Okay, here’s the deal, friends:
If you don’t currently have a Mac that can support Jaguar (OS X 10.2), go out and get one. They’re cheap. Buy two.
While you’re at the Apple Store (why would you buy your Mac anywhere else), pick up an iSight camera. If the last iSight is in the delicate grasp of a defenseless, weeping child, rip it out of their hands. Just do it. You can thank me later for the encouragement.
Go home, put computer on table, attach iSight camera to computer.
Probably iChat AV is not on the computer. Download it from the Apple website. Install.
Fire up iChat AV, log in, and say, “Hi Diane!” And you can see me wave back.
iChat AV is way better than sliced bread. (For one thing, no carbs.) Darin has been chatting with friends down in LA, face-to-face. Is the conversation quality as good as a telephone? No, or as I like to say: not yet. But you get to see the people you’re talking to—remember the cool videophone in 2001? Here it is, folks.
The grandparents can see the grandkids any time they want. And they did, last night. Currently Sophia is more interested in seeing herself on the screen than seeing Grandma, but she and Simon also live in a world where stuff like “chatting with Grandma and Grandpa and seeing their faces despite a distance of a couple thousand miles” is perfectly normal.
I want everyone I know to rush out and get this setup so that we can talk, face-to-face. I’ll wait right here.