Chax 1.4.7 Beta 1

Louis at 2006-11-11 10:20:30 -0500

I've noticed this little bug/annoyance started in 1.4.6 and still is in 1.4.7. It's when my buddylist is minimized and I click on my iChat icon in the dock, it doesn't reappear. However, when I tell Chax to show my AIM list upon clicking on the icon, it ALWAYS shows it rather than the standard iChat behavior of showing it only when there are no other windows. Could you please offer an option to return this setting back to the iChat standard?

Allen Hancock at 2006-11-11 11:17:53 -0500

Wow, that's pretty cool! How is the SMS sent? (via which service) and is there a charge per SMS?

Kent Sutherland at 2006-11-11 11:19:53 -0500

SMS messages are sent through AIM, which has built-in support for messaging phones in the US. There is no charge for using AIM, but whatever fees that apply for text messages phone-side still apply.

Thom at 2006-11-11 21:13:53 -0500

Weird. SMS works for some, not for others. Success sending to TMobile (to a friend; result: "Your IM has been sent to my mobile device," etc.), failure sending to Cingular (to myself; result: "The person is not currently online"). Tested this against the widget SMS 3.3 from keakaj.com, which worked in all cases. Hope I'm doing something wrong. I will totally love this feature of Chax once I get it working!

bdj21ya at 2006-11-12 08:47:57 -0500

Great program man, really fixes a lot of things that were lacking in iChat. One thing I would REALLY love to see is the option to show contacts from more than one list (AIM, Jabber, Bonjour) in a single window, and the option to show contacts from more than one list when clicking on the menu bar icon (I usually keep iChat closed, but rely on this to see who is online, and it's annoying to have to switch between the lists and see only one at a time).

Michael Coyle at 2006-11-12 12:28:35 -0500

You may need to add a pref option for SMS number formatting. For example, because I use Skype, alll my Addressbook entries are formatted as: +1-312-555-1212 Chax seems to add an addition '1' to that. Thanks! MIchael

Josh at 2006-11-12 18:19:09 -0500

So this is more of a feature request than anything else. The "More Info" window is awesome. I discovered it one day by chance, and now I can't live without it. One Request: Is there a way to make this window come up instead of the "tool tips" text (full away message) when I hover over a name? The More Info window is virtually the only way to click a link in an away message, other than IMing the person to get their auto-reply.

jimpa at 2006-11-13 17:44:39 -0500

ever considered adding auto accept video chat as well as text? this would be a great way to keep an eye on your office when away. just a thought.

MysticalOS at 2006-11-15 05:34:42 -0500

I agree with a lot of the stuff posted here. Every new build you do Kent and you inspire peoples dreams for ichat improvements they know you're going to have to do because Apple doesn't quite prioritize the right features..

Clint at 2006-11-15 13:30:24 -0500

so, i was using 1.4.6 version and it always showed ichat as using around 55% of my cpu during regular usage, and even when i wasn't chatting. but with the 1.4.7b, it shows its around 22%. this is still kind of high don't you think? is it known to use more cpu than my browser?

Ichuza at 2006-11-15 14:08:16 -0500

[Posted here because contact page is down.] I have a minor feature request. I've noticed other related tools have a similar problem, so maybe iChat's APIs are limited in this fashion. I'd like the ability to have activity log/growl alerts when someone's status message changes, even if their status did not change from away to available or available to away. Right now, if someone changes their away message from "hi" to "bye," it is not recorded or reported. Sometimes people communicate through away messages, and it's nice to see which ones you missed. Thanks for an incredibly useful tool.

ljun at 2006-11-16 06:04:47 -0500

SUGGESTION :) Maybe a way to allow for font size/style changes on your iChat but have them NOT show up on the other party? For instance, I have a 30-inch cinema display, and I want the font at size 14 so I can read it, but I don't want the font to be size 14 for the other person :)

Jay Soffian at 2006-11-17 16:44:54 -0500

I'd like to +1 the previous comment. I'd love to see a "Reformat outgoing messages" similar to iChat's "Reformat incoming messages." I find it annoying that when I cut/paste text the style gets sent along with it. j.

Jay Soffian at 2006-11-17 16:47:31 -0500

(Basically I'd like "Paste and Match Style" to be the default, but being able to set a font to reformat the outgoing message independently would be nice)

Sönke Ebert at 2006-11-20 12:44:22 -0500

I dicovered a problem with special characters. I don't know if it's related to iChat or to ICQ/AIM. Currently, in away messages there are no special characters diplayed, like German umlauts e.g. It would be nice to see "Nicht verfügbar" (not available) in the status. Great tool, I love it! Thanks

jd at 2006-11-20 22:05:16 -0500

any plans or any thoughts on a hack to make a mute option for that annoying reply sound when you chat?

Nick at 2006-11-22 00:25:45 -0500

Ken - Thanks for the ongoing good work. I just dropped a small donation in your direction... It's only a couple of bucks (wish it could be more), but I hope you know how appreciated your efforts are... Thanks!

wm at 2006-11-24 05:32:27 -0500

Suggestion: Could you please separate the hiding of chat windows and the hiding other windows so that open chat windows will not be hidden when ichat is deactivated (whereas contact lists or other windows will be)? Could you also add an option so that new chat attempts will be automatically accepted and either added to already open chat windows or a new chat window (though if the previous option is activated these new windows should not be shown until ichat is actived the next time)? Thanks.

joh at 2006-11-26 18:48:23 -0500

This looks like minor thing, but it keeps to annoy me regularly: The Log Viewer window doesn't remember its size and position. I keep resizing and repositioning it over and over and it's always at its default size and position after starting iChat. Not to be critical, but I really like software to adhere to the most basic interface guidelines and one of these is that windows just should remember such things... Apart from that, I so far really like Chax. It's just plain useful.

Alan at 2006-11-27 01:38:08 -0500

Hello Kent, my wish is the support of jabber transport names in address book. I connect to a jabber server, then use a transport to connect to my friends with aim and msn. So my friend's username@hotmail.com becomes username%hotmail.com@msntransport.mytransportserver.com The problem is that Jabber doesn't show nick (it shows that ugly and long jabber id), but in my address book i have the correct addresses. Your work would consist in truncating all the nicks that contain the "%" sign at the "@" sign, and replacing the "%" with "@", so for example: If username is contain "%" and "@" (such as username%server@transport.com) remove "@transport.com" replace "%" with "@" check the addressbook for "username@server" get nick for "username@server" end if :) That should explain well enough what I'd like to have.. Thanks!

blade at 2006-11-27 11:49:07 -0500

I would love to see a feature in CHAX that allows for auto resizing of photos that are dropped into iChat. How many times has iChat gone bonkers after dropping a large photo into it. It would be awesome if a photo were dropped in if CHAX asked what size ou want to send it as.

ryan at 2006-11-28 14:56:21 -0500

Since everyone else is dropping in feature requests, i may as well also :-) My biggest want item for iChat/chax is when a chat is opened with a contact it shows the last few messages history in the chat window, like Adium does. This would be nice since i often will send a quick message to someone asking them something and they sometimes reply an hour later with "Okay", long after i have closed the chat window and forgotten what I asked them ;-) .

Peter Paul Sadlon at 2006-11-29 12:33:17 -0500

I'm having an AIM disconnection issue related to Chax. Under Chax 10.4.6 & 10.4.7b1 I am consistently disconnected from AIM as soon as I try to connect. Removing Chax completely allows for normal connection of iChat to the AIM servers and reinstallation of Chax returns the issue. Trashing preferences doesn't improve the situation. For the sake of troubleshooting, I am using iChat AV 3.1.5 (v436) with InstantMessage framework v427 on MAC OS X 10.4.8.

Peter Paul Sadlon at 2006-11-29 12:41:58 -0500

Follow up: installing when you have an active AIM connection (via iChatAgent) bypasses the issue until you have to reconnect.

mychael at 2006-11-29 13:56:01 -0500

I'm having the same problem as Louis. Once I close the ichat window I am unable to open it back up. I have troubleshooted this and have come down to that it is th chax plug-in that is causing this. Is there a solution in the works?

doug at 2006-11-29 18:55:48 -0500

hi - great product! couple of features that would be nice - option to display just first names of contacts if you want - option to display different chats as JUST their icons, on top OR on either side! (many more could fit in a typically sized window) - i'd love it if you could set up the tabs to move the left (or top if on side) if there are new messages. i.e. if only 3 tabs are showing and the 5th gives a new message it moves to the 1st position for visual. maybe have the ichat icon keep bouncing too until you've removed all reds... keep up the good work!

xactothefuture at 2006-12-01 22:45:52 -0500

thanks for heeding our suggestions!!!

Mart at 2006-12-02 23:13:19 -0500

Here's another useful feature that could be added. It would be pretty nice if you could just somehow add a notification window to iChat main window(s) when your status is Away, with a nifty button to quickly return to the Available status. It would help when the "absent on screensaver" option is on, without the automaticaly become available off. I could then choose if I want to come back on my computer as Available, of actually still showing as Away.

Steve at 2006-12-03 15:26:12 -0500

It would be really super if you included a way to change the look iChat from brushed metal to either unified aqua, or even the new iLife dark metal look. I've seen it done all sorts of ways in Safari and I wonder if its possible in iChat. Thanks!

Zac at 2006-12-05 01:31:44 -0500

Just wanted to notify you that I've been having problems with iChat unexpectedly quitting when I accidentally lose my connection with AIM. This only happens when I have Chax installed.

Kevin at 2006-12-05 14:50:51 -0500

This is awesome. In case you don't already know about this, I noticed a minor bug with the "More Info" box. If I click it for a contact whose entire status message is a hyperlink, then all status messages for all contacts I view with "More Info" will be highlighted by that same hyperlink until restarting iChat. I can send you screen shots if you want.

Peter Paul Sadlon at 2006-12-05 16:27:43 -0500

Was ultimately able to solve my AIM disconnect on connection attempt issue by trashing the Chax Application support folder (apparently something got corrupted). If I may respectfully suggest Uno ( http://gui.interacto.net/ ) to Steve. It applies the unified interface all over the OS including iChat. Like bdj21ya, I too would like to see a combined multi-service buddy list option at some point in the future.

adhd at 2006-12-05 19:41:35 -0500

Hi, I took the liberty to request an another feature - it would be really nice, if 'iChat' context menu in Address Book would show up for Jabber contact as well, not only AIM contacts. Thanks for doing good job! adhd

A Bartos at 2006-12-06 18:19:33 -0500

I've been using chax for quite some time, always updating it. But at 1.4.6, it ceased to work. I upgraded to 1.4.7, and the same. Ichax doesn't even appear in the ichat preferences. I downgraded to 1.3.2 I believe, and it works. I would love to be current and take advantage of the new features. I'm running a G5 with OS 10.4.3. Any advice?

russ at 2006-12-06 20:54:08 -0500

I love Chax. One thing I would love to be able to do in iChat is to have the current iTunes track as my away message, i.e. in red. So when I'm using my iBook as my stereo, etc. my friends can see what I'm listening to but also know that if they message me I won't write back for a while. Keep up the great work! Russ

HOnza at 2006-12-07 03:38:08 -0500

Kent, great work! This may not apply to 80 % of your users but there are several issues I am experiencing, some of which may be caused by the fact I am working with 2 monitors arrangement. The most annoying - autoresizing the buddy list window moves the window down. I would like the window to keep its position when being resized. Failing to notice new messages - when there are more chats/tabs than can fit, only a hardly noticeable >> arrow indicates there are more chats, but I don't see how many and whether any of them requires my attention. I prefer not to be disturbed by new messages in any way (not even a sound), but when I look at the chats window I want to know if there is anything I have to react to without having to click anywhere. Another issue with auto-resizing. Sometimes when nobody is available, the window's "metalic" header resizes and when buddies become available they do not appear because the window is too small (it has the right size but the header is taller, so less space remains for buddies). The More Info window does not behave well in multi-display configuration. For me it appears partially on one screen, parially on another and partially invisible, making it absolutely useless.

LDMackSAE at 2006-12-07 15:08:45 -0500

I originally installed Chax 1.4.5 and it worked wonderfully. When 1.4.6 was released, I installed it and it caused iChat to give me the message "iChat Internal Error! NSInvalidArgumentException: nil is not a valid persistent store" iChat then has to be force quit. 1.4.7b1 has this same issue. I'm using a Powerbook G4 running OSX 10.4.8. Hope this can be resolved, I'd really like to use this software again!

Daniel at 2006-12-07 16:21:16 -0500

Would like to donate. Paypal is evil (http://www.paypalsucks.com). Any alternatives?

John Kenneth Fisher at 2006-12-09 11:59:14 -0500

Sorry for posting here, but since the contact page is down.... Chax is awesome. Silly little feature request you can feel free to ignore - any chance of enhancing the 'Current iTunes Track' functionality to change the icon to the Album art of the current song?

Jonas Frick at 2006-12-10 12:02:13 -0500

Is there a way to display in the menubar if there are messages that I haven't read? Adium has something like this. The reason being when I am at work, I often get busy and will miss messages. These are work messages so there is no problem there but people get upset if you don't respond to their message in a few moments.

clara at 2006-12-11 15:46:32 -0500

hey Kent, can you (or anybody else) tell me how the fancy image-viewer on your website http://www.ksuther.com/chax/ (on the right hand side) is made? thanks clara

Jonas Frick at 2006-12-11 19:30:49 -0500

I am willing to make a $50 donation if you could add this functionality. My boss needs it and is making my life miserable.