February 2007

We get asked quite a lot what webcams and drivers work on Mac. Apple iSight, Philips SPC900NC and Logitech QuickCam Pro 4000 are pretty safe bets. Loads of other cameras work as well as long as you've downloaded a driver from http://webcam-osx.sourceforge.net. See the list of cameras that work (and those that don't) with Macs.

There are a couple of things to keep in mind for using video. First, you need a 800 MHz or higher processor to run video - all G5 and Intel and most recent G4 models will do. Second, make sure that only one video application is open at a time. A camera can send video to only one application at the same time. So for example if you open Skype and iChat simultaneously, the first one gets the cam and the second will show No camera connected message.

If you can't get Skype to recognize your camera, check out our knowledgebase or look at the forums.

With the launch of Skype version 2.5 for Mac more and more people will hopefully discover the usefulness of sending SMS via Skype. This morning I discovered really simple (but very well hidden) way to send SMS messages to contacts in my Mac's Address Book.

Simply click on their mobile number tab in their contact card (see the screenshot below) and the last choice in the drop down list is "Send SMS with Skype". No fiddling with copy-paste or adding new contacts. Click and send.