Writing for Time.com, Wilson Rothman compares iSight and iChat AV to iPod and iTunes, which he said both share Apple’s mission of taking “popular concepts and apply better execution and design.” iChat AV and iSight are called the Gadget of the Week in a new column.
Rothman said that videoconferencing has been around for a while, but still has an “advanced” cachet that’s kept away many users. “Not so with iSight and iChat, which are nearly as simple as billed,” he explained.
Rothman called the resulting stream from iSight “fairly decent video — 15 frames per second — and great sound.” He also noted iChat AV’s “cell-phone type echo-cancellation” to keep you from hearing yourself talk while you’re chatting.
Rothman’s test of iChat AV and iSight wasn’t without hitches — he noted issues with network firewalls and bandwidth (he also points to a FAQ on Apple’s Web site regarding networking issues). He also failed to note that at this stage, iChat AV is still a public beta (it’s mentioned in passing in a caption for an iSight image, but not in the article). Regardless, he concludes that the combination is “still the most painless videoconferencing I’ve witnessed to date.”