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NYT: iSight, iChat AV "miracle"

updated 08:50 am EST, Fri December 5, 2003

iSight, iChat AV \"miracle\

David Pogue's latest New York Times column talks about using the : "And then, suddenly, there it was: My wife Jennifer's live image and her voice, transmitted in real time 3,500 miles across the globe -- instantly, crystal clear, and (by the way) free. I paraded around the coffee shop with my laptop and the iSight, showing her the local ambiance... There's a lot of junk in technology, a lot of hassle and frustration, a lot of disappointment. But this moment was like a TV commercial. It was an emotional, powerful, simple, perfect example of how technology can change a moment, solve a problem."

by MacNN Staff

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12/05, 09:13am | report spam | close Reply |
Free?? Really??

I don't have .Mac or AOL, so can someone please let me know how this is free?

Try iVisit.com for free - it also allows linking with 'the rest of us' ie cross-platform (I am still a mac user) & shows just how far into the sand Apple's head is...

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12/05, 09:15am | report spam | close Reply |
Last time I checked...

...I also had to PAY for Panther/iChat...

So iVisit is doubly free...

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12/05, 09:25am | report spam | close Reply |
free?

I think he means free of long distance telephone charges...

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12/05, 09:28am | report spam | close Reply |
re don't have .Mac or AO

You don;t need eithr.
just go to aim.com and creat an acocunt.
eos.

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12/05, 09:28am | report spam | close Reply |
Don't need .Mac or AOL

You don't need a .Mac account or AOL. You can easy setup an AIM account for FREE then enter that into iChat. You DO have to have Panther installed. Once you have everything the "call" is free.

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12/05, 09:32am | report spam | close Reply |
Don't need .Mac account

You don't need to pay for a .Mac account. Sign up for the free trial, and after the free trial has expired you will still be able to use your .Mac account with iChat (but iChat only - no email or anything else).

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12/05, 09:32am | report spam | close Reply |
"free"

if you don't realize by now that free never means absolutely free...

you should always interpret free as "free" meaning, included with your new computer, or included with panther.

You don't need .Mac for this to be free. You need a mac. And with this kind of publicity, i wouldn't be surprised if a windows version is coming.

I can't believe though, all the good praise in that article, all you can comment on is "omg, it's not really free!" Geesh. Here's a positive comment for once:

This is a great article. It praises Apple again for its superior technology.

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12/05, 09:34am | report spam | close Reply |
AOL AIM

You can get a free AIM screen name from AOL too, and you don't have to sign up for anything. Only AIM.

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12/05, 09:39am | report spam | close Reply |
Great to see

I'm glad to see this make it out into the big world outside of Apple's loyal following. I live in Wisconsin. My boss was in Japan. He needed to attend a half day meeting here in Madison. I took my TiBook, iSight and projector to the meeting. We put his image up on a screen and I used my iSight to grab images and sound from the meeting. He connected via his TiBook and iSight from the ethernet connection in his hotel room.

It worked great and ran continuously for 4 hours without a glitch.

Marvelous stuff (once you get through the firewalls).

- Jim

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12/05, 09:51am | report spam | close Reply |
Free?!

It's funny how people nowadays take free to mean, "Apple will GIVE you a computer, Panther and an iSight along with a .Mac account for absolutely free so you can talk until your heart's content!"

You don't expect the bar down the road to fill up your tank so you can drive there for their free beer, do you? You gotta provide the means (computer/iSight/internet access) and the rest is free -- this should be painfully obvious.

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12/05, 09:53am | report spam | close Reply |
my iSight is great

What he's referring to is the fact that both were able to audio/video chat without paying any kind of long distance charges; considering the quality of the video and audio, its difficult to except that you're not being charge on a per minute basis. The video quality of ivisit is the typical thumbnail (you can enlarge the image but it only gets worse) pixilated/choppy vid motion and horrible audio that can be found in every video conferencing chatting software except the high-end stuff and they charge you much more than what Apple is asking....$30 for iChat if you don't already have Panther and you can use any camcorder or firewire webcam and still receive the same kind of video quality that iSight offers....well almost.

camomile tea.....yum yum...more more...gulp gulp....I'm feeling much better now.

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12/05, 10:16am | report spam | close Reply |
Well duh

Of course you need a Mac running OSX. By free the writer meant no long distance charges. Yesterday we held a conference call with a partner in Taiwan (via ichat AV), and it lasted over an hour. Can't imagine what that would have looked like on a phone bill.

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12/05, 10:22am | report spam | close Reply |
.mac is FREE

You can use a .mac chat name for free. Register with .mac as a trial, once it expire you can still retain your .mac name for chatting, but you won't be able to use other services like email,idesk etc

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12/05, 10:33am | report spam | close Reply |
Apple may have its head..

....in the sand, but you have your head up your a**! Seriously, who trolls on an f'ing news site!

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12/05, 10:51am | report spam | close Reply |
Thank you for...

...clarifying that AIM registration is free - that was a major concern as well as accessing non-mac users (the rest of the world
) & I have not found that info anywhere in Apple's documentation...

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12/05, 11:05am | report spam | close Reply |
Re: Thank you for...

From iChat's help file:

"If you need a screen name to use with iChat AV, you can sign up for a .Mac membership at Apple's website. Or, visit the AOL Instant Messenger website at www.aim.com."

If you go to www.aim.com and click "How do I start?" on the right-hand side, you'll see, in big red letters, "Joining is free."

I don't know how much more simple it can get other than Apple stapling this information to your forehead.

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12/05, 11:14am | report spam | close Reply |
ichat for Windows

Also,ichat for Windows may be in the works for the isight soon in 2004.

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12/05, 11:21am | report spam | close Reply |
Please!

I can ACCEPT the fact that you don't know when to use ACCEPT instead of EXCEPT. The EXCEPTION is when I see this several times in one day on several sites.

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12/05, 11:21am | report spam | close Reply |
hahaha

LOL, people are actually using iVisit instead of iChat?

I can understand if it's because both people don't have iChat... But man... Have any of you "iVisiters" compared the quality of iChat? If you had, you would want to pay for iChat even though it is free*.

*with panther ;)

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12/05, 11:29am | report spam | close Reply |
Re: iVisit vs iChat

... so how does one find rooms, join chats & see others online with iChat? Is there a way to get a sense of 'community' as there is logging on to the iVisit server?
Thanks

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12/05, 11:38am | report spam | close Reply |
miracle

i think that it is a little bit overstated as being a "miracle". If that is a bonafide miracle, then the power of miracles have gone down the tubes...

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12/05, 11:41am | report spam | close Reply |
pron

he also learned later on in the day that he can have virual s** with anyone that has the equipment...

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12/05, 12:41pm | report spam | close Reply |
interfacing windows

ichat would be really great if we could talk (and video) with windows users. unfortunately the number of mac users is just too little to make this a real "miracle", but it is cute

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12/05, 01:16pm | report spam | close Reply |
guys guys and gals

stop arugeing over these things are lets talk about important things at hand:

1. .mac screen name or AOL (or more than one ;) ) are free!
2. iChat with FW cam works better than any other solution

3. Its a miracle cause i bet his wife is hot? can any one confirm this? is she hot and is there any way we can chat with her.
Distract Pogue with a iSomething and we can get at errr.

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12/05, 01:29pm | report spam | close Reply |
Another Festivus miracle!

Now wait for the feats of strength....

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12/05, 01:41pm | report spam | close Reply |
Wow...

What was Apple thinking! Making it possible to Chat accross the world in real time smooth video and audio, and then charging for the computer, camera and operating system...fscking money grubbing CAPITALISTS!!! I HATE APPLE TOO!!

(please note the sarcasm before flaming)

JT

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12/05, 01:54pm | report spam | close Reply |
You know,

Stories like these would be a lot more impactful if they didn't come from rabid Mac evangelists.

I almost EXPECT writers like David Pogue to gush over everything Apple, which results in a shrug and a "So what?" response.

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12/05, 01:58pm | report spam | close Reply |
but...

your right, pogue would agree with anything apple does, but then there are people who disagree with everything they do...

BUT the thing is, is his wife HOT, and if she is, is there any pics. cause she sounds hot. weird psych people always got hot wives.

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12/05, 03:01pm | report spam | close Reply |
Agreed

It's nice to see everyone agreeing on something ... that the first poster was a moron. :)

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12/05, 04:10pm | report spam | close Reply |
I wonder

if Apple pays these people to write these things.

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12/05, 04:38pm | report spam | close Reply |
Dude!

Dude, I don't have a computer or a face, so can you tell me how this is free? Duuuuuude.

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12/05, 05:37pm | report spam | close Reply |
I agree

The first poster is quite a looney bind dumb wipe #$#$. How much of a mac user are you that you dont know the basic about the OS.

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12/05, 08:02pm | report spam | close Reply |
iVisit was & still is...

...a great concept & I find the software pretty good now - liked the pre-X system design better but it works in ways iChat doesn't come close to even if the quality of iChat is amazing...

Having a BMW that only works on 5% of the roads may work for some people but not for me...

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12/05, 08:08pm | report spam | close Reply |
yeah, OK

Pogue wrote: "I had no idea you could use it across the Atlantic."

Yes, it is a little know sceret that one could use it across the Atlantic. Pacific? Not so much.

WTF? And he graduated summa c** laude from Yale?

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12/06, 07:47am | report spam | close Reply |
Holiday cheer

We set our iSight up in the family room and our family and my wife's family had a tree decorating party. We have a 2-year old and have lived 800 miles away from her family since our daughter was just a tiny baby, yet her grandparents got to see her decorating the house for Christmas. It was really beautiful.

We've gotten more into it since that afternoon and now my daughter 'helps' feed Grandma's fish even though they are 800 miles away from us.

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12/06, 06:29pm | report spam | close Reply |
Mac Addict

I don't really see how this story is worthy of mentioning as news here on MacNN. David Pouge is a Mac Addict through and through so of course he will praise the products. Next time give us something that matters to read about. BORING.

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12/25, 06:56pm | report spam | close Reply |
iChat

OK. It is cool and all. But, nobody I know has it. It is kind of pointless for me.

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NYT: iSight, iChat AV "miracle"

updated 08:50 am EST, Fri December 5, 2003

iSight, iChat AV \"miracle\

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Free?? Really??

Last time I checked...

free?

re don't have .Mac or AO

Don't need .Mac or AOL

Don't need .Mac account

"free"

AOL AIM

Great to see

Free?!

my iSight is great

Well duh

.mac is FREE

Apple may have its head..

Thank you for...

Re: Thank you for...

ichat for Windows

Please!

hahaha

Re: iVisit vs iChat

miracle

pron

interfacing windows

guys guys and gals

Another Festivus miracle!

Wow...

You know,

but...

Agreed

I wonder

Dude!

I agree

iVisit was & still is...

yeah, OK

Holiday cheer

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