they did yes, but then they got sued by a patent troll and lost. They can't release it now or they will be in breach of the patent license.
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FaceTime Audio Coming to Macs With Next OS X Update
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Thank you so much Mr. NDA police. Let it go, so many things supposedly "secret" from Apple end up on MR or on the internet somehow. On some level I'm sure Apple is not only condoning it but perhaps creating the leaks to drive excitement.
If Apple wanted to create good will they could do that real quick by no longer charging $100 to double storage on iPhones/iPads.
In my case my wife and close friends all have macs and iOS. I see it coming in handy.
The Jetsons style future is just video calling? The thing we have been doing for over a decade or more? No flying cars that folds into a briefcase?
No Rosie the robot that can do everything including babysitting? Instead we are stuck with her pet, Roomba.
/s
Michael
Welcome to 2003.
Given your location, it gives a whole new meaning when they say... "The lord saves..."
How? Skype is universal. FacePalm never will be. iChat has been crippled from the very start. Until they make is cross-platform it will never be nothig more than a gimmick.
Somehow I missed the addition of FaceTime Audio to iOS7 and just started using it today. The call quality is in another world. Spoke to my parents in the UK and it was like they were standing next to me!
I particularly like that you can see data used in the recent call info. Looks like FaceTime Audio runs approximately 30MB/hour vs 400MB/hour for FaceTime.
I particularly like that you can see data used in the recent call info. Looks like FaceTime Audio runs approximately 30MB/hour vs 400MB/hour for FaceTime.
Just was going to ask this. Thanks for pointing it out. With a 6GB plan split between myself and Brother, that will add up fast. I think ill stick with unlimited minutes for the majority of my calls.
This is the exact reason why mobile carriers in the US do everything backwards to gouge consumers.
Apple software made to help Apple and Android customers helps Apple customers more than if they only made it to help Apple customers.
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OS X 10.8 and later has iMessage support.
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Yeah, worth it. My problem was that one of my friends had an Android phone and kept using SMS.
What is Skype?
What are TV's?
Seriously, there will always be a market for what Apple products do, but lousy and as a standalone solution. That market can't be killed and doesn't need to be. Some people are content with the limitations of a TV experience. And those same people will be happy testing Skype over TV once in their lifetime. And there it ends.
How many people could life without a TV, when they still have Internet? How many hours per day are spend in front of a TV versus a smartphone? How many of all TV's are Smart-TV's? And out of those, how many have a registered Skype account with them? The answer is none. No one does it. Skyping over TV is an odd exception.
Only iOS devices! Only 700 million iOS devices do FaceTime with their Apple-ID. Now adding an installed base of 72 million Macs. Compared to some 299 million Skype connected users. And then there are all those so-called Skype competitors:
Whatsapp 250 million users
Viber 175 million users
Line 100 million users
They all have one thing in common: Except Apple, no one has a working business model. Not even Skype, because Microsoft can't sell their hardware at a profit. And because the service is cross-plattform, it doesn't even benefit it's home-plattform. It's an $8.5bn write-down for Microsoft. Why do you wanna kill it?
Because of ...? What is the benefit of being cross-platform? Java apps are cross-platform and what you get is the least common multiple of all the benefits of each platform. Which means no benefits and the most lousy UI imaginable on every platform. Does someone know a native OSX alternative for JDownloader? Because then I can ditch my last Java app and burn all the bridges to cross-platform land.
Because I don't care how much profit Apple makes. I sold my stock a few weeks ago (and I'm happy that I did). The other consumers don't care either. We want the best and most popular communication platform possible. Just because the company providing it isn't making much profit doesn't make it worse.
You know what, I also want Macs to be really cheap. It would kill off Windows and Apple's profits, but I don't care about Apple's profits!
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Do you even know what iChat is? Hint: It's not a chat service. Asking for it to be cross-platform is like asking for Finder to be cross-platform.
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Wait a second... going back to check again...
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Yes, just yes, to everything here.
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It works if you're trying to find Messages by itself. Not, say, "how to add Steam chat to Mac Messages". You'll get results about Steam messages. It's as if Apple was TRYING to screw with Google by naming their app a regular noun.
Microsoft’s Call on Skype: Profits, $0; Value, $8.5 billion
It's not that Skype is making less profits than someone else. They are making no profit at all. And that's a problem in a capitalistic system. Nothing is free on the internet.
So if the money doesn't come from the free service itself, there must be a hitch somewhere else. It's clear in the case of Apple, free services promote hardware sales. And that's it, you don't need to sacrifice your privacy or hand over your first born. Just accept that Apple products work best with other Apple products.
In the case of Microsofts multi-billion dollar Skype acquisition, the hook is not yet revealed. Microsoft has it's own Windows platform to promote, but than you wouldn't want Skype to remain a cross-platform app. Or they can turn Skype into a paid service. Skype calls now free with adds or add-free for only 9¢/min.
Either way it won't be the best and most popular communication platform possible. Somewhere someone has to pay for the servers providing the service. Otherwise it would be cheaper to pull the plug. Look how YouTube turned into this add-scape. The same thing will happen to Skype but not to FaceTime.
Apple services only serve the one who paid for the hardware.
I not only canceled my text plan, but I had att block all texts... You can do it in the att iOS app, or call whatever carrier and tell them you want to cancel the plan and block all SMS. I then gave my google voice # to a couple of people who don't have iPhones and told them to text me on that. Works great.
The main reason I use Skype instead of Facetime right now is that Facetime does not get along with my Logitech C910 webcam. I get this bizarre "stutter" effect every so often (like a still shot every other frame with the live feed) that only goes away if I minimize the Facetime window or literally match my pose from the "still" frame that keeps stuttering (that seems to make it disappear too oddly enough). No update to OSX has changed the stutter problem. Why do I use a Logitech webcam? Well, the MacMini obviously doesn't come with one and the Logitech model in question has an awesome HD picture (far better quality than the webcam that comes with my mother's 2012 MBP or my 2008 MBP) and it even has stereo audio input (which works perfectly over Skype). And with Webcam Settings App, I can access virtually all the camera's controls in OSX and full manual exposures, etc. It transmits 720P over Skype quite well.
We all know Apple doesn't like to support 3rd party products (webcam support for anything other than their own models for years was non-existent even when they stopped selling that firewire based iSight model that was the only Apple option for Macs that don't have built-in iSights other than an overpriced Apple monitor.
So while audio-only is probably a useful addition, I can be sure I'll still be using Skype for playing online games like Scrabble with other people.
We all know Apple doesn't like to support 3rd party products (webcam support for anything other than their own models for years was non-existent even when they stopped selling that firewire based iSight model that was the only Apple option for Macs that don't have built-in iSights other than an overpriced Apple monitor.
So while audio-only is probably a useful addition, I can be sure I'll still be using Skype for playing online games like Scrabble with other people.
Well, it is free. No secret charge. There's a paid version as well, and that's how they make revenue. And they want to expand quickly with free stuff so they can get their monopoly working in the future. I'm not going to buy it because I don't even know what benefit it provides, nor do I care since it sucks anyway.
Facebook, by the way, gets nothing from me except another user. AdBlock
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Let her know about the Google Hangouts app too if she doesn't already, for free voice calls to US numbers of all kinds at the same data usage. It should be useful for landlines and other phones.
there is also an app called viber. a lot of my co workers who are from uk call their family back home on viber. it is free voice and message.
That would absolutely be opposed by the national carriers like AT&T, Verizon, etc. It would disrupt their revenue streams from the voice plans.