So... no iChat to iPhone videochat?
WHY!?
Agreed! That's just stupid. They need to add comparability with iChat before this is at all useful.
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Apple Announces FaceTime for iPhone 4 Video Calls
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Agreed! That's just stupid. They need to add comparability with iChat before this is at all useful.
So... no iChat to iPhone videochat?
WHY!?
Mainly because of how the FaceTime call is setup. It uses your phone number to set the video session up (much like H.323 calls). It is hard to do that if your computer doesn't have a phone number.
It would be nice if the FaceTime feature supported SIP and other H.323 calls. Most likely iPhone 5 will bring that feature.
I think people are missing a VERY important part of this...
iOS now allows developers FULL access to the camera (and in the case of iPhone 4, BOTH cameras)... meaning that if Skype (or Fring) wants video calling, they can add it!
This is going to be awesome and should revolutionize the use of our phone as communication devices
I beg to differ. I currently use the free Knocking Video app on my iPhone 3G and love it. I call a friend in another state that has an iPhone (so the call is free), then I knock him with the app. We talk and I can show him stuff. For instance once I needed advice about an engine part on my car. He better understood what I was talking about thanks to the video he saw in real time.
How so grasshopper?
The feature is not new.
Just never really caught on beyond the "this is neat" phase.
It has limited practical applications.
Can't use it while walking or driving (WiFi or eventual 3G use, you should pay attention to where you're going and not staring at your phone).
Steve needs to use a "real" standard that is actually "open", not his definition of open. Heaven forbid the thought I know.
Otherwise it remains an iPhone 4 only feature.
You're so right ! I can't believe what I'm reading here !
Think a little before write so selfish posts (with a few exceptions) !
What about deaf people ? Are you forgetting who Apple is ? If Apple brings this function to the iPhone, everyone, and I mean, everyone will want to have a similar function in their phone soon enough, like the phone all became touch screen, like cover flow was copied, like many other things. Apple is the true push machine for the industry.
There are millions of deaf that have been waiting for something like that, and now that Apple pushes it, it will become real, very soon and worldwide.
So stop being so selfish because it's not what you wanted, because it's WiFi only, because you find it useless, bla bla bla. And for people who know Apple, you know that at first it looks closed, lacks functionnality (who said iPhone v1 ?) and now, look at it: no phone surpasses it. Leave it time to mature !
Geez...
Woo! Great for them. However, the point was that there's an existing 3G video call standard that nearly all modern phones support that Apple blew off for their proprietary method.
The button on the screen that could have been 'video call' is now Facetime.
We can only hope that at some point the Facetime button becomes intelligent enough to drop to the 3G H.263 standard if the person you are calling isn't on an iPhone4. I suspect Apple won't add that functionality though and "There's an app for that" is missing the point.
They're already using video-telephony for more than half a decade, thank you very much.
I just wonder how long before the Phone companies catch on and realize they're out of Billions because video chat is running free on their networks.
If future lifestyle communication is to make video chatting more common place @ home, business, mobile, the I.S.S. Enterprise... then yes best believe there will be an additional toll charge coming to your internet bill.
In July I'll be a proud owner of an iPhone4...just got to get my girlfriend to get one too, for some facetime.
If future lifestyle communication is to make video chatting more common place @ home, business, mobile, the I.S.S. Enterprise... then yes best believe there will be an additional toll charge coming to your internet bill.
In July I'll be a proud owner of an iPhone4...just got to get my girlfriend to get one too, for some facetime.
No one will use it?
I have to laugh when people say, "No one will use it!" meaning they haven't (if they've had it) or can't see using. I don't think most of you don't get what Apple really excels at doing:
(1) it makes very good, and very good-looking, user-friendly products. There's no denying this. Maybe some other product can do this or that better, or has done this or that before Apple. But Apple knows how to polish, package, and present it--USUALLY--in the best way possible. You may have eaten chicken before, but when a great chef cooks it up and presents it, you don't say, "Chicken, how disappointing." You say, "That's the best chicken I ever ate! And you want more of it." Apple is a top chef of such products.
So. Video's been around forever and no one uses it, but maybe they will now because it's more user-friendly, or just because it's part of their new phone and why not?
(2) Apple knows how to show people that something they thought unimportant can be useful to them personally as well as in general. They do this in their ads. Did you miss the part in the Facetime ad where the one girl is asking the other about which shoes to wear? All Apple has to do is show the average Sex-in-the-City shoe lover that image and they'll want Facetime...and they will use it. They will call up their girlfriends before a date and say, "These shoes or those? This dress or that?"
I mean, really, you don't think women won't take to this in a heartbeat? Showing off to each other new dresses? If they can, they'll use it in dressing rooms at stores! And what about teens/college kids? You don't think they won't want to show off stunts to each other? Or that young couples won't take to this cooing "I love you" with this? All Apple has to do is show what CAN be done with the feature and suddenly, what was old is new again.
(2) Let me ask you this. Video chat is old hat and has been around for years. Fine...and what have developers and app builders done with it? Anyone from another country care to tell me? Apple presents it to developers and gives it away. "Do something" with it--they say--because millions of iPhone users will have this feature on their phones and you can make money off it if you can think up a novel way to use it and sell it to them.
And THAT boys and girls, is what Apple does with such features that no one else does. And why something that seems like nothing new can take off when Apple puts it on a phone when it's flopped before. Games, business, medical uses--it's another tool like gyroscopes and accelerometers for developers to use. Which is to say, we don't know and can't guess how or if this feature will be used in the future--but it might be in ways that we're not imagining right here and now. GPS was in cars--ho-hum. But when it was put on phones, wow! Find out where your friends are. Find a nearby restaurant or theater. Use it in a game.
Maybe Facetime will fail. Apple has had plenty of duds along the way and maybe this is next. Maybe video chatting isn't ever going to take off. But I do think that people tend to miss the point when Apple releases these things--just as they did when the iPad was announced and everyone said, "Sooo Disappointing! It's going to FAIL!"
It's not about whether you will use it, right now, as is. It's about it's potential. Apple is very good at packaging and selling potential.
I have to laugh when people say, "No one will use it!" meaning they haven't (if they've had it) or can't see using. I don't think most of you don't get what Apple really excels at doing:
(1) it makes very good, and very good-looking, user-friendly products. There's no denying this. Maybe some other product can do this or that better, or has done this or that before Apple. But Apple knows how to polish, package, and present it--USUALLY--in the best way possible. You may have eaten chicken before, but when a great chef cooks it up and presents it, you don't say, "Chicken, how disappointing." You say, "That's the best chicken I ever ate! And you want more of it." Apple is a top chef of such products.
So. Video's been around forever and no one uses it, but maybe they will now because it's more user-friendly, or just because it's part of their new phone and why not?
(2) Apple knows how to show people that something they thought unimportant can be useful to them personally as well as in general. They do this in their ads. Did you miss the part in the Facetime ad where the one girl is asking the other about which shoes to wear? All Apple has to do is show the average Sex-in-the-City shoe lover that image and they'll want Facetime...and they will use it. They will call up their girlfriends before a date and say, "These shoes or those? This dress or that?"
I mean, really, you don't think women won't take to this in a heartbeat? Showing off to each other new dresses? If they can, they'll use it in dressing rooms at stores! And what about teens/college kids? You don't think they won't want to show off stunts to each other? Or that young couples won't take to this cooing "I love you" with this? All Apple has to do is show what CAN be done with the feature and suddenly, what was old is new again.
(2) Let me ask you this. Video chat is old hat and has been around for years. Fine...and what have developers and app builders done with it? Anyone from another country care to tell me? Apple presents it to developers and gives it away. "Do something" with it--they say--because millions of iPhone users will have this feature on their phones and you can make money off it if you can think up a novel way to use it and sell it to them.
And THAT boys and girls, is what Apple does with such features that no one else does. And why something that seems like nothing new can take off when Apple puts it on a phone when it's flopped before. Games, business, medical uses--it's another tool like gyroscopes and accelerometers for developers to use. Which is to say, we don't know and can't guess how or if this feature will be used in the future--but it might be in ways that we're not imagining right here and now. GPS was in cars--ho-hum. But when it was put on phones, wow! Find out where your friends are. Find a nearby restaurant or theater. Use it in a game.
Maybe Facetime will fail. Apple has had plenty of duds along the way and maybe this is next. Maybe video chatting isn't ever going to take off. But I do think that people tend to miss the point when Apple releases these things--just as they did when the iPad was announced and everyone said, "Sooo Disappointing! It's going to FAIL!"
It's not about whether you will use it, right now, as is. It's about it's potential. Apple is very good at packaging and selling potential.
Does anybody think that FaceTime will be able to work on 3G with the iPhone 4? What if Apple enables FaceTime for 3G, but only when you have the iPhone 5 that could support 14.4 Mbps 3G, which the iPhone 4 does not support.
Most dumb phones in Japan have it. And they make it real easy. You just select the person you want to call and you can select voice or video and if the person's phone you are calling supports video chat it will go through.
Also it works on the cellular network, across the different cell carriers and phone manufactures.
you are indeed mistaken. it has no such camera. however, the EVO 4g has a 1.3 mp front facing camera in addition to it's 8 mp rear camera.
Did you even bother to read what I wrote ?
And don't make it sound so important; half a decade is nothing more than 5 years and with crappy quality; believe me, I know.
Re-read my previous post instead of spouting something to say nothing, and also thirteen1031's post for more details of what I meant.
Across the ocean?
So, if it's on WiFi, does that mean I can use it anywhere, to anyone, and not be charged for it? As in, if I call form Europe to someone in the States, since it's WiFi, is that free, or am I going to get charged for an international call?
So, if it's on WiFi, does that mean I can use it anywhere, to anyone, and not be charged for it? As in, if I call form Europe to someone in the States, since it's WiFi, is that free, or am I going to get charged for an international call?
Any iPad user around here getting the oppressive feeling his device is missing some important piece of hardware?