macJasp

First visit to the Apple Store, Eldon Square

Due to unforeseen circumstances I couldn't get along to the much anticipated Apple Store opening in Eldon Square, Newcastle last week. I did however, finally get to take a look around today and perhaps the most striking part of the store is the huge Apple Logo that stands out as soon as you turn the corner into the new mall.

Every other store you see has their name showing, Apple simply don't need to do that.

I'm really pleased to finally have a store on my doorstep, i've had to drive many hundreds of miles previously when I've really wanted something quickly but I'm thankful that I'm not required to travel so far for my Apple addiction in future.

Using iChat with GTalk and MSN Messenger

For a while now i've been wanting to use a single Instant Messaging client and being a Mac user my preference is obviously iChat, however hardly any of my contacts are users of iChat, most using the popular MSN Messenger, so i wanted a way of using iChat to talk to my multiple IM buddies.

After digging around i've managed to get a working solution which i've summarised below. With a few simple step and 10 minutes out of your day, you can get this working really well.

Setup iChat with Google Talk

Firstly, sign into your iChat with your Gtalk account, just follow the instructions from here

iChat and Google Talk

Once complete, you will have all your Google Talk friends listed withing iChat.

Get iChat talking to your MSN buddies

The trickier part is adding your MSN contacts, to do this you need to download a Jabber client called Psi and add an MSN protocol, which basically works as a 'bridge' between GTalk and MSN.

Detailed instructions of which can be found here Connect Google Talk to MSN

** note ** One thing to point out is the steps above need a slight adjustment, the part that states you add ursine.ca as the Jabber server is incorrect, use jabber.anywise.com and you'll get a full list of servers where you can select the MSN transport

Just make sure you follow the instructions to the letter and you won't go far wrong in being able to use one IM client for all your cross platform IM buddies going forward