Meanwhile, there's another little downside to Panther's release: the free public beta of iChat AV is no longer available from Apple's web site. iChat AV is now officially at 1.0-- and as promised, it's free with Panther, but Jaguar owners who want it without upgrading their systems to Apple's latest big cat are going to have to shell out $29.95 for the software. (If you're already running the beta, it won't expire until the end of this year, so you've still got some mileage left on the free ride.)

As far as we're concerned, that's all well and good, since Apple laid all this out when it introduced iChat AV last June. But there is something about the situation that sticks in our craw just a bit: contrary to all sense and logic, iChat AV is not included with the iSight.

No, seriously. It's not.

Really.

We swear, we're not joking.

Quit smiling like that! Sigh, okay, here-- check for yourself. According to Apple's web page, iSight is "Made for iChat AV," it "Requires iChat AV," but iChat AV is "not included" with the iSight. See?

Pretty [BLEEP]ed up, huh?

We're not the only ones who think this is goofy, are we? The upshot is, every single iSight ever sold prior to Panther's release (probably a lot-- we remember it was topping the Apple Store Top Ten for quite a while) is going to wind up useless come January 1st unless its owner shells out more cash on top of its original $149 purchase price: either thirty clams for iChat AV 1.0 or a hundred more than that for the full-on Panther upgrade. And anyone with Jaguar right now who runs out and buys an iSight at an Apple retail store is going to come home to discover that he or she just spent a hundred and fifty smackers on a piece of hardware that serves only as a snazzy-looking paperweight until still more cash gets spent.

Call us pathetically naïve ("You guys are PATHETICALLY NAÏVE!"), but we really expected at the very least that new iSights would come with a copy of the software that actually makes it work. Heck, we're even crazy enough to have thought that all registered iSight owners would be eligible to download the software for free-- call the men in white coats. Instead, people who went out on a limb and supported Apple by purchasing a new product that does just one thing are now finding out that it won't actually do that one thing unless they also buy the software that drives it. We don't sleep much, so it's possible we're missing something here, but doesn't this strike anyone as just the slightest bit... well... sleazy, ungrateful, and insulting to the customer base? Just wondering.