Please help me sort out all the various text/voice/video messaging options that are available on the tablets now.

Under the heading of Communication on OS2008 I now have "Internet call", "Chat", and I just installed "Gizmo". I have also heard of "Pidgin" and I know that "Skype" is coming soon (already available in OS2007).

Thanks to zerojays post here, I know that I don't necessarily need Pidgin because I already have something that does "Jabber"... that must be the "Chat" application, right?

So can someone briefly summarize what all of this means? Which of these does the following: text chat; voice calls; video calls? And what would someone need on the other end (assuming not a Tablet) to communicate with me? Feel free to mention the protocols (SIP etc) that each supports if that helps to clarify things.

Thanks!

Gizmo does voice to Gizmo clients and plain telephones. Video to other Gizmo clients, but I think those clients have to be Internet Tablet clients.
"Internet Call" means voice-over-IP, i.e. voice through a VoIP SIP provider like Gizmo, Voipbuster, Voipcheap, etc.
"Chat" means text-chat.

Gizmo actually does voice and *video* between tablets and PCs now. I used it today between an N800/OS2008 to a Vista Ultimate machine. Really pretty decent for their first attempt.

Basically IM = text "chat" in the Nokia world, and there are really 2 ways to get at the popular IM systems out there (like ICQ, MSN, AIM, etc). One way is by installing Pidgin (a popular linux IM client) and its plugins. The other way is using a Jabber server that has various IM gateways installed. I prefer the Jabber route because it's better intergrated into the OS (and I can run my own private Jabber server). I installed Pidgin just in case I ran into trouble Jabber one day, but it never happed

For voice you have options with Gizmo, Skype (again soon), GTalk, Jabber or SIP. Gizmo and Skype are available via their respective installers. GTalk, Jabber and SIP are more integrated into the OS. Any of these can do voice from N8xx to N8xx, or N8xx to PC. Gizmo, Skype and SIP would allow calls to phones as well.

Video is a different story. N8xx to N8xx video is possible via Gizmo, GTalk or Jabber. (GTalk is actually just Google's branded Jabber service)

Video From N8xx to PC can be done via Gizmo currently and supposedly via SIP also (per a Nokia blog comment) although I haven't had a chance to try that out yet.

Technically it could also be done via Jabber if anyone could just find a PC Jabber client that supports "jingle-video". From some reason there don't seem to be any yet.

That should be enough confusion to start.

Thanks for that great explanation. I actually have only one more question at this point.I don't see any reference to any of these in the menu system. Are they separate applications or if they are all modules in the Chat and/or Internet Calling apps then how do you choose between them?

Thanks again!

Those service types are just options when you create "Accounts" on the system. I believe the first time you go into something like the "Chat" application it will prompt you to set up an intial account of some type (gtalk, jabber, sip). (If not you can always create/edit/delete them via the "Accounts" section in the "Control Panel").

Once you have an account (or several) defined, you can enable it, set your presence, and change your preferences on the fly via the icon in the system bar. Really I think it's pretty well integrated.

Thanks again for a good explanation. And hopefully it will help others too.

Are there currently any apps that support voice to msn on a pc?

BTW, Gizmo is also a Jabber servie. Server name is @chat.gizmoproject.com

You can use Gizmo with IT OS Chat app.

As mentioned above. you can use gizmo as a jabber server. If you setup a gizmo account and use the chat.gizmoproject.com sever in the tablet jabber client, then a contact called "IM and Buy" will appear in your contacts list. If you initiat a chat with it and send it a message it will allow you to add your msn, aim and yahoo account interactivly without the need for using another jabber client elsewhere and adding services.
just another quick way of getting access to buddies on the different clients.

I tried doing that before but I found that it just simply never worked for me.