FaceTime Over 3G Comes to Jailbroken iPhone 4s

[Natesac]

I have yet to see usable video calling on a cell network.

Fring on 3G is horrible, facetime over 3G looks better but still bad, video calls over sprint "4G" is pretty laggy also.

Facetime over wifi really is the best game in town. When I show it off to my friends they all say "wow that's pretty good quality"

Not that I wouldn't love facetime to work everywhere, but I would want it to work well. I don't mind being tied to the wifi if I am getting the quality experience.

Another thing we will have to watch in the future is how the carriers are going to handle this video calling thing. It's going to be a standard feature fairly soon. People are going to want to use it out and about away from wifi.

We can also expect that most carriers are going to be going with tiered data

Are the carriers going to offer us video chat that does not count towards our data allowance? Are we going to see more competitive data packages?

I really hope we do, because the current model is going to kill innovation.

 

[Glideslope]

is any one else bother by this?

the jailbreak community is the first one that complains about network overload, and yet, here they are... att is not ready for this folks.

I suppose that we all know that social consciousness is not a virtue of jailbreak community.

I wonder what are those government idiots that 'legalized' jailbreak saying now?

+1 Well stated. Ah, the hypocrisy of it all.

 

[Compile 'em all]

Great, are all the jailbreaking whiners out there -- who insist that they deserve every feature the way THEY want it -- going to now be overburdening AT&T's network with this and screwing things up for the rest of us?

Your iPhone is not a do-it-yourself hobbyist PC. Put the soldering iron down.

Just because you people in the states have garbage network carriers does't mean the rest of the world has to suffer.

Restricting facetime to WiFi for someone living in Sweden or Denmark makes ZERO sense. ****, I think since having an iPhone in 2007 I might have dropped 5 calls in total.

 

[jav6454]

There is a reason AT&T doesn't allow it on 3G, because their network is not good enough to support the bandwidth. All this does is pull down the network for the rest of us.

Lol no, did you actually see the quality of the call? It was terrible. There is a reason why Apple held FaceTime over Wi-Fi only.

Not every carrier would have enough bandwidth to support it.

 

[Compile 'em all]

Does JB allow ichat: Mac to iphone? If not, I'm not interested.

 

[Jayomat]

As someone said earlier, AT&T isn't the only carrier, and none of them allow it.

then add the other carriers too

 

[rockosmodurnlif]

Just because you people in the states have garbage network carriers does't mean the rest of the world has to suffer.

Restricting facetime to WiFi for someone living in Sweden or Denmark makes ZERO sense. ****, I think since having an iPhone in 2007 I might have dropped 5 calls in total.

If your network in Sweden or Denmark is so great then talk to your carrier not Apple.

 

[0098386]

This would have been good when there was a higher capacity limit. Right now in the UK you get a paltry amount of usage per month before they throw fees at you.

 

[Compile 'em all]

If your network in Sweden or Denmark is so great then talk to your carrier not Apple.

What the heck are you talking about?

Both the software and hardware comes from Apple and is NEVER touched by the operator.

 

[mantan]

jailbreak ftw!

don't ever tell me that i can't mod my phone if i want. if it screws everything up and voids my warranty, then so be it! it's mine.

Says the person who very likely bought a phone subsidized by the very company he's looking to screw....

 

[gceo]

Quality is going to be terrible... just be ready.

It looked decent in the video.

Also in all fairness, AT&T ranked above Verizon in data, but below them in voice quality, so this 'should' work better on AT&T's network by using data, rather than voice.

 

[darkplanets]

There's a reason why they did this in the first place...

-This is awesome for those who are in a different country that can actually support this.

-This isn't awesome for US based users who will have to deal with ATT's slow 3G network.

-This is even less awesome for those US based users who didn't grandfather in the unlimited data contract, and will thus use up their bandwidth in a few days.

-This is not awesome at all for the average end-user in the US, whose browsing and data experience will decline significantly should this take off, since it was disabled for a reason.

In short, if you're in the US and doing this; well, its not the brightest of ideas. You're essentially shooting yourself in the foot. It's okay though, you'll do it anyways, and then come on here a month later screaming at how much ATT's networks sucks (in all caps, and with 10 angry smilies).

If you're not in the US, well, enjoy

 

[Porco]

My3G is typically available to jailbroken iPhones via Rock Your iPhone for $3.99, but the site is currently down due to the high traffic load.

Literally lol. There's a beautiful symmetry to that.

 

[tarkeybear]

Anarchy...

It is unfortunate that the "me" generation feels entitled to have everything and not have to wait, but there are reasons Apple and ATT are metering this stuff out.

If the 3G Facetime crashes only on JB phones, and doesn't kill cell tower capacity, then I am cool with the JB folks pioneering the system. Unfortunately, I suspect everyone (JBs and non-JBs) will get screwed once the JB facetime crowd brings the network down.

I myself would love to be able to call-in a facetime call on 3G, but I respect the communal bandwidth enough to play nice in the sandbox until the hardware is ready for the masses. I'll wait for Apple and ATT to come up to speed, and pray I can still make a call amongst all the bandwidth hogs...

 

[NetScheduler]

If you looked close, the quality was very jerky...

I watched closely and I didn't notice it being "very jerky". I noticed a lower frame rate, but that will vary depending on your connection.

not fluid like when on WiFi.

And this amazes you why????

All they're doing is getting it to work on the 3G system. Cool for sure. But I'm sure there is a reason phone people don't want this.

I'm not sure why anyone wouldn't want this. I'm sure after Apple introduces it officially you'll be one of the 1st ones here posting that Video on the iPhone over 3G is "revolutionary"...

 

[eastercat]

The quality wasn't bad, but it wasn't up to the par that facetime over wifi has set. I'm going to wait and see how this plays out before I even think about using this program.

 

[ldobson]

It's too late, FaceTime is now working over 3G, there's no going back, just like MyWi is not going to disappear anytime soon The carriers will either invest in their network infratructure, or see massive failures as a result, and the masses will move on to better network's. Mobile Video is here, embrace it!

 

[sevimli]

GOOD luck ATT!

 

[blizaine]

I've done several facetime 3G calls today, since this morning when it was updated. All of them have been awesome. It's really blows my mind. SO much better than Fring, or anything else I've seen on 3G.

 

[jbellanca]

Quality is going to be terrible... just be ready.

Actually, the quality's really good. I've been using 3G FaceTime using my (AT&T) aircard Wi-Fi hotspot and quality's always been good. In fact, just used it from Home Depot earlier today to show something I was looking at.

 

[rockosmodurnlif]

What the heck are you talking about?

Both the software and hardware comes from Apple and is NEVER touched by the operator.

You're right. I'm wrong. Operators don't talk with Apple about what can and can't run on their networks. Sorry.

 

[xenuprime]

I have to say that in general I am ok with jailbreaking.

That said, I think this will hurt iPhone users in general by forcing AT&T to either take away everyones unlimited (this is the perfect excuse to do that)or when someone complains about the slow network they will say "blame the jailbreakers".

I hope in this instance AT&T or Apple (or both) really crack down and find a way to stop this.

 

[jbellanca]

Uh, doesn't the jailbreak cause FaceTime to stop working?

No, that was a bug in the initial release that was fixed within hours. Around 11pm EDT last night.

 

[vastoholic]

While jailbreaking was found to be legal, wouldn't this be like a breach of contract on the users part? Using their network in a way that violates their policy? You can change the device all you want, but when you start altering how the device uses the network in a way that goes against the intended use, that's pushing the limits. I don't the terms of service well enough to if it would cover anything like this.

 

[jbellanca]

Another thing we will have to watch in the future is how the carriers are going to handle this video calling thing. …snip… Are the carriers going to offer us video chat that does not count towards our data allowance? Are we going to see more competitive data packages

Don't see that happening. Since it's just data traffic, they'd have to start sniffing packets to see what you're doing to tell if it's a video chat, or have some reporting mechanism built into the phone app to communicate minutes and data used. I'd suspect they'll just stick to tiered data packages. Interesting to see their business model change, though, when people no longer use voice minutes and only use data.