Options abound for text chat services on Macs

At moments of weak ego, I wonder how many Macintosh users actually read this column. Considering the more than 50 e-mail messages I received mostly within a few hours of my previous column (July 5), I can take pride that readers are paying close, close attention — to my errors.

In that column, I mistakenly wrote that you had to have a .Mac (www.mac.com) account to use the current iChat or the new iChat AV test version (apple.com/ichat). As I well knew and somehow avoided stating correctly, Mac users can opt to get a free account from America Online via the AIM (AOL Instant Messenger) Web site at www.aim.com to use with iChat.

Apple Computer's text chat services are essentially run within the AIM service, according to AOL spokesman Derrick Mains. That allows a single-user account to work with either the AIM software or Apple's iChat. (In contrast, the iChat AV audio and video services are run by Apple as point-to-point connections between two users, with Apple facilitating the connection.)

Because of this gateway, AOL's current test of new features benefits current iChat users and AIM users alike. None of these AOL features requires iChat AV.

Users on either system can now chat with instant messengers who use ICQ, a network that AOL purchased a few years ago (www.icq.com). ICQ has 150 million registered users worldwide, while AIM has more than 190 million, Mains said.

There's some overlap and duplication of accounts, of course, but it's still a sizable percentage of the online population. Some people also choose to use Microsoft MSN Messenger or Yahoo! Messenger, which may yet interoperate with AOL's system.

Those with SMS (short-messaging-service) telephones or hand-helds such as the Palm Tungsten W can now send text messages via AIM or iChat. In iChat, choose Chat with Person from the File menu (Command-Shift-N), and enter a plus sign followed by the full phone number without parentheses or hyphens, just a string of numbers.

AOL's Mains said that only SMS recipients with Verizon Wireless service can reply to instant messages; AOL is testing this option with AT&T Wireless.

You can also try AOL's "bots," or automatic instant-messaging robots that use algorithms to respond to queries. For instance, the frighteningly useful AOLYellowPages bot can provide listings based on your ZIP code or city.

The bot welcomes you when you connect and provides instructions. I was able to quickly find restaurants in my ZIP code by distance; the listings have Web links that you can click for maps and more information.

There's also ZolaOnAOL. It provides news and stock quotes, and can also play simple games like Hangman or carry on a desultory conversation about how you and it feel. Enter either bot's name in Chat with Person to talk with an artificial life form.

.Mac's new tools

Apple has added compelling reasons to stick with it for your chat account by adding more synchronization features to .Mac. Currently, you can try the $99-per-year service free for 60 days. Canceling keeps your iChat access active, however, so it's a "free" alternative to AIM. If you or a family already has .Mac service, you can add additional accounts for $10 per year each.

.Mac's fundamentals are focused on e-mail. The service comes with regular e-mail (normally called POP for Post Office Protocol) and IMAP, which more and more people have turned to as a way to view their e-mail without deleting it from the mail server. Apple provides a Web mail interface, too, for viewing and sending.

Because Apple doesn't offer secure Web e-mail browsing, essential for connecting over unprotected public wireless networks, I turn to fastmail.fm while on the road. You can use it as a primary e-mail account, or you can retrieve e-mail from other services, just as with .Mac, Yahoo Mail and others. Fastmail.fm has both a free, advertising-supported version and a $14.95 per year ad-free flavor; both allow secure connections.

Of course, Apple's Web mail hooks into its linked-up view of data, centered on iSync 1.1 (requires Mac OS X 10.2.5). With iSync 1.1, you can synchronize Address Book entries via .Mac to have access to them from any computer you use, and you can use those entries on Mac.com to send e-mail or find phone numbers.

You can synchronize bookmarks across all of your machines running Safari via .Mac, and last week, Apple extended that feature: Your Safari bookmark list can be found at your account on Mac.com, giving you the feel of your home or office machine from a Web browser. That feature requires Safari 1.0 (requires Mac OS X 10.2). Both iSync and Safari are free downloads.

With our data lives split up in many locations, and often our only access a machine with a Web browser, .Mac has become a more compelling option for frequent travelers — even if you're traveling among home, office and coffee shop.

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