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http://www.macnn.com/articles/03/07/17/usa.today/

USA Today touts iChat AV video conferencing

updated 01:40 am EDT, Thu July 17, 2003

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USA Today columnist Edward Baig gives iChat AV 3.5 stars (out of four), saying that "," including MSN Messenger 6, which he said had choppy video, a "baffling" interface, and required 'a lot' more effort. "As befits Apple's pedigree, iChat AV is easy, graceful and an eye-opener. Apple's marketers refer to the program as video conferencing for 'the rest of us,' only the 'rest of us' need a top-flight Macintosh."

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07/17, 02:15am | report spam | close Reply |
They're all Top-Flight..

When are the rest of YOU going to figure it out, man? You want the good stuff done right? Get a Mac. You want to d*** around with half assed crapware? You've got plenty of options...

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07/17, 03:00am | report spam | close Reply |
iChat AV is killer

All the other messaging clients are put to shame. I tried Yahoo's messenger client with the iSight and it's far inferior: video framerates are ridiculously low and the image is at least 40% smaller.

iChat's only fault is that it has no H.323 compliance and direct to ip connections. Still, when it comes to proprietary products Apple continues to prove that it is the best by a wide margin.

It's a damn shame the world isn't standardized on Macs running OS X.

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07/17, 03:05am | report spam | close Reply |
Top flight Mac?

Hmmm....tell me which low end Macs that are currently available don't meet the 500MHz G3 hardware requirement?

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07/17, 07:12am | report spam | close Reply |
Great!

I've never heard of a better description of a Microsoft interface design for Windows: "baffling."

USA Today: this guy is a keeper.

justen

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07/17, 08:24am | report spam | close Reply |
It's not proprietary

The iSight uses the standard SIP protocol for video conferencing.

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07/17, 09:20am | report spam | close Reply |
re: top flight mac

it's a 600mhz, not 500 mhz G3 requirement.

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07/17, 09:23am | report spam | close Reply |
con

not sure a top notch mac and firewire is a "con". sounds like a "pro" to me.

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07/17, 10:06am | report spam | close Reply |
Sigh...

it's a 600mhz, not 500 mhz G3 requirement.

Yup. I have a Rev. B iMac , boosted to 500 mhz, and I can't do video.

One more reason to get a new machine, I guess...

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07/17, 10:09am | report spam | close Reply |
re: sigh

"Yup. I have a "Rev. B iMac" , boosted to 500 mhz, and I can't do video.

One more reason to get a new machine, I guess... "

You think?

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07/17, 10:14am | report spam | close Reply |
mac to pc conferencing?

The trouble is not only that most people don't have a fast mac and an iSight camera, but that they are on a pc; like the rest of my family, in another part of the world - so what software to use between the two?

So far I have only found iVisit (ivisit.com) to be half decent. There really is a dearth of web conferencing software out there for mac pc.

Any other suggestions?

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07/17, 10:23am | report spam | close Reply |
He left stuff out

He says msn has file sharing, but doesn't say that iChat does, making the avg user think iChat doesn't have that.

He doesn't mention that iChat works with aol instant messenger.

Two BIG omissions.

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07/17, 12:51pm | report spam | close Reply |
OS X is good.

Apple is good. It is elitist Mac elitists/a*******/fanatics that sucks.

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07/17, 01:05pm | report spam | close Reply |
This is news?

The mac and its hardware/software is better than wintel??? I had no idea!

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07/17, 01:07pm | report spam | close Reply |
re:con

word

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07/17, 01:41pm | report spam | close Reply |
mac to PC - ohphonex

You can try ohphoneX. It is an open source h.323 client that works with MS netmeeting.

It is not as nice as iChatAV but it works pretty well.

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07/17, 02:35pm | report spam | close Reply |
Re: not proprietary

I know it uses the SIP protocol, but as far as I know there's no way to start an ip-to-ip connection using iChat AV - it all has to go through a .mac or AIM account which, although convenient as far as keeping an addressbook, is an extra vendor layer that is not really necessary.

Check out sip323:
http://www.cs.columbia.edu/IRT/cinema/doc/sip323.html

It's an open source library for translating between SIP and h.323. Would be cool if Apple added this to iChat AV.

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07/17, 02:39pm | report spam | close Reply |
Re: mac to pc conferencin

The trouble is not only that most people don't have a fast mac and an iSight camera, but that they are on a pc; like the rest of my family, in another part of the world - so what software to use between the two?

So far I have only found iVisit (ivisit.com) to be half decent. There really is a dearth of web conferencing software out there for mac pc.

Therein lies the problem. By the time you dumb down your conferencing to the level of a pc, you don't want to use it anymore.

iChat AV is the best, unmatched, unparalleled. I wouldn't even want to conference with anything less because it looks like sh*t and the framerates are all shot to h*ll.

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07/17, 03:47pm | report spam | close Reply |
yeah

Let me continue my elitist rant about the 99.9% of the users out where (who either do not use a Mac or have a Mac but either do not have iSight and or cannot run iChatAV). This helps maintain my feeling of superiority even though I have no one to talk to or conference with.

Yeah, you are one such cool s***.

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07/17, 09:43pm | report spam | close Reply |
re: yeah

It is an elitist rant, but if you set two computers up you'll see that iChat undeniably puts them all to shame in video quality and ease-of-use.

If you want good videoconferencing get a Mac.

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07/17, 10:42pm | report spam | close Reply |
At least

you are recognizing that it is an elitist rant. Good videoconferencing existed before Mac and there remanins many out there. I will give you if you have to do VC on a computer, I too with go with iSight and iChatAV. Too bad not enough people has/use it.

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07/18, 12:12am | report spam | close Reply |
iBook 500MHz

I have an iBook 500Mhz (one of the white ones) and my computer is not supported by iChat AV???

Why can't they give me access to great world of seeing the video?

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07/18, 04:46am | report spam | close Reply |
Re: at least

Good videoconferencing existed before Mac and there remanins many out there.

Negative. The only decent video-conferencing out there before iChat required three ISDN lines and $10,000 hardware.

Microsoft Netmeeting is choppy on any PC, any network connection. Difficult to use, difficult to troubleshoot and flakey. No wonder people think videoconferencing is too difficult - leave it up to Microsoft to make it so.

If there's going to be a single standard, it may as well be iChat AV because it's the best out there.

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07/18, 04:50am | report spam | close Reply |
Re: iBook 500Mhz

iSight and iChat AV will work on your iBook, barely. 600Mhz G3 is the cutoff.

You can use other software or try this:
http://www.ecamm.com/mac/ichatusbcam/

to run iChat AV with another video camera.

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08/11, 03:26pm | report spam | close Reply |
H.323 support omission

It is most unfortunate that apple left out h.323 support for iChat, I have been using hardware accelerated Polycom ViaVideo for PC h.323 endpoints for some time now with good results, but would like to use a decent Mac client instead. We use a Radvision MCU to do 4 and 5-way conferences.

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USA Today touts iChat AV video conferencing

updated 01:40 am EDT, Thu July 17, 2003

They're all Top-Flight..

iChat AV is killer

Top flight Mac?

Great!

It's not proprietary

re: top flight mac

con

Sigh...

re: sigh

mac to pc conferencing?

He left stuff out

OS X is good.

This is news?

re:con

mac to PC - ohphonex

Re: not proprietary

Re: mac to pc conferencin

yeah

re: yeah

At least

iBook 500MHz

Re: at least

Re: iBook 500Mhz

H.323 support omission

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USA Today touts iChat AV video conferencing

updated 01:40 am EDT, Thu July 17, 2003

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Recent Articles

They're all Top-Flight..

iChat AV is killer

Top flight Mac?

Great!

It's not proprietary

re: top flight mac

con

Sigh...

re: sigh

mac to pc conferencing?

He left stuff out

OS X is good.

This is news?

re:con

mac to PC - ohphonex

Re: not proprietary

Re: mac to pc conferencin

yeah

re: yeah

At least

iBook 500MHz

Re: at least

Re: iBook 500Mhz

H.323 support omission

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