throwable

One of the new features in Leopard’s iChat is “backdrops” (also referred to as “background effects”).  When backdrops are enabled, the background behind the user is replaced with a static scene, such as the Eiffel Tower or Times Square.

It’s not readily apparent how to enable this feature, however.   After some searching in iChat Help, I found the sequence of steps under Changing the backdrop of a video chat.  When I got to the step “In the Video Effects window, click the arrows to cycle through the video and backdrop effects”, however, I didn’t see any backdrop effects.

A little more searching uncovered Requirements for video effects and backdrops, which notes that backdrops require a Mac with an Intel processor.  That explains it—I’m still on a PowerPC Mac.