iChat might be answer to big long-distance bills

My dad and I spend an inordinate time talking on the phone whenever one of us calls. You'd think a tool that increased our ability to communicate more readily might outweigh its utility, but Apple Computer's test version of iChat AV proves that's not the case. It might even save on the long-distance bills.

iChat AV is one component of Apple's recently announced Panther operating-system revision, numbered as Mac OS X 10.3, expected by the end of the year.

This pre-release of iChat AV is now free, but requires Mac OS X 10.2.6 and at least a 600-megahertz G3 to operate; my older white iBook need not apply.

If you have a microphone and a video camera, you can have two-way audio or video conversations with one other person. No configuration is required; the program recognizes all standard equipment. You need broadband to push video to another user, but audio has a lighter need for speed.

iChat first appeared last August with Jaguar, Mac OS X 10.2, and it allows text conversations — known as instant messaging or IM to anyone younger than myself — among two or more people over the Internet or local networks.

The revision extends the simplicity of text chatting with the immediacy of a phone call using Apple's .Mac service as the binding force. You have to have a .Mac account to use iChat or iChat AV, and that costs $99 per year, but includes e-mail, Web-based file storage, anti-virus software and other benefits.

For a limited time, Apple is offering a 60-day trial of .Mac in which even if you cancel your service, you retain your iChat name (mac.com/1/ichat.html). This is a painless way to take .Mac and iChat or iChat AV for a spin.

Apple last week also released a pretty iChat camera it calls iSight. It connects via FireWire, and handles both video and audio. Several included mounts that allow you to place it strategically on a laptop, monitor or LCD display.

Although the iSight isn't a full-fledge digital video camera, it can record audio and video via the free QuickTime Broadcast software from Apple. O'Reilly Network's Derrick Story explains the multiple steps in great detail at www.macdevcenter.com/pub/a/mac/2003/07/01/isight.html .

Apple plans to include iChat AV as part of Panther's $129 new or upgrade cost. Mac OS X 10.2 users who want to stay with the current operating system will need to pay $29.95 for the final release.

The iSight costs $149 and includes the ultimate privacy feature: Rotate the ring around the lens and a plastic barrier irises in.

The iSight is small enough that it could be used for portable videoconferencing over any broadband or Wi-Fi network.

Apple dropped the microphone port or included only an odd PlainTalk input (not quite a microphone jack) on almost all recent vintage computers — with a few exceptions. So, without ponying up for an iSight, Griffin's iMic ($35, www.griffintechnology.com/products/imic/) coupled with an inexpensive microphone or headset would allow voice chatting.

My dad is following that solution. He can hear and see me talk to him, but not vice versa, and that doesn't show much parental respect on my part, does it?

Following the Net news: Those who write Web logs or "blogs" suffer from a perception that few people read their sites. Social commentator Clay Shirky wrote an essay in which he said most popular blogs are increasingly well read over time and less popular ones less so (shirky.com/writings/powerlaw_weblog.html).

Reading blogs can be tedious because it requires frequent returns to check for new posts and a long list of bookmarks.

The rise of blogging is paralleled with the popularity of syndication, a technique of automatically updating a simple file on a Web site that lists the most recent items. Most blogging software includes this by default or as an option, and many mainstream news sites have glommed onto this technique as well, including The New York Times and BBC News.

To scan this syndication feed, you need a news reader or news aggregator. Mac OS X is fortunate to have Ranchero Software's NetNewsWire (www.ranchero.com/netnewswire/). The Seattle-based company, comprising Brent and Sheila Simmons, has both a free and for-fee version of the software.

On Web sites or pages that offer RSS feeds, you find a small orange XML icon or a link reading "Syndicate This Site," among other signs. Copy the link and paste it into the Subscribe dialog box in NetNewsWire, and that site is scanned on a frequency you check for updates.

You can follow hundreds of sites without any of the finger work. Addiction is a possibility.

Glenn Fleishman writes the Practical Mac column for Personal Technology and about technology in general for The Seattle Times and other publications. Send questions to gfleishman@seattletimes.com. More columns at www.seattletimes.com/columnists