Apple has just unveiled iChat AV, the instant messaging software, at the Worldwide Developer's Conference (WWDC) 2003 in San Francisco. No longer limited to just text exchange, iChat AV now supports multimedia capability -- namely voice and video messaging.
This is certainly good news for Mac users as they can now communicate "face-to-face" with their friends, relatives, and co-workers. And best of all, if you are a road warrior, iChat AV can save you lots of money on expensive overseas calls.
You can download a public beta of iChat AV right now. The temporary license won't expire until the end of the year when the 1.0 release is ready. At that time it will cost $29.95 US for Jaguar users. For Panther users, iChat is included in the price of the system upgrade.
Unlike MSN Messenger, which sometimes encounters problems when you are behind a router that uses NAT (Network Address Translation), iChat AV on Mac OS X does not pose a problem.
Also announced at WWDC 2003 was iSight, a state-of-the-art video camera with a built-in microphone (see Figure 1). As Steve Jobs aptly puts it, "iSight is the eyes and ears of iChat AV."
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Unlike traditional webcams, which rest on your desk, iSight also comes with a monitor stand (see Figure 2) that allows you to clip iSight onto your screen. The tilt-and-swivel base allows you to adjust iSight so that you are looking directly into the camera. This is one important factor contributing to a successful video conferencing session that so many webcam manufacturers have missed. And with iSight I think Apple has done it right again.
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I took iChat AV for a spin to see if it lives up to Apple's claim about its state-of-the-art design. For testing purposes, I used an eMac and a 12" PowerBook. One of the nice things about Macintoshes is that they are all multimedia-ready; there's no need to add a microphone or a pair of speakers.
I logged on to my eMac with the user name "Wei Meng Lee" and my PowerBook with "Bernard Lee". Both machines are connected to an 802.11b wireless network, with the eMac equipped with an AirPort card and the PowerBook an AirPort Extreme card.
For this test, I use Rendezvous for chatting (you can also use your dot-mac or AIM account if you want to chat with someone on the Internet). Upon starting iChat AV, I immediately saw the other user on each of my machines (see Figure 3).
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If a user has voice capability, a phone icon will appear next to the user. To initiate a voice call, click on the phone icon (see Figure 4).
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The other machine will display a message indicating that someone is sending an invitation to chat (see Figure 5).
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To answer the call, simply click on the message and click the Accept button (see Figure 6).
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You can now start chatting!
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(This section contributed by Derrick Story)
If you want full-motion video to accompany your audio, then you might want to pony up the $149 US for the iSight webcam (the previous audio examples were illustrated using the standard built-in microphone and speakers on a Mac). You'll need at least a 600 Mhz G3 Mac and a broadband connection to handle the video transfer.
After you plug-in iSight to your FireWire port, make sure the camera is enabled by clicking on "Video" located in iChat's menu bar at the top of the screen, and double-checking that "Camera Enabled" is activated.
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Hopefully someone in your buddy list has a camera too, indicated by the icon next to his or her name. To initiate a session, click on the buddy's name, then click on the camera icon at the bottom of the iChat window, or simply click on the icon next to their name. The connection process can take a minute or two, so be patient.
If you want to preview your camera position (and possibly comb your hair while you're at it), click on the camera icon next to your name at the top of the buddy window, and you'll get a preview screen in full-motion video. Be sure to turn on a desk light or two for the best rendering, otherwise you'll come across as quite the shady character.
If you don't have iSight, but do have a FireWire-enabled DV camcorder around, it will most likely work too. The biggest complaint from camcorder users is that they often "time out" after 5 minutes or so when on pause, thereby dropping you into a black hole out of site from your buddy. But aside from that, DV cams are a great way to test iChat AV or to serve as an extra camera for someone else to use.
One final note about this new functionality -- I've been advocating that iChat AV users send a text hello to buddies first before initiating an audio or video session. In a sense, this is like calling before you stop by a friend's house for a visit. That way the person on the other end can politely accept or decline with out having to engage in a real-time conversation.
Besides voice and video conferencing, iChat AV also allows you to send files to another user. To send a file to another user, right-click on the recipient name and select "Send File" (see Figure 8).
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The recipient will see a display message indicating that there is an incoming file (see Figure 9).
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To receive the incoming file, click on the message and click the Save File button (see Figure 10).
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After fiddling with iChat AV, I have this feeling that Apple is going to popularize video conferencing with these two new product launches. Though the capabilities of iChat AV have been around for quite sometime (most notably MSN Messenger and other instant messengers), Apple's solution seems easier to implement, and the results are quite good.
Wei-Meng Lee (Microsoft MVP) http://weimenglee.blogspot.com is a technologist and founder of Developer Learning Solutions http://www.developerlearningsolutions.com, a technology company specializing in hands-on training on the latest Microsoft technologies.
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