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FaceTime Set to Come to Mac OS X and Windows?

tsirko said:
I love the iChat GUI but I don't use it except for fb chat.
I wish it could support MSN protocol and maybe skype's.
All the people i know are there! But those two apps are horrible at macs. :(
Skype is better than Messenger but still.

My Dream for iChat:

-MSN Support
-Skype Support
-GVoice Support
-Voice and Video for all the above!
-Custom emoticons maybe
-Dropbox intergrade for sharing folders.
-maybe some themes like adium's

one man can dream... :p
Click to expand...

Skype is amazing on the Mac, what are you talking about? :confused:
 
This would be a great addition. It would mean I would only have to take my phone on my 3 week trip to Germany next year and I could use it to chat with the folks at home rather than carrying a notebook everywhere.
 
Good, I can't wait to finally use FaceTime on my iPhone 4. I don't know anyone else who owns an iPhone 4 (though I know a couple people interested in the 4th-gen iPod touch).

I'm still waiting for FaceTime to integrate with Skype, though. Or have the Skype app use the front-facing camera. I'd use that much more than iChat.
 
The real question is when FaceTime support is coming to Adium. (Well, or any decent AV support, for that matter. :))
 
Marketing Genius

Whatever you think about Steve Jobs, you can't deny the fact that he is marketing genius. Apple is executing a carefully planned rollout of FaceTime designed to drive sales of their products. First you could only get it on the iPhone, so the "I gotta have it" feeling drove people to buy iPhones. Now it's iPods. Soon it will be iPads, Mac desktops, then, finally Windows will be allowed to play. Not to mention all the press (free advertising) they get every time they make another announcement. If Apple had released FaceTime to all of these platforms at once it would not have had nearly the same impact. It may be annoying for end users because there is no technical reason I can't already be chatting from iChat to iPhone users, but it's a highly effective strategy and brilliant from a business point of view.

Also, I expect Apple will integrate FaceTime/iChat into the MacOS to make FaceTime an "always on" feature. Who knows, maybe they will even allow a caller to wake your computer from sleep. All with privacy settings, of course.
 
Great news, hope it happens soon. I love iChat. I just wish more people would abandon their proprietary chat clients and use an open protocol like Jabber (which iChat supports).

The Screen Sharing feature in iChat is invaluable when providing tech support to less savvy friends and family. :)
 
The Skinny

AIM uses a very old protocol, and iChat uses it. iChat's best feature is that it has NONE of the ads, moving parts, and distractions that make up the AIM Buddy List. What a trainwreck!

FaceTime uses a new protocol that CURRENTLY has only worked between iP4s. The new iPodTouch has cameras and FaceTime and it is enabled.

To extend to the Touch, Apple had to alter the connection type slightly and get away from solely using the device phone number. Now, it can connect with e-mail as well. By adding iChat, it adds a third realm. It is feasible that they will eventually add integration for other protocols, such as Skype, MSN, Yahoo, etc. But remember, those networks have been notoriously closed as well. There has been very little movement to create an integrated solution that works with all. Some applications work with two or three of them, but none want to give up their control of their networks either.

FaceTime could change all that. Beam me up Scotty. We are the Star Trek Generation for sure. Or at least the Jetsons. :D
 
more importantly, can they make an iLife that works with network accounts, maybe the creative guys and the server guys can have a beer together...

all we want in iLife 11 is:

iMovie working with a network account
iPhoto working with a mobile account
iWeb working...
 
baryon said:
I have never even heard of anyone who uses iChat. All of the people I know either use Skype or MSN. I would love to use iChat, but I would have no one to talk to.

If Apple really made iChat available for Windows, it would be an awesome step. However, how is that going to compete with Skype, MSN or Facebook? I hate having two different IM clients open at the same time, it's a waste of resources. If I would have to have iChat running as well, that would be quite confusing.

iChat would have to work with Skype and MSN accounts in order for people to start using it. Until then, we can't really do anything with it. It's like having a futuristic electric car but no place to charge it.
Click to expand...

iChat is just a chat client and not a service people sign up for like Skype and MSN. Its just that you can enter your GTalk, Facebook Chat, AIM or any Jabber credentials and use it as a multi-chat client. Adium beats it though.
 
Apple said Facetime will be an open protocol. Hopefully we can see it integrated into other apps like Adium in the near future.
 
I've never actually used FaceTime except once with the Apple 1800-FACETIME test number. I don't have any friends of family with iPhone 4s, and once when I decided to test it with a stranger in the mall (After buying our iPhone 4s) it didn't work because of some wifi router issues.

However, if FaceTime becomes compatible with iChat, I'd use it very regularly, because all of my family has MacBooks or MacBook pros now.
 
As long as Apple keeps the screen sharing feature in iChat, then I don't care what else gets integrated into the app.

GL
 
My biggest wish for iChat is an integrated contact list, so I won't have to have a separate window for AIM contacts and Gchat contacts. If you could use one window like Adium, I'd probably use iChat more often. Right now I only use iChat if I want to have a video chat or screen sharing session. Otherwise I use Adium.
 
Alright, I just cancelled my ipod touch order. Now my wife will have a way to iChat with my Facetime enabled iphone. Thanks macrumors!
 
It'll be interesting to see how they play it.
Apple are not out to produce the best video chat software that everybody will use - there's no money in it. They'll be wanting to leverage it to drive hardware sales. But which hardware?
If they release a Windows version it means they want that to push iOS devices If they don't they'll be hoping it might drive Mac sales.
I believe we'll see a Win version (even though SJ said that they are selling iPhones as fast as they can make them anyway). We will certainly never see an Android version. That would defeat the purpose.
 
Mac4ever doesn't have that good of a track record, but no doubt in my mind they'll be right on this one, pretty obvious I'd say, launch date will be in early to mid October though.
 
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