaguar" on ZDNet (clever me), I found the video. No option for QuickTime streaming though :(

[big]

wow! you can already sign up on aim w/your mac.com email address? neat!

[Pismo]

I've seen pictures of iChat as well as the demo video from WWDC (cNet). I think there's too much eye candy. It's going to be a great app but I'm not too crazy about all of those"chat bubbles". I hope we can choose to have an interface like AIM that is simple and doesn't take up the whole screen.

PS - the drag and drop file sharing is going to rock!!

[willmore]

Originally posted by cleo
I have a couple of very specific concerns re: iChat.

1) Memory usage. Adium uses virtually no system resources, whereas iTunes... well.

2) Ads. I supposed that it is perfectly possible that Apple has paid enough for the use of the technology not to have to look at AOL ads constantly (as in the standard AIM client). But somehow I doubt it.

3) Screen names. What if two different people own "JohnSmith" @mac. com and @aol.com? How will it be determined who gets the rights to chat with it (well, obviously the AOL person will). Seems like it's not the best thing to be so loudly advertising that you can use your mac.com name when there's a good chance you won't be able to (given AOL's ungodly number of subscribers).

Some thoughts on your questions:

1) Memory: I seriously doubt that iChat would use 1/10 the cycles that iTunes requires; I would more expect it to be around the Adium/Fire range.

2) Ads: It'll be a cold day in hell before Apple throws ads on something besides Sherlock (which are only THEIR ads.) Ads on iChat just won't happen. Why do you think so many people use Adium over AOL's client?

3) Screen Names: Here's my take on how this'll work: regular AOL members will retain their names; new mac.com members will simply get their email address. Your username would be JohnSmith@mac.com. Maybe your password would even be synced with your iTools password. This could lead to further integration, although Apple must tread lightly if it wants to keep in good standing. Right now it's touring the house; let's not jump in bed yet.

[Biggles]

I checked out SpyMac for pics on iChat (and yes, they look very real....maybe spymac finally has something here), and it doesn't appear as if you can remove those annoying chat bubbles. Unless Apple pulls off something amazing with iChat, I'm sticking with adium.

BTW, if you want multi-protocal support, check out proteus. I personnally like the interface more in adium, but proteus can use MSN, Yahoo, etc.