Hi,
Idle is the time that there is no Keyboard or mouse input to the computer.
After 10 mins any Buddy List set to Available will go Amber and this will show to your Buddies (Normally the time since will also be displayed, starting at that 10 minute mark).
Away is Logged in but you have chosen to Display an Away message.
This displays as Red and can mean you are still at the computer making inputs.
You can see if an Away Buddy is in fact Idle as well by mousing over the Buddy List.
In iChat 4 and 5 any Idle time is noted when the Buddy's info shows up.
(Other Apps that log in to AIM display Away and Idle icons in some cases = 4 states compared to iChat's 3)
If your computer is set to Sleep at some point after the 10 Mins is up then iChat will use the setting in the General Section About what to do when you Return (The wording makes in seem like "Away" which leads to some confusion.)
There is in fact not a lot of usable difference between them.
7:55 PM Wednesday; February 23, 2011
Please, if posting Logs, do not post any Log info after the line "Binary Images for iChat"
