If you’re not familiar with iChat, it’s Apple’s multiprotocol IM client that comes preinstalled on every new OS X computer. Users can enter AIM, me.com, Yahoo, Google Talk and Jabber account credentials to use those services, and they can sign in to more than one account at a time. Like Mail for OS X, it’s a flexible tool that can centralize much of a user’s IM-based communication needs.

Code discovered by developer John Heaton (via TUAW) in the most recent iOS update includes mentions to those services that iChat works with out of the box. Of course, Apple doesn’t yet let you sign in to IM services from AIM or Jabber natively on iOS devices, though there are a wealth of third-party options that do in the App Store.

Still, if Messages continues to grow into something that allows access to multiple IM services in one central location, in addition to text messaging and iMessage services, that will expand its usefulness quite a bit. Of course, I’m still hoping iMessage makes it to the desktop first, but this would be a nice small feature update for iOS sometime down the road.

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Instant messaging apps on the iPad underscore the fact that the iPad is more likely to stay in my bag than be used while out and about. Very rarely do I have a serious conversation via IM, and I tend to use it as a form of text messaging while I’m on the train home or running errands. However, I do find myself using an iPad IM client when I’m using the device as an accessory computer. Often, while playing a game on my Mac, I’ll have the iPad next to me with an IM client open.

Last year, I wrote an article highlighting 10 Instant Messaging Apps for the iPhone. This year’s iPad version is slightly different. As with the iPhone apps, I found it really came down to BeejiveIM, IM+ Pro, and AIM, so I’m going to take a closer look at those this time.

Before I get to the analysis, here are a few explanations: Both BeejiveIM and IM+ connect to the usual services: AIM, Google Talk, ICQ, Jabber, MSN, MySpace, Yahoo and Facebook. IM+ also connects to Skype chat and Twitter. AIM will connect to AIM, MobileMe, and Facebook.

Obviously, none of these will connect to any proprietary corporate IM service.

You can also change your background in both paid apps, but I find that to be of limited value.

Beejive IM ($9.99)

I’ll get the one big strike against Beejive out of the way early: It’s not a Universal app, so if you own the iPhone version, be prepared to pony up another 10 bucks.

Of the two paid apps, I feel Beejive has the better interface. The screenshot below is a sample shot, but under where it says “new chat” is where the list of active chats is displayed. It’s very easy to see who’s online and what chats you have going.

One feature BeejiveIM has that I couldn’t find in IM+ is the ability to e-mail the chat log. This is very handy if you need a record of the conversation. I’ve never used it, since most of my chats seem to be about why the Red Sox bullpen is imploding this year as opposed to discussions of actual work, but that feature may be necessary for those using IM on the iPad for business discussions.

I didn’t run into any major problems using Beejive, but I’ve seen reports of folks having crashing issues when they reviewed this on the App Store.I didn’t encounter any stability issues.

IM+ Pro ($9.99)

Unlike BeejiveIM, IM+ Pro is a universal app, so you can buy it once and it use it on both devices. I’m not a big fan of the interface, however. BeejiveIM has one window that shows active chat participants, the chat you’re typing in, and your contacts list, but with IM+ Pro, it’s a toggle between chat participants and contacts. It’s not a gigantic hassle, and the chat window itself is larger this way, so depending on your likes, it can be a wash. I did find myself warming to it over time. You can also send voice messages via this app. Also available (as an in-app purchase) is speech recognition for messages.

I mentioned it earlier, but it bears repeating: IM+ also connects to Skype chat as well as Facebook.

While BeejiveIM had no noticeable stability issues, I can’t say the same about IM+. One time I got an error when sending a message telling me the account was disconnected, but the account settings showed me still active. (I had actually dropped off, according to the person I was messaging.) I also noticed frequently it would say “reconnecting” when I launched the app to send a message, and according to my lucky test subject, I’d also dropped off the wire. It appears there may be some serious issues with this app staying connected, at least through Google Talk.

IM+ Lite (Free)

I’d be remiss if I didn’t also mention IM+ has a free version. This version differs from the paid version in two notable ways: It doesn’t connect to Skype chat, and there are small ads at the bottom of your chat window. You also don’t get the ability to purchase of speech recognition in-app.

AIM (Free)

If you’re lucky and all your friends just use AIM, the free AIM app is likely all you need. My testing with this falls into the “very limited” category since most of my contacts are scattered across the IM service sands. Given that limited testing, I give it a cautious Mark Crump It Seems To Work Just Fine award.

Conclusion

Going into this, I felt this was IM+ Pro’s battle to be lost. Given that it’s a universal app, I hoped that would give it the edge. Unfortunately, the connection problems were too frequent for me ignore. Therefore, my choice in the multi-protocol IM client battle is BeejiveIM. Yes, it sucks you need to pay twice if you’ve got the iPhone version, but a lot of apps I own aren’t universal, so paying twice is something I’m grudgingly getting used to. If you just use AIM, then there’s nothing wrong with the free AIM for iPad app.

What iPad IM client do you prefer?

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This is the ultimate roundup of essential apps for your iPhone from 2009.

Best Game: Rolando 2: Quest for the Golden Orchid

The sequel to 2008′s Rolando expands on the tilt ‘n’ swipe platforming action of the original. This time round, we’re brought an entire troupe of colorful Rolando characters to protect, alongside a tropical island inhabited by new baddies and a lost Rolando tribe. The artwork is gorgeous, the gameplay is excellent and, thanks to NGMoco’s Plus+ awards system, it’s got bags of replay value too.

Runners-Up Best Game: Gangstar: West Coast Hustle, Doodle Jump

Best Social & Communications App: Tweetie 2

Having formed his own development studio after working at the Cupertino campus, Loren Brichter has established himself as one of the premier App Store developers. Brichter’s skill is feeding his experience at Apple into his apps, Twitter client Tweetie 2 is an impressive showcase of his ability to distill a feature-rich experience into an app with a clear user interface. The app also rolls in a few unexpected new features including video tweeting, profile management and improved location-based searches.

Runners-Up Best Social Communications App: Skype, foursquare

Best Use of Push Notifications: Boxcar

Despite the arrival of push notifications on iPhone earlier this year, it’s still taking many developers time to implement these handy pop-up notifiers in their apps. There’s no push for most Twitter clients, no Facebook push and not even native email push from Apple. Boxcar is the missing push notifier for your favorite apps. The app includes push for Twitter, email, Facebook, RSS and even Growl.

Runners-Up Best Use of Push Notifications: NotifyMe, Ping!

Best News App: Byline

Under the hood, the app updates with the latest news in seconds, syncing happily with Google Reader. Unlike other news readers, while Byline is updating with the latest news, you’re able to keep browsing articles without suffering from any lag. It’s certainly not the most feature-rich news reader, but Byline brings together a clean interface with a robust RSS reader.

Runners-Up Best News App: The Guardian, Newstand

Best Use of Content: NFB Films

The National Film Board of Canada have brought a vast quantity of their video content to the iPhone, all of it wrapped in an easy-to-use free app. There are over a thousand videos available to browse, soak up and send to friends: from documentaries and animations to shorts and trailers for forthcoming releases.

Runners-Up Best Use of Content: McSweeney’s, Panelfly

Best Video App: ReelDirector

Apple may be stalling on bringing iMovie to the iPhone, but that’s nothing to worry about thanks to ReelDirector. With it’s powerful features, the app enables you to edit video footage into your own shorts before sending your latest amateur epic to your friends. In particular, the selection of high quality video transitions really add to the wow effect.

Runners-Up Best Video App: UStream Live Broadcaster, iTimeLapse

Best Photography App: Photoforge

Just like ReelDirector brings video editing to the iPhone, PhotoForge does the same for your photography. First-time users will be drawn to the impressive array of filters on offer, including Blur, Tilt Shift, Simulated HDR and Lomo. Once you’ve got to grips with the filters, there’s also a selection of Photoshop-style tools, including smudge, clone and brushes in a variety of shapes.

Runners-Up Best Photography App: Flickr, QuadCamera

Best Sound App: I Am T-Pain

The year’s most over-used and perhaps abused audio-effect, the auto-tune, has landed on iPhone as Smule’s I Am T-Pain. The app essentially makes even the most cat-screechingly awful singer sound as perfectly tuned as Kanye West. Most importantly, you’ll need absolutely no musical ability to have fun with this brilliant sound toy.

Runners-Up Best Sound App: Mujik, Touch DJ

Best Productivity Tool: NotifyMe

If you’re all about organization and productivity, NotifyMe will keep up-to-date with your task list. Thanks to a sleek user interface and ultra-fast startup time, there’s very little friction between you and the app, meaning you can be entering tasks and then getting back to work in moments. When it’s time to get a task done, the app will send you a push notification, plus there’s even a snooze option (perfect for habitual procrastinators).

Runners-Up Best Productivity Tool: Quickoffice, Pastebot

Best Lifestyle App: Jamie Oliver’s 20 Minute Meals

Jamie Oliver brings cooking to the iPhone and true to his style, the entire app is friendly, fun and approachable. There are currently 55 delicious recipes in the app, each one can be whipped up in 20 minutes. To help you along the way, in addition to a range of quick kitchen tutorials recorded by Jamie himself, there’s an interactive shopping list tool and portion calculator.

Runners-Up Best Lifestyle App: Couch to 5K, I Am Safe

Best Utility: Dropbox

The Dropbox service brought off-site backup to the masses. On the desktop, it runs in the background, securing your files and even letting you share them with friends, colleagues and clients with a couple of quick clicks. Although long-awaited, the iPhone app didn’t disappoint. You can browse your Dropbox using the app, plus share files and even save specific content to your iPhone for quick access.

Runners-Up Best Utility: OpenMaps, TimeTuner

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The first week of September has seen a deluge of new arrivals at the App Store. It’s time for me to search through the latest releases for iPhone and hand-pick my recommendations for the past seven days.

This week I’ve been looking at Button, Facebook, BlogPress and Quicksilver.

Button (Free)
One of my favorite sci-fi novels, “Better Than Life,” oscillates between a deep space distopia and an almost perfect Earth as it follows the surviving crew members of the Red Dwarf mining ship. It’s soon revealed that the crew’s collective vision of Earth is actually a highly addictive massively multiplayer online game beamed directly into their brains, leaving their real bodies in a seemingly catatonic state. Rather than take a giant leap towards this sinister style of multiplayer gaming, Button instead takes baby steps. There’s a big button, everyone around the world sees the button, when the button lights up you must push the button, sometimes you win a prize, usually you don’t. Button is effectively a nonsensical distraction that seems to tickle just the right bit of your brain. Plus, you can ramp up the futility by playing as a team. I’ve created a special team called tab just for readers of TheAppleBlog, come join my group and let’s push buttons together.

Facebook (Free)
The official Facebook app has finally received its first major update for some time, bringing the service’s iPhone implementation almost (but not quite) up to speed with the 3GS and 3.0 firmware. For starters, the app’s user interface has been streamlined and tidied up — gone are the tiny buttons, pointless scrollable horizontal groups bar and crash-happy inbox. The main feed benefits from having a clutter free interface and now incorporates likes and comments. The menu screen features several big chunky buttons, designed for ease of navigation. Notably, the app now allows video recording and uploads, a real boon for iPhone 3GS users. However, it’s seems that when Facebook update their app, there’s always something missing. In this case, there are no Push Notifications, an OS 3.0 feature which could have been designed solely for apps just like Facebook.

BlogPress ($2.99)
The official WordPress app just isn’t working out for me. While I appreciate the WordPress app being free, I’m still not impressed by the app’s sluggish navigation and overly technical user interface. In essence, the WordPress app doesn’t feel pretty and it doesn’t work as it should. With this in mind, I’ve been on the hunt for a replacement and BlogPress seems to be just the app to knock WordPress off my iPhone. The app features a WYSIWYG editor, incredibly important as you certainly don’t want to be tweaking your latest post’s code on your iPhone’s keyboard. There’s also video uploading, something which the WordPress app doesn’t currently support, handled by uploading your video to YouTube and then embedding within your latest post. BlogPress also supports posting simultaneously to multiple blog services, including Blogger, MSN Live Spaces, WordPress, Movable Type, TypePad, LiveJournal, Drupal and Joomla.

Quicksilver ($1.99)
And finally, while on the subject of replacing apps, I’ve been on the hunt for an alternative to Nimbuzz — while it’s an excellent feature-rich iPhone IM app, and free too, I’ve been feeling like I need a more streamlined solution. With it’s minimal iChat-esque interface, Quicksilver is the perfect app for a quick bit of iPhone IMing, with one caveat: it’s made for XMPP-compliant servers only, which, in non-geek-speak, means it’ll work with Google Talk but not MSN. The really great thing about Quicksilver is that it incorporates Push Notifications, making it more than worth the two buck asking price. When you close Quicksilver, you’re not logged out of chat, instead you’re status is changed to away. If one of your contacts should get in touch, the message will arrive on your iPhone as a push notification.

That’s all the picks for this week. I’ll be back in seven days with more news from the week and picks from the App Store.

In the meantime, what apps have you been using this week?

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If you are new to chatting, the three major players in the market are AIM, Yahoo and Microsoft (what market are they not part of?). While AIM remains at the top of the mountain (offering great integration for MobileMe customers), rival Yahoo is making it harder for users to stay attached to AIM’s service. For those who aren’t completely satisfied with what AIM has to offer, Yahoo! Messenger is a great alternative or supplement and is a bit more robust, with support for adding users of Microsoft’s MSN Messenger service.

Yahoo has been vocal about its dedication to the iPhone platform, and its support is appreciated and apparent. Unlike AIM, Yahoo! Messenger for the iPhone also supports sending/receiving photos via your built-in camera. It also exists as a free application, and isn’t cluttered with ads like AIM’s free counterpart. Several unique features of Yahoo! Messenger are also supported, including its popular “Buzz!” feature. In true iPhone style, you activate it by simply shaking your phone.

If you are someone who enjoys chatting with users who do not use either service, Yahoo! Messenger also features the ability to send messages to mobile users over SMS, saving iPhone users from SMS charges (similar to AIM).

Having used both AIM and Yahoo! Messenger on my iPhone, I’m a bit biased towards Yahoo’s offering. With better support for seamlessly moving between mobile and desktop use (actually forcing me to sign off my desktop), this keeps me from “losing” messages in one location, unlike AIM. During testing, I kept inadvertently leaving AIM “signed on” on my iPhone and messages were being routed there, instead of showing up in iChat, on which I was logged in as well.

Yahoo! Messenger for iPhone is a free download on the App Store. Check it out and let us know what you think!

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When push notification finally made its way to the iPhone, a lot of people were anticipating IMs pushed to their iPhone. At first, I scoffed at this idea. I’d always figured IMs were based around the “instant” part of the phrase, and someone pushing an IM to me might be disappointed if I don’t get back to them right away. Well, guess who’s been a big iPhone IM-er since 3.0 came out? Go on, you’ll never guess. Yep, it’s me. I’d like my crow with a side of au jus, and a loaded baked potato, please.

First a quick word of warning: by no means are my comments here to be construed as any sort of a formal review. While I’ve tried to run all of these apps through their paces, I wouldn’t feel comfortable calling any of my comments a review — they’re more like first impressions.

That said, while there are 10 apps we tested out, it quickly became clear to me this was a race between Beejive and IM+ Push. The important criteria for me were: the ability to connect to multiple IM protocols (and multiple accounts of the same protocol), the ability to do push notifications, and the app not requiring its own server-side account to operate. Price, as they say, was no object. When you get right down to it, the difference between many of these apps is only $5-7. My afternoon brownie indulgence costs more than that.

Over the last week, I’ve been receiving push notifications from at least one of these apps during testing, if not more than one, and I didn’t notice a detrimental effect on my battery life — with the usual disclaimer that if I spent my entire train ride home IMing friends, I’d see a battery hit.

Without further ado, here are my findings.

IM+ Push ($9.99)

IM+ Push is a very full-featured app with two specific features I enjoyed: I can set how long I’m online for up to three days (perfect for getting through a weekend); and I can change the wallpaper behind the messages. However, I found the app overall a tad on the slow side. As a speed comparison, by the time I had opened IM+ and viewed the IM, I would have also replied to the IM in Beejive. While it does claim to connect to Skype, I had some issues getting it connected, and never got a push from Skype.

IM+ Lite (Free)

IM+ Lite is the free version of IM+ Push and the only differences between the two are that you can’t change the wallpaper and the push notifications are email only.

Beejive ($9.99)

I found Beejive to be the fastest app in my tests. I could very quickly see what IMs had arrived, preview them and reply to them. Like IM+, I can change the background, but I can only be online for up to 24 hours (which was the standard time period for all the apps). There was one nice feature I found in Beejive that I couldn’t find a corresponding setting for in IM+: I can set how long I show as “available” after I close the app. One of the chief complaints from people I was IMing during this test were the frequent “crumpy is available”/”crumpy is away” notifications they were receiving. By staying “available” for 20 minutes, the person I was IMing with had a much better experience. It was a minor detail I hadn’t thought of until a few people complained about it.

One other feature I liked is I can set how many IMs from contacts are shown when I launch the app. The default is I only see the most recent message from each contact, but I set it do display more, up to and including all messages.

Agile Messenger with Push ($9.99)

For the price, I found Agile Messenger to be a very poor solution. You can only connect to one account of each protocol (I have two AIM accounts: my personal and a work one). I also found the type size on the IMs to be too small to read, and there was noticeable lag when typing.

AIM ($2.99/Free)

There are two AIM apps from AOL, one that’s free and one that’s $2.99. I’m grouping them together since the only differences between the two are that the free one has ads and the paid version does not. While I found the app to be very responsive, there are two big issues I had: I can only be signed into one AIM account, and all push notifications have an SMS-style popup. I couldn’t stop the pop-ups, but I could control how much information was displayed — the ranges are from “new IM” to the full contents of the IM, including sender information. The only reasons I’d recommend this app is if money really is an object, you only have one AIM account, and don’t mind the obtrusive pop-ups.

Yahoo! (Free)

Well, about all I can say is, “Yep, it connected to Yahoo.” You can only connect to one Yahoo account and there is no push notification, nor any announced plans for push.

Palringo (Free)

In my tests, Palringo failed on liftoff. It requires a server-side account, and when I went to setup the account via the iPhone app, the captcha image didn’t even display — really, who needs captcha on an iPhone app? The app does not currently do push, although as of this writing they have submitted a push version for approval. At this point, for a free IM app, I’d recommend IM+ Lite over this one.

Skype (Free)

Since the purpose of this article is IM apps, I’m going to gloss over the voice portion of the Skype app, which is arguable its greatest benefit. However, I was able to connect to my Skype account and IM with friends just fine. There are no push notifications for IMs, however.

Fuze (Free)

Fuze is another one that requires its own server-side account to run. You can also only connect to one account of each protocol, and there are no push notifications. Also, for some reason even after quitting the app, it kept me online, but I didn’t receive a test message I sent myself when I logged back in. As with Palringo, if you need an IM app that’s free, go with IM+ Lite.

Chart of Instant Messenger Features

And the winners are!

For free apps, IM+ Lite blew the doors off the competition. I could connect to multiple protocols and multiple accounts.

In the paid category, while it was a close race, I felt Beejive edged out IM+ Push. While the ability to stay online longer than 24 hours was nice, I felt the speed and the ability to quickly see received IMs edged Beejive over the finish line.

As always, we welcome your comments about what IM apps you prefer.

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The holy mecca of VOIP calling could be coming to an iPhone near you. Om Malik wrote that he received a tip that Skype is nearing release on the iPhone. What does this mean for us iPhone users?

Well, if I had my druthers, this would be the full VOIP application we’ve all been waiting for on the iPhone. No more third-party implementations (or imitations). No more waiting. This would be the real deal.

However, I might not get my way. In fact, we could receive a Skype iPhone app that sucks. Yes, it might just be an app that provides basic presence information to the rest of Skypedom. Or, it might charge me mobile minutes to use the service when making a call. If either is the case, then we might have a big Skype FAIL for the iPhone.

To our friends at Skype: will we see a fully enabled client for the iPhone? Will I be able to make calls as well as communicate with my existing Skype friends? What will the UI look like? I think that is my biggest concern. Having seen Skype 4.0 on Windows, I am scared to see what we might receive for the iPhone. The Mac Skype client is reasonable (kind of boring, actually), but at least it feels Mac-like.

In the end, the tip Om received is just that, a tip. We’ll all have to wait and see if the Skype for the iPhone makes its debut next week at CTIA Wireless. Until then, I am saying a little Skype prayer…

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It’s the weekend, traditionally a time for quiet contemplation of the freshest iPhone releases, welcome to the App Store Pick.

Hang on there one moment though because before we run headlong in to a stack of apps, we’ve got but a few moments to look at the latest happenings on TheAppleBlog this week.

First up, Neil Gaiman’s creepy Coraline just hit the App Store in eBook form. It’s available to download now for $5.99 but we’ve got four Coraline promo codes to giveaway. If you’d like to bag yourself a copy of Coraline, just drop a comment at the end of this post (and make sure to leave an address for us to email the code to), we’ll dish out the promo goodness on a first come first served basis.

Over in iTunes, HD movies are now available for sales and rental too. It’s great that we can reap all the benefits of HD via download, however the price point, $19.99, seems super expensive and thus utterly ill-considered to me. In other film-related news, in a rare publicity move, Apple has opened an official Twitter account, specifically for new trailers, check it out at twitter.com/itunestrailers. Those who doubt the account’s authenticity should check out the Apple Trailers site which now sports a Trailers on Twitter link.

None of this matters though when we consider the real Apple news this week: the long-awaited über-happening that was Apple’s iPhone OS 3.0 event; and though they may be Jobless, that didn’t stop a flurry of rumor-mongering activity and excitement focused on the unveiling of the latest iPhone software update, arriving this Summer.

For me, it didn’t disappoint, while there’s still no mention of Flash coming to the iPhone, cut/copy/paste will finally arrive, as will MMS and push. There’s also an array of awesome new features beyond those must-haves. For instance, there’s the iPhone’s new Spotlight page — it brings search to the iPhone — meaning you can simultaneously hunt through contacts, messages, mail and music.

For developers, there’s some serious potential for advanced apps that the iPhone update’s APIs will bring. In particular, access to the iPod library for apps — potentially bringing an added dimension and layer of interactivity to our music collections: think Tap Tap Revenge creating new levels with your iTunes music library.

Moving on to the app picks, this week I’ve been looking at Nimbuzz, Yamanote Soundrop Lite, iGamesDev and Cardsnap.

Nimbuzz (free)
Over at GigaOm, Om Malik mentioned that he’s looking forward to checking out Nimbuzz, a super communication app that touts just about every major IM service, alongside VOIP too. On first look this app is undeniably impressive — setting up is quick and easy, even providing a degree of control over the buddy list — essential for users with tons of contacts over several services. The app looks and sound great too, even — quite unexpectedly — flipping in to landscape mode when needed. For me, and I suspect many others, this is an essential download and has already taken pride of place on my Home screen.

Yamanote Soundrop Lite (free)
I’ve got a soft spot for absurd apps that seem to slip in to the App Store, created by developers who seem to have no notion about who their target demographic might be. I think this is a good thing — it shows that there’s still a spirit of fun floating amidst the dirge of quick-buck, sound-fx apps and useless business tools. This app plays the music from various stations on what I think is a Japanese train-line. With its absurdly long twinkly melodies, this app is useless and cute and, as such, made me smile.

iGamesDev (free)
The concept behind this convoluted game of cards is fantastic. The app is intended as a witty critique of the iPhone game development. The game itself, though, is crazy complicated — resembling something more akin to The League of Gentlemen’s Go Johnny Go Go Go Go, with its nonsensical myriad rules. Unfortunately, the game ends up being amusing only because it’s ironic that this iPhone game about iPhone game development is so poorly coded.

Cardsnap ($9.99)
I’m always interested to know if the expensive apps are actually worth it or if the price is simply the developer’s wishful thinking. Cardsnap — an app for snapping images of business cards which are then processed server-side and synced to your address book — isn’t really worth the price but I imagine business-folk will buy it anyway. The big issue is that the iPhone camera immediately fails when it comes to taking pictures of business cards. The idea is great but the iPhone just ain’t up to it yet.

That’s all from the App Store for another seven days. I’ll return during the week with TheAppleBlog App Review and, as always, on Saturday with my Weekly App Store Picks.

In the meantime, what apps have you been using this week?

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This overview will walk you through setting up various accounts through iChat, using the basic features, and even dabbling with some high quality video conferencing!

Getting Started & Adding Accounts

When opening iChat for the first time, you’ll be asked to set up your profile. If you already have an account with MobileMe, Mac.com, AIM, Jabber, or Google Talk, you can integrate it with iChat. It’s possible to use other protocols through iChat, but the solution is a little more complicated. For more information, this tutorial is useful.

Certain advanced features are only available when using an AIM or MobileMe/.Mac account, so if possible using either of these is preferable. After adding your account, you’ll be given the option to encrypt your messaging which is advisable if possible. When done, you’ll be presented with a concluding screen which encourages to get started using the app.

Basic Messaging

The basic screen for iChat is very simple, just showing a list of your “buddies” along with their audio/video capabilities. Double clicking a contact will initiate a text conversation with them. If you haven’t yet added any contacts, doing so is a simple process — all you need is their MobileMe or AIM email address. Click Buddies > Add Buddy from the menu bar and follow the simple instructions that follow.

Conducting an IM conversation is simple and effective, with each response taking the form of a speech bubble:

Multiple people can easily be added to a conversation through clicking Buddies > Invite to Chat, and each individual has their own colour scheme and icon to easily differentiate between participants. If you’d like to keep copies of all your conversations, a preference setting can automatically save chat transcripts to a designated folder on your hard drive — worth doing if you plan on holding an important conversation or meeting through the app.

If you’re holding multiple chat sessions, these can be organized into tabs to save having several windows open at a time. Transferring files is also simple, supporting drag and drop from anywhere in OS X.

Audio & Video Conferencing

Obviously instant messaging is great for certain scenarios, but in the age of ubiquitous broadband and in-built iSights it seems a little dated! iChat has evolved rapidly in recent releases to offer a comprehensive set of audio and video conferencing features. Initiating a video call is as simple as clicking the video icon next to a buddies name (providing you both have a working microphone and webcam). If a webcam isn’t installed, the system will fall back to audio only.

Just as with instant messaging, multiple chat participants are supported through clicking Buddies > Invite to Video Chat. In typical Mac style, the display changes to create a dynamic video ‘room’ complete with reflections and visual effects.

The fun doesn’t end there, however. The latest version of iChat has a feature called ‘video backdrops,’ making it easy (supposedly…) to convince people you’re chatting from the Eiffel Tower, under the sea, or from the moon. You can also create your own custom backdrops with your own photographs. It can lead to some really fun effects — I don’t think this guy was actually sitting in front of a waterfall:

As with chat transcript logging, it’s also simple to save a copy of an audio or video chat. iChat will automatically notify buddies that you’ll be recording the session and ask for their permission. Chats are saved in an iTunes compatible format for later viewing on your Mac or iPod.

Sharing Content

The ability to transmit video and high quality images also leads to other uses. iChat in OS X Leopard introduced functionality for conducting presentations remotely via Keynote, sharing a photo slideshow with a buddy, or even a full screen movie. Any file which can be viewed through Quick Look on OS X is able to be broadcast and shared via iChat.

Sharing your screen is also possible, enabling remote desktop control through iChat while simultaneously chatting to each other through an audio link. Great for helping out your technically-challenged uncle without needing to be physically present — perfect!

Alternative Applications

As with most OS X features, there are a number of other applications capable of performing similar functions. While none have quite the same level of integration with Leopard itself, they excel in other areas. A few others to consider are:

• Skype – Great for video, audio and IM with other Skype users, and also allows you to make low cost international calls. No integration with other protocols, however, and multiple video chatting isn’t supported.
• Adium – A great tool for basic instant messaging, supporting every different protocol under the sun. The interface is highly customizable and a number of useful plugins extend its functionality.
• AOL Instant Messenger / MSN Messenger for Mac – Both of these are the official releases from the relevant protocol. Great for supporting more features of that particular system, but fairly incompatible with other users.
• There are far too many more to mention. A full list can be found here with other notable apps including Proteus, Fire and Colloquy for IRC.

Conclusion

Instant messaging has come a long, long way since the early days of IRC. iChat does a great job of offering powerful and innovative functionality, but may not fully support the network which many of your colleagues or friends use. However, for a free application bundled with OS X, the sharing and collaboration features are impressive.

If you have any further questions (or use a different app I haven’t mentioned) do let me know. Also, if you somehow manage to convince a family member that you’re chatting to them from the Eiffel Tower I’d be fascinated to hear about it!

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The new beta brings a number of improvements, including support for adding Windows Live contacts, which has been available on the PC version of the software for quite some time. Yahoo! Messenger also now boasts some of the same VOIP features that Skype offers, including receiving and calling out to landline and mobile phones, call forwarding, and voicemail services, all of which are available for an additional fee.

It also introduces stealth settings, which is a selective invisibility filter, meaning you can appear offline to specific, individual users, and remain online for everyone else. I call this “Adultery Mode.” Shame on you if you use it. Shame.

You can also share huge files, up to 2GB, send SMS messages, and broadcast live video to more than one user at a time. As an IM client, Yahoo! Messenger does present some nice extras, and its basic functionality is straightforward and, unlike AIM, not overly distracting visually. Best feature of Yahoo! Messenger for the Mac? The giant, extremly happy smiley face in your dock. Still, I’m definitely not giving up Adium anytime soon.

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