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.

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.

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

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

...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...

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.

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

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.

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 ;)

... 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

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...

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

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

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.

Now wait for the feats of strength....

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

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.

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.

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

if Apple pays these people to write these things.

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

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.

...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...

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?

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.

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.

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