When the latest Tiger update announced added compatibility of USB webcams with iChat, I wondered what that meant exactly: was it just iChat? was it just some cameras? My antique Logitech certainly didn’t work any more than it used to (I need to install macam to use it, I have to disconnect and reconnect it every time I want it to work, and it doesn’t work in iChat without iChatUSBCam).

Well, it turns out that 10.4.9 will recognize any webcam that sports a Vista logo (yeah, don’t you love the irony of that). I haven’t tested yet, and I’m not sure whether I’ll buy the Xbox Live cam or a Logitech (well, since I own an Xbox, I guess it would be a little stupid not to buy the webcam I could use with it to moon my Uno opponents), but it seems to make sense (if you don’t want to read the forum thread, the idea is that Vista certification includes compatibility with some new universal USB webcam standard, which 10.4.9 can now handle — and those cams will work in iChat, PhotoBooth, etc., system-wide that is.)

P.S. That means the next cameras Apple releases, whether it be a stand-alone USB iSight or Cinema Displays with integrated webcams, will be 100% compatible with Windows, no driver needed. A point to remember for the next round of speculations.