GigaOM » Apple

Quick Tip: Enable iChat Encryption for Private Chats

Dave Greenbaum — Wed, 18 May 2011 21:32:23 +0000

Most of the time what I say on iChat is unimportant and uninteresting and would bore any eavesdropper, but on occasion I need to type a password, a social security number, or an account number and I feel uncomfortable doing that over an unsecured connection, and too often forget I’ve got a great way of sharing such info securely thanks to MobileMe.

Although many of us may have Google Chat, AOL, or Jabber accounts, the only way to get an encrypted channel is for both parties to have MobileMe/.Mac accounts. If you aren’t already using your MobileMe account in iChat, you’ll have to first add it. Go to Preferences and then under Accounts click the + icon. Put in the name and password for your MobileMe account and click “Done.”

Next you’ll be presented with a dialog box confirming you want to enable encryption.

By default it’s enabled so you’ll click continue. If all goes well, you’ll get a confirmation the encryption certificate was requested and within a few minutes you’ll be good to go. I recommend quitting iChat and then opening it back up. Check your account preferences and make sure that it says encryption is enabled. If you use multiple accounts via iChat, make sure you begin your chat via your MobileMe account rather than one of the other services you use. I log out of all other chat accounts just so I don’t accidentally respond to the wrong chat with private info.

If you already have your MobileMe account configured in iChat, simply be sure that you go to preferences and enable encryption. If you haven’t used encryption in a while, it may take MobileMe’s servers a few minutes to enable it.

Once all set up, if you want to tell someone the secrets of the universe, just be sure to look for the lock during your conversation to make sure encryption is enabled. If it’s not, Apple has some good troubleshooting tips, the obvious one being to make sure the person on the other end also has encryption enabled.

Some caveats with secure iChat is the fact that it only works with Leopard and above, and no encryption system is foolproof, but I’d certainly feel more comfortable giving confidential secure info via encrypted iChat than over any unsecured channel.

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How To Connect iChat to MSN, Facebook, and More

Josh Sunshine — Wed, 06 Apr 2011 19:51:28 +0000

iChat is a great little chat client, especially considering it comes baked right in to OS X. However, a common complaint is that it doesn’t support some IM networks such as MSN or Facebook chat. Here’s a way to chat to friends on networks which aren’t technically supported by iChat.

In the latest developer’s preview build of Lion, it’s been reported that iChat now supports Yahoo! Messenger, but there’s still no sign of being able to use iChat with other networks, including MSN messenger. Also noted is the fact that iChat now consolidates contact lists into one window, like third-party multi-protocol client Adium does, so you only need one window open.

In order to use other networks like Facebook chat, you can use Jabber, a chat protocol which iChat does support, as a kind of intermediate connection. To do so, you’ll need to download Psi, an application which will allow you to create a Jabber account and connect it to other chat networks.

Once you’ve downloaded and opened Psi, the application will ask you to either sign into an existing account or register for a new one. Assuming you haven’t done this before, click Register new account. You’ll then be asked to enter a server name. The server I use is headcounter.org, which isn’t in the drop down list, so you’ll have to enter it manually. It’s free, open to all and it works. Don’t worry about the other settings, and click Next. Once Psi has contacted the server, you’ll need to create a username and password.

The next thing to do is link your Jabber account with MSN (or any other chat protocol). To do so, first sign in to Jabber by right clicking your username and choosing Status > Online. Now right-click your username at the top of the Psi window and choose “Service Discovery” from the contextual menu. This will open a new window.

In the new window will be a list of services available to connect to. Find the one called MSN Transport and double-click it. Then enter your MSN credentials and click OK. You should see a message saying that the registration was successful, and another new window should open with a system message from msn.headcounter.org. In this window, click Add/Auth and your Jabber account will be connected to MSN. If everything went as it should, you should see your MSN contacts appear in the Psi window.

The final step is to connect iChat to your Jabber account. Open up iChat’s preferences under the iChat menu and navigate to the Accounts tab. On the left is a list of accounts you have set up in iChat. At the bottom of this list, click the + button to add a new account. In the new account window, select Jabber from the drop down list and enter your Jabber details, including the @headcounter.org part of your username. Leave the server settings to auto. Click OK, and the account will be added to iChat.

The first time you connect to Jabber in iChat, you will see a whole bunch of pop ups asking you to authorize your contacts. Unfortunately there is no way to get around this, and you’ll have to authorize each contact separately. However, that’s only a one-time problem, so you’ll never have to do it again. You also don’t have to keep Psi running all the time. Once the account is set up in iChat, you don’t need Psi at all; it was just for the initial setup.

One final thing: iChat can connect directly to Facebook chat without using another Jabber account, since Facebook’s chat service is based on Jabber. Go through the new account process in iChat, choosing Jabber again, and enter the following details:

Username – this should be in the form username@chat.facebook.com. Your username is the end part of the URL of your facebook profile. For example, if the URL of your profile page was www.facebook.com/fred then your username would be fred@chat.facebook.com.
Password – your usual Facebook password.
Under Server Settings, the Server should be chat.facebook.com and the port should be set to 5222. Leave the ‘use SSL’ box unchecked.

Click OK and you should be signed into Facebook chat. This can sometimes take a while, so be patient.

Got any other tips for getting the most out of iChat? Share them in the comments.

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Google Launches Multiplatform, In-browser Voice and Video Chat

Bob Rudis — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 13:00:44 +0000

Groundbreaking web-based email was not sufficient. Embedded instant messaging was not enough. Google Talk voice chat was too “old-fashioned.” Never satisfied with the status quo, the wizards at Google have rolled out a new Voice and Video service and have made Mac users first-class citizens for the new feature.

As with the majority of their shiny new toys, Google Voice and Video is not exactly available to everyone just yet, but when it finally is, enabling it will only require the download and installation of a small plugin and a quick selection in the “Options” link under the chat sidebar in Google Mail. Yes, that’s correct. This will be a service available within your browser.

Utilizing open standards such as the Extensible Messaging and Presence Protocol (XMPP), Real-time Transport Protocol (RTP), and H.264, Google has built a service that is open to any developer and ready to interoperate with any network, which is all part of their open communications philosophy. It is worth mentioning that Google also sees fit to install their background updater service with this new chat feature. Rest assured, however, that if either component causes any platform issues for you, just run the accompanying un-installer to remove the Google components from your hard drive (so keep that disk image at hand!).

Stored in /Library/Application Support/Google and /Library/Internet Plug-Ins, the plugin seems to be Intel-only but compatible with both Safari and Firefox. Once the feature has been rolled out to your account, just select the “Video & more” menu at the bottom of your Gmail chat window, and choose “Start video chat.” Video can be re-sized or made full-screen.

With the inclusion of video services, Google Talk is now a full-on competitor to iChat and perhaps even Skype. It may lack some of the UI finesse that Apple seems to have mastered and it does not appear to support a quad-stream chat window, but these features could most likely be easily met via a standalone application which is ripe for the making by some enterprising OS X developer.

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Virtual Worlds: Trends and Opportunities

Weekly App Store Roundup: Oct. 25, 2008

Olly Farshi — Sat, 25 Oct 2008 16:00:06 +0000

As we say goodbye to the humble Mac Mini and consider giving a warm welcome to a fresh selection of iMacs, another week draws to a close. In the meantime, a handful of apps have emerged from incubation, so it’s time for The Apple Blog to examine these new arrivals and see if we can identify some potential.

This time we’re running a warm stethoscope over rRootage, Discover, Papaya and social networking tool BrightKite.

rRootage (free): Designed by Japanese shoot-em-up designer extraordinaire Kenta Cho, rRootage is a frenetic and unforgiving space blaster. This is hardcore blasting rendered in hyper-stylised vector form, each level an ever-more intricate series of bullet-dodging space battles against gigantic alien motherships. Those who decide to delve in to the kinetic joys of rRootage will need to check out the instructions first, before taking on the bullet barrage.

BrightKite (free): Much to the frustration of the iPhone-owning BrightKite cognoscenti, this app has been long delayed. Now it’s here, enabling you to check in at your current location and inform your friends where you’re at and what’s going down. With Twitter integration too, this is a must-have for budding social butterflies.

Discover (free): There are indeed several apps already out that turn the iPhone in to a portable, wireless hard-drive, it’s just that the good ones — Air Sharing and DataCase to name but two — cost a few bucks. B-Base, the developers of Discover, claim that their app will be, “free forever,” which is pretty impressive considering its comprehensive and competitive feature-set. If you’re in need of cost-effective portable storage, Discover should be your first port of call.

Papaya Game Edition (free): On paper, or to be more specific, on a glossy 15″ Macbook Pro screen, Papaya sounds wonderful. An instant messaging client, with support for MSN, AIM, Yahoo, Google Talk and ICQ. Unfortunately, the app is woefully ugly and, worse-still, requires your iPhone number for registration. Until it’s been given a serious polish, this is worth avoiding like rotten fruit.

As usual, before we close the doors on the App Store for another week, there’s a final recommendation for you. Remember Free RSS Reader? It’s a seriously simple free RSS reading app which I recommended earlier this month. It’s time to retract a recommendation because while Free RSS Reader is acceptable, Daisy Feed, in comparison, is astonishing.

Daisy Feed incorporates an immense array of features including feed ranking, favorites list, email integration and — this is the killer feature for me — auto-feed recognition. And, just in case you need that extra push to go grab the app right now, it looks gorgeous and is totally free.

If you’ve been downloading from the App Store this week, drop by the comments section and tell us what apps you’d recommend and what you’d steer clear of.

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iPhone 101: Save Images from Safari and Email to phone

Jenny Kortina — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 15:00:16 +0000

I emailed my brother a picture of us when we were little to use as the picture that pops up when I call him, but when he received it he wasn’t sure how to save it to his iPhone (which you need to do to assign to a picture to a contact).

To save a picture to your iPhone library from Safari or an email:

Click and hold on the picture you want to save to your iPhone
Click “Save Image”

Now when you navigate to your photo album your newly saved picture will be there to do with it what you please

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