On Monday, Apple Computer released details about the next upgrade to Mac OS X and new desktop computers. Among the releases was a beta version of its instant message client, iChat AV. The AV stands for audio/visual. Here’s where it gets interesting.
If you are on a dial-up modem, you can talk with other iChat users over audio. And it sounds really good too. But if you are on broadband and have a Firewire camera, you can do full video-conferencing. And that camera can be any one of the digital video cameras that are all the rage nowadays. And it’s so easy, that it’s plug and play.
My brother and I are working some bugs with his computer (it is beta software after all), but this is a great thing. Can you imagine Microsoft releasing a beta software product that works so well, supports every piece of hardware, and doesn’t require downloading a dozen drivers first? Apple’s done it again.
