This is really a post about Spark (our IM client) on the Mac. First, a quick story and some photos.

!http://jivesoftware.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2006/11/bill-eats-words.jpg!Several years ago I promised a good friend of mine that Id never buy a Mac. I was a die-hard Wintel user and told him many times that macs suck! and Id never own one. Well, last Thursday I bought a new MacBook Pro and now Im a happy Mac user. What changed about the Mac? Everything: better hardware, a better OS and better apps. So Nathan: enjoy watching me eat my words.

Using a Mac means using Spark on it full time. Adium is a very popular client for the Mac and integrates in to the OS well. Spark is a good client but it's not integrated as well. Here's some of the things we're going to change about it:

• We're going to remove the extra "Exit" on the menu. On the Mac there a menu option that all applications get which includes an option to quit and has a nice key binding as well. The extra "Exit" menu item can be removed when on the Mac.

• We'll improve the upper menu bar icon for Spark -- here' s a screenshot of what it looks like now. Obviously it sticks out like a sore thumb. We'll change that so it fits the style of the other icons.

• Right now something we're doing is hiding the resize icon on the window frame. We'll make sure that appears correctly.

• We override the UI of some of the widgets so they look better on Windows and Linux. We'll back off that for the Mac so the widgets look like the native set.

• We'll fix a few bugs around window focus and automatic reconnect.

Overall, Spark is a great client on the Mac and the changes above will make the experience better.

BTW, yes I really did make the cake (that's not a photoshop job).