What I miss the most about the PC

about modifying the way your screenname... i'm pretty sure you can do that with iChat. at leasy i think i've done it...

and isn't iChat a stable program? i've never had any problems with it.

are all of the features you're thinking about really useful? one good thing with Macs is that all of the useless stuff that just confuses you isn't there in the Mac version.

anyway, simplifying the way you IM has to be a good thing, right?

Are you using iChat, or iChat AV Beta??

In the Beta, you can organize your buddies by groups. Adding buddies and modifying buddies (while different than AIM, I think is more convenient. If you have your own Mac, then you can sync the buddy names up with your address book, and I would imagine that in Panther you will be able to send anyone in your iChat panel an E-mail just by clicking the name and selecting E-mail, and if they are online, it can send them a quick IM letting them know that they should check the E-mail account and tell them who the message was from. Also, since you can sync thee address book to a PDA or iPod, you can take all that info on the go! I think that while iChat does have it's flaws, I think that the Panther version will be MUCH better. The big issue I hope is fixed, is that iChat doesn't do well with my away messages, once they are over a certain length it freaks out and chops them up. It doesn't tell me though, on my end it looks just fine. As this was very frustrating, I dl'ed the AIM client for mac. After about 5 minutes with the AIM client I couldn't stand how hideously FULGY that thing is, and I went back to iChat.

Re: What I miss the most about the PC

Originally posted by passthejonch
AIM
...
oh how i wish i could directly connect...
oh how i wish i could modify the way my screenname appeared
oh how i miss the stability of the program
oh how i miss all its features

woe is me

help me... I wish AOL would release a better version of its aim for mac... its current version is crap

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In the current version of AIM for OS X - Version 4.6:

• Direct Connect works for me. (do you have firewalls in the way preventing this - it would be a problem on a PC as well)
• Modifing how your screen name looks does work.
• It has been stable for me. What version have you been using?
• Any other features you're missing. AIM for Mac OS X is in general a better program than then windows version. Even windows users admit to that.
• Oh woe is you for either not using the latest version of the software before complaining or woe is you for not looking around and finding the fetaures you thought were missing.

AIM Version 4.6 works quite well. The only drawback is the high CPU usage, due to the advertisements.

I'm not sure about "all its features" but I think most everything is there--if you look for things.

Most of those things work in iChat, but they work differently--imagine that! <sarcasm>Aren't all applications supposed to work exactly the same, so you never have to learn anything?</sarcasm>

You're right, of course, iChat wasn't meant for multiple screen names, just like mail wasn't meant for multiple e-mail addresses. They think that you should log in to the machine as someone else and have all those settings ready without having to configure an application twice. I have multiple screen names and multiple e-mail addresses. That's why I have the AIM client and Eudora for e-mail.

i know this may not help you know...

but adium 2 will be finished sometime in the future and i firmly believe it'll be the best IM program available on any platform

Re: Re: Re: What I miss the most about the PC

Originally posted by passthejonch
the problem with using aim for mac is that there is this huge lag while the ohter person is sending their message.

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Maybe you want a direct cerebral cortex interface?

The lag may be the other person reading your message and then typing in a response. Or maybe either you or your buddies connection to the internet sucks.

I haven't had lag problems at all.

Are you just trying to find something to complain about?

The only way that you could truly determine that AIM for Mac lags is to put them on the same subnet in a network in the same room with equal quality cables connected to an Ethernet switch/router.

Testing it any other way and you end up with too many variables, such as the ISP.

I guess I should be surprised that my buddies on Windows don't complain about my lag, esp. since I'm on a dialup connection.

Originally posted by bousozoku
The only way that you could truly determine that AIM for Mac lags is to put them on the same subnet in a network in the same room with equal quality cables connected to an Ethernet switch/router.

Testing it any other way and you end up with too many variables, such as the ISP.

I guess I should be surprised that my buddies on Windows don't complain about my lag, esp. since I'm on a dialup connection.

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Still too many variables. Your message is going to an AIM server and back.

Re: Re: Re: What I miss the most about the PC

Originally posted by passthejonch
the problem with using aim for mac is that there is this huge lag while the ohter person is sending their message.

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Funny... you didn't mention that in your first post. So now is that the *only* problem now that your other 'problems' have been addressed?

i miss the blue screen of death. over the years ive seen it so many times i felt like i was dating it. well, like any gal, i got fed up with her fussiness and now went to the lo-maintance osx. every once in a while i still think back ...

I use AIM and it could definitely be better. Although I find it to be the most basic yet functional chat program available, if you have more than a few windows open and active at the same time it lags. Someone else mentioned message lag, its true. The program hangs for half a second before the message comes, its very noticeable. At first I thought it was my computer that couldn't handle the 5 chat windows, but I soon realized it was AIM itself. Safari, iTunes, Mail all run fine while AIM is open and receiving 5+ messages at once.

AIM 4.6 is awesome except for how slow it is. And the ads are really annoying, although I understand that AOL has to have them there.

One thing I wish it (and iChat) would have is tabbed windows like in Adium. It's so much better than having a million separate floating windows. In Adium you have three choices:
1. To put the contact list and each IM in separate windows (like in AIM 4.6)
2. To put the contact list and all IM's in one window with tabs
3. To put the contact list in one window and all IM's in another.

I'm really looking forward to Adium 2.0.

Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: What I miss the most about the PC

Originally posted by passthejonch
jesus what is your problem... i am just listing my grievances... you are getting on the defensive

i am not bashing the mac.. obviously i own one and i love it...

god.... some people..

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you're right man, people here to get too defensive too quickly.

I agree with you - ichat is garbage, and AIM is too slow. I do think that AIM for mac is the same as for PC except for the speed though. It's what I use.

How hard can that stuff be to add?

they allowed us to do viedo conferencing, but we still cant edit our IM names

Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: What I miss the most about the PC

Originally posted by passthejonch
jesus what is your problem... i am just listing my grievances... you are getting on the defensive

i am not bashing the mac.. obviously i own one and i love it...

god.... some people..

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Well, considering that this thread was initially a whine, I'd say that it's gone pretty well.

We tried to help, but you just seemed to ignore that. It's bound to frustrate people.

I can't imagine using AIM for any platform. I have an AIM screen name, but you're not going to catch me wading through their ad riddled client.

What there really needs to be is an OS X version of Trillian.

I personally think AIM for Mac is better than AIM for Windows. The setup of adding buddies is much better, it looks better, and it allows you to keep your away message on while chatting. Not to mention all of the cool away messages it comes with.

well iChat for me is kind of annoying, mostly because it doesnt work at all. It refuses our network. we connected to the apple store (im talking about video), and it worked fine. but when we tried to connect to my dad's work, it did the same thing that it did to our network. yeah its a great idea, and most people have it ok, but its not as "easy" or "simple" to set up as steve claims.

then again, im using AV.

Originally posted by fraeone
I can't imagine using AIM for any platform. I have an AIM screen name, but you're not going to catch me wading through their ad riddled client.

What there really needs to be is an OS X version of Trillian.

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It's called Proteus, not Trillian.

Originally posted by couch potato
well iChat for me is kind of annoying, mostly because it doesnt work at all. It refuses our network. we connected to the apple store (im talking about video), and it worked fine. but when we tried to connect to my dad's work, it did the same thing that it did to our network. yeah its a great idea, and most people have it ok, but its not as "easy" or "simple" to set up as steve claims.

then again, im using AV.

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Thats an issue with corporate firewalls, not iChat AV. I use it with my friends all the time (and im even behind a router) with no problems.

And in general, since 10.3 I have started using AIM all the time now. It doesnt crash, and you can be online without having iChat open, which i think is a MAJOR plus.

Another feature missing from the Mac version of AIM is being able to look up a person's screen name by entering their email address. I know that feature has been in the Windows version for at least the past couple years, but I haven't seen it in the Mac version (or iChat).

On the Mac side I've tried AIM, Fire, iChat (including the new iChat AV beta) and Adium. Yeah I spend a decent amount of time online talking to friends in different parts of the county. Right now I primarily use the current AIM because its fast enough on my 1GHz G4, logs messages, works well with multiple screen names, and most importantly its stable...but there's definitely room for improvement.