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GSixZero · Oct 4, 2006, 06:17 PM

So Apple is pushing video chatting hard core these days... they include iSights with every computer that comes with a display and it's often advertised as one of those awesome things you can do with your mac. Sweet!

So why does iChat suck so much?

I'd love to jump onto the video chat bandwagon, but I need a chat program that's much more customizable than iChat is. Mainly, I need MSN support, contact groups, and a protocol independent, unified buddy list, so I don't have a thousand windows open.

Can apple buy adium and make Adium the new iChat, but with video? Please?

TETENAL · Oct 4, 2006, 06:50 PM

Adium is under GPL and since it has many different contributors I doubt it can be "bought" and turned into a closed source project. Apple also can not afford to provide support to MSN and other protocols by means of reverse-engeneering which may or may not continue to work at any time. If they wanted to support MSN or Yahoo they would have to do this officially by making contracts with Microsoft and Yahoo the same way they did with AOL. My guess is that Microsoft is not interested in letting .Mac or AOL members connect to their network.

And you could also ask the reverse: Why does MSN suck and not connect to AIM?

Philip J. Fry · Oct 4, 2006, 07:38 PM

Well now that Yahoo and MSN are linked together, you could try the Yahoo messenger for Mac and chat with MSN people, plus it supports the iSights.

Adam Betts · Oct 4, 2006, 08:25 PM

Originally Posted by GSixZero

I'd love to jump onto the video chat bandwagon, but I need a chat program that's much more customizable than iChat is.

I'm assuming you haven't tried Chax yet? It won't solve all of your problems but it'll help some.

kcmac · Oct 4, 2006, 10:14 PM

I think iChat is great. Especially with video chat.

Other options like Adium will only be interesting to me and my family when it supports video. And it (they) will need to do it at least as well as iChat which is the best I have seen in this regard.

Horsepoo!!! · Oct 4, 2006, 10:36 PM

Such an inflammatory post. If you hate iChat so much, don't use it. Plenty use it and are happy with it.

Technicolor · Oct 4, 2006, 10:46 PM

I like iChat just fine. When I used Trillian I *hated* the 9 zillion options to configure it they way I wanted. It took me 2 days of fiddling with all the prefs to get it setup to my liking. iChat works/looks great (for me) pretty much with the default setup.

cwosigns · Oct 4, 2006, 11:11 PM

It's great for deaf people and interpreters...anyone who knows sign language.

krove · Oct 5, 2006, 03:45 PM

Why do you *need* customizability? It is a nice thing to have, but certainly, video chatting with iChat is no more painful than using Adium without video.

Grrr · Oct 5, 2006, 04:03 PM

Alternative apps exist.. And i've tried pretty much all of them. But if you actually use the video conferencing side of the software, then iChat p!sses all over the competition by a long shot.
Customising is all very well, but I will gladly sacrifice that in favour of an app that actually works. And if you do want some level of customising, then as someone else pointed out, Chax is very good.
As for Adium.. Christ, you cant be serious?? Last I saw they still hadn't sorted out file transfers even. Why on earth would you want Apple to take on Adium?? And MSN is just plain ugly. Plus most people that use MSN tend to be juveniles that plaster their messages with a multitude of irritating animated gifs. Yeah, i'll think i'll be passing on all that, thanks kindly.
Remind me, why does iChat suck again? If you simply must use MSN (and other protocols), then you can get it to work via Jabber, but its text only. No vid and no file transfers.
iChat isnt perfect, but its a damn site better than the alternatives.

Ryknow215 · 05:10 PM

Why not check out Skype? The Mac video version is still only in beta form, but it works. I was having problems getting iChat to work overseas with my gf between England and the US. Skype's video quality isn't as good as iChat's but it will broadcast cross-platform. Nice.

Anyways, it's worth a shot. Skype is not very customizable, but it's something other than iChat. And they need to figure out what the deal is with those weird file transfers.

TETENAL · Oct 5, 2006, 04:30 PM

Originally Posted by Ryknow215

Why not check out Skype?

It's owned by evilBay and a completely closed network.

Skype's video quality isn't as good as iChat's but it will broadcast cross-platform.

And so does iChat.

Ryknow215 · Oct 5, 2006, 05:08 PM

And so does iChat.

Right, except that GSixZero is clearly looking for something other than iChat.

voodoo · Oct 5, 2006, 05:11 PM

Apple should just buy Skype already.

V

Stradlater · Oct 5, 2006, 05:26 PM

iChat sucks? "Well that's, like, your opinion, man."

TETENAL · Oct 5, 2006, 06:26 PM

Originally Posted by voodoo

Apple should just buy Skype already.

eBay bought Skype for 4 billion dollar. Apple bought NeXT for 500 million dollar. I don't think buying Skype is a reasonable option for Apple.

Catfish_Man · Oct 5, 2006, 08:34 PM

iChat as an app is very clearly focused on AV, and does a superb job of it in terms of interface and capabilities; Unfortunately, (in my opinion) they rather neglect the text chat portion of it which is 98% of what I would use (I multitask a lot; video is kinda inherently single-conversation).

Grrr: file transfer works about as well as iChat in the latest adium code (has for about 6 months, on and off, we just bit off a bit more than we could chew for 1.0 so it's taking a while to get out of beta).

voodoo · Oct 5, 2006, 10:29 PM

Originally Posted by TETENAL

eBay bought Skype for 4 billion dollar. Apple bought NeXT for 500 million dollar. I don't think buying Skype is a reasonable option for Apple.

Perhaps, but Apple in 1996 is far from Apple 2006.

V

Thinine · Oct 5, 2006, 10:38 PM

Yeah, Apple could pay cash for Skype right now.

TETENAL · Oct 6, 2006, 12:04 AM

Originally Posted by voodoo

Perhaps, but Apple in 1996 is far from Apple 2006.

My point is not that Apple couldn't afford it. My point is that Skype is totally overpriced. No way is a simple video chat application worth 8 times as much as the whole operating system. There are better things Apple could do with 4 billion dollars. And you don't even know whether eBay would be willing to sell it again. Probably not.

studgrade · Oct 12, 2006, 09:40 AM

Originally Posted by Philip J. Fry

Well now that Yahoo and MSN are linked together, you could try the Yahoo messenger for Mac and chat with MSN people, plus it supports the iSights.

I've downloaded version 3.0 Beta 1 and the video part doesn't work if I try to use it with a friend that's on MSN. So, I just left it at that.....