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Let's be honest... Who really uses FaceTime?

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I only use facetime with my brother and girls that have an iP4 or an iT4. Some of my guy friends have an iP4 but im not that close to them
 
shakeman0 said:
I use it 2-3 times a week. I think it's a fantastic feature.
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I agree its a great feature, although I haven't used it.

The front camera is very useful taking the pictures of you or you and others at an arms length. Being able to see what picture is being taken you are less apt to miss the picture moment
 
Never used it. For one, I know really has an iPhone 4. For another, and this is strictly an opinion (of which we are all entitled to one), using FaceTime in public kind of makes you look like a tool. I saw some guy using it to call someone in the lobby of work building. It was a little obnoxious: he was walking around with his phone at arms length, basically yelling into his phone. ("IM AT WORK. WANNA SEE WHERE I WORK. HOLD ON LET ME FLIP THE CAMERA") And to some degree I think this is true. I mean, while its true that Apple wasnt the first to invent video chatting, there is a reason why it never took off.

Sure, it may be a question of pure numbers. Maybe video chatting hasnt really taken off because not enough people have iPhone 4s. But compare it to something like the bluetooth headset. Nearly everyone has one but you still kind of look like a jerk or a UPS guy if you wear one in public.

Again my 2 cents. Take or donate it.
 
I used to use it a lot more in the beginning, but I still use it now. My GF has a iPhone 4 so it's really convenient. Other than that, I might use it once in a while to talk to a friend. I barely ever use my computer to video chat anymore though. Oh how I wish Skype would support video chat for the iPhone...
 
I love Facetime because the audio is clear and the call stays connected, neither of which are features AT&T offers with their voice service.

So, you know, it's good for that.
 
Both my girlfriend and I are jailbroken and use Facetime over 3G. She calls me on her breaks, I call her when I'm with my mom so they can say hello, I use it as an intercom at the house, I'll surely use it when she's down at her house for Christmas and I go up North, when she goes on a trip with her parents we will definitely use it... Basically it's an awesome feature, even though it isn't used often. The few times you use it makes it really worth it. I just wish my girl had it when she went out to B.C. and Calgary this past summer. Only got the second iPhone 4 a few weeks ago.
 
Use it and love it. Get to see my wife and daughter when I'm not with them. So much better than a simple phone call. If it worked without jailbreaking over 3G, I'd use it that much more...
 
Small White Car said:
I feel like there should be an end to that sentence.

Not sure what you mean.
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WiFi is a little bit more reliable than 3G. A WiFi signal is transmitted or broadcasted within your local vicinity where as a 3G signal is thrown from a tower miles away. So I guess wouldnt the voice and call quality would be better by default?

I dont know, I guess I didnt understand how you could really compare a video conferencing call over WiFi to be "more clear" than a voice phone call over a 3G network. They're, to me anyways, two different things. And because of that you can't really compare the two. And when you cant compare the two, it doesnt logically follow that you can use the shortcomings of one method as advantages of the other method.

But hey, if you use it and you like it, more power to you. :)
 
I will use it occasionally on iPhone 4, iMac and MacBook Pro.

But you are right...I do not use it nearly enough for it to be the revolution that Apple thought it should be.
 
I use it almost every day sometimes more.
Also I have family in Europe and they have macs so we videochat alot without paying international calling fee's.
Plus with a JB iphone I can facetime over 3G with no probs.
 
I havet't used Facetime on my iPhone or Mac yet.. It's a hassle to have to rely on wifi in order to use it IMO.
 
I would use it probably once a week to talk to my sister and her family if it would work on my computer, but it stopped working after my first call, and I had to uninstall it. If I can get it working again, I'm sure I'd use it fairly regularly.

Of note, I don't have an iDevice that supports it, so I'd only be able to use the computer version.

jW
 
crazytiger86 said:
WiFi is a little bit more reliable than 3G. A WiFi signal is transmitted or broadcasted within your local vicinity where as a 3G signal is thrown from a tower miles away. So I guess wouldnt the voice and call quality would be better by default?

I dont know, I guess I didnt understand how you could really compare a video conferencing call over WiFi to be "more clear" than a voice phone call over a 3G network. They're, to me anyways, two different things. And because of that you can't really compare the two. And when you cant compare the two, it doesnt logically follow that you can use the shortcomings of one method as advantages of the other method.

But hey, if you use it and you like it, more power to you. :)
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"Why did you take your car to the store?"

"Because it's faster than walking."

Ok, so those are two different things. They can't be compared because they're different? Why can't I use that answer to that question?

I like driving because it's faster than walking. I like being on Wifi calls because they're better than 3G calls. I like beds because they're softer than sleeping bags.

I don't see what's wrong with saying any of that. Why can't I compare something better to something worse?
 
I use it a ton. It helps to be on a jailbroken 4 with My3G so I can FT anywhere. I've got a good friend a few states away that I FT with and it's a godsend when I'm working away from home and I get to see my wife and son. I prefer it over calling someone because audio quality is clearer and body language helps a lot in communicating.

On the clarity note, voice calls have an extremely limited bandwidth due to backwards compatibility with and archaic phone line system. That's the reason everything sounds muddy and you miss hear words every once in a while. With FT the bandwidth for audio is much higher and therefore allows for much clearer calls.
 
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One time, the day I got my iPhone 4, with a friend who has an iPhone 4. He had his IP4 for some time and had never used it, we just wanted to try it.

If it was cross-platform with skype, I'd use it all the time. I wouldn't, however, use it over 3G if that was possible. I have to watch my data as it is, I'd probably stick with wi-fi only.
 
My wife and I do. We both work nights, have a 19 month old at home, work opposite days. Usually get 1-2 days off together at best every 10 days. Our hospital has wifi so we can FaceTime when on lunch break. FaceTime has been a pleasure to use, very easy.

The issue is wifi availability. If/when AT&T ever opens it up over 3G, I think use of it will sky rocket.

We also are talking about trialing it's use at our hospital to get assistance from on-call doctors and clinicians. I can be at the bedside and FaceTime my clinical specialist if I have ventilator issue and show them via live video what's going on with the patient. Avoiding any HIPAA violations, the potential uses for it are astounding.
 
I use FaceTime on a weekly basis! I love it and was one of the features I was really looking forward too. My mom moved to N.C. and it allows her to talk to her granddaughters since seeing them often isn't feesable.

I have found apps that allow you to call over 3G (without jailbreaking) with very decent quality. Tango is the one I use the most as I have found it is most reliable and the best quality.

Apple may not have invented the wheel so to speak with FaceTime, but the fact that the phone is so easy to use makes it a good feature in my book. My oldest daughter has been able to use one since age 2 (now 4). The FaceTime feature is easy enough for her to call her grandma without me actually having to help her out and set it up. She just asks first then calls if I tell her it's ok.

Can't wait for the iPad 2....we will enjoy that as well!
 
Small White Car said:
"Why did you take your car to the store?"

"Because it's faster than walking."

Ok, so those are two different things. They can't be compared because they're different? Why can't I use that answer to that question?

I like driving because it's faster than walking. I like being on Wifi calls because they're better than 3G calls. I like beds because they're softer than sleeping bags.

I don't see what's wrong with saying any of that. Why can't I compare something better to something worse?
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Like I said...to me, they seemed like two fundamentally different things. Never said there was anything wrong. If you use it and you like it, more power to you. You bought it. To me it seems like apples and oranges. Is an orange necessarily better than an apple? Dont know...to me, you cant compare the two.

I guess where I got hung up was, because you happened to love something, it automatically made it better than the other thing. Logically, it doesn't necessarily make the one thing you like better or the other thing worse. "Why did you take your car?" / "Because its faster" / Thus it is better (and walking is worse). Is using a car necessarily better than walking? No, not necessarily. Is a bed necessarily better than a sleeping bag? Try it camping. Try washing a bed.

"I love AT&Ts 3G service because I can get voicemail and I dont need to be on a WiFi network, neither of which are features FaceTime offers." by your logic would automatically make AT&T's 3G service better. But its not...they're different. You took a normative statement and established it as a matter of fact, because of an inherent limitation in one of them.
 
I use it just about every day, and began using it even more often than that once I jailbroke and got 3g unrestrictor.

Also, ever since Y! Messenger came out with video chat support over 3g, I've been using it a lot more to chat with family and friends who don't have ip4s.
 
Love the FaceTime feature. On a jailbroken iPhone with 3G unrestrictor I can facetime anywhere. Was just on a trip in NY and facetimed my brother and showed my nephew the statue of liberty.
 
bluedukies8 said:
I use FaceTime on a weekly basis! I love it and was one of the features I was really looking forward too. My mom moved to N.C. and it allows her to talk to her granddaughters since seeing them often isn't feesable.

I have found apps that allow you to call over 3G (without jailbreaking) with very decent quality. Tango is the one I use the most as I have found it is most reliable and the best quality.

Apple may not have invented the wheel so to speak with FaceTime, but the fact that the phone is so easy to use makes it a good feature in my book. My oldest daughter has been able to use one since age 2 (now 4). The FaceTime feature is easy enough for her to call her grandma without me actually having to help her out and set it up. She just asks first then calls if I tell her it's ok.

Can't wait for the iPad 2....we will enjoy that as well!
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Wish I could say the same about Tango. We tried it for a week and it only connected twice, both times when we were sitting next to each other. When my wife went to visit her mom she wanted to see the baby so we tried Tango and it never connected - it would ring out on my end but never notify on her end and visa versa. Such a shame, I thought Tango could be the complete package.

Maybe someone here can give some tips on how to make it work. I can have both my phone and wife's phone in my hand, call hers and it never rings on her end. This is over 3G and wifi.
 
One of my best friends has an iPhone 4 so we use it whenever we can instead of calling. I'd say about 2x a week (we just don't call each other a lot lol).
 
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