Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, OS, Software, Internet Tools, Leopard
Leopard's iChat Theater could change the way we do... well, everything
In short, iChat Theater is a new feature that will allow the broadcast of, and collaboration on, just about anything we do on our Mac. Of course, a developer will have to design their app specifically to incorporate these new features (hint: submitting feedback and feature requests is a good thing), but just consider the possibilities: instead of having to jam pack all your tech support calls into that once-or-twice-a-year family holiday trip, you can fire up Leopard's iChat and show mom and dad how to make a slideshow in iPhoto over the web, with both video and audio of yourself and iPhoto. Now expand a little: is your job on the verge of granting you telecommuting privileges? Or perhaps you're a teacher or a technology scout for an educational organization? This new Leopard feature opens doors much larger than the one for mom and pop; with iChat Theater, teachers and businessmen alike will be able to work their magic in entirely new ways, and not just with the tools Apple provides. The beauty of iChat Theater is that it's an open platform, so to speak; want to brainstorm in OmniGraffle with a colleague on the opposite side of the country? Need to teach a last-minute digital art class in Lineform for a friend halfway across the world? No sweat. Although I have no idea whether The Omni Group or Freeverse have already hopped on the iChat Theater bandwagon, plenty of comments and requests from their users could probably ensure they do.
iChat Theater is gonna be a big'un boys and girls, and I already have a couple handfuls of reasons as to why I can wait for Apple to take their time and (hopefully) get it right.
![TUAW [Cafepress]](http://www.blogsmithmedia.com/www.tuaw.com/media/tuaw-cafepress-promo.png)
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Leonard Nimrod said 12:16PM on 4-30-2007
This new Leopard feature that allows me to take control of a user's machine through iChat will greatly assist in my setting up, installing, and teaching switchers the beauty of OS X.
Reply
Steve said 12:34PM on 4-30-2007
This is great if you do all of your work with other Apple users, but does absolutely no good with the rest of the world (i.e. Windows). If they made iChat available for Windows, though, that would be a different story.
Reply
Catt said 12:40PM on 4-30-2007
This is great for a Mac based work environment. Unfortunately, I don't work in one of those places so alas I'll have this feature on my machine at home but can't do much with it unless I contact my one friend I know with a Mac out of state...
Reply
Thataboy said 12:41PM on 4-30-2007
Maybe I've missed it, but in all the talk of iChat Theater, I haven't seen whether or not this is .mac-only, or whether AIM accounts can take advantage as well.
Do we know this yet?
Reply
Dave Chartier said 12:42PM on 4-30-2007
#2: While I'm no developer, I do read as much as I can understand about how applications and the operating system work together. One thing I can tell you in the case of iChat and iChat Theater: it wouldn't merely be a case of bringing 'iChat' itself to Windows. There is a *lot* of software and engineering going on in the background that other applications have to take advantage of in order for something this truly complex to work.
Besides, 'the rest of the world' doesn't quite mean what it used to anymore. Last I heard, the Mac share has risen to around 7 or 8% of the market in the US, possibly even 10%. A lot of fundamental technologies Apple is bringing to the table in Leopard are making a *lot* of people, including businesses, look even more seriously at the Mac.
Reply
adawg said 12:51PM on 4-30-2007
Yeah, Apple does listen to feedback.
I submitted a request to include CD Text in iTunes version 2. They did it with version 7! Now, I use an iPod in my car, but hey, they listen! I'm sure there were bugs to work out as well too...
Reply
adawg said 12:58PM on 4-30-2007
Steve, I'm sure this will also let you use a video mode just like Remote Desktop has an observe mode. So instead of seeing someone's face, you'll see their screen/application. If this becomes a widely used feature, I'm sure Apple will grow on it, such as adding Windows support if it doesn't have it already.
Can you actually interact with someone's screen?
Reply
freemdoom said 1:03PM on 4-30-2007
The question is, will iChat support 3rd party cameras, now that Apple has stopped selling the iSight?
Reply
James Young said 1:04PM on 4-30-2007
I agree with "Steve". iTunes has been on Windows for a while now. Until other socially-oriented Apple Apps like iChat show up on Windows, they'll continue to be incredible software trapped in a box. In the past two years, I've been using Skype more often. Apple could've owned Skype's general position had they released iChat for Windows. They need to learn more from the iTunes on Windows experience and let some of these key apps out. At this point, I don't think it could do any harm to OS sales, in fact it could improve the attractiveness of app upgrades like iChat.
Reply
David Chartier said 1:08PM on 4-30-2007
9: James, you're forgetting one of the key features that led to Skype's popularity: the ability to call real phone numbers. Apple and Skype have very, very different roadmaps for their products, and like I said in my comment #5: with technology like this, it isn't simply a matter of moving the iChat application itself to Windows. There is a lot, a *lot,* of underlying technology going on in Mac OS X to allow iChat and 3rd party applications to do things like iChat Theater.
Reply
Dave Chartier said 1:10PM on 4-30-2007
#8: With 10.4.9, Apple in fact did build support into iChat for 3rd party USB cams. I'm not sure which models, exactly, but I bet the 10.4.9 support doc would have more information.
Reply
Brian Reading said 1:13PM on 4-30-2007
#8: Apple already supports third-party USB Video Class compliant webcams in OS X.
Reply
Joey said 1:29PM on 4-30-2007
This is all very exciting, but I suppose it's would still be rather useless as 1. You can't use it with someone on Windows 2. You need an AIM/.mac account, which not a lot of people outside the US have.
Reply
ThunkDifferent.com said 1:45PM on 4-30-2007
Perhaps as .mac ages and shows its ago, it too will be included into the Leopard suite. i highly doubt it, but perhaps for a limited service, such as iCT, .mac would be unlocked and, of course, a welcome addition to those in enterprise or those looking for a dynamic chat interface.
http://thunkdifferent.com
Reply
ebernet said 2:07PM on 4-30-2007
I can't help but comment on the similarities to the 10 year old Netmeeting. While Microsoft may have brought it out at the wrong time, and may have deprecated it in subsequent version of Windows, there is no getting away from the fact that Microsoft had video conferencing coupled with application collaboration and screen sharing, and had it as an API applications could hook into, for over 10 years now (Netmeeting was introduced in Win 95 release 2). Currently called Meeting Space, and never given the prominence or push as it was initially, it is still a strong contender and in this case, for a change, makes Apple look like the "me too".
Reply
mike said 2:08PM on 4-30-2007
This is great if you do all of your work with other Apple users, but does absolutely no good with the rest of the world (i.e. Windows). If they made iChat available for Windows, though, that would be a different story.
---
Brilliant. So Apple does something to help spur Mac sales and you whinge that Windows can't do it too? That's Apple's fault?
Reply
Donald Burr said 2:34PM on 4-30-2007
Comparing iChat Theater with NetMeeting is like comparing a Mercedes-Benz to a Yugo. Sure, NetMeeting came out X years ago, and it worked... after a fashion. Personally I could never get the bloody thing to work. The directory servers were always overloaded, so connecting with someone was dodgy as hell. And once I managed to connect to someone, the connection was horrendously slow. Never mind the fact that, back then, audio chat was all that you had. No video. Then there's also the general instability of Windows behind all of this, so frequent crashing was a fact of life.
Reply
SubGenius said 2:36PM on 4-30-2007
iChat for Windows doesn't have to support every advanced feature the Mac version does. It would be nice to have a simple user-friendly IM option for Windows that could make the mac version more useful as well.
Also iChat for Windows could drive sales of a windows compatible USB2 version of the iSight.
Reply
Leonard Nimrod said 2:37PM on 4-30-2007
As Mr. Chartier mentioned, ths new version of iChat uses many new frameworks that simply aren't available for Windows. Heck, some aren't even available on Tiger.
Beyond that, there is absolutely no reason for Apple to create iChat for Windows. iTunes helps sell iPod and AppleTV (and soon, iPhone), adding this functionality to Windows does nothing to increase Apple's profits.
What Apple should do, is add MSN Messenger support to iChat and make A/V more compatible across OS platforms and IM clients.
Reply
ebernet said 3:11PM on 4-30-2007
Actually, Netmeeting had video conferencing by 1998. No one said it was not slow. No one said they did not further advance it (in fact, I said the deprecated it). They never put the resources into it they should have - but it was WAY ahead of its time, and therefore could not do well given the infrastructure available to it and the hardware it was running on.
To not give Netmeeting its due credit for really creating the conference of application/scren sharing copuled with audio and video conferencing is being naive.
Reply