Filed under: Leopard
24 Hours of Leopard: iChat screen sharing
Feature: iChat screen sharing
How It Works: Hello, Mom? Yes, I know, I meant to call yesterd-- what? You've got a little picture that looks like a little Jack O'Lantern sitting on your desktop? Gosh, well, that is weird. Mind if I take a look?
Yes, I said "take a look" -- now that we're both running Leopard, we can share our screens in a jiffy, straight from an iChat. Uh, iChat? Yes, the icon that looks like a word ballo-- yes, that one. If I start a screen sharing session, we can share control of the mouse and keyboard... it even starts an audio chat automatically to make it easier to... yes, that's why it's all echo-y now. Well, I'll just mute it and we'll use the phone, OK?
See, there, that icon does look like a pumpkin... well, if you let the grandkids download stuff... mmm hmm. Yep. OK. Love you too.
Who Will Use It: Anyone with a parent, spouse, cousin, co-worker or random acquaintance who has ever needed help using a Mac, and particularly when the recipient of that help has a tendency to describe UI features as "the thing with the glowy bit" or "not that button, the other button." Also, anyone who collaborates on documents or projects and needs a colleague's instant signoff.
See all of our 24 Hours of Leopard posts here.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Jamie Parsons said 3:08AM on 10-26-2007
WOOOAAAHHH I HAVE LEOPARD!
It has just arrived from tnt uk
:D
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Sam said 3:22AM on 10-26-2007
do you need to be a member of .mac for this feature?
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Sasha S. said 5:59AM on 10-26-2007
I have tried this and it works great, however the biggest problem with iChat remains - inability to go through firewalls.
Compared to the nightmare of configuring ADSL or cable modem via phone - support for typical problems with "parent, spouse, cousin, co-worker or random acquaintance" are trivial
Apple has not solved the most pressing problem here!
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Rob said 8:28AM on 10-26-2007
Hmm. You really need to trust the person with whom you are doing the screen sharing. e.g. I do not know whether I would want to give control of my desktop / Mac to a casual "friend" while I am looking at his or her Desktop / Mac.
Furthermore, unless you are a .Mac subscriber, all of the communications are UNENCRYPTED. I would not want to use this feature if I was helping someone fill out their tax returns etc.
I think using the free SSH/VNC or pricey Apple Remote Desktop solutions are preferable. Both use encryption and do not allow the other person to take over your desktop.
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geoff said 1:40PM on 10-26-2007
This seems great for biz users. Am I right in understanding that I can allow someone else to see a spreadsheet/charts/reports that I am working on?
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jrodliebs said 1:16PM on 10-26-2007
Yeah but you gotta admit that for ease of use and casual instances, this is a pretty cool addition
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tv said 3:40PM on 10-26-2007
Is there a camera for the mini that can take advantage of this feature?
I can't seem to find the non-built-in iSight new
Thanks
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Deborah McLaughlin said 2:30PM on 10-27-2007
Do both computers have to be running Leopard? In other words, can I use my Leopard computer to look at the screen of my parents' Tiger computer?
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Jared said 9:45PM on 10-27-2007
Both people have to have Leopard for the feature to work. Won't work with Tiger :(
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