Today, Apple introduced iChat AV Public Beta and the iSight video camera.
The long-awaited iChat upgrade adds both audio and video chats to iChat's abilities -- allowing users to communicate with friends and family over long distances. The sofware supports Apple's new iSight video camera which provides 640x480 Full Motion video at up to 30 Frames Per Second.
The camera also has a microphone and interfaces to your Macintosh via Firewire.
The public Beta of iChat AV is available now. The final iChat version which supports Jaguar will be sold for $29.95. Users upgrade to Panther, however, will get the final iChat AV version included.
The first solid info that the next version of iChat would support video conferencing came in February, 2003. Previous hints were made by Steve Jobs himself. Later hints at a communication device are felt to be preditive of this product. Further details were uncovered by ThinkSecret, and then quickly pulled by Apple's Legal department.
