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Bottomsup

macrumors regular
Original poster
May 10, 2011
205
5
Ive never used FT buT use Skype a lot on my PC. I Just got my first Mac and an iPad 2 and am wondering why I should pay for FT vs using Skype for free to talk to my wife via video when I travel.
 

McGiord

macrumors 601
Oct 5, 2003
4,558
290
Dark Castle
Facetime only good between :apple: stuff, kind of spotty in certain countries.
Skype: also be able to call phones with a decent international rate, not limited to :apple: stuff.
I use both, and both are great.

Facetime video quality is better than skype in my iPhone 4.

Who knows what Microsoft will do with Skypein the future?

I doesnt hurt to have and use both, there is always an alternative.

Sometimes I used skype to call a landline phone just to give the signal to my contact to fire up Facetime.
 

Jagardn

macrumors 6502a
Apr 18, 2011
668
2
Facetime isn't free? Huh, I was under the impression that as long as you have 2 apple devices it just worked.:confused:
 

Bottomsup

macrumors regular
Original poster
May 10, 2011
205
5
Facetime only good between :apple: stuff, kind of spotty in certain countries.
Skype: also be able to call phones with a decent international rate, not limited to :apple: stuff.
I use both, and both are great.

Facetime video quality is better than skype in my iPhone 4.

Who knows what Microsoft will do with Skypein the future?

I doesnt hurt to have and use both, there is always an alternative.

Sometimes I used skype to call a landline phone just to give the signal to my contact to fire up Facetime.

Do you know if FT video quality is noticably better even if I don't have an HD camera? I just searched but couldn't easily find the resolution of the MBA camera.

I traveling to India and Singapore next week and am wondering if I should bu FT. I have traveled to and lots of other international destinals before and the video Skype quality on my Thinkpad w500 and my wife's acerbic netbook was pretty medicore. Now she has an iPad 2 and I this MBA so I'm wondering if it is better. It's only 3 bucks so I guess I should just try it.
 

Bottomsup

macrumors regular
Original poster
May 10, 2011
205
5
Facetime isn't free? Huh, I was under the impression that as long as you have 2 apple devices it just worked.:confused:

I'm pretty sure it isn't. My wife's iPad has it but I need to purchase to purchase on my air.
 

McGiord

macrumors 601
Oct 5, 2003
4,558
290
Dark Castle
Facetime used to be free, after they upgraded the Macs cameras, and released Facetime HD it isn't FREE, and the old version of Facetime is no longer available to download.
The last version of Facetime (HD) comes free with new/recent :apple: devices.

The video quality is dependent on the camera and the connection speed.

I do not like the iPad 2 screen resolution, nor the front video camera quality, but that's me, I am spoiled with the iPhone 4 screen resolution.

Anyway the best way for you is to chip in the App cost, it is worth it.
For example if you cannot connect with Skype or have issues with the call, so you have an alternative to connect.
I have experienced different similar video call quality with both.
Sometimes one works better than the other, but it highly depends on the connection speed and the location.
 

drew8564

macrumors newbie
Nov 20, 2012
1
0
Canada
Which uses up more Wifi. . . Skype Vs. FaceTime

Which would mark up you phone bill on internet usage?

Thanks so much for any feedback!

Drew Lee :)
 

thekb

macrumors 6502a
May 8, 2010
629
23
For me, they go like this:

FT >> Google video chat >> Skype

I have always gotten crappy quality when I used Skype. If I have to video chat with someone out of the Apple ecosystem, like my wife, I much prefer Google video chat. Facetime works great even with mediocre internet connection speed. I have lowest level internet speed (1.5) and am still able to FT pretty well.
 

roxxette

macrumors 68000
Aug 9, 2011
1,507
0
I use both but damm it actually shocks me that they charge for facetime :eek:

Apple wow stop being so damm greedy lol
 

mtngoatjoe

macrumors 6502
Jun 10, 2008
270
56
The camera is important also!

The cameras are very important also. My wife uses video conferencing with her family in Guatemala (from the U.S.) using Skype. The quality from their camera was always abysmal (I have no idea what we looked like). Then my brother-in-law got an iPad, and WOW! What a difference! Maybe FaceTime uses a better codec. Maybe the iPad camera is better. Or maybe his internet connection was upgraded. If I was a betting man, I'd say it was the camera followed by the FaceTime codec that made the big difference.
 
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