New to the Mac? Welcome back to our Mac 101 series, which explores the basics of Mac OS X, provides tips and tricks, and dives into key features of Apple's bundled tools.

As a Mac user, you've got several options for chat clients -- Adium, Fire and IRC are all worthy -- but in this post we're going to focus on Apple's iChat.

Create an account

When launched for the first time, iChat will prompt you to create an account. You've got five options, namely

• MobileMe
• AIM
• Jabber
• Google's GTalk
• Jabber

Make your selection and enter your information. If you're new to instant messaging, simply click the "Get an iChat account." Now your account is ready to go.

Among my favorite features of some of the non-Apple chat clients: tabbed windows. This allows you to collapse all of your open chats into a single window. That way, there's no need to have two or more windows open. Here's how to enable this in iChat.

From the Preferences window, check the "Messages" tab. Next, select "Collect chats into a single window." That's it! Now, iChat will list all of your open chats in a drawer along side your chat window. To move from one to the other, just click your chat partner's name.

While most VoIP devices are made for Skype, IPEVO has made a version of its TR-10 conference phone with the Mac in mind: It can be used with both iChat and GarageBand.

For iChat conversations, the device can be used either as a speakerphone or traditional handset with full-duplex audio and echo cancellation. The buttons on the front of the device can be programmed to start iChat or record calls.

For GarageBand, the TR-10 can be used as an audio input device to record podcasts. The device only works with a Mac.

IPEVO sells the TR-10 for $79.90 in its online store.

[Via Engadget.]

If you frequently download files via iChat file transfer or Safari, then you may want to know where the files came from later on. This information can be found using a simple Get Info command in the Finder.

Right-click on the questionable file and select "Get Info" (you can also click once on the file and press command + I). Once you are in the Get Info window, click the "More Info" disclosure triangle. Look in the "Where from" field to identify your file's origin.

If you downloaded the file from an iChat file transfer, you will see the person's name, handle, and date/time of download. If you downloaded the file using Safari, you might see the URL for the site you downloaded the file from. Please note that this will not work for all files, and your experience may vary if you are using non-Apple browsers or chat tools.

Want more tips and tricks like this? Visit TUAW's Mac 101 section.

When using iChat, do you sometimes feel like you're stuck back in 2005? Away from all the glory and marvels of today's modern social networking? Bring your iChat client into the golden age and sign up for iChat Buddy Updates at AOL's site so you can share your status messages as social-network updates.

Buddy updates transform iChat into a social network tool. You'll see a status feed from all your buddies including all the status changes you might have missed while you were out. You'll learn that your pal went to the gym 90 minutes ago and out to eat 75 minutes ago and into a meeting 4 minutes ago. (Great workout, huh?)

What's more, you can add your Twitter, Flickr and other site feeds into the mix so it's not just a steady stream of "away", "available", "away", "available" notations.

And of course, once you know you're building an audience with this new beta tool, you're sure to start using more interesting status messages than "Work only! Evil overlords on a case-by-case basis" all the time.

Buddy updates are a free service of AIM. Sign in with your iChat user name and ID at the buddy update site.

Full Disclosure: TUAW is an AOL property.

More Mac 101, our ongoing series of tips and tricks for new and returning Mac users. If you're an iChat user with a need for immediate attention, AIM Blasts makes it easy to add social networking groups to iChat.

When you want to have a conversation with a group of people, blasts let you IM everyone in your selected group at once, without having to invite them to a special chat room. For example, you might have friend groups, work groups, or, thinking of Scott McNulty, your special D&D buddies. MobileMe users can take advantage of AIM blasts, since all .Mac and MM users are automatically AIM users as well. Just log in to AIM.com as yourname@me.com (or mac.com) -- you'll be able to take advantage of all of AOL's instant-messaging hospitality.

You don't set up your blast in iChat. Instead, point your browser at blast.aim.com. There, you'll be able to invite your friends and establish your new group. All joining and messaging is done from inside iChat itself. Blast groups appear in iChat as a separate group in your Buddies list -- scroll down in the buddy list if you have trouble finding your blast groups. It may help to give them names that are distinct from any buddy groups you already have, or perhaps prefix your blast groups with a "B-" to help them stand out.

When setting up your blast group, you decide whether all members or only admins (i.e., you) can send messages and/or invitations. Blast recipients have to accept your invite to be part of a blast group, so you may want to give them a heads-up in advance (especially if your blast group's name is obscure or edgy).

Just so you know: TUAW and Weblogs, Inc. are part of AOL.

I'm always, well, tickled by the things that can happen when you use Terminal commands that begin with "defaults write" -- thus changing the preferences for applications, the Finder, and more, often in ways that you can't accomplish via GUI pref settings. I also get a certain warmness from Leopard's Data Detectors, but I have to confess I rarely use them. It's fun to watch the things that Mail can pick up on, and I've often tested to see what exactly iCal will make of it, but I guess some people just get better emails than I do. Strangely, I do get dates and info via instant messaging on a more regular basis.

You can enable Data Detectors in iChat with one simple command in Terminal:

defaults write com.apple.iChat EnableDataDetectors 1

You can disable it using the same command, but change the '1' to a '0.' Now you get the fun job of calling your closest Mac-using relative and explaining Terminal so they can use a feature that Apple hid from public view for what I can only assume were valid reasons. I hope your aunt has her screen-sharing figured out.

[via Mac OS X Hints]