New iSight?

[otoloui]

I'm thinking about purchasing an iSight. Does anyone know if Apple will be releasing a new version in the next week to month?

Thanks!

[Solafaa]

Just wait till they say something about it, they have a keynote or whatever its called in Jan i think.

[unixkid]

i dont think they will... how much could they possibly improve? and an improvment would raise the price i would think.

[jared_kipe]

The current isight is a really good camera, it will see better picture with tiger. The only real improvement would be to add something that a few other camera's have, mainly the ability for it to track your face as you move around a little bit. But I don't see it happening anytime soon.

[combatcolin]

I do know that the current iSight has a magnetic attachment as well as the normal clip on.

As for upgrades, wireless iSight? if Apple increased the thickness of the barrel they could fit the tech/batteries.

[munkle]

I really don't think we're going to be getting any new iSights, the improvements are going to come from the software side with the upcoming introduction of H.254/AVC (catchy name Apple!) in Tiger.

[otoloui]

All good points. Thanks everyone!

[atomiton]

I really don't think we're going to be getting any new iSights, the improvements are going to come from the software side with the upcoming introduction of H.254/AVC (catchy name Apple!) in Tiger.
I have been researching video conferencing for my company. A tandberg employee was impressed at what Apple is doing with H.264.

H.264 isn't an Apple's Standard, it's a standard which has been used in every video conferencing system for the past year or two. H.263 is the old format, and H.323 is the data format (And SIP is a competing format for Data... but has too many flavors right now... and isn't standardized). The key is that you need the processing power to compress/decompress the stream (As well as a high quality camera)

We're looking at a realistic reliable throughput of 384kbps over the internet with T1s at each end. H.264 finally allows VC to be TV quality sound and imaging... you start to lose quality around 128kbps, but it's not too bad.

Interestingly, both Sony and Tandberg systems use variants of AAC for their audio portion.

[aricher]

Very interesting info atomiton. Can't wait to see how it's all implimented in Tiger. I love my iSight and hope it gets even better via software rather than hardware.

[dav]

The only real improvement would be to add something that a few other camera's have, mainly the ability for it to track your face as you move around a little bit. But I don't see it happening anytime soon.

Spooky!
:eek:

[atomiton]

Spooky!
:eek:

this is on some high end VidConf Hardware.

[~Shard~]

I don't see any updates to iSight in the near future - there isn't really much to update. The only type of update I could see Apple announcing would be in the form of a slight price drop, but even this is unlikely in my opinion.

[aswitcher]

I see a new iSight for Tiger, with general optical advances for low light, designed to improve image quality inline with the power of the new codec, and hopefully with a wideangle option or zoom to assist in small business vid cons.

[~Shard~]

I see a new iSight for Tiger, with general optical advances for low light, designed to improve image quality inline with the power of the new codec, and hopefully with a wideangle option or zoom to assist in small business vid cons.

Those are some good thoughts, especially with the new version of iChat which will be included in Tiger - guess we'll see....

[aricher]

The REAL improvement for iSight and videoconferencing in general will be improvments in display technology. the most frustrating thing about V.C. is that you're never looking the person you are taking to right in the eyes. I can forsee a time when the monitor has active cameras either built-in behind the screen or directly integrated in the screen itself - thus giving the appearance of looking into the person's eyes instead of looking down at their picture.

That said, I really love this technology and the iSight is an amazing product. It's fun being on "the cutting edge.'

[~Shard~]

The REAL improvement for iSight and videoconferencing in general will be improvments in display technology. the most frustrating thing about V.C. is that you're never looking the person you are taking to right in the eyes. I can forsee a time when the monitor has active cameras either built-in behind the screen or directly integrated in the screen itself - thus giving the appearance of looking into the person's eyes instead of looking down at their picture.

That said, I really love this technology and the iSight is an amazing product. It's fun being on "the cutting edge.'

There's a good idea - a "two-way display"! The display not only outputs, but also inputs, i.e. has a built-in camera to record your face and then display your party's face. Don't know how the hell it would work, but it's definitely "thinking different"! ;)

[aricher]

Yeah, the display would have to be a two-way camera device. It'll happen some day - mark my words. It's the only way that eye-to-eye natural feeling videoconferencing will be possible unless, of course, we move to a two way high-def 3D projection system.