The macosxhints Rating:
[Score: 8 out of 10]
- Developer: Script Software/ Product page
- Price: $20
Dan Frakes and I both saw ChatFX about the same time. He, however, beat me to the punch in writing it up, so I'll let his review do the majority of the work in this case. ChatFX is a simple little application, designed to liven up iChat's video chatting feature. Using ChatFX, you can overlay any one of a number of different effects over your video window, producing visuals ranging from simple starbursts to real-time twirl distortions of whatever the iSight camera sees. Most of the effects are simply for fun (our eldest daughter is particularly fond of Bubbles and Fun House), but some (such as the Desktop feature) could be useful at times. (Check out Dan's gallery of sample images in his writeup.) But ChatFX's main focus is fun, and it does a good job of providing just that to your video chat sessions.
You'll want a fast Mac to take advantage of ChatFX -- since the effects happen in real time, they're quite CPU intensive. The authors also mention that it seems to run better on the Intel-powered Macs than it does on the PowerPC machines. You may also be disappointed in some of the bluescreening features if you're a pro user, and $20 is a fair bit of money to spend on a program that's mainly just for fun within video chats. But if you do a lot of video chatting with friends and relatives, you may find it money well spent -- presenting yourself as a ghostly x-ray to your buddies might just be worth a $20 bill!
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