More crap I found about iChat and Mail. You getting bored yet?
The way iChat, Address Book, and Mail work together is really cool. But let's start just with Mail.
Mail, I always thought just kinda sucked. I mean, Entourage has so much more to it. But with Jaguar, I have a feeling Mail will work for me just fine. Entourage has a built in calendar, task list, notes, and address book. That's all cool and all, but I can now use the Address Book and iSync and I got an address book on my iPod, Palm, and it works with Mail. No exporting and importing between programs. The calendar is nothing compared to iCal which I'll have soon. Tasks I can live without. Notes, I'll use stickies. Having things all in one program makes it a lot more convienent, or so I would think. But does Entourage sync the address book with my Palm? Not well. Does it sync with my iPod? Not without using another program to export the contacts to it. It may work, but not easily. Does Entourage sync my calendar with my iPod and Palm? Nope. Although I end up using multiple applications with Apple's stuff, it all works together anyway. My address book works with Mail, iChat, and syncs easily with Palm and iPod. Same with my Calendar.
On to mail itself. No complaints yet, really. I moved my long list of folders (I have very well sorted saved mail), and got all my accounts setup. It imported pretty well from Entourage. It's a pretty nice mail program. I just started training my Junk Mail filter too. Anything missing? Yes. First off, there's no way to send a message in HTML, you can choose plain text and rich text. It can display HTML emails you recieve, so no big loss. Second, and finally, there is no newsgroup reader. Do I ever use them? Nope. I did a few times in my life, but I'm not a newsgroup guy. Entourage also has custom views, something I never used, so not sure if it can be duplicated in Mail. But I have began testing Mail. I'm leaving a copy of the messages on the server and then getting them in Entourage too. So far I like Mail though, and since it uses Address Book, I don't think I want to go back. Mail is free, Entourage is part of Office. I'm surprised Mail is so damn good!
Now with iChat. You can use both AIM and .Mac at the same time. Basically your .Mac name is actually the AIM name 'yourname@mac.com.' So my .Mac name is behlert, if I login as .Mac and send a message to a AIM user, it comes from 'behlert@mac.com.' I did notice however that you don't seem to be logged in as both. I logged in under my AIM name, and 'behlert@mac.com' didn't come up as online on AIM (checking via another screenname, of course). So I believe that if you login as AIM, then only iChat users can see you online by your .Mac name. It's cool though.
Now for how they work together. When you recieve an email from someone in your address book, assuming you have their AIM or .Mac name entered, it checks their status online. So you'll see the green, red, or yellow dot next to the email if they're avaliable, away, or idle. Right clicking on the email gives you the option "Reply with iChat" where it opens iChat for you. But it's nice to see someone is online and you know you can chat with them. Then I noticed in ichat you can click to email someone, assuming you have their email entered in your address book. Then that will pop open mail (or I assume your default email reader) and start a new email addressed to them.
Big deal? No. But anyone with a Palm knows how annoying address books are. I used to have an address book for Palm Desktop, then another for Entourage. I used to have a calender for both too. Now I have a single address book that will work with Mail, my Palm, and my iPod (iChat too). I can have a single calendar work with my iPod and Palm. To the people who never use the iApps, it's no biggie. To the people who do, they could never, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever go without their Mac. Even using a digital camera on a Mac sucked ass. Then iPhoto came around and I wet myself
My only advice to give people is SWITCH!!!!!!!!!!
-edit-
I forgot. entourage has schedules and stuff you can run too. But most users don't be anything besides have it automatically check for new mail regularly, something you can do in Mail also. Entourage may be better for more of a "power user" who does a lot more than check mail. But for the average person, Mail does everything they want and more. I'll keep testing it over the next couple of weeks. But Mail works wonders so far.
Also, iChat doesn't send away messages. Only bug I've noticed so far. It appears in the profile, but won't send them when people send you a message. Also, no way to edit your profile in iChat. Could use some updating by Apple in the near future. Hopefully Apple puts some time into it, this program has a lot of potential.