“I have recently purchased my parents a gift. It is the best gift I have ever given them, ever, and that includes the egg cooker and the ‘Avengers’ DVD collection and the scale-model sailboat. After converting my entire family over to Apple gear years ago, and since I myself use Apple’s instant messenger client, iChat, well, one day it finally hit me like a long overdue brick to the skull of obviousness. Oh my God. They need an iSight, Apple’s insanely simple, beautifully designed, plug-and-play Web camera. I’ll get one too, I thought, and we’ll be able to see each other whenever we want and it will be heartwarming and touching and fun, and man oh man what a good and thoughtful kid I am,” Mark Morford writes for The San Francisco Gate.
“Oh my God, how right I was. What a difference this thing makes. The parents are thrilled. Amazed. I couldn’t have bought them a better gift had it been front-row tickets to see Neil Diamond on the moon. They are now within visual range, whenever they feel like it and whenever I feel like it and they are right there, on screen, waving hello, making eye contact, laughing and looking cute. Screw the telephone. This is how it should be,” Morford writes.
“I do not know why this is not touted more highly,” Morford writes. “I do not know why the world is not screaming for these gorgeous little appliances as the savior of a million relationships and a godsend for phone sex and a blessing on all families worldwide, not to mention small-business owners who can hold meetings with clients calling from anywhere in the nation. Do millions of people use these things already and I just don’t know about it? Maybe. But it sure isn’t part of the mainstream culture.”
Full article here.
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iSight and iChat AV – like the Mac itself – just another two Apple triumphs that go largely unadvertised and completely unknown by the vast majority of people.
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Apple’s iSight camera and microphone good for much more than just video chat – November 19, 2004
Network World Fusion’s 2003 Cool Tools Best of the Tests Award: Apple iSight camera – February 23, 2004
Apple’s iChat AV, iSight ‘powerful’ but ‘lack of ubiquity’ could be blindspot – August 28, 2003
Wall Street Journal’s Mossberg: Apple’s iChat/iSight teleconferencing ‘vastly better than any other – August 13, 2003
LA Times: iChat AV is ‘first practical software’ for teleconferencing; a ‘huge step up’ – August 11, 2003
Chicago Sun Times columnist: iChat isn’t the first, just the best videoconferencing tool – August 05, 2003
Time Magazine: iChat AV and iSight more examples of Apple’s ‘better execution and design’ – July 20, 2003
Apple’s iSight ‘just about everything a user wants to see in a webcam’ – July 04, 2003
Apple introduces iChat AV and iSight; video conferencing for ‘The Rest of Us’ – June 23, 2003
Oh My Buda, I love the iSight. I do plan to take a big picture of my face to put in front of the iSight when I don’t have on makeup and hair fixed. Something Jane used on the Jetsons. Come to think of it maybe Steve introducing a car plane that folds into a briefcase.
On MDN’s take, it is Apple’s own fault for not sufficiently advertising.
I whipped up a little QT/Java application that enables me to use my iSight as a video camera to record movies. My PowerBook can easily support it at 640*480 30fps capturing MPEG-4 video with stereo sound. Nifty.
I have it for my PB and our iMac and it works great (both Tiger). Used it to video conference with the family from Florida to Utah. No problems (and did I mention it’s on Tiger?).
F**king christians, they alway have to go on about the god-thing. If you ask me the romans had the right idea!
Big problem with iSight is the need for a high speed internet connection.
I wanted to buy my folks in the UK a mac mini, but they only have a pay as you use dialup connection which only supports PCs of course. Whilst my Dad was open to the idea of getting a mac, he didn’t like the notion of having to pay 18 pounds a month for broadband. Still that is half the price I pay in the US for cable internet. But then we use it at least 4 h a day.
He said “oh my God”, not “oh your God”, so how do you know of which god he speaks? Perhaps his god doesn’t mind being referred to in less-than-deferrential terms.
“I say that many people are offended when one of God’s names is used in casual offhand conversation this way.”
God’s son, Jesus, was sent to earth to teach us peace, love and to forgive ones enemies. Jesus died on the cross for all of man’s sins. Today, humanity has changed little if any from the time of Jesus. The evil that existed when Jesus was alive still exists today. God looks in our hearts and sees how we treat the least of us. God knows who and what we are, yet some people are offended by a Goddamn here and there. Is this what you going to tell God when your time comes.
I defended your name ‘lord, but I did little else on your earth why I was alive.
This all sounds great! I’m sold on an iSight!
And Fiona is #1. That is awesome. Stupid Sony. They only released the album due to fan pressure and internal leakage of the album. Shows them!
I use the iSight on a numer of 10.4 machines and have no problem communicating with other 10.4 macs or 10.3 macs.
If you touch again God I’ll kill you, you infidel. Then you can call God’s name in person next time.
Ahhh, someone truly died in vain 2000 years ago. Men are still too stupid to understand the message, ferchrissake!
For a fundamental Christian, there is only one true living God. Any reference to Him is a reference to Him no matter who says it. I am not preaching here (I am not a preacher man). I am just mentioning this since at one point I did not know this and used God’s name in vain casually until I realized that I was offending some people around me that I care about.
I am not PC, and do not have an issue with it myself. But since it was brought up, I’m jumpin in on it.
The only way to true peace in this universe is through understanding. We do not need to agree with one another, but understanding one another’s reasons and beliefs goes a long way.
Yes God looks in ones heart, but to love one another needs to start from wanting to understand one another. That action has consequences that can lead to enlightenment.
I’m curious about the complaints regarding Tiger and iChat AV. I’ve used iSight since it was introduced on both a PowerBook G4 and an iMac G5 and my parents and children in Chicago and Boston have either PowerBooks or iBooks.
The upgrade to Tiger had no material effect either positive or negative. I had hoped for the 30 fps speed as advertized but have never seen anything greater that 15 fps and an audio rate of about 280.
i love isight. bought one for my bf for his birthday. great picture quality, awesome sound, no choppyness. and it works with imovie. he has made several short imovie vid for business using isight and imovie.
This may be a dumb question, but,
Is a .mac necessary to have a video conference with iChat AV?
I would like to buy an iSight for myself and my parents, but they don’t want to pay $100/year for .mac just to have a video conf.
Seems to me that the iSight and Airport Express are Apple’s forgotten children. Nary an update since their introduction..
converted my whole family…
my son (college San Diego), My mom (retired living in vancouver wa), my sister (beaverton Or) my daughter (home in mission viejo ca) and my wife and myself (mission viejo) all have macs with the ISight.
I bought my mom and us one when they first came out, and upgraded to Tiger to get the full IChat AV version. Now we chat with 3 or 4, just planned a christmas dinner the other night with everyone together. works great.
now… to jump in on the other subject that seems to have run amok here.
If being pc means respecting someone else’s beliefs, and we extend that respect to muslims, jews, hindu and other faiths, then why can’t we do the same for Christians? “God” to them is a personal name, not a title. It’s more sacred, and not only to the fundamentals, but the evangelicals and the high church protestants, and the catholics also.
Why treat them differently?
Out of here.
Why is it that Fundamental Xtians have all these hang ups on Gawd? I really do get fed up with these folks (of whatever belief) ramming their beliefs down saner folks throats. Know this is orf topic, but had to get it off of my chest.
IMHO the world would be a damn site better off (and safer and saner) without religion (especially if it gets tangled in politics & Heads of State – what went on in the Reformation in Europe applies as much today as it does today) Henry VIII chucked the Catholic Church to change his wife but he sure did us all a favour by separating State from Church and establishing the State as Boss & not the Popish Church.
Heaven help us!
@Question
No need for a .mac but you then need to sign up for a free AIM account or perhaps a trial .mac account, not sure on the latter tho.
Armageddon…
do muslims have a hang up on Alah? Or Hindu’s on Buddah? Or Jews on Yaweh?
Is it a hang up to be offended when someone treats what you hold dear with less than respect? And are you then “ramming” your beliefs down their throat when you object to what you hold dear being treated so?
it’s a different way of looking at things.
You keep saying “God’s name” but it hasn’t been said even once on this entire page. “God” is not a name, but he does have one. Check your dictionary sometime… it’s not “Lord” either. (But “Baal” does mean Lord)
I wouldn’t get all high & mighty over a camera. Like mentioned previously, MSN Messenger’s (Windows)feature set runs rings around iChat.
Further, in the corporate space Apple has nothing to even begin competing with Live Communication Server, Office Communicator 2005, Sharepoint, Exchange Server, etc.
Reason #6,254 why you don’t see Macs in server rooms.
Flame away!
Question asks: “Is a .mac necessary to have a video conference with iChat AV?”
Nope, it’s a freebee. However, if I remember correctly, you do need one of the conference-goers act as ‘host’ for the rest, and that person has to have a G5 class computer.
As a general thought on a different subject:
I’d like to see iChat morph into a P2P system, like Skype. I don’t know for sure, but I imagine some of the Tiger problems that are being mentioned here relate to some bug between the AOL server and TigerOS. With a standalone piece of software that problem should go way, as well as any other server related issues.
Basically, iChat would become a VOIP app – how much of kick would it be to have Apple as your new phone company? Can’t be any worse than Verizon – trust me.
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Hindus on Buddah? That really is a different way of looking at things. Did he say Muslims have a hang up on Alan?
good point about the iSight and all but it was a morbid article…
Good conversation and discussion from a bad article. This is a great community and I appreciate everyone’s feedback and honesty on how they feel.
Now back to our regularly scheduled discussion I think that iChat needs a good improvement, but there is so much going on in Apple that it will probably not get much. Look at iCal. It is a great program but only goes so far. They update it periodically but it has to be done by one guy (or gal) who has 5 days a quarter to do something with it since not all that much goes on to improve it.
So much talent only can work on so much. Apple is doing hardware, software, OS’s, entertainment, marketing, and R&D on who knows what. That is a whole heck of a lot of stuff!