Do you have to buy .Mac to use iChat?

idunno · May 17, 2006 9:48PM

I have convinced my Mum to buy one of the new MacBooks purely by the fact that she will be able to iChat with me now that thay have iSights built in, but will she have to pay for .Mac to use iChat, or can you register free for iChat (and I don't mean that crap 60 day trial of .Mac either)

cosmonut · May 17, 2006 10:03PM

iChat works with any AOL Instant Messenger account. They are free.

icibaqu · May 17, 2006 10:45PM

and Jabber (if you want to use your MSN account)

flounder · May 17, 2006 11:06PM

You can also just get a free .mac name for ichat I believe

jbl · May 17, 2006 11:06PM

You can register for iChat for free but you get the 60 day .Mac trial with it. After the 60 days have past, you are still registered for iChat. Just ignore the other .Mac features.

flounder · May 17, 2006 11:07PM

Quote:

Originally posted by JBL

You can register for iChat for free but you get the 60 day .Mac trial with it. After the 60 days have past, you are still registered for iChat. Just ignore the other .Mac features.

Ha Ha, beat you

jbl · May 18, 2006 1:11PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Flounder

Ha Ha, beat you

My mother told me I needed to take my typing class more seriously.

tedndi · May 19, 2006 9:20AM

Quote:

Originally posted by iDunno

I have convinced my Mum to buy one of the new MacBooks purely by the fact that she will be able to iChat with me now that thay have iSights built in, but will she have to pay for .Mac to use iChat, or can you register free for iChat (and I don't mean that crap 60 day trial of .Mac either)

If you have a .mac account you can upgrade it and give your mom a .mac account as well. I think they call it a family plan or some such thing. This way she will get all of the synching features too as well as shared calendars etc.

kingofsomewherehot · May 19, 2006 4:54PM

To answer your question ... "No, you don't have to pay for or use .mac"

You CAN register for the free trial, and then use that .Mac name as an iChat account, even after the trial period (I'm told).

Or without EVER registering with .mac, you can:

- use iChat as a client for ANY free "AIM" screen-name.

- use iChat as a client for any free "Jabber" screen-name.

See, iChat is nothing more than a client for the AIM and Jabber IM protocols.

(well, it also does "Bonjour" within a local network, but that doesn't seem to concern you

)

im-0n · May 24, 2006 11:14PM

wow its free? ok i gonna activate my .mac ..thanks a lot guys...btw all my friends were at msn messenger, and when i try the jabber, it wont connect...audium works, but why this ichat wont..

bell · May 25, 2006 1:59AM

I passed 70-290 with 1000/1000 today, and I can refer a good site, pass4sure.com

I am a fresh man for the certification, and my company need employee get MCSE2003 cert in 3 month, I start with some MOC books and frustrated with huge contents. and I failed at the first try for 70-290, but I met a friend who taking 70-290 also, he passed easily, and I know from him a good site named pass4sure.com, I used 70-290 from Pass4sure, every questions WORD 4 WORD was on the test. Unlike testking where you have to read huge number of questions (which more than half will never be on the test) these were easy to read b/c only about 200 even fewer questions. They also don't change any wording or layout like testking.

im-0n · May 25, 2006 9:35AM

aw man....ichat is nice, but if u use msn messenger or other...u cant use the cam and transfer features....Too bad...is there any other way?

i really want to use cam feature to see my brother face in US and Singapore...

so we can talk more...is there somekind of softwere like audium, but had a nice feature web cam, through MSN? please...

joelesler · May 25, 2006 5:40PM

Now, if we could get Jabber, AIM, .mac, and bonjour all on one list (like Adium) only with Cam and voice support, that'd be great. kthnkx.

Do you have to buy .Mac to use iChat?

Comments