D o you iChat? Do you iChat in voice or video?
More and more Apple users are turning to iChat AV and iSight as a way to supplement they way they communicate. Still, you may feel that using iChat AV to talk to your Aunt Eunice in Ithaca once a month is a serious under-utilization of a potentially great product. As Leander Kearney relates in his latest Wired News article, many people are finding new and interesting ways to use iChat AV, such as a guy who uses the software, a video camcorder, and a TiVo TV recording device to broadcast soccer matches to his brother.
The article also tells of people who have resorted to using newly formed iChat AV registries; these are sites setup to allow iChatters with a yearning to chat, either vocally or ogling each other via video, to find each other.
From the article 101 Uses for Apple iChat:
In the five weeks since Apple made the software available to the public, a half-dozen registries have popped up, including iChatFinder, MyiSight.com, iSighting , iChattin.com, and Seeser.org.
There are also registries at dotmac.info and at an Apple discussion board.
With several hundred members each, the registries tend to list people by region, by interests and by whether they are available to chat by video or just audio (which requires only a microphone and a modem connection).
Some of the sites are a little more ambitious. For example, iChatfinder features little buttons next to membersi names showing whether they are currently available online, while Seeser.org is trying to set up video blind dates, swap meets and listings of video bloggers. However, the number of registered users is still fairly low and there isnit much action yet on these services.
Read the full article at Wired News.