“Apple recently unveiled a clever program titled iChat AV, and even in its public beta form, it blows away the competition,” writes USA Today columnist Edward Baig. “iChat AV isn’t the first IM program to let you schmooze, see and hear online. But some earlier systems have been plagued with hard-to-figure settings and difficulties getting through security measures. As befits Apple’s pedigree, iChat AV is easy, graceful and an eye-opener.” Baig called MSN Messenger 6 “baffling” and said that its audio was “sometimes choppy and sometimes entirely absent.” He also noted that the video of the Microsoft product “didn’t measure up to Apple’s standards.”