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iChat video now cross-platform in 10.4.9?

by Michael Rose Mar 19th 2007 at 11:30AM

Loyal reader Nik spotted this interesting tidbit on the .Mac tips page last week:
You can also chat with anyone who has an AOL Instant Messenger (AIM) screen name and uses a chat client that supports AIM, whether on a Mac or PC. (For audio or video chats with PC users, you need Mac OS X v10.4.9 installed on your computer.)
Cross-platform video chats without using the AIM client? Eeeeexcellent. (Of course, Skype video is free and quite good, but this is cool too.) If you can, try it out and let us know what you see; we'll post screenshots if we get it working.

Update: Some clarifications coming in via the comments now. iChat <-> AIM video and audio was working with versions of AIM prior to v6, but not since. The 10.4.9 updates to iChat may restore the video functionality for the newer AIM clients. For a very, VERY thorough walkthrough of the cross-platform video chat config (including links to download AIM 5.9 if needed), check out this page at MVL Design.

Thanks, Nik!

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Loyal reader Nik spotted this interesting tidbit on the .Mac tips page last week:You can also chat with anyone who has an AOL Instant...
 

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Mikey

Jesus! That freaked me out when I saw myself on that guys web site! That's scary that he can just turn on my iSight and feed video of myself on his site. I'm going back to look at myself some more ;)

March 19 2007 at 2:39 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
ocdgeek

I'm able to do a one-way video chat to Trillian using an AIM account. Nice!

March 19 2007 at 12:27 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Michael Rose

I've updated the post to indicate that this is restored functionality for AIM6/Triton rather than an entirely new feature.

March 19 2007 at 12:24 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Burhan

This is not new.

March 19 2007 at 12:11 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
ralfo

just tested with ichat and aim 6.0

works!

March 19 2007 at 12:05 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Michael Rose

I'm going to be testing with both AIM 'classic' and Triton, and hopefully with both XP and Vista, later today.

March 19 2007 at 12:02 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Joey Lange

Well, if they have AIM 5.9 or earlier, the video chat already was working.
But, BUT! If they have AIM Triton or 6.0, then it doesn't work in 10.4.8.

I'd like to see what happens. I'll talk to friends of mine with AIM Triton/6.0 and see if they have vidcams.

March 19 2007 at 11:47 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Daniel

I've been doing video chats through iChat with people using AOL on PCs for ages, and certainly pre-OS X 10.4.9. What's the big deal here?

March 19 2007 at 11:39 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
kevin

but can you do one-way video chat cross platform? ie. your friend has no video chat camera but is still able to see your video

March 19 2007 at 11:38 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
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