Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

FaceTime Set to Come to Mac OS X and Windows?

They really need to do this, FaceTime can become huge if they push it to the Mac and Windows platform. Then next year give the iPad FaceTime.
 
guzhogi said:
To start out, for those who don't know, while iChat does support video chat, it's a different video protocol than FaceTime uses.

I already have an iPhone 4, but one question I have is if iChat gets Facetime, if someone wants to video chat with me, how will it know which one to go to? Will the person trying to call me get a window that asks which place they want to contact me? Or will I get a message on each device & choose which one to answer?

Also, I find the number of chatting apps/protocols a little confusing. There's Skype, AIM, FaceTime and regular phone service among a bunch of others. Would be nice if we could standardize on a single technology. Be able to customize it as necessary, but keep it the same for everything else.



That's harsh. Why do you say that?
Click to expand...

The NEW MobileMe.
 
Vic320 said:
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.
Click to expand...

Exactly...this slow rollout is definitely done on purpose. The ipad could have easily included a camera but its more appealing to market it on a cell phone first. Marketing at its finest here..
 
Lesser Evets said:
I wonder if iDVD function will fold into iMovie or something. It's odd to drop such a program while DVDs are still widely used. For future, though, I could understand not developing the software further, since in 5 or 6 years the DVD will be fading fast.
Click to expand...

This is where I think iDVD will be, incorporated in iMovie.
 
OK, clarify for me - what is the difference between FaceTime and video chat with iChat? Don't say it is multiplatform support, because my wife video chats with her sister all the time - My wife on iChat AIM and her sister on the windows version of AIM with a cheap logitech webcam. Is it just getting rid of the AIM piece?

I just wish they made one program that would play with AIM, Yahoo IM, and MSN all at once. Just not the POS Skype. (want your bandwidth used up when Skype turns your computer into a supernode? go with Skype)
 
iowamensan said:
OK, clarify for me - what is the difference between FaceTime and video chat with iChat? Don't say it is multiplatform support, because my wife video chats with her sister all the time - My wife on iChat AIM and her sister on the windows version of AIM with a cheap logitech webcam. Is it just getting rid of the AIM piece?

I just wish they made one program that would play with AIM, Yahoo IM, and MSN all at once. Just not the POS Skype. (want your bandwidth used up when Skype turns your computer into a supernode? go with Skype)
Click to expand...

The main difference would be the chat servers. iChat uses AIM ( read : AOL )

The new Facetime between computers would use Apple's own MobileMe servers ( Read : server farm in the Carolinas )
 
Peace said:
The main difference would be the chat servers. iChat uses AIM ( read : AOL )

The new Facetime between computers would use Apple's own MobileMe servers ( Read : server farm in the Carolinas )
Click to expand...

That's what I figured. So, basically this will open up Video chatting between ipods/iphones and computers. Instead of making AIM work on iOS, they made a proprietary format which they are now bringing to OSX. Makes sense. I was just confused by a lot of people saying early in the thread about how this finally gives a reason for iChat, and that they didn't know anyone who uses iChat, etc. when it has had cross-platform video conferencing built in for years.
 
iSee said:
I've been trying to figure that out, and I don't know that it's going to be huge. We've already had Computer-to-computer video chat for a while. And we've had phone-to-phone for a little while. These have their fans, but I wouldn't call it huge. All this adds is phone-to-computer. That's nice, but not really a game changer.
Click to expand...

May i respectfully disagree?

"All"?

That's a pretty big all!

The world didn't change when someone invented the wheel.
That only happened when someone invented the axle.

Poor take up, performance and compatibility issues has kept the video call a novelty.

But facetime has very good quality of picture and video
And from next year every big ipod, every big itouch and the newer ipads will all be capable of holding video calls with any internet computer.

Suddenly quality video calling it will be a real option for millions of mobile devices and their family members.

If only it would launch next week - I would be able to stream my birthday party gig live straight from my iPhone!

Needless to say - I am saving a link to this post in my iCal and we will see this time next year whether its as huge as i think it could be.
 
What I still want to know is why I still need SMS to use FaceTime from my iPhone?
I have SMS disabled. I refuse to pay for a service that takes up zero bandwidth and should be enabled for free as part of the data service.
 
Truffy said:
I'm obviously missing something. But what's the difference between iChat+Facetime and iChat AV? Or any countless vidconf apps for that matter.
Click to expand...

You sort of answered your own question.

There are countless vidcnof apps out there. But there's not ONE that allows a PC user and a MAC user to vidconf on the same app using the same username at the same time.

In otherwords. Facetime for PC/Mac will allow a PC user and a MAC user to chat using the same app without having to log in to different apps using different usernames.

User "Bozo" on his PC wants to chat with user "Dclown". Dclown is on his iPhone at the time. They both log into Facetime and chat using Facetime instead of having to switch accounts and use a 3rd party server.

The next day user "Dclown" is on his Mac and wants to chat with user "Bozo" who is on his Mac too. They both log into Facetime using the same usernames they used the day before and chat.

The third day user "Dclown" is on his PC and wants to chat with user "Bozo" who is on his PC. Both users log into Facetime using the same usernames they always use and chat.

No need to get 4 different accounts to chat between PC's and Mac's or iPhones.
 
I don't understand... it's just video chat. Nothing but video chat.

I can see people getting excited over it being on the iPhone and iPad, but on OS X? On Windows? MSN has had a superior version for years. Yahoo has had a superior version for years. AIM/iChat has had a superior version for decades... What is the appeal of this proprietary video chat system? Seriously, I had to register just to ask all of you why you see this as something new and exciting when it's been around for several years now.

Edit:

Peace said:
You sort of answered your own question.

There are countless vidcnof apps out there. But there's not ONE that allows a PC user and a MAC user to vidconf on the same app using the same username at the same time.

In otherwords. Facetime for PC/Mac will allow a PC user and a MAC user to chat using the same app without having to log in to different apps using different usernames.

User "Bozo" on his PC wants to chat with user "Dclown". Dclown is on his iPhone at the time. They both log into Facetime and chat using Facetime instead of having to switch accounts and use a 3rd party server.

The next day user "Dclown" is on his Mac and wants to chat with user "Bozo" who is on his Mac too. They both log into Facetime using the same usernames they used the day before and chat.

The third day user "Dclown" is on his PC and wants to chat with user "Bozo" who is on his PC. Both users log into Facetime using the same usernames they always use and chat.

No need to get 4 different accounts to chat between PC's and Mac's or iPhones.
Click to expand...

Skype does. iChat/AIM does. The beta of MSN Messenger for Mac does. This is nothing new at all.
 
This would be awesome. I would definitely upgrade to iPod Touch 4 if it came to computers. As it is now, I would have no one to Facetime with.

Apple seems to be slowly trending toward putting more of their software on Windows. First iTunes, then Safari, now iChat?
 
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...

I think different parts of the world tend to favor different protocols/services. I know that for years in the US AIM and its variants were the service that anyone who was 13-30ish used. MSN seemed popular in Europe and other parts. That being said, Apple made a deal with AOL for iChat to be the official AIM client on the Mac (partially because prior versions of AIM were awful or outdated). Over time, they added more protocols, but those have either been Apple-specific (Rendezvous/Bonjour), open (Jabber), or based on open (GTalk). Skype is closed and any chat programs that use it are doing so unofficially.

Once nice thing is that Facebook has opened up its chat capability to any Jabber client, so you can use iChat with Facebook chat.
 
Sorry if someone's already mentioned it, but what about Sony and Microsoft adding the facetime protocol to the PS3 and XBOX 360, Both have (or will have) camera's available.

If people like the idea of Windows and Android having facetime, what about ones where a whole family could get in front of the camera in their living room?
 
Articuno said:
I don't understand... it's just video chat. Nothing but video chat.

I can see people getting excited over it being on the iPhone and iPad, but on OS X? On Windows? MSN has had a superior version for years. Yahoo has had a superior version for years. AIM/iChat has had a superior version for decades... What is the appeal of this proprietary video chat system? Seriously, I had to register just to ask all of you why you see this as something new and exciting when it's been around for several years now.
Click to expand...

Show me someone having a video conference on an iPhone with a Mac or Windows user.
 
Peace said:
You sort of answered your own question.

There are countless vidcnof apps out there. But there's not ONE that allows a PC user and a MAC user to vidconf on the same app using the same username at the same time.

In otherwords. Facetime for PC/Mac will allow a PC user and a MAC user to chat using the same app without having to log in to different apps using different usernames.

User "Bozo" on his PC wants to chat with user "Dclown". Dclown is on his iPhone at the time. They both log into Facetime and chat using Facetime instead of having to switch accounts and use a 3rd party server.

The next day user "Dclown" is on his Mac and wants to chat with user "Bozo" who is on his Mac too. They both log into Facetime using the same usernames they used the day before and chat.

The third day user "Dclown" is on his PC and wants to chat with user "Bozo" who is on his PC. Both users log into Facetime using the same usernames they always use and chat.

No need to get 4 different accounts to chat between PC's and Mac's or iPhones.
Click to expand...

Obviously people can communicate between PC and MAC using Skype. The requirement to use the same usernames is meaningless. As long as I can see my grandma using Skype, do I really care what her username is? Moreover, I'd probably prefer the grandma to use her own username :)
 
Articuno said:
I don't understand... it's just video chat. Nothing but video chat.

I can see people getting excited over it being on the iPhone and iPad, but on OS X? On Windows? MSN has had a superior version for years. Yahoo has had a superior version for years. AIM/iChat has had a superior version for decades... What is the appeal of this proprietary video chat system? Seriously, I had to register just to ask all of you why you see this as something new and exciting when it's been around for several years now.
Click to expand...

FaceTime isn't going to be proprietary for one. It is ultimately supposed to become an open standard like webkit (what safari and chrome use) is for internet browsers. You might as well be asking why there are so many internet browsers out there, after all they all do the same thing...

I'm quite interested in why you consider a service like MSN that requires you to create an account and doesn't allow you to be logged in at more than one location at once to be superior.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back