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FaceTime Video Calls Still Limited to Wi-Fi as LTE iPad Rolls Out

rjohnstone said:
True... I don't entirely buy it myself, but what other reason would Apple have to restrict Facetime other than carriers saying they don't want it enabled on their networks?
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Lack of development resource.

We know that most of the iOS apps don't have dedicated development teams, and hence when work is considered "done" the team is dissolved and moved to other projects - that's why the Remote app didn't get retina support for six months. It only had one developer and they were doing something else when iOS4 shipped.

Effectively Facetime was left unfinished and the staff obviously went off to do other things - which is why the fundamentals of sorting out presence on a specific device have never really been fixed, the promised "open standard" turned out to be a total lie, and 3G support has never been added.

Phazer
 
Wireless Carriers

They need to compete for customers, not lock you into "plans." Let's say we remake the wireless web. Government-provided optical at unimaginable speeds is provided to nets. Signals are equalized. One wireless number gives you everything. First-tower passthrough for all carriers, with some part of the payment rebated to the first tower.

Speed and price is the competition. No hostage dramas like, "Come to AT&T and we'll only charge $200 for the iPhone if you sign on for two years." "Sure, it's 4G."
 
The Phazer said:
Lack of development resource.

We know that most of the iOS apps don't have dedicated development teams, and hence when work is considered "done" the team is dissolved and moved to other projects - that's why the Remote app didn't get retina support for six months. It only had one developer and they were doing something else when iOS4 shipped.

Effectively Facetime was left unfinished and the staff obviously went off to do other things - which is why the fundamentals of sorting out presence on a specific device have never really been fixed, the promised "open standard" turned out to be a total lie, and 3G support has never been added.

Phazer
Click to expand...

3G support? In FaceTime? LOL

There is no difference with WiFi or 3G as the iOS sees the TCP/IP stack!

They REMOVED the 3G support from it on purpose.
 
xinu said:
Ok.

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Nobody in the universe cannot ever understand the way US carriers do business. Ever.

It is just so absurd that you have data limits, tethering limits, face time limits... lol soon you cannot do nothing with iToys

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Yes, vote Ron Paul for president.
Click to expand...

I'm British!!
 
The Phazer said:
Lack of development resource.

We know that most of the iOS apps don't have dedicated development teams, and hence when work is considered "done" the team is dissolved and moved to other projects - that's why the Remote app didn't get retina support for six months. It only had one developer and they were doing something else when iOS4 shipped.

Effectively Facetime was left unfinished and the staff obviously went off to do other things - which is why the fundamentals of sorting out presence on a specific device have never really been fixed, the promised "open standard" turned out to be a total lie, and 3G support has never been added.

Phazer
Click to expand...

Is this why the Cards app isn't a Universal App? & Why the YouTube app hasn't seen a major update?

Also, why did Apple go on about video calling like they invented it when:
1) You can't do it over a phone line like you can a traditional audio-only phone call.
2) You can't do it over 3G?
 
This is the stupides thing ever... why would carries care if you use more data? If you run you have to buy more from them anyway! Simply ridiculous...
 
Apple needs to cut out the Carriers

... and create their own nationwide wireless network.
 
I think the "carriers" are waiting until they fully cover the U.S.A. with LTE to let facetime be used on LTE.

BTW: LTE fully across the USA will be complete in 2013 :)
 
I don't know why but FaceTime never seems to work for me. It drops, can't connect. Never had a successful FT call with my wife or friends. We just use Skype!
 
Ahh Apple. Pandering to the interests of carriers once again.

I must say here in Australia on a second rate carrier (Optus) FaceTime over 3G works well. Not great but certainly very usable. Over 4G with its higher data rate, reduced latency and reduced contention it should be even better!

Carriers are once again the obstacles to innovation. They are just concerned about:
A) Consumers actually using the data they've paid for
B) Decreased demand for mobile phone calls and loss of associated revenue

The carriers are always going to be like this so I believe that Apple is at fault for giving in to their demands.
 
booksacool1 said:
The carriers are always going to be like this so I believe that Apple is at fault for giving in to their demands.
Click to expand...

Here in EU people usually have real unlimited data and no restrictions what so ever. At least I do, around 20EUR/month (prepaid, no contracts) and I use about 50 gigabytes per month. 3G is my main internet connection, actually I have two of them :rolleyes:
 
...it seems that carriers are still unwilling to allow FaceTime calls to be transmitted natively over their networks, presumably due to concerns about increased data usage and strained network capacity.
Click to expand...

I'm guessing it has as much to do with not wanting to allow free calls as it does network capacity. Facetime was heavily advertised and is baked right into the phone... that makes it a little different from Skype et al.
 
I suspect, as some others have said, that the carriers are negotiating with Apple.....trying to get Apple to agree to make it so they can charge an extra fee for it. Carriers don't want to make it easier for people to avoid using minutes.

Look at what happened with text messaging, right before iOS 5 comes out with iMessage, AT&T removed all tiered text plans and moved to an expensive unlimited text option, all or nothing.

I'm sure AT&T would love people to have to pay a $10/month FaceTime feature for their iPhone.

**

Everyone keeps mentioning bandwidth....I really don't think that is the concern. Netflix and Hulu+ streaming will use way more bandwidth than some crappy quality FaceTime video calls, that really won't get used too much anyways.
 
Use iPhone HotSpot for FaceTime over 3G...

I have an iPad 2 WIFI and an iPhone 4S with AT&T's Hot Spot feature.
I can FaceTime on 3G since the iPad "thinks" it's connected to a WiFi network.:D
 
This isn't bad. We don't want dumb consumers wasting bandwidth with this (slowing the network down and getting billed then complaining).

This probably wastes bandwidth as badly as tethering would (maxing out the bandwidth).

But why does Apple give into their demands? Google doesn't pull tethering apps from the store, but Apple did because the carriers somehow "forced" them to.
 
nobody uses facetime

face it. There's Skype and a lot more out there. Everybody has a Skype account, nobody has FaceTime access. Not even the usual fanboys that would use anything Apple rolls out, even the new iMovie :)

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chrismac2 said:
I suspect, as some others have said, that the carriers are negotiating with Apple.....trying to get Apple to agree to make it so they can charge an extra fee for it. Carriers don't want to make it easier for people to avoid using minutes.

Look at what happened with text messaging, right before iOS 5 comes out with iMessage, AT&T removed all tiered text plans and moved to an expensive unlimited text option, all or nothing.

I'm sure AT&T would love people to have to pay a $10/month FaceTime feature for their iPhone.

**

Everyone keeps mentioning bandwidth....I really don't think that is the concern. Netflix and Hulu+ streaming will use way more bandwidth than some crappy quality FaceTime video calls, that really won't get used too much anyways.
Click to expand...

why would they when Skype works for everyone? Nobody would pay for FaceTime. And I don't think carries make such demands, I think it's Apple. Why don't they ever restrict Android users with anything? When Apple first launched the iPhone they required people to make subscriptions, then only work with one selected phone company per country (and at horrible prices here in Germany), then they locked the phones and required activation. Apple invented all of this and Apple is the only company still trying to push all of this. This is why I moved to Android, and will maybe do the same with tablets.
 
princigalli said:
face it. There's Skype and a lot more out there. Everybody has a Skype account, nobody has FaceTime access. Not even the usual fanboys that would use anything Apple rolls out, even the new iMovie :)

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why would they when Skype works for everyone? Nobody would pay for FaceTime. And I don't think carries make such demands, I think it's Apple. Why don't they ever restrict Android users with anything? When Apple first launched the iPhone they required people to make subscriptions, then only work with one selected phone company per country (and at horrible prices here in Germany), then they locked the phones and required activation. Apple invented all of this and Apple is the only company still trying to push all of this. This is why I moved to Android, and will maybe do the same with tablets.
Click to expand...

Regarding Apple, my fanboyism is restricted to Macs.
 
2c

Wish I had kept my Apple Iic for prosperity sake (as pictured in photo for this article).
 
brdeveloper said:
Regarding Apple, my fanboyism is restricted to Macs.
Click to expand...

It's exactly the same for me. I work exclusively with Apple notebooks and Mac Pro at home, but my mobile devices went to Android. Many of us used to think that using Apple phones would help the company and the OS X, but it was exactly the opposite. Apple is slowly moving it's focus away from OS X, even Lion was a disappointment, I am afraid they will eventually torn their computers into iPads with keyboards.
 
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; CPU iPhone OS 5_1 like Mac OS X) AppleWebKit/534.46 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.1 Mobile/9B179 Safari/7534.48.3)

Skype & Tango are both great video chat apps. Tango more then Skype just because of the fact it's Contacts Friendly so It syncs with every one on Your phone that has the app already and Is able to chat all on 3G - 4G networks. 

Sent from Jimmy James iPhone
 
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