Early Disappointment
Ever since I saw the keynote address, I wanted Tiger for one reason: The three way video chat. I mean: Just imagine being able to video conference with both my parents and my sisters at the same time? Of course, when Tiger came out we all soon realized that they failed to mention in that keynote that in order to participate in a 3-way video chat, you had to have a G4 processor > 1 Ghz - and in order to host a conference you had to have a dual 1+ GHz G4.
Finally Possible
When my dad upgraded his computer to a quad-processor G5, and cascaded his dual 1.25 GHz G4 down to me, the 3-way video conferencing was within our grasps. After nearly a year of waiting, we could finally use our expensive novelties iSights to talk to more than one person! Boy were we in for a surprise. (Pictures on next page)
Be careful what you wish for.
We got our 3-way video conference on yesterday. It was underwhelming at best. To those who are still looking forward to having their first online 3-way iChat - you may not want to view these images. It might burst your bubble. (None of these images have been altered in ANY WAY other than to resize them for the web. It would be hard to make any images look this bad deliberately)
We join the 3-way chat
Who are those people? Did I check the “Witness Protection Program” checkbox? Why is this so crappy?
I couldn’t really tell which side my mom and dad were on, and which side my two sisters were on.
Aubrey gets bored
We tried tweaking things and seeing if we could get it to work any better. Short answer: Nope.
The best it ever got…
This is the best quality we ever got. We could make out that people had eyes, and sometimes we could tell if they had a nose.
iChat 3-way: Not worth your time
When I was a freshman in college, my family and I used to use greyscale QuickCams (remember those old school cameras? They connected via the Apple ADB keyboard port). My dad was on a modem. Sure, it was greyscale - but it was still a more satisfying experience than this iChat AV was for us yesterday.
The real villain
Although most of the blame falls squarely on the shoulders of the the crappiest ISP in the world who are in some kind of contract with my housing association to provide is with internet service. Not only am I behind some elaborate web of NATs (at least two of them between me and the outside world) - they also limit my data transfer to a pathetic 2 GB a month of traffic. To top it all off, the past week I’ve had speeds just barely better than a 56 K modem would get.
January 29th, 2006 at 11:00 pm
It was fun to hear everyone, but I agree… It was hard to see who people were…
January 29th, 2006 at 11:03 pm
Thanks for the heads up, now I’ll have to change my dreams… ok changed, ahh Battlefield 2 for mac I can’t wait
January 29th, 2006 at 11:05 pm
Oh and the first picture is of Rob and I, not nicole and I. Nicole is prettier =) Can’t you tell from the greenish grey color from his eyes? And the three scars on his forehead? =)
January 30th, 2006 at 5:46 am
We had a clear picture of Marla,Rob and Nicole. The side with you looked like the blob. BTW I’m the blod in the redish color=)
Mom
January 30th, 2006 at 8:43 am
I guess we must have been the ones with the “witness protection program” checkbox turned on.
January 30th, 2006 at 11:25 am
It definitely wasn’t worth all the hype. But at least we were able to try it, and no longer have to wonder if our lives were missing something because we weren’t three way video conferencing yet. Plus, from our side, we got to see that there is quite a bit of resemblence between you and your son. Though I think the ultra-sound was a little clearer . . .