HomePage


HomePage is a .Mac online service that easily creates professional looking, personalized Web sites that you can use to share photos, movies, text, or files. Anyone with a computer with an Internet connection and Web browser can access your sites, unless you password protect them. To open your HomePage, follow these steps:

  1. From your Web browser, go to www.mac.com.

  2. At the .Mac home page, click HomePage on the left sidebar.

  3. Log in using your member name and password.

The HomePage welcome page appears, as shown in Figure 18-16.

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Figure 18-16: The HomePage welcome page. (Web page courtesy of Apple Computer, Inc.)

On the HomePage welcome page, note the category tabs on the left. These are the categories of Web site designs you can choose from. Each tab is connected to the large area to its right that shows thumbnails of the theme pages available in the selected category.

Creating a Web page with HomePage

If you are making a Photo Album, first drag your pictures to the Pictures folder on your iDisk. If you are making a file sharing page, first drag the files you want to share to the Public Folder on your iDisk. To create a Web page using HomePage, follow these steps:

  1. From the HomePage welcome page, click the category tabs and look at the thumbnails until you find a theme design that you like.

  2. Click on the desired theme thumbnail.

  3. Depending on the theme you choose, you will usually be taken to a full-sized Edit your page theme page. The Photo Album themes take you to a Choose your folder page first that asks you to identify the photos your new page will contain; clicking Choose when you are done with your selection takes you to the Edit your page theme page with your chosen images already appearing.

    If you don’t like what you see in the full-sized theme page, click the Themes icon on the upper right, and you will be returned to select another them from that category. If you do like the theme page, click the Edit icon to continue.

  4. Click the Edit icon, so you can edit and personalize the page. You will see self-explanatory instructions and labels to help you identify various text entry fields, such as image captions and page titles. Some theme pages allow you to select from a choice of layouts.

  5. To add photos and movies, click the small Choose button on each placeholder. Make your selection from the Choose a file page and then click Choose.

  6. Drag images to the correct positions.

  7. Choose to display a visitor counter or a Send me a message button that enables visitors to send you an iCard with their feedback. Click the Show checkbox next these features to include them in your Web page. Some pages allow you to type in links so your visitors can view your other pages.

    If at any time you would like to start over, click the word HomePage in the title bar. You will be returned to the HomePage welcome page.

  8. When the page looks the way you want, click the Publish icon at the top right. Your page is placed on the Web.

    The Congratulations page appears, as shown in Figure 18-17. You have the option to click on the link and see your page, send and iCard to tell your friends about the page, or click the Return to Homepage button to do just that.

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    Figure 18-17: The HomePage congratulations page. (Web page courtesy of Apple Computer, Inc.)

If you click the Return to HomePage button, you notice that the HomePage welcome page now features a new area at its top that is customized for your Web site. See Figure 18-18. Here you will find the new URL to reach this page (it changed when you published your first page). There is a list of pages you have published, and you can add, delete, or edit the pages using the buttons under the list. With the buttons on the right, you can announce your site, learn about new features, protect this site, or add another site.

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Figure 18-18: The HomePage welcome page is now customized for your Web site. (Web page courtesy of Apple Computer, Inc.)

Updating a Web page

You can make changes to any of your Web pages at any time. Follow these steps:

  1. From the HomePage welcome page, select the site that contains the page you want to change from the Site list.

  2. Select the page you want to change from the Page list.

  3. Click the Edit button below the lists. The page appears in Edit mode.

  4. Make your desired changes.

  5. Click Publish when you are done. The updated page will be available on the Web immediately.

To update a Photo Album page, first put the new pictures in the folder on your iDisk that contains the original pictures.

To set up or edit Web links or email links, in Edit mode find the link you want to edit. To set up a Web link, click the Edit Link button. The Edit your links page appears, as shown in Figure 18-19. Click on the tab for what you would like to do: My Pages allows you to pick another of your pages to link to; Other Pages allows you to type the URL for a page outside of your site; and Email allows you to enter an email address. Click Apply when done.

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Figure 18-19: The HomePage “Edit your links” page. (Web page courtesy of Apple Computer, Inc.)

Creating another Web site

You can create more than one Web site in HomePage. A Web site is a collection of Web pages with a designated start page (which visitors see first) and its own Web address.

  1. From the HomePage welcome page, click the Add another site button. (The name of this button changes to Add if you already have more than one site.) The Create a site page appears, as shown in Figure 18-20.

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    Figure 18-20: The HomePage Create a site page. (Web page courtesy of Apple Computer, Inc.)

  2. Type a name for the site. If you want the site to have password protection, click the On checkbox and enter the password you want.

  3. Click the Create Site button. The site is created.

  4. You are returned to the HomePage welcome page, where you can now see the new site name in the Sites list and the new URL at the top.

Tip

Creating additional Web sites creates subfolders inside your Sites folder to hold them, bearing the name of the site within. The contents of these folders may be viewed in the Finder, but any attempt to modify the folder or its contents will result in an alert. If you wish to store files or Web pages in you Sites folder, you can store them at the root level of the Sites folder, or create new subfolders with the Finder.

Deleting a page or site

You can remove pages from your Web site or delete the entire site whenever you want. Follow this procedure:

  1. From the HomePage welcome page, select the page you wish to delete in the Page list, or the site you want to delete in the Site list.

  2. Click the Delete button below the lists. The selected items disappear.

Deleting a site also deletes all that site’s pages. If you only have one site, delete all the pages in the site to delete the site.

Don’t forget to remove pictures from the Pictures folder after you have deleted a page containing them in order to conserve space on your iDisk.

The first site you create with HomePage cannot be deleted like any of the other sites you create, because it is the “root” site. If you no longer wish to use it, leave it empty, and the Start Site automatically changes to a site containing published pages.

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HomePage Tips
  • Use iPhoto to quickly and easily create a .Mac HomePage photo album Web page. After the Web page is created, you can edit or delete it using HomePage.

  • If others frequently must access your iDisk’s Public Folder to retrieve files you have left for them, consider creating a .Mac HomePage file-sharing Web page. To do so, in the HomePage welcome page, click the File Sharing tab. If you do not password protect the page, anyone on the Internet can see and download the files in your Public Folder from this page.

  • You can change the order of the links to other pages in your site that HomePage automatically puts at the top of each Web page you create. Just drag the page titles in the Pages list into the order you want. The page at the top of the list is the start page for the site, and is listed in bold type.

  • Before you put files, pictures, or movies on you Web pages, you should prepare them in the following ways.

    • Files: Special characters in some file names may be incompatible with naming conventions on other computers accessing the files. So to be safe, alter the file names to conform to these rules. Use only uppercase letters (A–Z), lowercase letters (a–z), numbers (0–9), and the underscore (_) in your file names. Never begin a file name with a period (.), or the file will become invisible, and only use the period to separate a file name extension from the rest of the name. Include these extensions (such as Report.doc or Photo.jpg) in the file name, so all computers will know how to open them. Since some computers use short file name, use 8 or few characters to name them — 12 if you count the three letter extension. Don’t forget to copy the files to your iDisk’s Public Folder.

    • Pictures: Save your pictures in JPEG or GIF format, and add the extension “.jpg” or “.gif” to the end of the file name. Name the pictures files in accord with the rules listed above in the Files section. Don’t forget to copy the pictures to your iDisk’s Pictures folder.

    • Movies: Export your iMovie as a QuickTime file, and add “.mov” to the end of its file name. Don’t forget to copy the movie to your iDisk’s Movies folder.

  • You don’t have to use the HomePage service; you can use any HTML authoring tool to create your .Mac Web site pages. For instance, you can use applications such as BBEdit (BareBones Software, www.barebones.com), GoLive (Adobe Systems, www.adobe.com), or Dreamweaver (Macromedia, www.macromedia.com). After you prepare the Web pages, put them in the Sites folder on your iDisk, in a subfolder if there is already more than one site there.

  • You can password protect your HomePage Web sites so that they are only accessible to people with a password you have provided. On the HomePage welcome page, if you have only one Web site, click “Protect this site.” If you have more than one site, select the site in the Sites list, and click Edit below the list. On the Edit your site page, put a check in the password checkbox, type a password, and click Apply Changes. Change the password any time using the same steps. Don’t forget to also password protect your Public Folder!

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    Visitors will see this page when you password protect your HomePage Web site. (Web page courtesy of Apple Computer, Inc.)

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.Mac Slides Publisher

.Mac Slides Publisher is an application you can use, if you are a .Mac member, to share your digital photos as a slideshow screen saver using your iDisk. Anyone using Mac OS X 10.2 or higher can view the slideshow after it downloads from the Internet. When they subscribe to your slideshow, they will automatically receive updates to your slideshow whenever you change it and publish it.

Download .Mac Slides Publisher from the .Mac Web site at www.mac.com, and run the Installer. The application is installed to the Applications folder. You may want to put an alias of it in the Dock to drag photos to it more easily.

If you attempt to launch .Mac Slides Publisher, you will see that it has no interface; it will show you a window with simplified instructions. You just drag photos to it and it does the rest.

To share your photos in a slideshow, follow these steps.

  1. Make sure that all your photos are in the JPEG file format. It is helpful to first put the photos in a folder.

  2. Select the photos you want. Remember that you can make a multiple selection by holding down the z key as you click on each photo, or by holding down the shift key and clicking the first and last photos to select them and all the photos listed in between.

  3. Drag the selected photos on at a time or all at once to the .Mac Slides Publisher icon.

  4. Click Publish. The photos are copied to your iDisk.

  5. When the photos are copied, click the Announce Slideshow button to tell others how to subscribe to your slideshow.

A .Mac membership is not required to subscribe to the slideshows.

To subscribe to a slideshow, follow these steps:

  1. You must be using Mac OS X 10.2 or higher; these instructions are for Mac OS X 10.3.

  2. Open System Preferences.

  3. Click Desktop & Screen Saver.

  4. Click the Screen Saver button.

  5. Select .Mac in the Screen Savers list.

  6. Click the Options button. The Subscriptions and Display Options sheet drops down, as shown in Figure 18-21.

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    Figure 18-21: The Desktop and Screen Saver System Preference Subscriptions and Display Options sheet.

  7. Select the slide shows you want to see, enter the .Mac member name in the box, and check the Display Options you want.

  8. Click OK. The slideshow is downloaded to your computer.

After the slideshow has been downloaded, it will appear when the screen saver is activated. An Internet connection is no longer necessary and is only used when available to check for updates.

To unsubscribe from a slideshow:

  1. Open System Preferences.

  2. Click Desktop & Screen Saver.

  3. Click the Screen Saver button.

  4. Select .Mac in the Screen Savers list.

  5. Click the Options button. The Subscriptions and Display Options sheet drops down, as shown in Figure 18-21.

  6. To temporarily disable a slideshow, uncheck the “Selected” checkbox to the right of the Slide Show name.

  7. To remove a slideshow from the list, select it and press the Delete key.

iChatAV

In recent years, the use of instant messaging (IM) has rapidly increased. Millions of people enjoy its unique advantages. IM lets you type a short message and send it instantly to a recipient, who sees it onscreen and can respond with a message of their own. With IM, you are having a live conversation, called a chat.

America Online enabled the popularity of instant messaging with its AOL Instant Messenger (AIM) system. Because of its great success, it has had many emulators. Apple’s iChat brings instant messaging to Mac OS X and supports AIM.

At the 2003 World Wide Developers Conference, Steve Jobs announced iChatAV, which adds live voice and video connections to iChat’s text messaging capabilities. He also introduced the iSight video camera, the first Web camera to bear the Apple logo, which works seamlessly with iChatAV.

The result is that you can easily use your Mac as a telephone or video phone, and the call is free; it takes place over your broadband Internet connection. The quality of the sound and picture is impressive, and in typical Apple fashion, everything is beautifully designed and could not be easier to use. No longer do you have to manipulate the hardware and the software that was an integral part of earlier live-video-over-Internet setups.

In particular, a live video chat using iChatAV and the iSight camera is one of the more remarkable experiences you can have with your computer. These features are useful to far-flung friends, grandparents and grandchildren, and travel-weary businesspeople.

iChatAV is included with Mac OS X 10.3, although when you look for it in the Applications folder, you find it is still just called iChat.

iChat Setup

To use iChat with the Internet, you need to have a screen name, also known as an instant messaging address. If you are a .Mac member, your screen name is your .Mac email address: username@mac.com. If you have an America Online or AIM screen name, it will work with iChat, and is available for free. However, iChat does not work with other instant messaging systems, such as MSN or Yahoo, so you cannot use screen names from them.

You can also use iChat on a local network only, such as a classroom, home, or small office network, without needing screen names for the users. In this situation, iChat automatically locates other iChat users on the network via Rendezvous, and lets you chat or send files to them.

To use iChat’s audio capabilities, you need a microphone connected or built in to your computer. If you have a Web camera with a built in microphone, such as iSight, iChat selects the camera microphone automatically. If not, you need to select the microphone in iChat Preferences Video.

To use iChat’s video capabilities, you need a FireWire video camera connected to your computer, and a broadband Internet connection. You can use a Digital Video (DV) camcorder with a FireWire cable; oddly enough, you must turn the camera on for it to work — it does not take its power from your computer’s FireWire port.

If you don’t have a Web camera yet, do yourself a favor and buy an iSight, shown in Figure 18-22. It is designed to work with iChat, and, in our opinion, is superior to other Web cams in every way. It has a high-resolution chip, automatic exposure, built in microphone, and a white iris you can open or close to ensure your privacy. (The iris is white so you can tell at a glance if it is closed or open.) Perhaps most importantly, its perforated aluminum cylinder looks great perched on top of your Mac’s display.

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Figure 18-22: Apple’s iSight Web camera. (Image courtesy Apple Computer, Inc.)

When you connect the iSight camera, iChat automatically launches. You can also launch iChat manually at any time.

iChat guides you through its configuration process with an assistant. After the Welcome to iChat AV panel, you go to the Set Up New iChat Account panel, shown in Figure 18-23.

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Figure 18-23: The iChat Setup Assistant’s Set Up New iChat Account panel.

The Account Type pop-up menu allows a choice between .Mac and AIM accounts.

The Get an iChat Account button opens your browser to a Web page called Try iChat that describes the various irresistible benefits of .Mac membership and suggests you register for an iChat account. If you do so, you will get a 60-day trial of .Mac services, and can keep your iChat account after the 60 days. Please note that this account only allows instant messaging; as stated above, you must pay for a .Mac membership to use audio or video chat capabilities.

After you have entered your information and clicked Continue, the Assistant asks if you want Rendezvous on or off. You will want it on if you will be iChatting with others on a local network; Rendezvous will automatically find them. If you are only connected to the Internet, say through a cable modem at home, leave Rendezvous off.

If you have a webcam attached, the next panel shows the image from it to verify that it is working. If there is no camera attached, this panel tells you to get one if you want to video chat.

When you finish the Assistant setup, iChat opens its Buddy List window, shown in Figure 18-24. When you enter someone’s screen name into iChat, it appears in the Buddy List. The entries in your Buddy List are stored on the Internet, so if you log into iChat for the first time on a newly installed copy of Mac OS X, you will see all your previously entered buddy names!

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Figure 18-24: iChat’s Buddy List.

In Figure 18-25, the Buddy List appears showing the user (My Name) and one buddy (blurof-insanity) ready for a video chat, one buddy (alfred h) ready for an audio chat, and two buddies ready for a text chat (herman m using AIM, sauron using .Mac). All have their Available status marked with a green jewel, except sauron, marked as Away with a red jewel.

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Figure 18-25: iChat’s Buddy List, showing the user (My Name) pulling down the Available pop-up menu to mark their status as Away.

Contact your friends to get their screen names. Follow these steps to add people to your Buddy List:

  1. Choose Buddies Add A Buddy or click the plus sign button in the lower -left corner of the Buddy List window. A sheet drops down, showing the contents of the Address Book.

  2. Select someone’s name and click Select Buddy; the name will be added to your Buddy List.

  3. Click New Person to see another sheet asking for the Account Type and Account Name and then click Add. You can also have the option to enter the person’s First and Last names and email address. The information is copied to the Address Book, and the name is added to your Buddy List.

Tip

If you want to chat with someone, but you don’t want to add their name to your Buddy List, choose File New Chat with Person and enter their screen name.

iChat Status

The Buddy List window shows the screen names of the people you have added, with some visual indicators to let you know when they are online and if they are available for chatting.

To the left of their name is the status indicator, which looks like a red or green jewel.

The green jewel means they have set their status to Available, meaning they are online and ready to chat.

The red jewel means they have set their status to “Away,” meaning they are online, but don’t want to chat. You can send a message to them, but they may not answer it.

If their status is Offline, meaning iChat is not running, no jewel appears and their name is grayed out. You cannot send them a message.

Buddies shown as online, but idle, have not used their computers in a while. You can see how long they have been idle. You can send them a message, which will be waiting onscreen for them when they return to the computer.

At the top of the Buddy List window, your name appears. Under it is a pop-up menu where you can set your own status. If you think the default status messages are boring, you can choose Edit Status Menu or Custom next to one of the jewels, and make up your own message.

You can see status information and change your own status setting without opening iChat by using the iChat status menu in the menu bar. The status menu is off by default; you can turn it on by choosing iChat Preferences General, and checking Show status in menu bar.

Buddy List features

If a buddy has a video camera icon next to their name, it means that they have a FireWire video camera attached, and you can have a video chat with them if they are available. A telephone icon means they are set up to have an audio chat. No icon means you can only text message them.

Your friends can choose to have a picture display next to their names on your buddy list. This same picture, the buddy icon, will appear in the chat window next to their messages.

You can edit your own picture by clicking on the one next to your name at the top of the window and selecting Edit Picture from the pop-up menu. This opens the Buddy Picture window, where you can drag a picture, choose a picture, or take a video snapshot using your Web camera. Click Set to change your picture.

You can also drag a picture to your name.

Tip

For best results, use a picture for your buddy icon that is 64 x 64 pixels in size. If you drag a larger picture to the Buddy Picture window, or to your name, you can resize and crop the image to the right size.

To edit your buddy’s information, select his name and then choose Buddies Get Info.

You can sort your Buddy list by name, availability, or hide names that are offline, by choosing an option from the View menu.

At the bottom of the Buddy List window are four buttons:

  • Plus sign: Adds a buddy the list.

  • A button: Starts a text chat with the selected buddy.

  • Telephone button: Starts an audio chat with the selected buddy.

  • Video camera button: Starts a video chat with the selected buddy.

The three buttons that start chats will be grayed out until you first select an online buddy in the list.

Tip

To send a file, picture, or movie to a buddy, drag it to the buddy’s name. You can also select their name and choose Buddies Send A File, to navigate to the file you want. Only one file can be sent at a time.

Instant text messaging

To send an instant message to someone on your Buddy List:

  1. Double-click the buddy’s name. A chat window opens.

  2. Type a short message.

  3. Press the Return key to send the message.

  4. If your buddy responds, the response appears in the chat window below your message. Have a conversation with your buddy by sending messages and back and forth.

To send a file or picture with your message, drag it to the message entry area. Pictures will be displayed beside your text in the chat window; buddies must accept a file, which is then viewed separately.

Local network chats

If you would like to use your Mac to chat with other Mac users on a local network, you do not need an instant messaging account or Internet access.

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Chatting Tips

Chatting is fun and easy. The following list provides tips for chatting:

  • You can have many chat windows open at once, instant messaging several people at the same time.

  • You can choose to invite multiple people to participate in a chat in a single window, by choosing View Show Chat Participants. To add participants, click the plus sign button and choose a person from your Buddy List, or choose Other to invite someone who is not in your Buddy List. You can also add participants by dragging them from your Buddy List.

  • You can change the appearance of your text chats.

  • To view a chat as plain text, choose View Show as Text.

  • To change the font or balloon color used in your messages, choose iChat Preferences, then click the Messages icon. These settings affect how your messages look on both your screen and your recipient’s screens.

  • To override other people’s font and color settings, select Reformat Incoming Messages.

  • To set an image to show in the background, choose View Set Chat Background, then select an image file.

  • To send a hyperlink to a Web site in your message, type a name for the link, highlight the text, and choose Edit Add Hyperlink. The Insert Hyperlink window opens; enter the URL (you can copy it from the Web browser). Click OK, complete your message, and press the Return key to send it.

  • You can send or receive files, and unlike email, there is no limit to the file size. Select a recipient in your Buddy List, choose Buddies Send a File, select the file, and click Send. Or, just drag the file to the buddy’s name in the Buddy List. Only one file can be sent at a time. Large files can take a large amount of time to transfer.

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Rendezvous is Apple’s networking technology that automatically recognizes other computers on the network, enabling iChat to communicate with them. Rendezvous is on by default in iChat; if you wish to turn it off, you can do so in the Accounts pane of iChat Preferences.

To chat on a local network:

  1. Choose Window Rendezvous. In the window appear other iChat users on the same subnet (network segment) as you.

  2. To send an invitation to chat, double-click a person in the list.

  3. If the person accepts your invitation to chat, by default they can see you type each character of the message, unlike in Internet chatting, where the entire message is sent only when you press the Return key. You can change this default setting, Send Text As I Type, in the Messages pane of iChat Preferences.

Tip

If you connect to the Internet with a cable modem, you may see other iChat users via Rendezvous, because you will be on a shared network segment. You will not see other users if you connect to the Internet via modem or DSL.

Tip

If firewall protection is turned on in the Network pane of System Preferences, you may be unable to chat with other Rendezvous users. If you need the firewall on but would like to chat, allow activity on port 5298. See Chapter 26 for instructions on how to configure your firewall settings.

Video chats

You can invite anyone in your Buddy List to a video chat if a camera icon appears next to their name. Figure 18-26 shows and example of iChat’s video window. To start a video chat:

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Figure 18-26: iChat’s video chat window, showing remote image (man unaware Christmas lights in background seem like foolish antenna), and the user in the small screen in the lower right (obviously trying not to be too rude about it). Such problems are only possible through iChat.

  1. Click the camera icon or select the buddy and click the camera button at the bottom of the list.

  2. If you are already in a text chat with someone who has a camera icon next to their name, choose Buddies Invite to Video Chat. A preview window opens momentarily, showing your video image as seen by your camera.

    If your buddy accepts the invitation, their image appears in the chat window, and your preview image shrinks to a corner. You can move your image to another corner by clicking where you want it to go.

  3. Resize the video chat window, if you wish, by dragging the bottom-right corner. To fill the entire screen with the image, choose Video Full Screen. Use the button with double arrows at the bottom of the video chat window to toggle between normal and full-screen modes.

You can mute the audio during a video chat by choosing Video Mute. Or, you can click the microphone button at the bottom of the chat window. When the audio is muted, a microphone icon with a slash appears in your preview image window. (But remember, they may read your lips!)

Pause a video chat by choosing Video Pause Video. Alternatively, Option-click The microphone button in the video chat window. This button becomes highlighted during a pause, and the audio is muted. Click the microphone button to resume the chat.

Tip

By default, the video chat will take up as much of your Internet connections bandwidth as possible. If you want to share your connection with others on your network, or with another application such as a Web browser, you can adjust the speed at which your video chat is transmitted. Choose iChat Preferences, click the Video icon, and choose a speed from the Bandwidth Limit pop-up menu. The slowest setting is 100 Kbps (Kilobits per second) and the fastest is 2 Mbps (Megabits per second).

Tip

You can invite a buddy who does not have a camera to a one-way video chat by choosing Buddies Invite to One-Way Video Chat. Your buddy will see and hear you, and you will hear them if they have a built-in or attached microphone configured.




Mac OS X Bible, Panther Edition
Mac OS X Bible, Panther Edition
ISBN: 0764543997
EAN: 2147483647
Year: 2003
Pages: 290

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