Why iChat?

[dricci]

Here's a keynote closeup, provided by MacNN:

[wdw_]

Originally posted by dricci
We have NO idea about how iChat really looks or what options it has, nobody on this board has seen it other than a tiny screen shot on Apple's page.

There's a full video demo of iChat at News.com.

[Jadey]

Why isn't AOL instant messenger compatible with ICQ? Didn't AOL buy ICQ years ago? It would be beneficial to make the 2 work together. I use ICQ only, but I would like to use iChat. The ICQ client for Mac is always so far behind on features compared to ICQ for PC. I think a client made by Apple would get more attention and more features.

[Red Phoenix]

ICQ and AIM are in a state of semi-compatibility. That is, The less-featured protocol that AIM uses for its Java client and for third party clients is the same as for the latest ICQ protocol. They are at least similar enough that the Jabber transport is the same for ICQ and AIM. However, they still do not interoperate, probably since the official AIM client uses a different protocol.

[fryke]

You can find the iChat/Inkwell part of the keynote here: http://video.cnet.com/cgi-bin/visear...2_1500&query=*',%20'VideoNewsSearch1276',%20'height=460,width=660'

hope the link works as advertised. else: search for ichat on news.com ... (windows media player plugin for osx required.)

Yes, there's file sharing & yes, iChat looks cool from what I saw on the video, although the UI seems to take up a *lot* of screen real estate. Guess we'll see. Ah, the instant finding of buddies on a network looks cool, too, although I won't need that much, I guess, as I already know people that work at my company (we're four persons that use ICQ).

I've just installed the new version of Fire (0.30.b) - and it *seems* to work fine for now, although it still doesn't have file exchange (which I don't need, anyway).

[wdw_]

That link you posted didn't come out right. Here's a correct version.

http://video.cnet.com:80/cgi-bin/vis...ws_vid_hed.gif

[Koelling]

Originally posted by ablack6596
This way AOL will have an OS to put there IM Sefvice on.

I'm not sure if this is justifiable because you don't need an AIM name any more. Your Mac.com name will work. But isn't that going to be a nightmare for the duplicates?

I found proteus the other day to be as enjoyable or more than Fire. It's not as good as Adium for straight up AIM but when I want to talk to ICQ people I use that. If I want to talk to my MSN buddies I make them call me or else they don't get to chat

I will boycott iChat if they make me use it as it is there with chat bubbles. I will not use it if it keeps the brushed steel borders around the windows. Look to Adium if you want to have a low real estate program. Really, Apple should have paid Adam what's-his-name-of-Adium and had him do it. Because he deserves some recognition and payment for his efforts.

[georgelien]

fryke,

I agree. ICQ was the mother of all these Instant Messaging programs. AOL developed the AIM soon after the company bought ICQ. Microsoft, Yahoo and others than soon followed after AIM's success. While ICQ was populor, AIM actually was the app that made IM the next killer app sinece AOL already had a large installment base.

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voice,

Fire is unstable, how?

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ablack6596,

Couldn't agree more.


Regards,
George Lien