Welcome to the MacNN Forums.

maxintosh · May 2, 2005, 06:16 PM

The new iChat has finally replaced Adium in my dock.

Slick interface, proper groups (expanded lists), profile editing, auto-reply away messages. All of the big things that bugged me about the previous iChat have been fixed. And it actually works for file transfers and direct connections.

My only complaint is that you still can't see how long people have been idle when they are away. (Or is there something I'm missing?)

azdude · May 2, 2005, 06:18 PM

Eh... it's a little better. The group display is nice, yes.

...but I would have loved to see the buddy list as a fully-functional Apple-official dashboard widget.

Hi I'm Ben · May 2, 2005, 06:20 PM

iChat will never replace adium for me if they can't impliment tabs and name grouping.

analogika · May 2, 2005, 06:38 PM

Hi Ben,

maybe you should try using groups? View --> use groups.

That looks a lot like name grouping to me.

jasonsRX7 · May 2, 2005, 06:46 PM

Originally Posted by Hi I'm Ben

iChat will never replace adium for me if they can't impliment tabs...

Gotta have the tabs. And I have too many people on Yahoo to give up Adium, although I know it's unlikely iChat will ever support Yahoo. Also, why on earth does iChat open every new incoming chat window up in the top right corner? That is the complete opposite of where I like my chat windows.

Chris Grande · May 2, 2005, 06:46 PM

Glad to see they added Auto-Reply of away messages. However I like to stay away and talk to people and this auto setting that they have put in randomly will just send my away message to them in the middle of a conversation. They need to add a "Once per IM" or "after xx minutes of inactivity" setting.

ManOfSteal · May 2, 2005, 06:48 PM

Originally Posted by Chris Grande

Glad to see they added Auto-Reply of away messages. However I like to stay away and talk to people and this auto setting that they have put in rendomply will just send my away message to them in the middle of a conversation. They need to add a "Once per IM" or "after xx minutes of inactivity"

Amen, I was thinking the same thing! Weird implementation.

maxintosh · May 2, 2005, 06:50 PM

Originally Posted by ManOfSteal

Amen, I was thinking the same thing! Weird implementation.

Hmm? I can continue to have conversations while away without my message getting sent out multiple times (just once).

Chris Grande · May 2, 2005, 06:53 PM

Originally Posted by maxintosh

Hmm? I can continue to have conversations while away without my message getting sent out multiple times (just once).

Seems if you take a pause for like 30 seconds or so it will send it again. However this doesn't seem to always be the case. It sent it again when the person started to type back to me just now, right after their "thought bubble" came up.

ManOfSteal · May 2, 2005, 06:53 PM

Originally Posted by maxintosh

Hmm? I can continue to have conversations while away without my message getting sent out multiple times (just once).

Who knows, maybe if you pause or something for a minute and then continue the conversation it will auto-reply? Just a guess.

maxintosh · May 2, 2005, 07:04 PM

Originally Posted by ManOfSteal

Who knows, maybe if you pause or something for a minute and then continue the conversation it will auto-reply? Just a guess.

Weeeirrrddd.. that could be kind of irritating.

jeff25624 · May 2, 2005, 07:06 PM

Tabs is what is keeping Adium on the ol' iBook. If iChat implemented them, then I'm sure I'd be using that as we speak.

Anubis IV · May 2, 2005, 10:15 PM

I'm pretty clueless when it comes to Jabber, but I have screen names set up on YIM, MSN, AIM, and ICQ. Is it possible to use iChat and its recent implementation of Jabber to replace Adium?

I doubt that I would, in all honesty, since I do like tabs, but it'd be nice to know if that's an option.

Hi I'm Ben · May 2, 2005, 10:42 PM

Originally Posted by analogika

Hi Ben,

maybe you should try using groups? View --> use groups.

That looks a lot like name grouping to me.

I should be more specific. Grouping of the same person under 1 name. So when someone I know uses 2 different, 3, or 4 different screen names I can have "Idiot" as one name rather than seeing their name on my List 4 times.

Anubis IV · May 3, 2005, 09:06 AM

So basically, you're looking for a feature that's equivalent to the creation of Meta-contacts in Adium?

typoon · May 3, 2005, 09:14 AM

I like the new iChat. I've never used Adium. Never had a need to.

maxintosh · May 3, 2005, 12:14 PM

Eh I think I take back what I said.. iChat has enough little annoying problems and restrictions that I'm going back to Adium for now. If only file transfer worked reliably in .8....

Stecchino · May 3, 2005, 12:24 PM

Originally Posted by jasonsRX7

Gotta have the tabs. And I have too many people on Yahoo to give up Adium, although I know it's unlikely iChat will ever support Yahoo. Also, why on earth does iChat open every new incoming chat window up in the top right corner? That is the complete opposite of where I like my chat windows.

You can chat with folks on Yahoo! Messenger and MSN through iChat if you set up a Jabber account with a Jabber server that offers those services.

In this thread , analogika outlines the steps to set up a Jabber account (it's about the 5th post down).

jasonsRX7 · May 3, 2005, 12:35 PM

Originally Posted by Stecchino

You can chat with folks on Yahoo! Messenger and MSN through iChat if you set up a Jabber account with a Jabber server that offers those services.

Thanks for the info. If it weren't for the tabs and the incoming message location, I'd probably do that. I like iChat for the most part. How Apple can see the usefulness of tabs in Safari and not in iChat, I just don't know... It can't be that involved to implement.

bacchus · May 3, 2005, 02:13 PM

I would love to be using iChat as my main chat client but almost all of my contacts are on MSN. The post above is the first i've heard about being able to link jabber to msn and aim, what the hell.

Any tips, pointers on how to make this happen?

Stecchino · May 3, 2005, 02:15 PM

Just follow the link I gave and follow those instructions on that thread.