iSight. Have one? Use it often?

xoolxool
Posted:
in iPod + iTunes + AppleTV edited January 2014
I haven't seen a topic like this, so I thought I'd make one. Do you have an iSight or other cam and do you use it frequently?



I have one that i Purchased with my G5 when they first came out. My girlfriend's Dad got on via WWDC so, at least at the start, I had someone to chat with. It came in real handy during the holidays when I could talk to my girlfriend when I was visiting relatives in SoCal. Also, we took it on vacation with us and in addition to chatting with her parents we could show them a bit of our hotel room.



But recently a friend of mine moved back to Canada. We gave him an iSight as a going away gift and now we use every week or so to chat for about an hour. Sure, we don't do it daily, but I know I keep in touch with him far better than most of our other friends, since chatting face-to-face is just a click away.



Bottom line, iSight is awesome as long as you have people to chat with. As the cameras spread like wildfire it will just become more invaluable. I think I've almost sold my Mom on an iMac/iSight combo and if she could talk to me and my Grandma, I know she'd love it. Being free of all the windows virii and spyware is a huge bonus.





So, do you have/want one? And who do/would you talk to?

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 14
    rokrok Posts: 3,519member
    i don't have one, but i do want one. but until more of my friends have them, third party companies will need to come up with innovative ways to use it to get the most bang-for-the-buck. like the guys at delicious monster and their forthcoming library 3.0 app. i mean, there must be a TON of cool things you can have your computer do if you give it an eyeball.







    plus, i have a lot of friends back in canada who i would like to keep in better contact with. we all have fast internet connections, and i'd rather not just do rapid-fire text chatting or expensive long-distance. BUT, i can't just assume others will get one just because i have one.



    i guess it's more of a six-degrees thing. one person who a lot of people chat with needs to get one. and then one member of that circle needs to get one, and show to the others what they are missing out on. and then that effect spreads...



    i mean, isn't this something the apple stores are screaming to have happen? come into an apple store, sign up for a free AIM login (or buy a .mac account), sit down at any computer, and have a face-to-face with a friend at another apple store half a continent away. the apple stores would be come MAJOR social hubs at that point, i would think.
  • Reply 2 of 14
    regreg Posts: 832member
    I make business trips regularly. When I am on the road I use it everyday to talk with the kids and my wife.



    reg
  • Reply 3 of 14
    wrong robotwrong robot Posts: 3,907member
    I got one, I don't use it very often, I use it mostly to record videos, or as a digital camera(which I don't have) A couple of my friends are looking into getting one though, so I should be able to use it more.
  • Reply 4 of 14
    beigeuserbeigeuser Posts: 371member
    From my perspective, the iSight/iChatAV is possibly the greatest thing that Apple has done.



    I am a U.S. citizen living in Japan right now. So I am currently living more than 2,000 miles away from my family.



    In October of last year, I lost my father to Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (a lung disease). A few months before that I was already planning to get my folks a eMac and a iSight so that I could see them more frequently but I was waiting until Thanksgiving so I can go there and teach my computer illiterate parents how to use it.



    However a month before Thanksgiving, my fathers time has come unexpectedly early and he passed away. He was not able to try out the iSight/iChatAV. After the funeral, I got my mom the eMac and iSight anyway. The timing coincided with the final version of iChatAV (included in Panther). She was surprised at the ease of use of the Mac (My brother had previously attempted to teach her Windows but that didn't work.)



    With the iSight, I was able to help my mom through the tough times and that alone was worth the cost of the computer. I really don't think that my computer-illiterate mom could have done the same thing with a Windows machine.



    I still chat regularly with my mom. My brother also works for a Japanese company and has to make frequent business trips down to Japan. When he is here, he usually borrows my Mac to chat with his wife and daughter.



    My brother used to be hardcore Windows. He has now decided that his next computer will be a Mac.



    In conclusion, the iSight is a great product. I just wish that it could've came a year earlier.
  • Reply 5 of 14
    neutrino23neutrino23 Posts: 1,562member
    I have on and take it with me when I travel. I use it to communicate with my wife and kids. From home they use our Canon digital video camera over FW for their camera. It works well. When I was in Chicago last winter my hotel didn't offer free broadband so before going to bed I'd walk over to the Apple store and sit outside and use the free internet available by airport. It was colder than heck but it worked.
  • Reply 6 of 14
    bwhalerbwhaler Posts: 260member
    I have two, and travel with one of them always.



    Never really use it since I have been too lazy to get it set up at home. Totally my fault, obviously.
  • Reply 7 of 14
    dfilerdfiler Posts: 3,420member
    I've got one... but don't use it yet.



    Occaisionally, I use it to spy on workmen in my house while I'm at work.



    I can rest assured that it will be more than sufficient for quite a few years. I suppose it could have better resolution or auto-calibration. However, it already looks good, perhaps even better than standard def cable TV on some channels.



    Power, audio, and video over a single cable. Unobtrusive when mounted to nearly any desktop display. It is very appliance like. Just plug it in and forget about it.



    Yep... in a few years, when the wintel world catches up, I might have more use for it.
  • Reply 8 of 14
    ishawnishawn Posts: 364member
    I thought it'd be good with my father getting more and more into the computers (he's a programmer, but he's on AIM sometimes too) to be able to chat with my parents while I am away at college in Texas...a good 3 or 400 miles away.



    That's all I really see use for. But good enough; family.
  • Reply 9 of 14
    lutherluther Posts: 7member
    I really want one for Library 3.0 but I would like to know if you chat with windows AIM. My family all use windows and we chat thru aim. Can they see the video feed? They don't have a camera but they would like to have a look at their son they haven't seen in a while.

    Thanks

    Luther
  • Reply 10 of 14
    ishawnishawn Posts: 364member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by Luther

    I really want one for Library 3.0 but I would like to know if you chat with windows AIM. My family all use windows and we chat thru aim. Can they see the video feed? They don't have a camera but they would like to have a look at their son they haven't seen in a while.

    Thanks

    Luther



    I'm sure you can. As far as I know, it's just the video chatting feature on every version new of AIM. It's probably just the standard animation feed. A friend of mine has AIM and everything he does I can do and see. So...I would guess not.
  • Reply 11 of 14
    talksense101talksense101 Posts: 1,738member
    I use video conferencing to keep in touch my relatives and friends who drool over the good video quality of the iSight. These days I tend to use Yahoo's webcam and Skype's audio instead of iChat and AIM. The bandwidth usage is much better with the Yahoo & Skype combination. Besides, you can conference multiple people. Skype allows audio conferencing. Your Yahoo webcam can be viewed by multiple people. It is a good thing.
  • Reply 12 of 14
    ishawnishawn Posts: 364member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by talksense101

    I use video conferencing to keep in touch my relatives and friends who drool over the good video quality of the iSight. These days I tend to use Yahoo's webcam and Skype's audio instead of iChat and AIM. The bandwidth usage is much better with the Yahoo & Skype combination. Besides, you can conference multiple people. Skype allows audio conferencing. Your Yahoo webcam can be viewed by multiple people. It is a good thing.



    Apple's new Tiger is supposed to allow conference via video in the new OS X. Does AIM come preloaded in iChat?
  • Reply 13 of 14
    zozo Posts: 3,117member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by iShawn

    Does AIM come preloaded in iChat?



    you can use an AIM login as well in ichat, yes



    Jabber logins will work as well. At least in the latest betas it has had the option.



    I just wish there was a plugin that would allow Yahoo and MSN buddies as well.



    *sigh*
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