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Apple Debuts Facetime for the Mac, Beta Available Today

devburke said:
Why not just quit the app? You can still receive calls, even when it’s not running.
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I just tried that, sweet! I love it! That explains why there is an installer and you don't just drag and drop the app from the dmg.

icing said:
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...
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You're right; I missed that. Good find. There's obviously a lot to send Apple feedback on.

[EDIT] Which I just did. While doing so I thought that it actually may be the intended functionality. However, for the end user it seems like unexpected behavior. They probably ought to have the arrow stay highlighted or change to a lock once clicked. That would be a lot more informative and give you the option of allowing the iDevice to dictate the windows aspect ratio.

baleensavage said:
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.
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Cougarcat said:
Facetime is through your AppleID email. No AIM/MSN/whatever. No buddy lists. And it works in the background; the App doesn't have to be running for the call to come through.
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FaceTime uses completely open standards which Apple put together to form FaceTime. They've said they'll release it as an open standard so anyone can write FaceTime compatibility into their apps. Also, from my experience FaceTime is much more robust. It can change quality on the fly without affecting performance and I rarely have it drop the calls unlike Skype and iChat video. The sound quality seems to be better as well.
 
When I try to launch FaceTime I consistently get the same message "There was a problem with FaceTime. You need to quit and open FaceTime again." This message appears perpetually and the application fails to launch every time.
 
Otaviano said:
I just tested it to call a friend and submitted some feedback

- Ability to toogle the camera off when you want to keep the app running and on standby
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Facetime runs in the background even after you quit it. If you want to call just launch the app.
 
So I just tested FaceTime from my iPhone via My3G to FaceTime for Mac and it worked pretty well. The signal wasn't the greatest where I was so it was a bit laggy and the video quality was obviously lower but it worked.
 
dannnyh said:
Running 10.5.8 so no Facetime for me until next summer. Not likely to pay out for Snow Leopard now with Lion being announced. :(
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SL is only £25 ... not expensive and worth it if you would use FaceTime a lot. I'm guessing Lion's going to be full price again ($129 US, not sure what it usually is in the UK).
 
Should be built-in to iChat

This is so stupid to release a whole new application for facetime. Millions already know how to use ichat and would be totally confused by the need for yet another program such as facetime on mac os x. I hope they build this into ichat in the future. Urge apple to do this via feedback!!
 
skiaddict said:
This is so stupid to release a whole new application for facetime. Millions already know how to use ichat and would be totally confused by the need for yet another program such as facetime on mac os x. I hope they build this into ichat in the future. Urge apple to do this via feedback!!
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Confused?:confused:



It could have something to do with the fact that you can receive calls even if the app isn't running. iChat isn't built that way.....
 
facetime

kind of off-topic, but i think people should have a choice of using their email address to make facetime calls with other iphone 4 users. true, you probably shouldn't be facetiming with people you don't know but still, i think that option should be there.
 
with the iPod touch, the iPhones and all MBP's it's stupid that Macpro's and iPads are left out of Facetime.

Apple should allow for third party webcams to bring the feature to more users.

Skype should then also include this into their system.
 
Man how are you guys getting this to work?

I can't get past the "Signing in..." initial screen. I tried my Apple ID, tried setting up a new new, restarted the computer, reinstalled the software...nothing! I've been trying for hours.
 
andiwm2003 said:
with the iPod touch, the iPhones and all MBP's it's stupid that Macpro's and iPads are left out of Facetime.

Apple should allow for third party webcams to bring the feature to more users.

Skype should then also include this into their system.
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It does work with 3rd party webcams....the built-in camera on my Rev. A MBP doesn't work, and I just used facetime with the external logitech USB one I have....
 
Email from Jobs

Just got an email from Steve and he replied "Nope" to the inquiry as to whether those of us without snow leopard would be lucky enough to use face time beta. This sucks. I followed up with "Is it a 64 bit thing or a business thing ($29)." waiting to see if he responds to that.
 
andiwm2003 said:
with the iPod touch, the iPhones and all MBP's it's stupid that Macpro's and iPads are left out of Facetime.

Apple should allow for third party webcams to bring the feature to more users.

Skype should then also include this into their system.
Click to expand...

It works with the Xbox360 USB camera. It's video-only and the quality isn't very good, however at the time it was the cheapest and easiest to find UVC webcam.

With UVC you don't need to wait for anyone to add third-party support.
 
sclawis300 said:
Just got an email from Steve and he replied "Nope" to the inquiry as to whether those of us without snow leopard would be lucky enough to use face time beta. This sucks. I followed up with "Is it a 64 bit thing or a business thing ($29)." waiting to see if he responds to that.
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To answer your question, FaceTime is indeed 64-bit. I just checked with Activity Monitor.

But there's a lot more to Snow Leopard than 64-bit applications. New features of CoreVideo in Snow Leopard could be the cause too.
 
Otaviano said:
I just tested it to call a friend and submitted some feedback

- Ability to toogle the camera off when you want to keep the app running and on standby

- Ability to display contact list by last name first

- Ability to search contact list

- Ability to jump to a certain letter in the alphabet

- Ability to remove contacts, I have some things in my address book like say pizza delivery that don't need to clog up my FaceTime list.

All in all it worked well.
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I would like (at least for your favorites) to have you tell if they are actually available on facetime.

Talked to several different people with it today and it works great.

Matt
 
So ****ing frustrating that I can't get this to work, stuck on the damn Signing In screen and I can't seem to find any help online anywhere.
 
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