| Home > Technology > Skype and iChat to play Leapfrog - what they both need now |
| Skype and iChat to play Leapfrog - what they both need now | | Date Created: 14 Oct, 2004, 12:53 PM |
 I have Skype and iChat installed on my Powerbook and use them to correspond with a broad collection of friends and contacts.
Neither is perfect and between the two there is little synergy currently.
Both have received excellent reviews and are welcome Panther applications with much promise held out for them to further advanced the Mac platform, not just to best Windows, but to make the Mac more attractive to that beleagured groups of PC users.
(Aside: What Schadenfreude I feel when using the "beleagured" term for Windows - with respect to malware - when it was used for so long by the IT media to describe Apple which has just enjoyed its best quarter financially for 9 years. Look at this link to see how easy it is to get forecasting wrong in this context).
Skype and iChat both feature text and audio chat, file transfer facilities, group chats, photo ID for users and receivers, chat history, and the capacity to search for other users.
Yet they also have noticeable differences - currently.
Skype will allow (when it works) very good audio chat which to my ear exceeds the quality of iChat; sending text messages to an offline Skype member seems to get through when they come online; Windows to Mac and v.v. audio works far better in Skype; Skype seems better able to burst through firewalls while iChat requires some fiddling with router settings.
iChat of course offers videoconferencing which when a connection makes works very well, and the promise of 4-way chats in Tiger.
Skype's founder Niklas Zennstrom, has suggested videoconferencing is high on its list of upgrades for 2005, and of course Skype's ability to enter the mainstream telephone networks is a major leap ahead of iChat.
10 audiofeeds for iChat in Tiger is very attractive, but phone calling (VoIP) is surely the next logical addition to this app., as well as phone-in services which Skype currently lacks.
By now, you get the picture, each has its advantages in day to day use, and will compete for Mac user attention, although given they are both free there is no reason to not have them both installed and choose to use whichever depending on context.
For me, file transfer doesn't work in Skype, so even with Windows users I will use Skype for chatting and iChat for transferring to their AOL IM client, or even MSN Messenger if we get desperate.
Lacking in Skype now, which iChat has it in its own cute way, is a way to see your text correspondent is in the process of typing a message, with a cartoon-like "think bubble". Skype lacks this facility currently, and given the synchronous nature of IM, it needs to be in there.
Also lacking in Skype is the facility in the Mac beta to alter the sound when a text message is sent. iChat has that facility, but what it lacks is a way to identify different users with whom I am chatting either in a chat room or individual chat windows.
It would be nice to assign an individual sound to each correspondent with their ability to send me a very small soundfile, saying "Hey Les" or even an option per message, in the way that emoticons convey subtext. Of course, in an office setting where the IM sounds may need muting, this option becomes... moot (!)
In the next version of iChat, as the Tiger homepage shows, audiochat participants have both their picture and sound levels showing up so you can see who's doing the talking which will be a clever useful addition.
So in 2005, I expect these two very useful apps. continue their complementary development, leapfrogging each other, and together, making the Mac a more attractive platform for computer users, corporate and domestic.
Now if we can see inter-operability in action between these two apps, that's a big leap forward. I have no difficulty using both on the Powerbook, and I am happy to see each play to their own strengths rather than outmuscle and rubout the other. There is definitely room for both, don't you think?
Especially if a little friendly competition means they try to out-innovate each other. It seems to be their "innovationDNA" may have much in common. |
| Apple and Skype - how much DNA do they share? |
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