facetime is pointless because.....

[Mercaptan]

Some of the scenarios given are not gonna happen.

That one of the soldier chatting to his wife and kid back in America wouldn't happen as the troops aren't allowed their own phones when out.

The last scenario where a deaf man was 'talking' to his friend was very nice and perhaps a better use for getting everyone connected.

Yeah, those are all awesome scenarios, but I think the real driver for this will be sex-related...

 

[bradl]

Some of the scenarios given are not gonna happen.

That one of the soldier chatting to his wife and kid back in America wouldn't happen as the troops aren't allowed their own phones when out.

The last scenario where a deaf man was 'talking' to his friend was very nice and perhaps a better use for getting everyone connected.

Who said that the PFC had to be out on duty? My neighbour, who did OSHA for the California Nat'l guard when they were deployed to the Kuwait/Iraq border was able to have his iPhone 3G over there. and use it when his duty shift was over.

If they couldn't have them over there, then why did we have all of those sponsored projects to send phones to the troops overseas? It certainly wasn't so they can deal with the e-waste...

BL.

 

[Pared]

Not sure if this has been posted yet, but:

3G Unrestrictor, anyone?

It's not an app. The developer would need to find the API and trick that completely.

Hell it might be something as simple as modifying a .plist once jailbroken.

This argument is pointless, as someone mentioned a few pages ago. If you don't like it, don't use it.

 

[Jkazmeyer]

Wow... This face time thing has got some people all upset. Personally... I'm excited for it.. My wife & I will both be getting new iPhones, so it will be great for us. I know it's been said, but if it's not for you, don't use it.. Don't buy one... Sprint was mentioned earlier, and the fact that you can video chat on their network, free... That may be true, but it's only 1 brand new phone, that no one owns or uses as compared to I device users. If sprint has as many evo users as AT&T has iPhone users their network would crash too. We are all a little bit to blame for the crappy bandwidth over 3G... I don't know about every one else, but I'm always doing something on my iphone or my iPad sucking down data like it's my job. I know I can't be alone. That's why it will take a while until it works well ota. We have no choice other then patience. Apple will make us wait until they feel it's perfect. Remember cut & paste? Even folders and multitasking. Those of us who jailbreak have had this stuff for a while... But apple waits until it's perfect for them.... So be patient... It's going to get here....

 

[amann76]

there will be plenty of apps developed that will allow you to use facetime over 3g and allow you to connect to other phone users besides iphone4

 

[austinjw]

Which this goes against your comment complaining about Apple's lack of "openness", though they are using open standards applying to not just smartphones or carriers, but any company out there that wants to use said standards. Qik? closed source. Skype? closed source. From the aforementioned AppleInsider article:



So.. How is it that Apple isn't 'open' enough?



Yet you're the one saying that my logic fails in the fact that I don't want, need or desire a webcam to chat to my father, especially if I may be 1500+ miles away from that webcam.

And you do realize that that same 'dead technology' you say ATT has is the same one that you could have used where you currently are overseas, right? Last I was in Sydney, you could by a sim card out of a vending machine, pop it into your GSM phone (since everything there is GSM), and boom, you have a working phone. Make some calls. Worked for me on my Nokia 7250i that I had at the time. Currently everywhere in the world, save China and possibly N. Korea, all use GSM, yet you say it's dead..



Of course it isn't the best option; the best is flying over there with him. But that isn't possible yet. But what this does get us is the ability to chat with him, over an openly supported standardized protocol (nothing against Skype, but read up on that protocol. you'll see how proprietary it is), while having the mobility to be anywhere there is WiFi.

In short, With Sprint, you're screwed once you leave the country, or you pay an exhoribant amount of money for that feature. I could just JB/unlock the iPhone and do this from anywhere on the planet with Facetime.

Can you do that with Sprint and an Evo? If so, you may just want to stick with them. It has nothing to do with ATT or Apple, but it's beginning to sound like you're happy with your Sprint phone and want another reason to stick with it over what the iPhone can offer. So by all means, please do.

BL.

I don't really care if there open or closed sourced, the point is that right now I can use skype and Qik on a mobile phone or computer, not restricted to iPhone to iPhone, which is just silly.

I wasn't saying GSM is a dead technology, its far from it. My only point is that AT&T's GSM is really terrible in big cities. Personally, I spend most of my time in America and I'm not gonna get stuck on a crappy network just because I can use it more easily abroad. I want my service to work where I spend most of my time, and that means I'll take pretty much anyone besides At&T. And B your iphone to use facetime data overseas would be extremely expensive and the fact that you have to JB it just points to how limited it is. Like i said, I can simply use wifi when I'm overseas and do the same thing you can on your iPhone, I don't know what so hard to understand.

I'm not trying to justify any purchase I've made, I don't need to and I don't care that much. If I didn't like it, i'd just take it back. I just find this whole initial implementation of Facetime silly. Yea, maybe in a year or two it'll actually be useful, but right now it's simply another genius marketing gimmick by apple that they will convince consumers they need. I may not love all of apple's products, but as a marketing major, I more than appreciate they way they can sell them.

 

[bradl]

I don't really care if there open or closed sourced, the point is that right now I can use skype and Qik on a mobile phone or computer, not restricted to iPhone to iPhone, which is just silly.

And I'm trying to point out the hypocrisy between your statement above and:

I feel like that's a completely valid example of Apple's restrictiveness. If they were open, and allowed more carries to sell the phone, then you wouldn't be stuck on wifi only video chatting.

You rant about Apple being restrictive, but turn a blind eye to Skype and Qik being even more restrictive than Apple, by having everything they use (API, Application, Protocol, and interfaces) completely closed.

I wasn't saying GSM is a dead technology, its far from it. My only point is that AT&T's GSM is really terrible in big cities.

Interesting.. every major city that I have been in, ATT's network has been great for me. I'm currently in Sacramento; no problem. I maintain machines in (by coincidence) ATT's data center in Redwood City, just south of San Francisco. No problem there or on the drive into the Bay. I also maintain servers in San Diego. No problem.

I have an apartment in Las Vegas. No problem there. Born and raised in Omaha, and go back there every 6 months. No problem there. My father is in Oklahoma City.. no problem there. In fact, every major city I have relatives in (Omaha, Kansas City, Oklahoma City, Dallas/Ft. Worth, Houston, Phoenix, Burbank, Vegas, Reno, Portland, San Diego) I have had absolutely no problems with AT&T, whether GPRS, EDGE, 3G, or otherwise.

Personally, I spend most of my time in America and I'm not gonna get stuck on a crappy network just because I can use it more easily abroad. I want my service to work where I spend most of my time, and that means I'll take pretty much anyone besides At&T. And B your iphone to use facetime data overseas would be extremely expensive and the fact that you have to JB it just points to how limited it is. Like i said, I can simply use wifi when I'm overseas and do the same thing you can on your iPhone, I don't know what so hard to understand.

To each his own. However, if I'm overseas, I'll be guaranteed to have WiFi access where I go, in which using this over 3G would be a moot point. My point is that I wouldn't be bound to a particular spot, stuck to an appendage/peripheral to a desktop, and wouldn't need to carry additional hardware with me to accomplish what I want. Jailbreaking it is icing on the cake if I wanted to use it that way, and from what I've read today, JB'ing the phone wouldn't work for this. So until the carriers implement the standards over 3G (which they may not, since most of the standards rely on something TCP/IP based), you're stuck with WiFi. You're not limited there because of the Phone; you're limited because of the network. Every carrier is affected by that.

What is hard to understand is that you're calling this Facetime pointless though you'd use Skype and Qik over Wifi just the same, yet that isn't pointless.. Whiskey, Tango, Foxtrot.

I'm not trying to justify any purchase I've made, I don't need to and I don't care that much. If I didn't like it, i'd just take it back. I just find this whole initial implementation of Facetime silly. Yea, maybe in a year or two it'll actually be useful, but right now it's simply another genius marketing gimmick by apple that they will convince consumers they need. I may not love all of apple's products, but as a marketing major, I more than appreciate they way they can sell them.

And as a business owner myself, I can safely say that you have missed the selling point on this. As a sysadmin, I can explain the technological advantages to this, but it will go over your head. But as someone who owns a business, I'm rather shocked that someone like a marketing major as yourself wouldn't understand trends, try to be ahead of such a trend, and ride it, instead of waiting a year or two (your words there), and play catch up to the trend. Major marketing disconnect there..

BL.

 

[lorenwade]

Pointless? Maybe for some... but that doesn't make the entire feature itself pointless. No 3G? That's not Apple's fault. Apple is waiting for the carriers to catch up... and giving us the feature now.

It will be awesome to see my wife's face while I'm working long hours at work. I greatly welcome this feature.

Thanks Apple.

 

[austinjw]

And I'm trying to point out the hypocrisy between your statement above and:



You rant about Apple being restrictive, but turn a blind eye to Skype and Qik being even more restrictive than Apple, by having everything they use (API, Application, Protocol, and interfaces) completely closed.



Interesting.. every major city that I have been in, ATT's network has been great for me. I'm currently in Sacramento; no problem. I maintain machines in (by coincidence) ATT's data center in Redwood City, just south of San Francisco. No problem there or on the drive into the Bay. I also maintain servers in San Diego. No problem.

I have an apartment in Las Vegas. No problem there. Born and raised in Omaha, and go back there every 6 months. No problem there. My father is in Oklahoma City.. no problem there. In fact, every major city I have relatives in (Omaha, Kansas City, Oklahoma City, Dallas/Ft. Worth, Houston, Phoenix, Burbank, Vegas, Reno, Portland, San Diego) I have had absolutely no problems with AT&T, whether GPRS, EDGE, 3G, or otherwise.



To each his own. However, if I'm overseas, I'll be guaranteed to have WiFi access where I go, in which using this over 3G would be a moot point. My point is that I wouldn't be bound to a particular spot, stuck to an appendage/peripheral to a desktop, and wouldn't need to carry additional hardware with me to accomplish what I want. Jailbreaking it is icing on the cake if I wanted to use it that way, and from what I've read today, JB'ing the phone wouldn't work for this. So until the carriers implement the standards over 3G (which they may not, since most of the standards rely on something TCP/IP based), you're stuck with WiFi. You're not limited there because of the Phone; you're limited because of the network. Every carrier is affected by that.

What is hard to understand is that you're calling this Facetime pointless though you'd use Skype and Qik over Wifi just the same, yet that isn't pointless.. Whiskey, Tango, Foxtrot.



And as a business owner myself, I can safely say that you have missed the selling point on this. As a sysadmin, I can explain the technological advantages to this, but it will go over your head. But as someone who owns a business, I'm rather shocked that someone like a marketing major as yourself wouldn't understand trends, try to be ahead of such a trend, and ride it, instead of waiting a year or two (your words there), and play catch up to the trend. Major marketing disconnect there..

BL.

I never called facetime pointless, I've just called it severely hampered. There are plenty of uses for it if you don't mind the lack of freedom. And the only reason apple being restrictive is a problem for me is because it is effecting the end user experience. I'm not trying to code or create programs, I just want to be able to use them freely. I can do that with skype or Qik, talk to who I want, where I want, on the platform that I want to, I can't do that with Facetime.

And I went to school in Philly where my friends with iPhones constantly complained about their service and I have a lot of friends in NYC and it's the same deal. I guess I've just been focused on the bigger cities in the Northeast the past 4 or 5 years, and seeing AT&T's service there has ensured that I won't be using them in the foreseeable future. And I haven't missed the selling point on this, I even said before it'll be popular because apple knows how to market the product. As a consumer though, I'm not a fan. I realize it's their job to make consumers find their products appealing, no matter how hampered they are, I'm just surprised you, as a business owner, don't realize that.

 

[fabianjj]

FaceTime is not pointless, I agree. Now: Maybe. But in a year or two it's going to be:

1. On 3G
2. Available on other phones (It's going to become an Industry Standard)

So then it will be awesome. Now it's pretty useless but someone had to start somewhere, didn't they?

Ams.

But if they want to make it 3G and industry standard, why didn't they just enable the video calls that are in the 3G standard and has been since like 2003, instead of acting like mobile video chat is something new and groundbraking

 

[ah123]

Since when does technology need to have a 'point'? It's there - if you want to use it, use it. If you don't, do go around bashing it. If you want it improved, tell Apple. Otherwise if you know you won't use it, then just ignore it. Nobody's forcing you to use it. If people find a use for it, then they'll use it and that's their choice.

 

[Blakjack]

i do understand that aspect of it, but its just not like people cant video chat without an iphone 4, you can get cheap webcams anywhere now.

Why would I buy a chep webcam when I already have an iPhone 4\4S.

And I don't know about u, but the iPhone is very portable. Portable means I can take it anywhere. And YES, there is WIFI everywhere. All universities are Winfield up. Many of us work places that are wired as well. Sure, when u are in your car, u don have access to wifi, bu why u want to?

And if u need video chat that bad when you are walking around town, just use Skype.

 

[malias4]

even if there s no wifi in cydia there s solution for facetime over 3g

 

[Zxxv]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; CPU iPhone OS 5_0_1 like Mac OS X) AppleWebKit/534.46 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.1 Mobile/9A405 Safari/7534.48.3)

I dont think facetime is wasted because im trying to do away with a computer. I use an apple bluetooth keyboard with my 4s and now with apple tv mirroring im one more step away from ditiching computers and having a mini portable computer in my pocket. which is what I consider the iphone anyway, its a mini computer that just happens to also make calls.

if apple can include a mouse mode then they can turn the phone into a mouse and with apple tv id be one more step closer. Without mouse mode Id have to look down at the phone , no biggie but mouse mode would unlock so much more potential.