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facetime is pointless because.....
- Thread starter fleali88
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Its also kinda useless right now because it requires the person you are talking to to have an iPhone as well, I am hopeful though in a year or two that iPod Touch's, iPads, and iPhone (Over 3G) will be supported, and then it will become useful. This is just to get the technology into peoples hands, plus apps like Skype will be able to take advantage of this so that will boost the usability. Eventually it will work on 3G, they just need AT&T to keep updating their network. And now with the new data pricing, the the motivation is actually there for AT&T to allow things like this. (This is why I am happy about the new data pricing).
OP, I don't think it's useless/pointless at all. I'm excited about it. My dad lives in Chicago, I in Los Angeles. My wife and I are separated frequently for a few weeks at a time with work. We all have skype. We all have macbooks. When we're all at home (or hotels) we have a wifi connection. Do I need to continue the equation? Sometimes I don't wanna bust out the computer to talk. I get wifi at work but don't always want to bring my computer. Talking on the phone is a little more discreet. Skype, even on a great wifi connection, sometimes gets finicky. I'm sure "facetime" (yes, bad name) will have some wonky connections as well, but I'm crazy excited at the prospects of this. This is 100% crazy future stuff here. Yes, iPhone4 is the only one to have this at the moment, but think of how quickly android, BB, and other devices will be running to get compatible!
I get what you're saying, but you need to be a little more courteous with your replies, methinks. This is a forum for exchanging ideas and having a conversation. There's nothing wrong with disagreeing, but let's be civil here.
I get what you're saying, but you need to be a little more courteous with your replies, methinks. This is a forum for exchanging ideas and having a conversation. There's nothing wrong with disagreeing, but let's be civil here.
No.. you just said that I fail because I disagree with you, and that I was the only one to do as such. Now that you've seen others in this thread and in the other Facetime thread say to your contrary, you backpeddle a bit. No matter.
Another good reason why Facetime is really good. Video chat from anywhere you are on the planet with a non-jailbroken phone. Actually see my friends whom some of which I haven't seen in 15 or more years in another country, say, Telstra, Vodafone, or Optus in Australia, while I am here in the US or Canada, using Rogers or ATT.
There are a number of possibilities that you just hadn't thought of that are completely contrary to your opinion. It isn't our fault that we came up with those that go against your thinking.
BL.
So you have a newborn and your going to make your father wait 2 weeks until release, make him buy a new iPhone and then send him VGA quality pictures? LOL - that is the WORST idea I have ever heard in my life.
PS - Your dad has a 3GS - he won't be able to video chat with you. You should have gone the webcam route
.im sure there will be some apps that will enable video chatting through the front camera..
Qik Knocking Vid and Ustream run fine over 3G
Qik Knocking Vid and Ustream run fine over 3G
So you have a newborn and your going to make your father wait 2 weeks until release, make him buy a new iPhone and then send him VGA quality pictures? LOL - that is the WORST idea I have ever heard in my life.
PS - Your dad has a 3GS - he won't be able to video chat with you. You should have gone the webcam route
Who said that I made him wait 2 weeks to send him pictures? If you read my posts, you'll see that I said that this will be the first time he will see and interact with his grandson in real time, and that he still has another 22 days to take his 3G S back for an iPhone 4, which I'll be telling him to do tomorrow (he rushed into it, against my telling him to wait). As far as pictures, he has over 200 pics of his grandson, plus video shot of him up in my MobileMe gallery. None of that, however, is real time. This would be.
BL.
Or you could buy a high quality webcam for a fraction of the cost and far better than vga resolution....
Which if you read my other posts, you'd see why I hadn't, and the reasons why it would be more costly for me to do that. But to re-iterate:
high quality webcam. I'll be liberal and say $80.
Flight from California to Oklahoma: $189 each way, to install and configure it for him, as he isn't that computer savvy.
Total: $458 before taxes.
16GB iPhone 4: $199 before taxes.
Hmm.. I wonder which is cheaper. Oh.. plus gives him access to all of his son's and grandson's pictures, so he doesn't have to be limited to only a couple in his wallet.. I wonder...
BL.
What do you mean with "wifi hotspot"? When I'm at home I have WiFi. When I'm at work I have WiFi. When I'm in the car I don't have WiFi but anyone using Facetime while driving their car should be shot anyway.
My wife and I will both have a iphone 4. Our daughter going to school in British Columbia will also have an iPhone 4. We will be on the USA/Canada ATT voice plan... but the way that works, is that there are no ATT-ATT in-network calls nor are there any A-List calls across the boarder. Hence, we will be using 2 minutes (1 each) of our voice calls with our daughter.
My daughter will almost always be in a WiFi zone (the entire campus is WiFi). My wife and I will spend the majority of our time with WiFi as well.
We can easily call each other... and if we are all in a WiFi zone... just switch over to a facetime call. If we are not both in a WiFi zone, then we can either keep the call short, or chew up our minutes. Most of the time we will be in a WiFi zone.
/Jim
My daughter will almost always be in a WiFi zone (the entire campus is WiFi). My wife and I will spend the majority of our time with WiFi as well.
We can easily call each other... and if we are all in a WiFi zone... just switch over to a facetime call. If we are not both in a WiFi zone, then we can either keep the call short, or chew up our minutes. Most of the time we will be in a WiFi zone.
/Jim
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_0 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/532.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/4.0.5 Mobile/8A293 Safari/6531.22.7)
Why tether when you can do
It through one small slim device... That's the whole point, minimizing...
fleali88 said:
Why tether when you can do
It through one small slim device... That's the whole point, minimizing...
So your telling my your father can't plug a USB webcam in? Most usb drives auto install themselves when plugged in. I'm 100% sure it comes with instructions. Even a monkey can google or youtube how to install a webcam. You make exaggerated points... fly out there to plug a webcam into a usb slot?!?!?
Every friend and family member's home I visit has wi-fi that I'm able to log onto. My home, my office, and even my gym has wi-fi. There are Starbucks stores littered around my area. There is even wi-fi at the work places and schools that my closest friends and family attend. Even when we're on the road, our 2010-11 bmw X5 M, M5, and M6 all have wi-fi onboard. So honestly, there is plenty of wi-fi all around my friends and I. I'm happy to know that fortunately, I've got a perfect scenario for FaceTime. I'll be taking advantage of the higher bandwidth/quality of video over wi-fi, and yet with the abundance of wi-fi amongst myself/friends, the inability to place a FaceTime call over 3G will be miniscule. This is going to work great for us.
Come on, that's not true, as soon as there's a jailbreak for iPhone 4, I am sure there are ways to fool the system into believing it's on WiFi even under 3G. But these guys here doubt's what the video quality would be like if it's on 3G.
video calls on 3g would use too much bandwidth!
you people are whining how much your plan costs now and you want more and more with out paying!
LOL!
you people are whining how much your plan costs now and you want more and more with out paying!
LOL!
Lol, you've been able to do this for years on both computers and phones already, nothing new or revolutionary here. If it's so important and wonderful, why haven't you addressed your need/desire to do this before now? Nearly every other phone on the market with video chat does it better and doesn't require you to find a wifi hotspot. Yea the iphone gives you a solution, but it's the worst possible solution there is pretty much. but to each his own. I prefer being able to utilize the function anywhere I have my phone, but some people might not like that freedom.
My father is as much of a noob with computers as you are to this forum.
But that is to be expected, when someone like my father is a back country farmboy living out in the country in Oklahoma.
In short, don't judge him based on what he knows or doesn't know about computers. You don't know the guy.
My points are valid, and are as valid as others that people have come up with here. Outside of the fact that it gives us the MOBILITY. We don't have to be stuck in front of a computer for my father to see him, or any relative to see their family. Can you do that on a webcam stuck to a desktop computer? I dare you to say yes.
austinjw said:
Because I didn't become a father until January of this year, and since we lost our first 2 children to 2nd trimester miscarriage and pre-term loss, it's normal for someone like us to not get everything until you know that your child is going to make it. We almost lost this one.
Perhaps when you become a parent under circumstances like this (and it is more common than you think), you'll see how my SO and I feel.
BL.
regardless of the fact that it can only be used on Wi-Fi I like where the technology can take us and what it will be in the future. It's a start and I think it's a pretty good one.
I don't think "pointless" is the word that describes FaceTime
Most everywhere I go primarily has WiFi, along with my family. So I think it'd be a great way to connect with them, when not using computers. iChat never really caught on with my friends or family, I've used it maybe twice. But this seems easier, more feasible. Plus, Steve said they were working with carriers. Trust, there will be FaceTime over 3G in the near future.
Most everywhere I go primarily has WiFi, along with my family. So I think it'd be a great way to connect with them, when not using computers. iChat never really caught on with my friends or family, I've used it maybe twice. But this seems easier, more feasible. Plus, Steve said they were working with carriers. Trust, there will be FaceTime over 3G in the near future.