[X-Newbies] Re:iChat plug-ins.

[Charles Martin]

> From: "Brian Durant" <globetrotterdk at gmail.com>
>
> Just got my first web cam - a Logitech QuickCam Vision Pro. I was  
> wondering
> if it is possible to get plug-ins to expand the services that iChat  
> can
> connect to or is it still only AOL? What alternatives are available  
> besides
> Skype for a Mac user? I am running OS X 10.5.6 on a G5 single.

First, turn OFF the HTML in your email client. It's bad for email and  
useless on this list.

Okay, now that that's out of the way:

There's a sorta/kinda/hacky bit of a workaround to make iChat work  
with MSN via setting up your own Jabber server, but truthfully it  
doesn't work. At least, nowhere near the standard that Mac people are  
used to.

iChat has worked with Google Talk and Jabber for a while now. So  
that's at least four services (GT, AIM, MobileMe and Jabber), but of  
course that doesn't include the other "big two," Yahoo and MSN. You'll  
have to get them to see the value of setting up one standard so we  
call all use our preferred IM client to talk to everyone.

As for alternatives, besides Skype (which works very well), there's  
also Adium, which while being text-only for now seems to work with  
just about every service out there. I remember competitors like  
Proteus and Fire but I don't know if they are still being developed.

Yahoo has its own client for OS X, it lags behind the Windows client  
but ISTR that it does at least do text and audio chatting. MSN has  
both its own (approved) text-only client and a couple of (third-party)  
knockoff clients (aMSN and Mercury Messenger, I believe they are  
called), but nothing helps -- MSN sucks and that's all there is to say  
about that, really.

However, Microsoft's MacBU has announced that they have FINALLY turned  
their attention to MSN Messenger for Mac, and we should see a demo (at  
least) of an audio- and video-capable MSN Messenger to be released in  
2009:

http://www.macnn.com/articles/08/12/19/av.in.messenger.for.mac/

Cheers
Chas

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