- The new version of AIM has now been optimized for Mac OS X. It sports a new 'Aqua' style interface, as well. Although AIM is OS X compatible, it'll still work on systems with older software.
- Microsoft Messenger for Mac helps keep track of instant messenger communications while using a Mac OS. Microsoft Messenger for Mac is available for download as freeware with no paid upgrades.
IChat (previously iChat AV) is a discontinued instant messaging software application developed by Apple Inc. For use on its Mac OS X operating system. It supported instant text messaging over XMPP / Jingle or OSCAR (AIM) protocol, audio and video calling, and screen-sharing capabilities.
| Original author(s) | Eric Peyton, Colter Reed |
|---|---|
| Developer(s) | Fire developers |
| Initial release | April 1, 1999; 21 years ago |
| Final release | 1.5.6 (February 16, 2006) [±] |
| Preview release | N/A [±] |
| Written in | Objective-C |
| Operating system | Mac OS X |
| Available in | ? |
| Type | |
| License | GPL (free software) |
| Website | fire.sourceforge.net |
Fire is an instant messagingclient for Mac OS X (previously for OPENSTEP), that can access IRC, XMPP, AIM, ICQ, Microsoft, Yahoo!, and Bonjour. All services are built on GPL’d libraries, including firetalk, libfaim, libicq2000, libmsn, XMPP, and libyahoo2. Fire supports OS X v10.1 and higher.
The latest version of Fire is 1.5.6. The program is released under the GNU General Public License.
On 2007-02-23, it was announced that there would be no future versions of Fire released. The official Fire website stated there were several reasons, the biggest being the loss of developers, followed by the fact that most of the libraries used by Fire are no longer in active development. Two of Fire's developers joined the Adium team and wrote a transition path for users to move from Fire to Adium. The announcement recommended Adium for future IM needs.[1]
History[edit]
In the early beta days of Mac OS X, Eric Peyton wanted to have an IM client which would run on this new OS. However, all of the official client vendors had not yet supported Mac OS X, so Peyton started expanding on an OPENSTEP project he had been working on, which used an open source library to connect with AIM servers. He started porting this using the new Cocoa libraries on Mac OS X and a new IM client began to take shape.
Development in the early days was fast and furious and Fire was touted by Apple as one of the keystone applications on Mac OS X v10.0. Initially Peyton hosted the application and did all the development on his own equipment. He then formed the corporation 'Epicware' to protect himself from the lawyers of the huge corporations he was interacting with.
The application was expanded to include the ability to talk to multiple servers. First Yahoo! and ICQ were added, followed later by IRC, Microsoft, and XMPP. Most recently, support for Bonjour was added.
Because service providers at this time used proprietary protocols to facilitate vendor lock in, Fire would often stop working with one or another major service until the application or one of its component libraries was updated.
In 2001, Colter Reed started contributing to the development of Fire on a regular basis and became the second major developer of Fire. They collaborated for a while using the Epicware hardware and finally decided to move the project to SourceForge to take advantage of the free hosting, download, and mirror services available there. Version 0.28.a was the first release which used the SourceForge System.
From 2003-2007, primary development of the Fire application was transferred to Graham Booker and Alan Humpherys with many others participating in development and localization of the product.
On 2007-02-23, development of Fire officially ended as the Fire developers joined forces with the Adium development team to focus on a single IM application supporting Mac OS X.
See also[edit]
- List of XMPP client software
References[edit]
- ^https://sourceforge.net/p/fire/mailman/message/10848647/
External links[edit]
| Wikimedia Commons has media related to: |
- Official website
| Developer(s) | Apple Inc. AOL (partial) |
|---|---|
| Stable release | 6.0.1 (1002) (February 1, 2012; 8 years ago) [±] |
| Operating system | macOS |
| Type | Instant messaging |
| License | Proprietary |
| Website | apple.com/macosx/what-is-macosx/ichat.html |
iChat (previously iChat AV) is a discontinued instant messagingsoftware application developed by Apple Inc. for use on its Mac OS Xoperating system. It supported instant text messaging over XMPP/Jingle or OSCAR (AIM) protocol, audio and video calling, and screen-sharing capabilities. It also allowed for local network discussion with users discovered through Bonjour protocols.
In OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion, iChat was replaced by Messages.
History[edit]
iChat was first released in August 2002 as part of Mac OS X 10.2. It featured integration with the Address Book and Mail applications and was the first officially supported AIM client that was native to Mac OS X (the first-party AIM application at the time was still running in Classic emulation).
One episode of the first season of the HBO dramedy series Entourage had Eric Murphy having an iChat conversation with Ari Gold, marking the first time that this application was used on a television series.
Interface[edit]
iChat incorporated Apple's Aqua interface and used speech bubbles and pictures to personify the online chatting experience. With iChat, green (available), yellow (idle), and red (away) icons could be displayed next to the name of each connected user on the buddy list. For color-blind users, this could be altered to show different shapes, circle (available), triangle (idle), and squares (away), to illustrate status with shape rather than color.
iChat AV[edit]
In June 2003, Apple announced iChat AV, the second major version of iChat. It added video and audio conferencing capabilities based on the industry-standard Session Initiation Protocol (SIP). The final version of the software was shipped with Mac OS X 10.3 and became available separately on the same day for Mac OS X 10.2.[1]
iChat AV 2[edit]
In February 2004, AOL introduced AOL Instant Messenger (AIM) version 5.5 for Windows users, which enabled video, but not audio, chats over the AIM protocol and was compatible with Apple's iChat AV. On the same day, Apple released a public beta of iChat AV 2.1 to allow Mac OS X users to video conferencing with AIM 5.5 users.
iChat AV 3[edit]
In June 2004, Steve Jobs announced that the next version of iChat AV would be included with Mac OS X 10.4. iChat AV 3 provided additional support to allow up to four people in a single video conference and ten people in an audio conference. Additionally, the new version of iChat used the H.264/AVC codec, which offered superior quality video compared to the older H.263 codec used in previous versions. This release supported the XMPP protocol, which could be directly used to connect to Google Talk and indirectly be used to connect to users of services including Facebook Chat, and Yahoo! Messenger.[2] However, support was limited as it did not support several common XMPP features such as account creation, service discovery and full multi-user chat support. iChat 3 included the Bonjour protocol (previously called Rendezvous[3]) which allowed iChat to automatically find other users with iChat Bonjour messaging enabled on the local network.[4]
In October 2005, iChat received support for encrypted communications, but only for paid subscribers of .Mac (now iCloud) service. These features were part of iChat 3.1, released as part of the Mac OS X v10.4.3 update. This version also added support for XMPP multi-user chat.
In March 2007, Apple released the Mac OS X v10.4.9 update, which allowed USB video device class (UVC) cameras to be used with iChat, rather than FireWire cameras only. This allowed a wider range of cameras to be used with iChat AV.
iChat 4[edit]
iChat 4 was introduced as a part of Mac OS X 10.5 and received new features including: iChat Theater (inspired by ChatFX[5] a product from Plum Amazing), Backdrops, and Screen Sharing. iChat Theater allowed users to share any file supported by Quick Look, including photos, Keynote presentations, and movies, over a video chat session.[6] Backdrops allowed users to insert movies or photos as a backdrop in video chats. Screen Sharing allowed two users of Mac OS X Leopard to have control of the same desktop and work collaboratively. Minor features in the new release included multiple logins, animated icons, use of Photo Booth effects in live video chat, and tabbed chats.
iChat 5[edit]
iChat 5.0, released with Mac OS X 10.6, reduced the bandwidth required for 640×480 video chats and upgraded iChat Theater to the same resolution.[7][8]
iChat 6[edit]
iChat 6.0, released with Mac OS X 10.7, added support for Yahoo Messenger account and allowed iChat users to have text, voice and video chats using their Yahoo Mail accounts. It also supported third-party plugins, eventually allowing other protocols to be compatible with the software.[9] iChat 6 was the last iChat version; in OS X Mountain Lion, it was replaced by Messages. The final release, iChat 6.0.1, was published on February 1, 2012.
Messages[edit]
Apple Mac Os X
As part of the OS X Mountain Lion preview, Apple announced on February 16, 2012 that its OS X messaging client would be Messages,[10] and that it would support the iMessage protocol, making it compatible with the iOS client. Messages also incorporates FaceTime support. Apple made Messages immediately available as a downloadable beta version for use on Mac OS X 10.7.
Supported protocols[edit]
iChat's AIM support was fully endorsed by AOL, and used their official implementation of the AIM OSCAR protocol. Using a XMPP transport,[11] iChat could serve as a client for AOL Instant Messenger, Yahoo! Messenger, MobileMe, ICQ and XMPP. iChat could also integrate Google Talk contacts into the XMPP pane.
See also[edit]
References[edit]
- ^Johns, Ralph (October 2008). 'iChat Information Pages Version 2'. Ralph Johns. Retrieved July 29, 2010.
- ^Johns, Ralph (November 2008). 'iChat Information Pages Version 3'. Ralph Johns. Retrieved July 30, 2010.
- ^Marc Krochmal (April 12, 2005). 'Rendezvous is changing to...'rendezvous-dev (Mailing list). Archived from the original on July 28, 2014.
- ^'iChat'. MacRumors. Archived from the original on March 2, 2010. Retrieved July 30, 2010.
- ^MacNN Staff (August 6, 2006). 'ChatFX developer on iChat Theater'. Retrieved August 6, 2006.
- ^Johns, Ralph (November 2008). 'iChat Information Pages Version 4: A Brief review and What's changed'. Ralph Johns. Retrieved July 30, 2010.
- ^'Refined from installation to shutdown - More reliable, higher-resolution iChat'. Apple. June 8, 2009. Archived from the original on July 22, 2010. Retrieved July 29, 2010.
- ^Johns, Ralph (June 3, 2010). 'About iChat: iChat 5'. Ralph Johns. Retrieved July 29, 2010.
- ^AppleInsider Staff (April 6, 2011). 'Inside Mac OS X 10.7 Lion: iChat 6 adds Yahoo IM, account integration, web page sharing'. AppleInsider. Retrieved February 12, 2012.
- ^OS X Mountain Lion Preview — The Verge
- ^Rivera, Melvin (October 17, 2009). 'iChat to MSN Through Jabber'. All Forces. Archived from the original on August 5, 2010. Retrieved July 29, 2010.
External links[edit]
Im For Mac Os X 10.7