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Apple Debuts Four New FaceTime Ads

I did use facetime to let my father see his grand kids for the last time before he died 2 days later..... THAT experience was far better than any of these lame ass
"commercials".
ElectricBuffalo said:
Also, side note: Isn't it convenient that "grandpa" has both wifi AND an iPhone 4? Call me crazy, but I don't know anyone that age who can operate a normal cell phone, much less setup a wireless network, successfully use an iPhone 4, and place a FaceTime call with anyone...
Click to expand...
My parents are "that age" and they have i-4's, laptops, and even a wireless router:eek:
 
Journojulz said:
Well, In low signal areas the new design works better, and the 'major issue' has an easy workaround - hold it differently. I can live with that.



A revolution isn't the spark - its the raging fire.
Its not the idea - its how it catches on.

Never seen anyone video conferencing on a phone, so it hasn't been a big hit.
Now, that could be for many reasons - maybe it wan't that popular to build up momentum or it just didn't work as well.

The N95 sold a million units in 7 months - so the number of people capable of using video conferencing wasn't that great.

The ip4 sold 1.7 million in 3 days. And this time next year when the 4gs comes out - EVERY phone sold by apple will have facetime.

Never tried the N95 so i don't know what the picture quality was like, but it hasn't seemed to catch on, so maybe the experience wasn't as good as it could have been?

EDIT:
Just had a look, and the quality doesn't look great great in a small window let alone a full screen version.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OYVBok0I6EE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yiVWtOd-vDw&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LGzEy3oQ4Co

If the reality of facetime is as good as it looks on the ads, maybe the tech has finally caught up with the science fiction?
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Yes i agree with you on the signal problem, can be an easy fix by holding it differently.... i haven't had the pleasure to hold one in my hands, i still have my 3gs but looking FWD to the upgrade as soon as it's available in australia... That was my only concern, the antenna issue and i wanted to make sure it wasn't just a big drama created around it... and for the looks of it, it is... as they wouldn't be selling as many iphones if it was...

on the nokia n95 case, yes, the video call quality wasn't a super extraordinary call, but be in mind that it was over 3g to any other phone that would accept video calls, so it was a better product in that sense...

the thing is, i wasn't questioning quality... i was questioning the fact that apple seems to advertise they created something new that had never existed before... and this is a lie... its been around for years over 3g to different handsets... so it might be something new to iphone but definitely not to the world....

don't get me wrong, i love the iphone, i had the 3g, now the 3gs and soon the iphone 4, all my 4 computers at home are macs, and i probably have one of each of the ipod models too... i'm a big apple fan as you can see... but sometimes I feel treated like a retarded by apple... when they come with stuff like this...

cheers,
dan
 
diamond.g said:
It must be nice to live in a place that has free open wifi...
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I think that in a few years, we'll see free wifi in many more places in the USA, and it is already widely available. I'm with Lochias, the 80-year old grandpa. As he said, "you just do it." Many college campuses now have it everywhere, so that generation of people is going to grow up expecting wifi everywhere, and they will do the things that are necessary to make it happen.
 
mward333 said:
I think that in a few years, we'll see free wifi in many more places in the USA, and it is already widely available. I'm with Lochias, the 80-year old grandpa. As he said, "you just do it." Many college campuses now have it everywhere, so that generation of people is going to grow up expecting wifi everywhere, and they will do the things that are necessary to make it happen.
Click to expand...

Where my dad lived and his wife/my brothers still live, the city has free wifi, and it's NOT a "big city". Apopka Florida 32712.
 
eh

Could someone clear something up about this WiFi for me?

If I were in a place with wifi - say a Cafe, or a Library, or a hotel (which costs usually, dependant on hotel), then someone was in, ohhh, another city the other side of the country... does it still work like that?

Or maybe they're in another country, which one of their ads seems to suggest
with the lady contacting someone in the army over facetime...

Can you do that?

Also, what is the cost of this, what data is used? Have a 4 minute facetime call and suddenly your 500mb data allowance has lost 100mb for the month... ?

Oh and just to add, basing it on UK use here.
 
Isn't the entire point of a cellphone it's portability? If I have to be somewhere where there's free wifi, why wouldn't I just use my laptop so I'm not wasting my phone battery for when I'm out and about and actually need it?

And this is what they're pushing as a selling point of the phone?
 
FaceTime turned out to be a gimmick for me. My friends and I have had no use for it. We tried it when we first got our phones and haven't used it since.
 
I was on my landline phone when the Facetime commercial with the two people using Sign Language came on. I just turned to my wife and said "I think that's one of the best commercials ever."
 
I think these are awesome, it really shows how powerful a video chat can be.
 
dankron said:
the thing is, i wasn't questioning quality... i was questioning the fact that apple seems to advertise they created something new that had never existed before... and this is a lie... its been around for years over 3g to different handsets... so it might be something new to iphone but definitely not to the world....
Click to expand...

Yes Dan. What is new is the app not the concept. :)

But for the average user - this may as well be the first video phone because it will probably be the first time they see one in action. Outside the very small sphere of tech savvy smartphone users - video calling is still the future, nit the present.

Its one thing to offer it as an option on some high end models that take 7 months to sell a million - its quite another to make it standard across the entire range (as it will be when the 3gs is phased out next year).

Like the iPod before it - they have a great knack of taking something complicated and making it simple enough to sell it to everyone - including the analogue generations.
 
army91c said:
Where my dad lived and his wife/my brothers still live, the city has free wifi, and it's NOT a "big city". Apopka Florida 32712.
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St Cloud used to have free wifi also but they scrapped that program due to budget cuts.

Downtown Orlando still has free wifi. Hopefully that one sticks around.
 
this is how you advertise your tech. Have you seen anything from the Driod? Ha ha! Apple may play games. Hey it is a corporation. But at least they know how to make it rain on the competition.
 
SPNarwhal said:
facetiming might actually be fun to watch people with,
i mean. using the back camera so nobody knows you're watching them.

i do that with my first gen iphone sometimes in camera mode if i'm bored in a restaurant or something.
Click to expand...

...
Get a girlfriend?

Apple!Fre@k said:
It takes phone sex to a whole new level, right? FaceSex. LOL

It's actually brilliant for that. If you're away on business and you're missing your girlfriend or wife, just fire up FaceTime and, forget phone sex -- this is the 21st century -- video phone sex is where it's at!
Click to expand...

It took you this long to figure that out?
First thing I thought when I saw this at the Stevenotes was,
"This is going to revolutionize the phone sex industry."
They'll probably charge extra for it.
 
Fiction87 said:
Isn't the entire point of a cellphone it's portability? If I have to be somewhere where there's free wifi, why wouldn't I just use my laptop so I'm not wasting my phone battery for when I'm out and about and actually need it?

And this is what they're pushing as a selling point of the phone?
Click to expand...

Do you carry your laptop with you everywhere? I sure as hell don't. In fact, my laptop rarely leaves my house, where as my phone is always in my pocket.
 
Facetime

Can anyone enlighten me on why Apple didn't just use the existing format for video calls?

And why boast it like it's the best new thing since sliced bread? There are millions of video call able phones out there; it's been in use on 3G networks since 2001 ...

I love my apple products, and the ads are kinda cute; but their message falls so flat ..
 
SPNarwhal said:
the only thing that bugs me about facetime is the whole wi-fi thing, and i know that's been said a million times.
but you can video chat on a laptop/computer from your house,
doing it with iphone 4 is cool because it's portable. but still, if you can't do it on the go, it seems way less useful/cool.

you pretty much have to sit down and plan to facetime someone, rather than just do it. if you want to show someone something, you can't be like. oh hey, check this out. it's more like, hey man. are you in a wifi area? ok, get to one. now turn on your wifi. alright. now look at this.
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100% agreed.
Until one can FaceTime anywhere, any time, it will remain a nifty iPhone 4 to iPhone 4 feature. Pretty limiting. Which I realize is a short sighted perspective. But also is keeping me in my 3GS even tho I'm eligible for the upgrade and even tho I've had every iteration of iPhone on their respective launch days from the original.
But when FaceTime is anywhere, any time? Game changer.
 
Fiction87 said:
And this is what they're pushing as a selling point of the phone?
Click to expand...

I needed it last month when trouble shooting my mum's macbook.

itunes wasn't showing the "accept button"

I had to open up iChat, get her to point the camera at the dressing table mirror and squint to see that she needed to scroll down the page. :D

They are moving away from the techies and selling this feature to a whole new demographic - "people who don't have more hard drives than kids"


Parintachin said:
Can anyone enlighten me on why Apple didn't just use the existing format for video calls?
Click to expand...

Probably because they think they have made a much better format

And why boast it like it's the best new thing since sliced bread?
Click to expand...

see above

There are millions of video call able phones out there;
Click to expand...

but scattered across a few high end phones - not standard issue and massively rare in phones with decent sized screens.

It took 7 months to sell a million n95s.

it's been in use on 3G networks since 2001 ...
Click to expand...

Yet it hasn't caught on.... maybe because the exiting format wasn't that good?

The videos i have seen on youtube make it look like it is still stuck in 2001.
 
Cheeeeeeese

Apple's venturing into emotional [read: sappy] territory normally reserved for after school specials and long distance commercials. They should've used a typical [read: dysfunctional] family conversation "-Mom, timmy touched my Justin Beiber poster again, I'm gunna like kill him! -Can't you call your father? -Gawd, why do I even exist, no body cares about me fml!!!1" ...etc. You get the idea.
 
arn said:
actually think they are very striking ads. I haven't seen one on TV yet, but it seems like it would really catch your eye.

arn
Click to expand...

I think its a group of smart ads ... no music ... just the conversation ... putting the audience right in the mix. At least ppl don't look too freaky in the first two featured on the home page.
 
these

these ads are some of the dumbest ads I have ever seen.

My quess, they will be off the air in a week.
 
Matthew Yohe said:
Because none of those are standards. You can't intercommunicate with any of those, so why not set out to make a standard, and then in the future, every phone uses FaceTime. Ta-da!
Click to expand...

Hmm not a standard?! What freaking network are YOU on ... oh probably CDMA. The rest of the work uses UMTS and with video calling using 3GP and AMR for sound just like most phones do for phone calls (high/low bit rate) they're PRETTY MUCH compatible: SE phones vs Nokia vs Samsung, vs HTC phones ... yeah they ALL intercommunicate just fine.

THat's why Johnny Ive had to specify we've had this for a while ... the "real" part is just simple marketing and perception due to the high pixel density screen. Does this mean ppl would use it less ... of course you must be on wifi.
 
I like 'em. Think they're human. They're selling the everyday possibilities for a feature rather than trying to ramp them up into some 'YOU NEED THIS OR YOU'RE IMPOTENT' testosteronal feature war. So perhaps to you Xtreme people living on the edge, whose lives are an endless parade of strobing clubs and one-night stands, these are painfully corny. I think for normal folks they'll go over just fine.
 
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