Apple Debuts Facetime for the Mac, Beta Available Today

[Small White Car]

I don't think any of these objections warrant it being its own app. Not to the point that they trump the simplicity of users needing to use only one app, at least.

*shrug*

I guess my main problem is that iChat is one of the crappiest pieces of software I've ever used and I never want to have to go in there.

Ok, I guess I should have started out with that. It's a much better reason than everything else I've come up with. It's not like I need a second reason.

 

[icing]

So it works like this.

FaceTime on the Mac uses the same process as FaceTime on the iPod Touch 4th Gen.

FaceTime Call Mac to iPod Touch:
Call the contact using their Email Address

FaceTime Call Mac to Mac:
Call the contact using their Email Address

FaceTime Call Mac to iPhone 4:
Call the contact using their iPhone 4 Phone Number

FaceTime Call iPhone 4 to Mac
Call the contact using their Email Address

So if my friend has a mac and a iPod touch and I call his email address.. what happens?
Will both the iPod and Mac ring? I'd say that's what should happen. If the mac overrules the iPod is kinda stupid. Anyway, still beta.

 

[scottnj1966]

Facetime is worthless until you can use it on the 3g network.
I do not understand why they have not changed that by now.
Yahoo messenger video chat can use 3g, why not facetime?

 

[icing]

I guess my main problem is that iChat is one of the crappiest pieces of software I've ever used and I never want to have to go in there.

Ok, I guess I should have started out with that. It's a much better reason than everything else I've come up with. It's not like I need a second reason.

I think they'll fusion the two in a way that won't remind you of the rather crappy UI of iChat.
Maybe they'll just add text-chat-functionality to FaceTime. That way you'll be able to chat with iPhones and iPods as well as Macs. And you won't miss iChat.

But i guess something has to go. iChat makes no sense for video as long as FT is built into your OS and present on your mobile devices.

 

[QuarterSwede]

As I posted in another thread:

A few observations of the Beta:
* Names are alphabetized by first name and there is no option yet to change it to last.
* There is no search field for contacts.
* Preferences are very thin (only FaceTime On/Off, change your registered email address and add a new one).
* It would be nice if my iPhone 4's phone favorites were used as FaceTime's favorites for a starter set.
* Recents looks exactly like the iPhone's phone app recents list.
* You can manually switch from portrait to landscape if you hover over the pip of yourself window (forgot what it's called).
* Transitions for everything. Preferences slide up from the bottom over the contact list. Rotates smoothly from portrait to landscape. Very nice polish.
* The Zoom button does nothing until you're connected with another FaceTime device, then it zooms but does not enter fullscreen.
* My MacBook heats up every time I run it (don't have to actually connect with anyone). I don't ever remember it doing that with iChat video.

 

[Ninja Dom]

So if my friend has a mac and a iPod touch and I call his email address.. what happens?
Will both the iPod and Mac ring? I'd say that's what should happen. If the mac overrules the iPod is kinda stupid. Anyway, still beta.

Yep, both ring.

And if he has more than one Mac then all Mac's ring too.

 

[ipoppy]

Facetime is worthless until you can use it on the 3g network.
I do not understand why they have not changed that by now.
Yahoo messenger video chat can use 3g, why not facetime?

I think its up to operators to let that happened. They are still greedy for their bandwidth. However as far I know jailbrake can help you with this

 

[yetanotherdave]

I'd love to use this. Just need apple to allow me to facetime over 3G. If I'm on wifi, I'm probably at home. I'd love to be able to facetime home from work (no wifi) and say goodnight to my kids when I'm on nightshifts.

I'm still confused as to why we can't do this, other than carriers getting nervous.

 

[drknowusa]

How do you get this to connect?

Finally got the download and validated. Tried to make a call to my iPhone, which is sitting right next to the MBP. Got a message that I was "unavailable" for a Facetime call! And couldnt call the MPB from the iPhone because it opens an email screen rather than Facetime. So obviously I am doding something wrong. Any ideas on how to get this right?

 

[3goldens]

beta is not ready for primetime!

Every time I used it dropped the call and on my home network.

tried on another, did the same thing.

afraid this is going to need some work!

 

[Nonpareil]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_0_1 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/532.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/4.0.5 Mobile/8A306 Safari/6531.22.7)

Just visited the flagship Apple store in Dallas. Still have the old Airs on display. Bummer.

 

[Xarthan]

Finally got the download and validated. Tried to make a call to my iPhone, which is sitting right next to the MBP. Got a message that I was "unavailable" for a Facetime call! And couldnt call the MPB from the iPhone because it opens an email screen rather than Facetime. So obviously I am doding something wrong. Any ideas on how to get this right?

did you turn on facetime on your iphone 4?

Settings > Phone > Factime ON

 

[G5isAlive]

beta is not ready for primetime!

Every time I used it dropped the call and on my home network.

tried on another, did the same thing.

afraid this is going to need some work!

working fine for me... both internal network and external with a friend 600 miles away. no doubt though it has some bugs waiting to surface. I agree with the person who says wait for 10.7 before worrying about ichat integration.

 

[megfilmworks]

Love it!!
Works great!!!

 

[Mal]

Already had my first major issue. Had a nice call to my sister's iPhone, quit Facetime, then went to open it again to check if my other sister's address was there, and Facetime refused to open properly. I got 4-5 crash reports, then the Facetime window finally opened, but said the camera was offline. Logged out and back in, hasn't worked yet. I have to try restarting, but definitely good thing they called this a beta. I did submit the bug reports with my own details included, btw, and hope anyone else who has problems will too.

jW

 

[camel517]

when i try to install it, it says you are missing a critical security patch. please use software update to install security update 2010-005

so i installed it, and it still says that...what do i do?

 

[Flitzy]

I love it - I haven't had anyone to Facetime besides myself but I have no complaints.

I have a feeling that once it's out of beta, we'll see either a Windows release or iChat integration, too.

 

[cybaster]

So how is this different from Skype or any of the other video chat apps out there including iChat? It seems to me to just be a simplified version of the same thing with a snappy new name.

in Short, Skype uses proprietary protocols to establish the connection to the other party while this uses the protocols for FaceTime. the end result is the same, but the way that a connection is established is different)

 

[megfilmworks]

Facetime is worthless until you can use it on the 3g network.
I do not understand why they have not changed that by now.
Yahoo messenger video chat can use 3g, why not facetime?

Carrier issue.
Worthless to you maybe.
Working great for me and my inner circle.
Love it

 

[nlr]

Will there be a windows version?

 

[leeschill]

windows version? Doubt that. I see more and more of the products jelling together which is nice.

 

[pags]

Works great. Just talked to my wife--me on my (old) MBA, her on her iPhone 4.

 

[samcraig]

beta is not ready for primetime!

Every time I used it dropped the call and on my home network.

tried on another, did the same thing.

afraid this is going to need some work!

Is your router/broadband service by ATT? kidding!!!

 

[STC1709]

What id like to know is how to do you edit your contacts to add or delete and the weirdest thing is I have a blackberry so how the heck did Facetime get all my contacts from my blackberry exactly the way I have them set in my phone and listed them in Facetime?

 

[icing]

As I posted in another thread:

* You can manually switch from portrait to landscape if you hover over the pip of yourself window (forgot what it's called).
* Transitions for everything. Preferences slide up from the bottom over the contact list. Rotates smoothly from portrait to landscape. Very nice polish.

Yeah, but you can't switch to automatic portrait/landscape switching again once you've clicked the small arrow. It stays in manual mode.
Beta...