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Is Facetime free since its Mobile to Mobile?

MacFly123 said:
I agree with those saying FaceTime is only accessible through a voice call like going on speaker phone after having already called someone, but it uses only WIFI. I guess we will find out the specifics of the tech involved and how it works with rules and networks and charges etc.

My question is this... Did anyone else notice that AFTER you start a FaceTime session, there is no way to go back to voice??? All there is is the button to end the call and it hangs up! Isn't that a bit of a problem? :confused: Am I missing something? I saw someone press that end call button in the footage and it indeed just ends the call, so there is no way back to a voice call once you start face time! Can anyone prove me wrong? :(:eek:
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The phone call will be hung up when you switch to FaceTime, of course you could do voice over wi-fi but I could see some resistance to that.
 
In the US the only people you can call using face time are other AT&T customers. Therefore, it doesnt matter if you are using minutes.... AT&T calls to one another are free!!!
 
Mliii said:
That is not accurate. You CAN use just the Facetime Application using your contacts if that person you want to have the video chat with also has an iPhone 4 and if you both have access to a wifi network.
IF you are already on a call and you have WiFI access and you want to switch to video chat, you can go right from the call to Facetime.
But you don't have to make a call to use it.
Click to expand...

I bet that hitting the FaceTime button without initiating a call, makes a cell-network connection for you. How else is your iPhone to know the IP address of the person you're trying to connect to? So if you have access to wifi, but not 3G, you're SOL.
 
MacFly123 said:
My question is this... Did anyone else notice that AFTER you start a FaceTime session, there is no way to go back to voice??? All there is is the button to end the call and it hangs up! Isn't that a bit of a problem? :confused: Am I missing something? I saw someone press that end call button in the footage and it indeed just ends the call, so there is no way back to a voice call once you start face time! Can anyone prove me wrong? :(:eek:
Click to expand...

Good observation, MacFly. That implies that the cell connection is dropped once the FaceTime conversation is initiated. We'll just have to see how it plays out in the production version once it's released.
 
elistan said:
I bet that hitting the FaceTime button without initiating a call, makes a cell-network connection for you. How else is your iPhone to know the IP address of the person you're trying to connect to? So if you have access to wifi, but not 3G, you're SOL.
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I agree, the impression i get from all the demos and documentation that is available is that this is a cellular call with the video data being exchanged via the wifi connection. No cellular call means no ability to locate and connect the two iPhones. Then they leverage the existing voice capabilities to meld to a video connection.
 
Facetime calls do not use your minutes, when you switch to facetime it ends the cell connection. I know this because when Jobs showed the codecs used for Facetime, he stated that AAC was the audio codec used. You wouldn't use an audio codec if voice was going over the cell connection.
 
sonictonic said:
You bring up a good point! Looks like that will probably be a small nuisance... and will probably take some people heading over to apple.com/feedback for that to be fixed/updated... I'm guessing but it seems likely...
Click to expand...

peterja said:
The phone call will be hung up when you switch to FaceTime, of course you could do voice over wi-fi but I could see some resistance to that.
Click to expand...

elistan said:
Good observation, MacFly. That implies that the cell connection is dropped once the FaceTime conversation is initiated. We'll just have to see how it plays out in the production version once it's released.
Click to expand...

Interesting. I think you are right that the call is killed and it switches to WIFI. I guess that is good for those concerned about minutes or international rates and how all that will work. It will be interesting to get iPhone 4 and see how it all works in reality! I can see people being annoyed by the voice call being killed though so they can't switch back. Not sure if it will become a big enough issue for Apple to do something about it, or how they would handle it with the way the tech works though.

Also, nice to know you can start FaceTime through the contacts without making a voice call first.
 
Facetime is just like Skype

with additional technology to connect two wi-fi enabled iPhone 4s to connect each other...


these two iPhone 4s (the name sucks iPhone HD would be nice to write this sentence) can be in any network or for the matter not even in the cellular network. (your iPhone 4 uniquely identifies you as like your skype id)


Wait for the iPod touch to come with two cameras and you can make FaceTime calls between them.

it is just a iChat for iPhone/iPod touch (with out requiring AIM account)

i am wrong or my understanding is wrong?
 
shanmugam said:
with additional technology to connect two wi-fi enabled iPhone 4s to connect each other...


these two iPhone 4s (the name sucks iPhone HD would be nice to write this sentence) can be in any network or for the matter not even in the cellular network. (your iPhone 4 uniquely identifies you as like your skype id)


Wait for the iPod touch to come with two cameras and you can make FaceTime calls between them.

it is just a iChat for iPhone/iPod touch (with out requiring AIM account)

i am wrong or my understanding is wrong?
Click to expand...
FaceTime requires a phone number to establish the call/connection.
So I doubt you will see this on an iPod touch.

A 3G enabled iPad should work if they gave it voice capabilities.
It already supports the standard GSM frequencies along with 3G.
 
rjohnstone said:
FaceTime requires a phone number to establish the call/connection.
So I doubt you will see this on an iPod touch.

A 3G enabled iPad should work if they gave it voice capabilities.
It already supports the standard GSM frequencies along with 3G.
Click to expand...

you can go to contact and click on the facetime icon also ...

there is another thready going on the same topic, more confusion :eek:
 
First of all, hello MacRumors from another new user!

Mliii said:
That is not accurate. You CAN use just the Facetime Application using your contacts if that person you want to have the video chat with also has an iPhone 4 and if you both have access to a wifi network.
IF you are already on a call and you have WiFI access and you want to switch to video chat, you can go right from the call to Facetime.
But you don't have to make a call to use it.
Click to expand...

Sounds like something that we saw in both the demo and the WDCC hands-on experiences... so yes! :)

bbplayer5 said:
In the US the only people you can call using face time are other AT&T customers. Therefore, it doesnt matter if you are using minutes.... AT&T calls to one another are free!!!
Click to expand...

Really? I thought international FaceTime could be done (just ASSUMING, but the FaceTime video had what looked like a soldier who was away from home and the hospital where his partner was getting a pregnancy screen)...

elistan said:
Where'd you see that? I don't recall anything stating that a US AT&T customer couldn't FaceTime with a UK O2 customer. Just curious, in case I missed something, thanks.
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I thought this would be the case here too.

As for those of you who are wondering whether or not FaceTime has any involvement whatsoever with a cellular network/number instead of an iPhone 4 UIID (User Interface Identification/IP Addressing Affiliation), I'll be getting one upon release and bypassing activation to turn it into a T-Mobile Pay-As-You-Go and we'll see how it works. This should be especially interesting if it's going to be on the data plan, since I won't have any of such plans in a situation like that. I'll update once I figure some more details out. :)
 
isn't it kind of ironic that this is the first feature that makes us actually want other people we know to have an iPhone 4 the same time we do?

anywho my friends either hate apple, spend all their money on alcohol or are not tech savvy at all. My family is stuck on windows mobile phones, so i will have no use for this until it turns into iChat haha
 
oh yeah totally went off on a tangent. I don't believe it SHOULD use voice minutes because its over WIFI. but i worry because it seemed to be used through the phone app during a CALL.
 
mattroman246 said:
so i will have no use for this until it turns into iChat haha
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I think thats where this feature is heading :) hopefully apple sees the amazing possibility in desktop-mobile video chat and even just mobile-mobile and desktop-mobile text chats aswell.

However... apple is a keen believe that people want it 'simple' and therefore thats why there is no facetime native app itself, i personally think that would be better because it would make it easier to get FaceTime to become iChat Mobile or whatever... but im still very impressed with the new iphone :D
 
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