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AOL to Introduce Video Chat

Drop it or port it.

Imagine an Apple email client that only worked with other Apple users. It is absurd. The point to this type of software is not brand but communication and functionality. The same goes for ichat AV. The idea that it is just for Apple users is absurd. I love ichat. I just never use it, because only 3-5% of my acquaintances use macs. Thus, Apple should either drop it, or port it to expand Apple's functionality (and to further stimulate interest in Apple). Apple must be interested in porting it to windows. What is the down side? Will it lead to fewer Mac sales? I find it doubtful that people are going to "switch" just to be able to use a video communication system that can only reach 3-5% of the market. It isn't a "switch" pitch. However, if ported, it could expand the functionality of Apple users (and their endorsements) into the windows environment; and lead to additional sales of iSite.
 
Originally posted by coolsoldier
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.
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rjgjonker is from Europe, where I believe ICQ is very popular.

Originally posted by coolsoldier
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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Have you even tried video chats with iChat AV ?
I have helped my brother troubleshooting his Mac while we were chatting, we have surfed the same sites looking for info, checked emails and even downloaded QT movies. We do all this without writing back and forward.
Text chatting is good, but wait til video chats catches up, I think people will start to leave text chats. Audio chats are great too, the iSight have been strong enough for me, that I could be across the room and still have a regular chat.
 
*shrugs*

Frankly I don't like AIM and from what I've seen iChat isn't much better at least when it comes to features. Give me Trillian any day. I've grown to love that app for its plethora of features and compatibilities with all the IM services that are out there.

To be honest I've never really even considered video conferencing mainly because I like lag time communications. When I chat with a person I can multitask and let a conversation sit a bit until I get back to them. Video is real time. It demands your focus from beginning of conversation to the end.
 
Originally posted by Dahl
Have you even tried video chats with iChat AV ?
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Yes. I chat with my family via iSight. And it's a big step up from a phone call. It is not the evolution of a text chat. A text chat is something you can do seamlessly in the background while typing, etc. A video chat doesn't give you enough "downtime" to get anything else done. With a text chat, you can do other things, and even chat with other people, while you are waiting for a response, and when a response comes you can read and reply at leisure. An A/V chat requires your constant attention and participation, which puts it in a totally different market than text chats, which are more of a side conversation. I always have a couple of IM windows open when I'm on the computer, no matter what else I'm doing. It's a side note to whatever I'm doing. Video chats don't work that way. They need constant attention.
 
i find it useful to see one of my friends that went to a different school, that also has an isight. its about realtime when both ends are g4 , we sometimes will leave it running while we talk to someone else or something, but i could see how moost times u couldnt.

its not really an everyday communication thing, but its fun to see those that are far away or you dont get to see a lot.

it is quite easy to use
 
"Video chats don't work that way. They need constant attention."

Why ?

Nobody tells you you even have to sit in front of your Mac while chatting.
I'm up and down, sittting and standing.
We have the iSights going for a long time, sometimes somebody leaves the room and I call the person and they return. Not a big deal, I'm not fast at typing so video chats are easy.

I agree text and video chats are different, but I have never been a fan of text chats. I prefer forums like these for text based communication to a large group of people.
 
Originally posted by Dahl
I agree text and video chats are different, but I have never been a fan of text chats. I prefer forums like these for text based communication to a large group of people.
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Maybe you have a different concept of "text chat" than I do. I NEVER get into chats with more than two users. That kills the dead time that I like about text chat in the first place. But for person to person communication, a public forum is not particularly efficient, and email lacks the spontaneous informality of a chat.

Large groups of people are a completely different story. Perhaps I should have said "Instant Message" instead of "Chat".
 
We probably have different ways off describing thee same things.

:)

All I know is thhat I love my iSight and iChat AV and it have changed how I communicate with my family. I think that's what Apple was aiming for, when they released iChat.
 
Originally posted by coolsoldier
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.
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It's a US thing. In the UK, for instance, MSN chat is the daddy. It makes having iChat even more useless in the UK because your friends can't (won't) even text chat with you on it.

MSN and Hotmail are very established norms here, Yahoo a second, AOL is few... and it isn't going to change, IM is like that, how could it change?
 
Looks interesting...

I am wondering if audio chat works with the new beta of AIM and iChat AV. That would be at least a sign of hope
 
Re: ICQ

Originally posted by AgtAlpha
IIRC, iChat works with ICQ, just like AIM does. Instead of entering an AOL/AIM ScreenName, enter their IUN instead.
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That does not work if you are logged in with an .mac account, works only with AIM accounts right now :-(
 
Leverage iPod/iLife

The iPod's success bodes well for Firewire, making it easier for Apple to offer a select set of iApps (or .Mac w/ iChat) and bundle the iSight for Winfolk. Perhaps future iPods will work with iSights directly (audio/video recording) for added integration.

The more comfortable non-Mac users become with Apple products, the more likely Apple will gain switchers or adders. iPod and iTMS alone are great, but here's a chance to "embrace and extend."
 
Hmmm, what's wrong with iChat some of you have said? Let me list the ways:

-Can't add people to your buddy list.

I can see existing people that I've had on there before using iChat, but trying to add new people (even from address cards) evokes a "feedbag error." I might add it was like this with a new iBook G4 and continued to do the same thing after re-installing iChat twice. Frankly, adding people to your buddy list is the second-most important feature of AIM next to actually chatting.

-No moving icons.

This is a feature that was around since like 1992--come on now Apple.

-Away Messages?

Why is every message I've ever used saved?...better yet, why can't I get rid of them?!?

-Status bar icon doesn't correspond with the program running...

I can "set my status" from the menu bar at the top of the screen, but to actually start up iChat, I need to run the application--shouldn't that happen when I change the status icon?

-No profile or personality info

enough said really...for an AIM-based program, not having a feature that allows you to make profiles (yet view them?!?) is a travesty.

-Bad grouping

Shape symbols for groups is one thing, but there's no grouping or grouping titles, just shapes & a list that's hidden on top. How can you leave something like this out?

-Multi-user functionality

When iChat starts it always logs in as me, in order to change I need to go into prefrences and change the account completely & re-start the program to have it take effect...multi-users is something AIM is not only fully capable of, but easy to do..come on now :confused:

-----------

iChat does offer more aestheticly than most other chat programs, but I find it sad I have to revert to the Mac version of AOL AIM just to get an admittedly less-pretty version of iChat that works a lot better as a messenging program. If Apple would fix these things, iChat would be a great program--but like iPhoto, it's underdeveloped and quirky. :(
 
I agree that iChat could really use some beefing up... While I understand that it is a relatively new program and AOL IM has had a LOT more time to mature, Apple is sleeping at the wheel on this one.
 
I can answer a few of those...
Originally posted by JDOG_ Why is every (status) message I've ever used saved?...better yet, why can't I get rid of them?!?
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Try this: in the list of status messages (at the top of your buddy list), click "Edit Status Messages..." to delete away messages. While you're at it, uncheck "remember custom messages". That should be in preferences, but it's there nonetheless.

-Status bar icon doesn't correspond with the program running...

I can "set my status" from the menu bar at the top of the screen, but to actually start up iChat, I need to run the application--shouldn't that happen when I change the status icon?
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You can connect to iChat when iChat isn't running. I find this to be a huge advantage. The program only needs to be running when you are actually chatting. IMO this is not a drawback.

-Bad grouping

Shape symbols for groups is one thing, but there's no grouping or grouping titles, just shapes & a list that's hidden on top. How can you leave something like this out?
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How does the "Groups" drawer on the buddy list window not cover this?

-Multi-user functionality

When iChat starts it always logs in as me, in order to change I need to go into prefrences and change the account completely & re-start the program to have it take effect...multi-users is something AIM is not only fully capable of, but easy to do..come on now :confused:
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Assuming you've set up iChat on your own user account, this shouldn't be a problem. iChat should only log into AIM as you when you are logged in as you :rolleyes:


iChat is a little buggy. It's not completely refined, but in all honesty, neither is AIM. The system integration is to me more valuable than animated buddy icons or profiles. It is useful to have my buddy list cross-referenced with my address book, and to see when my buddies are online in mail, and a few other "surprises" that pop up every now and then.

The only thing I would like to see in iChat is away message autoreplies. Right now I use the iCAR extension to do autoreplies, but needing an extension flies in the face of "It just works".
 
WINDOWS ISIGHT

The iSight will work with windows without a problem. Windows can use the video feed from it adjust the brightness, and auto focus. Just no audio. I'm almost sure you need a 6 pin firewire port to do it. The webcam on my website is a feed from the iSight I have plugged into my Xeon Workstation running windows XP.
 
porting iChat?
Bad idea... What's next, iPhoto, iMovie, iDVD???
Might as well port Panther wile your at it, and we can all live happily ever after using PCs! Never mind that apple in in the buisness of selling computers.

I don't know about the rest of you, but I only know four people with macs. And two fo them live in this house with me, so I don't do a lot of mac to mac chatting.
Everybody I know is on MSN, so that's how I talk to them.
What would be cool for me, is MSN, Yahoo, and ICQ compatibility in iChat. Then as each of the others develop their video chating, work that compatibility into iChat too. That's a way to sell macs, "iChat, it just works...with everything!"
 
Originally posted by vanmonkey
What would be cool for me, is MSN, Yahoo, and ICQ compatibility in iChat. Then as each of the others develop their video chating, work that compatibility into iChat too.
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The question here is if any of the windows apps will support iChat AV.
 
The question is not whether apple will do it, but rather if other companies will let them. I doubt Microsoft will let Apple use their services without a high licensing fee. And what many people fail to see is that multi-service clients like Fire, Adium, or Trillian are not supported by any of the corporations. Apple is the only other company to get another company to share it's services. That is why these multi-chat clients usually loose support for a service (like GAIM and MSN not too long ago) because the corps update their services thus making it incompatible for unofficial clients. Not only is Apple the first to do this with AIM, most of you are asking it also be the fist with MSN and Yahoo. While this is technically possible, there are too many legalities with it.

As far with porting iChat to Windows, why? I throughly believe that when AIM introduces video/audio chat it will be compatible with iChat because of the license AOL and Apple have. It would be bad business it AOL declines this service for Apple, since AOL already lets Apple use it's services. And with the right drivers, iSight is usable on the PC. It even shows up in the hardware manager as Apple_iSight or something similar. MS has some products rumored for a showing at MWSF, so lets hope for MSN messenger 6. I have Yahoo, iChat, MSN, iVisit, and Xchat all on my computer. Why? Because stand alone clients always are better than all-in-one solutions. That's what Exposé or cmd+TABing is for.
 
iChat owned by aol

Just to let you know iChat is made by AOL not Apple. Apple only owns the name. Aol deveoped iChat itself. An apple support rep told me that i had to call AOL for support because mac doesnt provide it.

If you dont belive me call apple 1-800-apl-care
 
AOL obviously was involved in creating iChat (or at least the instant message framework), since they own the OSCAR protocol.
HOWEVER, Apple, not AOL, does own the copyright to the program.
Also, I would assume that Apple is at least partially responsible for the updating and maintaining of iChat, since it bears their name.
So, AOL does not "own" iChat, even if they were involved in creating it.
 
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