3G iPhone, Front-Sided Camera for Video Chat?

[poorbusker]

Most of us probably know about digg.com, and its founder Kevin Rose. Well Kevin, no stranger to iPhone rumors, has once again blessed the viewing audience of his show Diggnation with another juicy iPhone rumor.

This time he talks about iPhone 2 and the reason why the new SDK will not allow applications to use memory after being closed. He claims that a number of different sources (different from the previously incorrect ones) have told him the reason why Apple is forcing applications to work with one hand tied behind their back is that they do not want a competing Instant Messaging client. Competing you say? Competing against what? Well that is the second part of his rumor..He is also claiming that the iPhone 2 will be 3G capable (obviously) with an iChat program that also has video conferencing. These new iPhones will have a camera on the back of the phone, just like they do now, however they will also feature a second camera coming through the glass directly infront of the first camera. Allowing people to video chat iPhone to iPhone over a 3G network while looking at the screen. Very cool stuff.

And here is the video of him discussing this rumor in which he goes into more detail.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uQ6JEs5swKg

*He also say the name for the product will be something like iPhone Pro, not iPhone 2

[fart]

bah, K.Rose is fulla feces. Remember his first iPhone rumor? "it's gonna be fully unlocked, GMS and CDMA, blah blah blah. If apple doesn't want you to know about iPhone 2, you won't. End of Story. Now go eat some hagus and stare at your Diggnation poster while listing to audio loops of kevin rose on your ipod while watching reruns of the screensavers.

[poorbusker]

for someone who hates kevin rose, you sure do know a lot about him....

[wildcardd]

I think he also claimed on the day of the iPhone announcement that it would have a slide keyboard.

I don't take much stock in what Kevin has to say.

[elbirth]

Originally Posted by poorbusker

for someone who hates kevin rose, you sure do know a lot about him....

Would you rather he hate someone he knows nothing about? That would be kind of dumb, don't you think?

I've often wondered if they would do a camera in the front for video conferencing, so that would be kind of cool. I just hope the second gen iPhone is out in a few months like we're expecting, because I've been holding out for it and I really want to ditch my current phone.

[JBaker122586]

So a month before the iPhone announcement this guy claims it's coming out in January, will work on "all three standards," will have two different batteries, a significant price difference between the 4 and 8 gig models, and a slide-out keyboard.

Sounds like a credible source.

[elbirth]

Originally Posted by JBaker122586

So a month before the iPhone announcement this guy claims it's coming out in January, will work on "all three standards," will have two different batteries, a significant price difference between the 4 and 8 gig models, and a slide-out keyboard.

Sounds like a credible source.

well he did say that it was a different source from last time, but yeah I see what you mean.

[MacRumors]

On his weekly video podcast Diggnation, Kevin Rose says that he's heard rumors that the next version of the iPhone is coming in the next few months, will incorporate 3G and also include a front-mounted video camera for video chat.

A Youtube Video of the clip has been posted.

Kevin Rose was co-host of The Screen Savers on Tech TV and later started Digg.com. He has reported some accurate tidbits in the past, but the last report about the then-unreleased iPhone turned out to be inaccurate. Though, to be fair, Apple intentionally used bogus handset prototypes of the iPhone to prevent the leak of details of the actual product.

Article Link

[daneoni]

Given his track record on iPhone rumors i'd take this with a grain of salt. He's basically saying the iPhone will come with a built in iSight

[caliguy]

I was actually hoping to see this in the current iPhone and I expected the (or a) camera to be in the front to begin with.

Ah, but then we didn't even get at least a text only version of iChat :/

[davekarn]

Originally Posted by daneoni

Given his track record on iPhone rumors i'd take this with a grain of salt. He's basically saying the iPhone will come with a built in iSight

I was honestly thinking of this the other day, and wondering if they would maybe incorporate an iPhone version of iSight to have video telephone convos with other iPhone users. It'd be pretty sweet, just wonder how feasible

[ingenious]

Originally Posted by davekarn

I was honestly thinking of this the other day, and wondering if they would maybe incorporate an iPhone version of iSight to have video telephone convos with other iPhone users. It'd be pretty sweet, just wonder how feasible

this would be amazing. ever see those cisco commercials and think, iChat can do that... I want that on my iPhone!?

[HaGG]

Sounds good, just gotta wait and find out. A camera would be pretty good but is the coverage really good enough? the quality would probably be pretty bad. I think o2 in the UK is only 128k

Would work on wifi though

[puckhead193]

seems cool but in the US i doubt it maybe asia and europe

[justflie]

Originally Posted by puckhead193

seems cool but in the US i doubt it maybe asia and europe

Perhaps, like the Wifi iTunes Store for example, it will be limited to use only when on a Wifi network. I really have zero experience with 3G devices so I'm not sure of the potential thoroughput over the cell network so I can't say whether it would be too slow for decent quality h.264 video. If there's not one already, perhaps there will be some h.264 hardware decoder/encoder chip put into the phone. Wasn't there a rumor about a patent or at least some work being done by Apple in this area?

[Mac-Addict]

His previous iPhone rumours were so trust worthy in the passed :P Slide out keyboard 2 batteries..

[smithruls]

Originally Posted by HaGG

Sounds good, just gotta wait and find out. A camera would be pretty good but is the coverage really good enough? the quality would probably be pretty bad. I think o2 in the UK is only 128k

Would work on wifi though

too slow even on 3G?

This would be totally awesome and I would again buy it the day it came out (assuming I had the money right away)

[caliguy]

Originally Posted by davekarn

I was honestly thinking of this the other day, and wondering if they would maybe incorporate an iPhone version of iSight to have video telephone convos with other iPhone users. It'd be pretty sweet, just wonder how feasible

Not just other iPhone users, but other Mac/PC users, too.

I can just imagine someday when at airports that are fully Wi-Fi connected being able to have a video chat with people at home when I'm on the iPhone chatting face-to-face.

[smithruls]

Originally Posted by justflie

Perhaps, like the Wifi iTunes Store for example, it will be limited to use only when on a Wifi network. I really have zero experience with 3G devices so I'm not sure of the potential thoroughput over the cell network so I can't say whether it would be too slow for decent quality h.264 video. If there's not one already, perhaps there will be some h.264 hardware decoder/encoder chip put into the phone. Wasn't there a rumor about a patent or at least some work being done by Apple in this area?

H.264 is the format all videos on the iPhone are already, I think.

[student101]

Possible, but unlikely. The video chat would be a HUGE bandwidth hog on the cellular network, not to mention the battery. They could possibly limit it to Wi-Fi only, but that doesn't seem like Apple's style to complicate things like that.

[nagromme]

I'm sure Apple has CONSIDERED this. The rumor could easily have a real source from that alone.

Whether they get as far as shipping it sounds less certain.

I'd use it occasionally--but mainly I'd want to show people stuff (not my face) in which case the rear cam is fine anyway. I'd be transmitting to iChat-using friends, rather than to phones.

Still, 2 cams are better than 1! I'd worry about space, except I've seen the iSight in the MacBook Air!

[caliguy]

Originally Posted by student101

Possible, but unlikely. The video chat would be a HUGE bandwidth hog on the cellular network, not to mention the battery. They could possibly limit it to Wi-Fi only, but that doesn't seem like Apple's style to complicate things like that.

They did it with the iTunes Store.

[SilentLoner]

3g video calling with face to face chat is possible already over here.

[nostaws]

I don't know...video chat is pretty gimmicky.

I have skype on my mac and video chat with other family members using skype (since they don't have macs/ichat). After a week of being novel, I just don't use it much. iChat and Skype are very cool, don't get me wrong, but beyond the wow factor...

And I don't see corporate using it much more.

I'd like to see the numbers on how many people really communicate with video.

Heck my wife is just starting to realize how wonderful texting is because she doesn't have to get into a protracted conversation with another person.

[ShanePhxAz]

I think having the ability to video iChat would be amazing - HOWEVER... who else out there sees potential problems with idiots iChatting while driving? The temptation to look at the person on the other end of the iChat would be worse than texting while driving.