Hi,
Another explanation
AIM is a Instant Message service. (Owned by AOL)
It has apps from AIM (the Company) for PC and Mac.
You can register names at AIM
Some United States ISPs have agreements with AIMthat there email Addresses will be valid AIM Names
Apple also have such an Agreement for MobileMe name (ending @me.com) and the Older ones ending in @mac.com. (I say "Older" as the service before MobileMe gave you @mac.com names)
In fact Apple now allow you toregister for @mac.com names as "iChat Names"
(Therefore Apple IDs that end with either @me.com or @mac.com are valid AIM Screen Names
Other forms of Apple ID are not)
AOL/AIM have also allowed virtually any Name gained from an AOL owned company to also be valid AIM names. These include CompuServe and older Netscape names
Other apps that can log in to the AIM service tend to be referred to as "Clients"
iChat is one for the Mac (Adium and ProteusX are others but have limited functions in comparison)
For a PC there is also Trillian but this costs for the Pro version to Video/Audio Chat.
iChat 3 added the ability to use Jabber and GoogleTalk names.
Google run a Jabber server for thier Chat service.
Facebook also run a Jabber server..
Where AIM is a central server Jabber is lots of servers all over the place.
There are Public ones you can join/Register for and there are Private ones.
There are many apps that can join and use the Jabber Service (Psi, Adium and ProteusX to name some for a Mac.
iChat 6 offers the ability to Use a Yahoo name you have previously registered.
Yahoo run their own Messenging service and have a PC app and a Mac version that has been in Beta for about 5 years.
Functions
iChat can Chat 1-1 or do Group chats (Chatrooms)
It can do File Transfers (in the case of Pics these can appear in the Text Chat itself (1-1 chats)
It can do Audio Only chats (1-1 or 1 to up to nine others, 10 in total including you)
Video chats on a 10-1 basis or up to 3 others (4 in total)
iChat 4 and up can do VIdeo effects and Backdrops (Does depend on Processor for Backdrops)
It can do iChat Theatre (Show doucments from other apps such a Powerpoint, Keynote Presentation, movies, Pics as Slide Shows etc)
It can do Screen Sharing with an Audio chat along side. (you can control a Buddy's computer or they yours)
iChat, as Dave said, is a Mac Only app (Not for PCs or iOS devices)
Face Time can be obtained for a Intel Macs and can Video chat to iOS devices that can use Face Time
Face Time can only Video chat and only to one person at a time (And to other Face time equipped Macs)
NOTES
MSN/Live (Microsoft Messager Service)
Yahoo.
AIM
Jabber
Skype
These are the Big Players in Instant Messaging.
Social Networking sites such as Facebook, Meebo and others either run Jabber Servers or allow some sort of link to AIM.
Google also run an Jabber server and if you have a GoogleMail account you can Enable Talk on your account and then use the name in various clients such as iChat.
Using a GoogleMail or Yahoo account will only allow you to Video or Audio Chat to other iChat users.
If you have many Macs on you Home Network then iChat can make use of the Bonjour link between then.
You can then do all the same things from a "Bonjour Buddy List"
A Page with a menu about setting up iChat 5
(iChat 6 will not be much different)
An Index of iChat 4 pics
(There are some differences in iChat 5 and 6 with some of these but not really enough to bother when setting up iChat 6)
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10:52 PM Monday; August 22, 2011
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