Do you guys think Antennagate stole spotlight from a potential Facetime "explosion"?

[IrishVixen]

The problem right now is that face time only works on WIFI. The examples they show in the commercials can't be done. I'm not aware of any hospital maternity wards that have WIFI. Facetime might get more popular when and if it ever can be used on 3G.

Guess we're weird...every hospital in our area has free wifi throughout. The first place I ever used an iPhone was a hospital ICU three years ago, after my husband had to be rushed into the ER. No, I wouldn't've used Facetime in that incident. But would it be available? Yes.

I can't see it becoming popular, at least until there are a lot more devices that are capable of using it. Make it compatible with webcams and then you might see more of it in use.

 

[falconeight]

I love everything about this phone especially face time. I can see my son when I am work and it looks good.

 

[Block]

No offence but that's just not right.

People don't use 3G video calls because the networks charge a lot for them, and the quality is bad. Facetime is effectively free (from home/work/even MacDonalds) and the quality is pretty stellar. I've used it quite a bit in the three weeks I've had my phone. Admittedly I only know two people with iPhone 4s, but once there are more devices that support it, and especially once you can use it to video-chat to desktop/laptop computers (virtually all have built in web cams) I think it will take off.

It is a huge benefit over a built-in webcam if you have the option. I can walk around the house, and switch to the back camera to show the other person what I'm seeing. However, given that not everyone is going to have an iPhone 4 in the near future, it would really be handy if you could FaceTime to people who are stuck with the built-n webcam on their computer.

I don't buy the need for 3G particularly.
1) All networks are moving towards capped data usage
2) We get BT Openzone/Cloud wifi for free in a surprisingly large number of places (railway stations, shopping centres etc)

People can walk around their homes with their laptops. The only real benefit a phone has is being portable in situations where it wouldn't be practical to bring a laptop. But without being able to use it on the 3G network, that pretty much narrows it down to places where you can use a laptop (i.e. places with WiFi). I don't buy this whole "huge benefit over webcam" ordeal. It basically is a webcam on a phone that can only be used in places where webcams can be used.

 

[TuffLuffJimmy]

The concept of video chat makes a lot of people kind of interested but also kind of worried. Not everyone has acting skills or speech skills and frankly, it gives people anxiety to perform a video chat. (Not all of us are iJustine lol).

Really? You can't talk to a person face to face? That's really sad. Sounds like kids these days. They can't talk to anyone, they never look people in the eye, they just text and leave facebook comments.

 

[Bobby Corwen]

People can walk around their homes with their laptops. The only real benefit a phone has is being portable in situations where it wouldn't be practical to bring a laptop. But without being able to use it on the 3G network, that pretty much narrows it down to places where you can use a laptop (i.e. places with WiFi). I don't buy this whole "huge benefit over webcam" ordeal. It basically is a webcam on a phone that can only be used in places where webcams can be used.

Actually I like to walk around the house with my 13" MBP while on a full screen iChat video session. I've been doing this ever since I saw the Johnny Drama character on Entourage do it cuz I thought it was unnecessarily hilarious and cool to do for no reason lol.

People just see you walking by with a persons face on the whole screen talking back to you on what seems like a giant handheld gameboy advance while your having a nonchalant video conversation like its a normal everyday thing lol.

 

[Bobby Corwen]

Really? You can't talk to a person face to face? That's really sad. Sounds like kids these days. They can't talk to anyone, they never look people in the eye, they just text and leave facebook comments.

Americans these days don't like confrontation.

My granpa used to always talk thisclosetomyface while constantly looking at me dead in the eye. It was too much to bare.

 

[TuffLuffJimmy]

Americans these days don't like confrontation.

You call it confrontation, I call it conversation.

 

[Bobby Corwen]

You call it confrontation, I call it conversation.

Where I was raised, if you stared at someone in the eyes too long or too hard it meant you had beef with them and wanted to start problems. Growin' up poor.. I didn't have the same stuff some of you rich kids did.

 

[TuffLuffJimmy]

Where I was raised, if you stared at someone in the eyes too long or too hard it meant you had beef with them and wanted to start problems. Growin' up poor.. I didn't have the same stuff some of you rich kids did.

Of course. The sympathy card. And you make assumptions about me and my upbringing. This is getting ridiculous.

 

[southerndoc]

The problem right now is that face time only works on WIFI. The examples they show in the commercials can't be done. I'm not aware of any hospital maternity wards that have WIFI. Facetime might get more popular when and if it ever can be used on 3G.

Are you in a country with socialized medicine? All 5 of our hospitals in our health system has free WiFi, the hospitals where I trained during residency had free WiFi, and the hospitals affiliated with my medical school have free WiFi.

I think it's more the norm for hospitals to offer free WiFi these days.

 

[Bobby Corwen]

Of course. The sympathy card. And you make assumptions about me and my upbringing. This is getting ridiculous.

Its not THAT ridiculous considering I just said that in jest. Starting off a phrase with "growin up poor.." is hilarious.

 

[ant69]

i think Facetime is a great idea, i use it at work on their wifi most days with my wife, but until it is usable either over 3G or with Skype/Gchat - preferably both, it will only work with limited contacts at limited times so will never go mainstream..... heres hoping!

Ant

 

[Godzirra!]

It should just be iChat. Nobody else I know has an iPhone 4 so i have no one to video chat with. I will once Skype adds videos, but its just stupid it's iphone to iphone only

 

[FightTheFuture]

i do think that Antennagate not only stole the spotlight from FaceTime, but the iPhone 4 launch in general.

when the iPhone was released in 2007, everyone was talking about it. "it's a phone that has no buttons!" "you can surf the web on it like a computer!" "you can use it like an iPod!" then the iPhone 3G was released and you didn't need to go far to see the excitement around it - people were lining up for months. the 3GS was simply the upgrade that everyone expected. people saw the lines and thought "oh the new iPhone is out." it became an annual thing.

and here we are now. noone is talking about FaceTime. noone is talking about how much the display looks like a piece of paper. noone is talking about the 10 hours of battery life or how thin it is.

they are talking about one thing and one thing only. the 'design flaw.' some people have just 'heard of it.' some voice their opinions as if they're mobile engineers. and the haters are laughing at it.

imagine if the gizmodo prototype was never leaked. imagine if antennagate didn't blow up as much as it had. you would hear whispers of how the new iPhone has video calling, or how long it lasts without a recharge.

apple and the fans here have to roll with the punches this year. i'm sure iPhone 5 or 4G will wind up being just an upgrade when the time comes - they probably won't have the same evolution in features as 4 had.

maybe iTunes 10, newly designed iPods, or a new Apple TV could serve as a distraction to the mess around antennagate.

 

[admanimal]

I think it's a pretty safe bet that every device that Apple makes that has a built-in camera will support FaceTime within a year. This of course includes computers, but they will have to wait for the next OS update.

If Apple can't make video chat popular, then I'd say it's officially hopeless.

 

[Pressure]

Video calling...now there's a waste of time.

I can see it would work in certain conditions, being away from the family etc. (like Skype and every other application you can get for your notebook) but it is inefficient.

When doing a video call, all you can do is stare at the bloody screen, whereas, normally, I will do several things at once.

We have had the ability to make video calls for over 7 years here in Denmark and I have tried it ONCE. That was enough.

I cannot come up with a single occasion in day-to-day living where video calling makes sense.

Unless we soon get the EyePhone 2.0 ... things will not change.

 

[stix666]

I think FaceTime will turn out to be a very big deal indeed. It is apple's Trojan horse into the mobile network market.

FaceTime contacts can be added to the address book and calls initiated without needing to dial the mobile number. There is no need to launch another app (like there is with skype or fring). It is integrated into the mobile phone functionality of the device.

Fast forward 1 year. Apple have implemented FaceTime on many devices by associating it with their email. How many mobile minutes will you need? How much are you willing to fork out to AT&T/ O2?

I really wouldn't be surprised to see apple enter the mobile data Market. IF they can implement similar-to-voice functionality (ie better call handling, elimination of latency problems), I can see what started out as FaceTime turnin into a major competitor and headache for the current mobile network companies.

I hope they implement a voice only implementation of FaceTime soon. This is easily the best free voice-calling system for mobile devices currently

 

[tallyho]

People can walk around their homes with their laptops. The only real benefit a phone has is being portable in situations where it wouldn't be practical to bring a laptop. But without being able to use it on the 3G network, that pretty much narrows it down to places where you can use a laptop (i.e. places with WiFi). I don't buy this whole "huge benefit over webcam" ordeal. It basically is a webcam on a phone that can only be used in places where webcams can be used.

You have to try it to appreciate it. For walking around my home, showing things to distant family members, iPhone 4 beats carrying my MacBook around any day (carrying the MacBook around is what I've been doing for months before getting iPhone 4). Being able to switch between front and rear cameras is very useful.

 

[Bobby Corwen]

i do think that Antennagate not only stole the spotlight from FaceTime, but the iPhone 4 launch in general.

when the iPhone was released in 2007, everyone was talking about it. "it's a phone that has no buttons!" "you can surf the web on it like a computer!" "you can use it like an iPod!" then the iPhone 3G was released and you didn't need to go far to see the excitement around it - people were lining up for months. the 3GS was simply the upgrade that everyone expected. people saw the lines and thought "oh the new iPhone is out." it became an annual thing.

and here we are now. noone is talking about FaceTime. noone is talking about how much the display looks like a piece of paper. noone is talking about the 10 hours of battery life or how thin it is.

they are talking about one thing and one thing only. the 'design flaw.' some people have just 'heard of it.' some voice their opinions as if they're mobile engineers. and the haters are laughing at it.

imagine if the gizmodo prototype was never leaked. imagine if antennagate didn't blow up as much as it had. you would hear whispers of how the new iPhone has video calling, or how long it lasts without a recharge.

apple and the fans here have to roll with the punches this year. i'm sure iPhone 5 or 4G will wind up being just an upgrade when the time comes - they probably won't have the same evolution in features as 4 had.

maybe iTunes 10, newly designed iPods, or a new Apple TV could serve as a distraction to the mess around antennagate.

That was sooo well said. Couldnt have conveyed it better myself.

!! I agree with with the whispers are call quality instead of facetime and the screen that looks like a paper. Great way to describe it.

nice post bro

I think it's a pretty safe bet that every device that Apple makes that has a built-in camera will support FaceTime within a year. This of course includes computers, but they will have to wait for the next OS update.

If Apple can't make video chat popular, then I'd say it's officially hopeless.

Right, its like if they dont. Who else would?

If this doesnt take off, it means its just not something consumers are able to embrace.

You have to try it to appreciate it. For walking around my home, showing things to distant family members, iPhone 4 beats carrying my MacBook around any day (carrying the MacBook around is what I've been doing for months before getting iPhone 4). Being able to switch between front and rear cameras is very useful.

Yup, like when you see something interesting and you show it.

Like if youve ever been on the phone with a friend and you say "wow, I wish you could be here to see this, its crazy!"

Well now you can.

i think a factor of it taking sometime until people run into more situations in their day to day life where it becomes a situation to use it.

Then the anecdotal stories can start and for it to spread.

 

[kuaiyouming]

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[Ronnoco]

The problem with video chat was that not very many people had it, which meant you never really thought about it beyond it being a novelty. 1 or 2 years from now when it's built into 2 or 3 generations of iPhones as well as other manufacturers phones, you will be more likely to use it and the more you use it the more you will think about it and remember to use the feature when situations present themselves.

Concur...most all of the next gen Apple devices (iPad, iPod, Macs, iPhones) will have FaceTime and there will be many other apps that will use the video features as well...It is clear by the Apple Ad campaign that the company is betting on FaceTime become quite the "killer app"...also, when FT can be used on 3G, it will become VERY popular with people live streaming what they are seeing with the rear camera (like live streaming news 24/7)...kinda scary really...LOL

 

[jclardy]

The concept of video chat makes a lot of people kind of interested but also kind of worried. Not everyone has acting skills or speech skills and frankly, it gives people anxiety to perform a video chat. (Not all of us are iJustine lol).

What it would take for Facetime to really take off is for it to be considered cool and trendy and to give the general populace the feeling that "everyone is doing it". Then i feel there could be a ground-swell of usage and maybe people could over time start using it habitually.

But all this antenna stuff has reached such a critical mass that if you type iPhone 4 in google all the articles will be antenna related. Everyone, instead of swooning over the iPhone 4, asks me if it has reception problems. That seems to be its claim to fame.

I have a feeling this might have killed some of the spark for Facetime and its potential to phaze into mainstream practice. Nobody talks about Facetime or the Retina display. Only about the antenna.

Just wait till they put it on iPod Touch. Then it will become more useful because people without smart phones can use it. Also when they hook it into iChat or Skype.

 

[Bobby Corwen]

I spotted Facetime as a "kinda nice, but no one is going to use it" feature right from the beginning. It is ironic that Apple marketed it so heavily and successfully when people really won't be able to use it for a long time. As long as it is iPhone 4 to iPhone 4 only, it may as well never have been created.

Once it gets integrated into other communication apps, such as Skype, it will be a nice option for video conferencing and chat.

Facetime will never be a revolution in the way we communicate. Videophone technology has been around for a very long time, but people simply don't like to be on video when talking on the phone. It is a social barrier rather than a technological one.

hmmmm

So you're saying the technology is there but its the social barrier that has been and continues to prevent common usage.

I definitely agree.

Its our social norms that keep us from feeling comfortable using it.

SO for this to take off, the technology not only has to be great and fluid and effortless, like its starting to become with FT, but there also has to be an evolution of our communication abilities and ambitions.

Therefore, it will take a loooong time. I agree its not gonna happen within a couple years.

People never used to text either a decade ago. Not that its the same thing, but there is hope that if the technology and logistics of it all is neat enough, and the usefullness becomes common enough, it could call for a large copycat movement.

Like I said, it has to become cool to do it, and practical to do it before the masses even think to try to jump on board.

Then maybe people will practice and try out and develop video chat skills. Overcoming a fear of the camera lol.

Reminds me of speech class.

 

[kuaiyouming]

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