aim client

Apr 27 2009

Something to Chat About

Well, all over Mac-dom Apple enthusiasts will be gathering at their local Apple Store tonight for the proud unveiling of Apple’s new Jaguar.

One of Jaguar’s nifty new features is iChat, a nicely integrated AIM client. Well, what of the other chat clients? The last few weeks have seem some major updates…

Yahoo!

Dear to all of our hearts, many feared Yahoo messenger would never make it to Mac OS X. But the days of petition are over and Yahoo Messenger is out in all its Aqua glory. Pretty much identical to it’s older counterparts, the latest update provides file transfer, and introduces webcam support, an OS X first.

ICQ

Another chat system that most of the die-hard chatters are familiar with, ICQ had just made its OS X alpha debut (although people have been using 3rd party universal clients since Fire came out for OS X). With a par feature set including SMS message sending and POP email monitoring, this update puts ICQ back in an enviable position. Of course, now that ICQ has been merged with AIM you could also use…


AIM

As my pick for best utility, The recently updated version of AOL’s Instant Messenger is packed with features including POP email alerts, file transfers and direct and community chat. The most useful feature has to be the ability to share a selected folder with your “buddys”. Do be careful, this is a stupendous security risk if mishandled, but it can also be a great file sharing method with Macs not on your network.

MSN

While AIM is my pick for utility, MSN has to be my pick for style. MSN is the most Aqua-ish of the pack, and comes with a decent feature set. MSN boasts the ability to send files unlimited in size to Mac and PC users. It also sports the ability to send messages to mobile devices and monitor your Hotmail account.

Whatever chat network you chose to use, there’s a nice new OS X client out there for you. So now all you need is something to chat about.

Brian

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Apr 27 2009

Five Things You’ll see In IE 6… That Aren’t New

Microsoft is a company known for “monkey see, monkey do” behavoir.
First is was the GUI, then it was the little things like the recylcling bin.
Now it’s things like Windows XP’s GUI which is suprisingly similar to OS X.
I’m going to predict 5 things you’ll see in IE 6 for the Mac that are already
done in competing browsers. Further more, I’m predicting that these features
will be touted as original, and as major innovations straight from Redmond.
Let’s get started.

1) Tabbed browsing windows – This one is almost too obvious
to use in this article. If you’ve used Mozilla lately, you’ll notice that it’s
got tabs. What do I mean? Well, one browser window with multiple web pages.
Here’s a screen shot of my Chimera setup(click to enlarge):

tabs thumb Five Things Youll see In IE 6... That Arent New

It’s the main reason why I love to use browsers based on Mozilla.
Chimera has book marks that load tabs… I have one for Mac news that loads
all my favorite Mac sites all at once. It’s genius. Adam Iser has been using
this same tab concept with Adium,
a great AIM client. It was why I switched, and is currently why I don’t use
iChat. I’m just an all around sucker for tabs.

2) favicon.ico support – Windows users have long had icons
they see in the link bar when they go to webpages. Webmasters load a specially
named icon (favicon.ico) onto the root level of the server, and it gets shown
on almost every browser except IE on the Mac. Look for this to change with 6.0.
You can see our icon and some others in the above screen shots.

3) Pop-up Blocking - It’s too good to pass up. Mozilla ships
with it… and I see no pop-ups. It’s great. Look for it to be touted as a fresh
idea. Also look for MS pop-ups to still work (from MSN and such). This will
probably be stuck under the preferences somewhere.

4) MetaData – I bet IE 6 will act more like Mozilla with MetaData.
If you aren’t in the know, it’s info about the page that can be handy to the
visitor. Stuff like RSS feeds, publish dates, author name, simple navigation
and a ton more can be done in a special toolbar that pops up. It’s nifty stuff
that you have to scour the source for in IE.

5) Search in browser – I love searching Google right from Mozilla
(in the link bar)… This will show up in IE 6, except it will be defaulted
to MSN and be hell to switch to Google. There will be a way, and that’s all
that matters.

I’d love to see nerdy stuff like what images were loaded from where, which
forms go to what pages, and allow javascript to do only certain things, but
I have a feeling for that I’ll have to stick with Mozilla. The good news is
that the most popular Mac browser will be better. If you can’t wait, most of
the new functionality can already be harnessed. Mozilla for OS X isn’t bad,
but it feels bad because of its cross platform interface. For now, I’ll stick
with Chimera
and it’s Cocoa widgets icon smile Five Things Youll see In IE 6... That Arent New . If you have any comments or questions let
me know.

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Apr 27 2009

Supercharge your instant messaging

By: Jon Gales

These days, instant messages are as common as email. I don’t have to explain the benefits (speed namely), but I can share some of the tips I have picked up over the years of being an IM user. A previous PowerUser Monday article touched on some iChat tips and tricks–we’ll be covering other tips in this space.

First a little background. There are 4 major IM networks:

  • AIM – Owned and operated by AOL. Was the first network and is still the most popular [by far]. iChat uses the AIM network.
  • ICQ – (I Seek You) – Owned and operated by AOL. Popular with long time IM users because it has been around a while. Also popular over seas.
  • Yahoo! IM – Another popular network run by Yahoo. Has a large registered user base due to the number of free @yahoo.com email addresses.
  • MSN Messenger – Run by Microsoft, and has a massive registered user base due to the popularity of @hotmail.com and @msn.com email addresses.

We’re going to talk about AIM / iChat because that is what most Mac users use.

Groups
Groups are now a part of iChat, but the support is weak. If you’ve used the official AIM client from AOL, or something like Adium, you know what groups are supposed to be. In iChat, it’s more of a “buddy filter” than a group feature. If you’re using iChat, stay away from groups. If you’re using something else, use groups–they are quite handy.

Give your buddies a name
Unless you like thinking of your friends as “gogodude12″ and the like, it’s best to give your buddies names. This can be done in most popular clients that aren’t made by AOL (iChat, Proteus, Adium…). In iChat, just select a buddy by clicking on their name, press Command-I, and type in their info. “Address Card” should be selected in the pull down menu at the top of the Info window. iChat actually ties in with Address Book, so you’re killing two birds with one stone by inputting their names in iChat.

Turn on logging
By turning on logs, you’re able to save your conversations. You wouldn’t believe how many times this has saved me. I have recovered many addresses and phone numbers that I needed by searching my IM logs. To activate logs in iChat, go to iChat > Preferences and select Messages. At the bottom, check the box next to Automatically save chat transcripts. iChat saves each conversation in a separate file. To search your logs quickly, download something like chatSearch.

Update your iSight
If you have an iSight, Apple recently (as in this weekend) updated its software. Just run Software Update by going to the Apple Menu and selecting Software Update.

Leave iChat on after you quit
If you always like being online, you can set iChat to stay online after you quit. You’ll be able to log-off via a menu bar widget, but it’s a handy feature for IM power users. Combined with Away messages, it’s really powerful. To turn on the feature, head to Preferences and select General if it is not already selected. Make sure “Show status in menu bar” is checked, and then uncheck “When I quit iChat, set my status to offline”.

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