Fancy an iChat on the iphone?

Posted by T3 Online on Tue 3 Oct 2006

Apple's much-rumoured iPhone could come toting a mobile version of its iChat software, finally making video calls worthwhile.

According to rumour sites across the internet, the iPhone will be the saviour of disenchanted mobile users, combining Apple's classy design with a faultless interface.

So far we've heard it'll sport an iPod-esque music player, pack in a decent camera and come in a range of colours too. Now the latest rumour is that it'll also run iChat, Apple's instant messaging service, and let you videoconference on the move.

The latest iPhone murmurs come from the Mac fans over at LoopRumors, who have learned Apple is thinking well outside the box for the mobile version of iChat.

Apparently it'll let users waffle via video link from iPhone to iPhone, as well as to anyone running Mac OS X.

What makes the inclusion of iChat an intriguing idea is that users could chat face to face with more than one of their buddies at a time, something we're sure chatter-obsessed teenagers would adore.

There are also persistent babblings across the web of a proper implementation of iTunes on Apple's mobile, letting you purchase songs over the air, and sync them to your main music library when you next get home. Now wouldn't that be a poke in the eye for Microsoft's Zune?

We're sceptical that so many stonking features will be crammed into the first generation iPhone. It's much more like Apple to make a beautiful device that works well to start off with, and pile on the features later.

Still, smartphones are getting more clever by the day. Nokia's managing to cram an astonishing amount of functions into its N95 for example, so maybe a similarly tricked out iPhone's not too much to hope for after all.