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AOL to Introduce Video Chat

Re: Re: Re: iChat bad?

Originally posted by ennerseed
get info on a buddy, and then select Show: their name

profile.gif
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no, i want to create a profile for myself. im sure i cant do that in ichat.
 
Yaaaawwwwwwwwn

Maybe it's just me. I have zero desire for any AOL-branded software on my box. Also could care less about video chat, whether Apple-branded or not.
 
being a newly converted, I'd like to just have my 2 cents in...

I use almost all the "big" chat programs out there... and have used all of them for PCs even thing like Trillion (sp?)

I currently use MSN, Yahoo, ICQ, iChat, AIM regularily.
I have to say, iChat has been THE most stable in terms of performance and I just love how everything is setup. the icons, messages, buddy adding and two/one way video/audio chats; and how it's so easier to use and fun!

I Really wished they'd at least make iChat PLAY NICE and be AV compatible with Windows. It's no use having the greatest webcam if you can't communicate with most people you know.

Yes, Steve dreams of converting the whole world to Mac but is it going to happen in the next months. NO!

So, I'd love to see it play nice and incorporate other protocols. Even ICQ uses AIM/iChat protocols now, too!

Wake up Apple, we love you but sometimes, you really NEED to listen to what people REALLY want... especially when it comes to Internet communicating!

ps. maybe a new webcam (iSight II) is in the works and they will introduce that with the new and improved/ all platform/protocol/ All Purpose iChat?!??!!?

One can only hope!
 
You don't have to use iChat AV to use the iSight. Almost every video application and chat program on the Mac can use the iSight once iChat AV is installed. The person on the other end does not have to use an iSight either.

If memory serves, the iSight (or is it iChat AV itself?) uses H.232, which is a standard. Steve said that Windows programs could be made to talk to iChat video and audio.


Originally posted by mangis
How can you people not see what is happening? There is no reason that the windows community can"t make and sell an isight-like camera for half the price (or less), connecting with usb 2.0 or even firewire.

Where will ichat be then? Down the toilet. This is bad news for ichat, and could be the beginning of the end, unless we can use our isights with windose users.

This is not really that surprising. Apple has always been behind, yes, get out of denial, BEHIND, in telephony and internet chatting. While isight is now better than any choice for windose, we have to keep in mind just how many mac users there are in the world. I, for one, want to use my isight with windose people. You can choose to ignore the other 97.5%, but I don't want to. Reality bites.
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Why would AOL make it compatible with iChat AV?

Like MS, AOL (whom I actually have more disdain for than MS, if that's possible) wants you to use THEIR software and pay for THEIR service. They don't make any money unless you sign up for their service. Given all the people that have been dumping AOL service and just going with their broadband company as their ISP, AOL needs a carrot to keep their current customer base and get both new subscribers as well as some of the defectors back.


Originally posted by Macrumors

While Apple's iChat AV software offers text-chat interoperability with AOL's Instant Messaging service, the new Video Chat service is not interoperable with iChat AV.
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Lets talk about the featuritis of other Chat clients for a sec....

Ok people, maybe I am old fashioned but what I like about iChat is the fact that it does NOT have a lot of the features of other chat clients. Its like the Cell Phones. I *DON'T* want to have a cell will 10000 features I will never use, yet no matter what cell I buy nowadays it has them and the essential functions I need are so buried I have to read a manual bigger than the actual phone to find them, and I can't customize and erase that crap either. Same goes for iCQ/AIM etc. Boy do I miss the old days when ICQ was just a chat client, now its an egglaying swissknife cow that is huge, bloated and with a ton of functions I never wanted. And there I can't get rid of them either. ICQ Lite was a good idea, but they are rebloating it again. That goes with every damned prog on PCs. I don't want all that **** of WMP7 & 9, I still have 6.4 on my old W2k box, and I really hate those big box of bull**** DVD Players too that have all that crap that I never wanted, I love the easy minimalistic interface of the Apple DVD player. That is why I use a mac as a primary machine. Apple KNOWS most people don't want featuritis they want easy to use software that contains all the essential stuff in a simple setup.
Cheers,

Ahmed
 
Re: iChat bad?

Originally posted by ennerseed
Some of you are talking about iChat as being bad... in what way is it bad?
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Only one thing in my mind makes iChat bad - no Video adjustments. This is so trivially easy to add I'm absolutely astounded it is not there. A trivial call to QuickTime brings up a killer adjustment dialog, which you can see in virtually all other video software. With iSight, there are major controls on tons of stuff other cameras don't have, it's great! But the current default, unchangable settings makes iSight POOR in low light and it simply does not have to be. With a minor adjust in that dialog, it is a great camera in low light. That it is missing is bad.

I think iChat should also have a conferencing feature so I can chat in a group. This would make a big splash, and allow use in many other situations. I want my company to be able to have video meeting over iChat!

By the way I fully expect Apple to make iChat compatible with video AIM. I expect a surprise announcement about that in some major update down the line. Conferencing seems a great addition to put in at that time too. Remember Apple has an agreement with AIM about text chat, it is a no brainer to extend that.
 
Why can't we all just get along?

Video chat between PC and Mac is practically non-existant in any meaningful way. Ophone-X is about as close as it has gotten and it only works with MS Netmeeting with it's hideous flaws and limitations. I have a feeling that the Powers that Be are are deliberately throwing a wrench into video telephony until some shady back room deal can be worked out, whereby the players will be able to carve some bucks out of us marks. Disappointing? Yep. Expected? of course.
 
ichat is a wonderful thing and so is isight, but until i can video chat with my windows friends i'm certainly not gonna buy isight.
 
The main downside for iChat from my point of view, that keeps me from using it (before even considering other things) is that it only works with the AIM network. I understand that it would be difficult to incorporate other networks with their legal permission etc, on Apple's part, but that is irrelevant to me, as a consumer. That's because, I can use a program like Fire instead, that is able to connect to all major networks (AIM, MSN, ICQ, Yahoo, etc) simultaneously, and have all my buddies in a single list. This alone, makes me disregard iChat completely (as well as all the other one-network centric clients), since it lacks this capability.
 
iChat A/V vs. the others

The biggest difference between these chatting systems incorporating video and audio and that of Apple's is the others are trying to incorporate them into a communication model that is geared towards typing on a keyboard and reading responses as text on a screen. The end result, video and audio that's so awful, you immediately and instinctively go back to text chatting after a couple of minutes.

Apple's video chat system is completely different. They approach it from a real world point of view, that is, when you make a phone call to someone it's a one-on-one conversation. This is where Apple's choice is better for those who aren't used to online chatting and having multiple conversations going at once. You end up with a very clean and natural way of communicating with someone.

I believe Apple should port iChat A/V to Windows just for that reason alone. It's video and audio streaming is far superior than anything else out there. The only complaints you hear about it is that it doesn't support multiple sessions. Well there's a reason for that; bandwidth requirements.

It requires a broadband connection just to get a single session running smoothly. Throw in more than one session and the quality degrades. I do believe Apple should release (and charge for) a Pro version of iChat A/V that allows multiple sessions over a LAN, like say in a business setting where video conferencing is needed.

Anyway, there's nothing out there on any platform that can compare to the simplicity of iChat A/V and the quality... which brings me to the iSight camera.

I was chatting with a friend on Yahoo IM and had the webcam feature turned on (ugh, what a piece of crap that is). He actually commented on how nice the images were he was receiving from my camera and asked what kind of camera I had. That's how good the iSight is. He said they were the best he's seen from any other webcam. 😉

One other point I wanted to make, I like the simplicity in both of these products; iChat A/V and the iSight. I'm sure there are a thousand different features and functions that could be bolted on to both of them, however, the elegance lies in their simplicity. The ability to do what you want without the hassles of figuring it out. Communicating with someone should never become a frustrating experience.
 
I'm not sure way this is a Mac rumor.

AOL does not have any Mac beta's right now ( I'm a beta tester for them ) the Curent AOL for OSX Does NOT have any video or audio features. And as always the mac version is falling behind the PeeCee Version. I think Steve and crew need to tell AOL if they want to do these music store deals with Apple.... they need to have feature parity.
 
well... two thoughts...

apple ought to get iChat ported to windows before this all goes down

and

is this AOL program gonna reek havoc on my machine just like every other AOL product always has?
 
iSight and iChatAV sounds like the smartest things to port to the Windows world. I don't find any negitives. ONly positives. THe more people you can get to buy your product the better. Especiall for something like video conferencing. IT is tough to find someone else with a mac and an iSight!
 
I personally love iChat, why do we need animated icons? I never even have the iChat buddies window open so I would never see them. iChat is the most stable chat application that I have used and I love how it is integrated with my address book and mail application.

Oh and iSight has other users besides iChat.. take a look at this http://www.toysight.com/ check out the video, pretty cool!!
 
I tried using iChat when I first got my powerbook back in September but quickly got annoyed with it. It's really annoying to have to press that accept button to see a message but not start to reply to it. It looks pretty and all, but it doesn't seem to be designed by people who actually use IMing software. And lack of profile is a bummer too. I switched to Adium. The only things missing from Adium are file transferring and menu bar integration. I don't use AV stuff, but if I did, I would probably use iChat.
 
Re: iChat A/V vs. the others

Originally posted by mjtomlin
Apple's video chat system is completely different. They approach it from a real world point of view, that is, when you make a phone call to someone it's a one-on-one conversation. This is where Apple's choice is better for those who aren't used to online chatting and having multiple conversations going at once. You end up with a very clean and natural way of communicating with someone.
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Amen brother....

All those people saying iSight is too expensive are off, same thing with people who dislike iChat. The quality of iSight is very good and I would have paid two times what it cost.

Once you try iChat AV, going back to text chatting is almost a joke, I mean why bother ? The elegance of iChat AV is stunning, I chat with family on other other side of the world almost daily and it is as easy as turning on the Mac.
OK, I'm not a typical chatter, maybe that's where the difference is. I'm no teen with hours to kill and I do have a life, I don't really want to chat with a bunch of strangers, but being able to see my brother "live" every day it the best thing ( communication wise ) that have happened since email came around, if you ask me.
 
Yahoo

Is anybody else bothered by the fact that the OSX version of Yahoo messenger is several revisions behind that of it's windows brother? What the hell is this? I want the features of Yahoo from windows, such as phone calls and video and sound. I don't really care about AIM, nobody I know uses it, but why not get a current version of the Yahoo messenger?
 
Re: Why would AOL make it compatible with iChat AV?

Originally posted by scat999999
Like MS, AOL (whom I actually have more disdain for than MS, if that's possible) wants you to use THEIR software and pay for THEIR service. They don't make any money unless you sign up for their service. Given all the people that have been dumping AOL service and just going with their broadband company as their ISP, AOL needs a carrot to keep their current customer base and get both new subscribers as well as some of the defectors back.
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Well, since AOL's IM client is free, I don't see much sense in your argument.
 
Re: Yahoo

Yahoo has Video for the mac version...but I can't get it to work with a reasonable frame rate. I am using isight.
anyone got any idea? I turned on everything in pref. such as "supervideo"? still slow.

Originally posted by jared_kipe
Is anybody else bothered by the fact that the OSX version of Yahoo messenger is several revisions behind that of it's windows brother? What the hell is this? I want the features of Yahoo from windows, such as phone calls and video and sound. I don't really care about AIM, nobody I know uses it, but why not get a current version of the Yahoo messenger?
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IMHO, the most significant problem with iChat is still that it uses an IM system nobody uses. I have yet to meet a person that actually uses AIM, while I know hundreds of people with ICQ or MSN (eww). I hope the ICQ-AIM-integration will solve this.
 
iChat port

People have been wondering why Apple has not ported over iChat. This line from MacInTouch may be the answer. If Microsoft can't do it on a PC then how can Apple?

David Pogue talks about Microsoft's lack of iSight in his latest column for the N.Y. Times:

Of course, video chatting on a PC is easy enough using the built-in Windows Messenger program and a USB Web cam.
Unfortunately, it doesn't give you smooth video, it isn't in a big window, and you generally experience awkward delays between responses. Microsoft also notes that "If you are on a local area network behind a firewall (for example, a corporate network), you may not be able to connect on a computer-to-computer call with someone outside the firewall."
I did ask Microsoft if you could get iSight-quality video, at any cost-say, with a FireWire camera and a high-speed Internet connection. The response: "On the Windows XP platform, all the pieces aren't in place yet."

Tony
 
Originally posted by rjgjonker
I have yet to meet a person that actually uses AIM, while I know hundreds of people with ICQ or MSN (eww).
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That's weird...I only know one person who doesn't use AIM, and he uses Yahoo. I've never known anyone who used ICQ or MSN for messaging. Maybe it's just the people I hang out with, but a lot of them are AOL (or CompuServe) internet users, and those of us who are "buddies" with them default to the AIM network (or .Mac in my case 😉 ) to communicate with them.

As for Video Chat, I find text chat much more useful than A/V, because with text chat, I can have a conversation (or even several conversations at once) without interrupting what I am doing. I can still browse the internet, check my email, and type documents while I am having my conversations. With A/V chat, it's a nice replacement for a phone call, but you have to set aside time where you are doing nothing else, which makes it quite inconvenient for normal use.
 
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