PowerBoost

reviewed by Chris Marshall

What they say: Have you ever wondered if your iBook, PowerBook, iMac G4, eMac or G4 tower has what it takes to host or participate in a multi-person conference? Harness and focus the power of your G4 processor to bring your family and friends together. Invite up to 10 iChat users to an audio conference. Host a 3-way or 4-way video chat.

Q: Can I conduct an iChat multi-person video conference using a USB webcam?

A: Yes, you can use a USB camera for a multi-person chat. You will need our iChatUSBCam product and a compatible camera driver.

Q: How do I uninstall PowerBoost?

A: To uninstall PowerBoost, run the "Install PowerBoost" program included in the disk image. Click "Uninstall".

Q: I've installed PowerBoost and now I can't find the PowerBoost window. Where did it go?

A: In iChat, look in the View menu for "Show PowerBoost".

Q: How do I start a multi-party video conference?

A: In your Buddy List, select more than one buddy by holding down the Apple key. Then, click the camera icon on the bottom of the buddy list window. Another way is to invite one buddy at a time by clicking the green camera icon next to their names.

Q: Will PowerBoost allow me to do multi-party AV conferences with Windows users?

A: No, multi-party AV chats require all participants to have iChat 3 or higher.

Q: Will PowerBoost allow me to do multi-party AV conferences with iChat 2?

A: No, multi-party AV chats require iChat 3 or higher. Without PowerBoost, low end and older Macs cannot participate in multi-party chats. PowerBoost's purpose is to make multi-party chats possible on any Mac.

Q: My multi-party chats look blurry. Will PowerBoost help?

A: iChat degrades the quality of the video based on available bandwidth and this results in the blurriness. You should check the Connection Doctor to see how much bandwidth you're getting up- and down-stream. If it's below 384K, then the picture will probably look blurry. We're working on trying to fix this in a future update of PowerBoost.

Q: Will PowerBoost allow me to multi-party conference from my old G3, PowerBook or iBook?

A: Yes, it will. However, initiating (hosting) a multi-party video chat requires a lot of CPU power and conferences intiated from machines below 800 Mhz may not work properly. The participant with the fastest CPU should be the one to initiate the conference, and can then invite people with slower machines.

Also note that G3 machines below 600 Mhz are not recognized by iChat as supporting video conferencing at all. You can get around this limitation by installing iChatUSBCam.

What I say: One of the hardest products I have had to review, as it does so little, and there is nothing really to it.

That doesn’t mean that it doesn’t do the job, it just doesn’t have that much to it so there is nothing really to fiddle about with. The built in usage meter is neat, but other than flash up down to tell you how much processing power you have available it doesn’t do anything – and the reality is are you going to shut down applications just to have an iChat?

And that is probably the crux of the matter. In my opinion iChat is like virtually evry other IM application, in that it is great fun, but not really a business level application. Sure iChat is one of the best on the market but in my experience (and I use IM a lot) there are too many variables included:

-       quality of camera,

-       quality of audio equipment,

-       quality of broadband

-       quality of machine, and

-       number of applications running.

Of course, multiply this by 2 or as many people you are trying to converse with. The point I am making is that I still can’t see audio and video additions to IM as anything other than a “fun to do” add on, rather than an integral part of the communication.

My iChat experience is usually random and unscheduled – a side discussion to something else that I am doing. From time to time I get involved in a short sharp exchange between 2 or 3 other people as we bounce an idea around. For a more detailed project discussion I use more specific applications that an IM client, and if I need to do a truly professional 3+ conference I wouldn’t be looking at a standard IM client – although iChat is pretty close.

As such a product that claimed to boost the performance of something that had so many variables involved, and which tended to have an immeasurable level of consistent performance in the first place intrigued me.

I liked it, and I still have it installed.

In summary: No reason not to get it as it is really cheap, but I can’t say that it made a huge difference.