Chapter 9. Instant Messaging with iChat

IN THIS CHAPTER:

67 Set Up Your AIM or .Mac Account

68 Set Up Your Picture

69 Add a Buddy

70 Start a Text, Audio, or Video Chat Session

71 Send a File

72 Set a Custom Status Message

Instant messaging has become one of the most important forms of communication on the Internet in recent years . With even more immediacy than email, and with an even more personal focus, instant messagingpioneered by applications such as ICQ and AOL Instant Messenger (AIM), and further advanced by offerings from Yahoo! and Microsofthas become the preferred means of quick, informal communication for millions of people at both the personal and professional levels. Incorporating text, audio, and video chat capabilities as well as multi-party conversations, instant messaging has evolved from a simple means to send a quick note to pop up on someone else's screen to a full-fledged telepresence and information-sharing infrastructure.

iChat is Apple's integrated chat client, compatible with the AOL Instant Messenger network and incorporating all the connectivity and graphics technologies that make Mac OS X itself streamlined and attractive. Paired with a FireWire video camera, such as Apple's iSight, you can chat not only with the traditional instant text messages made so popular with AIM, ICQ, Yahoo! Messenger, and MSN Messenger, but with audio and full-motion video as well, even with multiple partners at once. Because iChat is integrated into Mac OS X itself, finding chat partners , receiving messages, and exchanging files is often as simple as dragging an icon or selecting a globally available menu option.

Apple's iSight video camera with microphone connects over FireWire and mounts to any kind of Mac display.

There are a lot of little details to using iChat, such as sending hyperlinks , setting chat background pictures, configuring your chat text's appearance, tuning your privacy options, and using smileys; this chapter explains some of the features that are most immediately useful, allowing you to explore the rest at your leisure.