I have not really used iChat much since owning a Mac. For one, I’ve been very happy with Gaim, and the premier third party IM tool for Macs is Adium, which is based on libgaim. Adium has been wildly successful for me, it’s easy to use, gorgeous, themeable, integrates very well into the Mac UI, and above all, supports all the IM protocols I use.
Recently, I’ve noticed that I rarely use any of the IM tools but Google Talk. In fact, there’s only one person on my contacts list that I regularly IM that doesn’t use Google Talk. So when my buddy Benny got an iMac recently, it never even occured to me to use the video chat built into iChat. That is, until Friday.
iChat is one of the coolest apps for your Mac if you’ve got an iSight camera to accompany it. First off, the video from broadband connection to broadband connection is excellent. The audio is extremely clear; while it may not be cell phone clear, it’s still more than clear enough for regular conversations. In fact, it really makes the phone second rate. I’m encouraging my parents to think Mac not just because of all the reasons I’ve outlined before, but also because of iSight, which I honestly think can change how a family keeps in touch.
Anyway, I hope Adium can integrate a voice/video library soon, but until then, I’m going to be sticking to iChat.
