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

Small White Car said:
I feel like there should be an end to that sentence.

Not sure what you mean.
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crazytiger86 said:
Because you can only use it over wi-fi...
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Although there has been some back and forth since the original posts, I took crazytiger86 to be commenting about the general unreliability of AT&T 3G service when compared to the WiFi networks on which he would anticipate using Facetime.

crazytiger86 said:
WiFi is a little bit more reliable than 3G.
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Once you have activated Facetime on 3G, you will realise that WiFi is much more reliable, and you will realise why the iPhone does not have Facetime activated by default for the AT&T 3G network.

If you ever connect on a relatively good array with relatively few people on it, 3G Facetime is great. But that is unusual. You're usually going to connect on an array that is "3G" but only at maybe 500kbps because Pharaoh's Army is trying to use the array the same time that you are. It'll be extremely choppy and laggy.

IMHO, it was the right thing to do at this stage of the game for AT&T and Apple to limit Facetime to WiFi. For the time being.

QuarterSwede said:
On the clarity note, voice calls have an extremely limited bandwidth....
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Frankly, I'm amazed how good AT&T 3G voice quality usually is for me, considering the limitations you've already specified. :)
 
I have had video conferencing of some sort since 1995, anyone remember the Apple QuickTime Conferencing Kit? :)
Obviously Apple HW has had this built in for sometime now, and I might use it 2x a month.
When traveling it is fun to talk to the kids, but otherwise I do not really have a need for it on my iPhone or especially the iPad.

IMHO, video conferencing, for the most part, is a feature people desire, but rarely end up using.
 
I've only used it once with my son mostly because I don't use wifi.

It's too restrictive being available only on wifi and is likely just a feature that will be made available for the next version (or time of) the iPhone.
 
One of my closest friends lives overseas. Haven't seen him in nearly a year.

It makes the phone calls that much better when you can see the person's face. It also gives you a sense of how they're living when you can see their surroundings, the area they live in, etc.

Plus it's free international calls so hey....
 
I would use it since my family across the country has iPhone 4's and Snow Leopard macs...but it doesn't work on my iPhone 4. Just sits there, waiting for activation...I've tried many things to get it going, no dice yet.
 
I use it all the time, at least once a day. I know 6 people with an iPhone 4 and 2 with the new iPod touch.
 
I use it when I travel to talk to my wife and kids. I have FaceTime on my iMac and I hook up to Wifi at the hotel. I can "call" my home computer, it rings and then I can talk to them and see them. Very cool!
 
I use is several times a week. I work a LOT and like to face time with the kids before school. I use 3gunrestricter and it works like a charm every time. Love it and glad it's available to me.

George Knighton not really sure you know what you're talking about. I have NEVER had a problem using FT over 3g, no matter where I am. So leave the comments about it being choppy or unreliable to those that actually use it in many different 3g situations. I have even had smooth FT experience with only 2 bars.
 
Not once and I really don't have any desire to use it.

Then again....I'm not a fan of Skype or any sort of web chat either.
 
I do

Most every weekend. Our daughter, her husband and their children live in PA. We live in GA.

I have an iPhone 4 and we bought her an iPod Touch for her birthday. Sort of a selfish present. :D But she uses it a lot and not just for our weekly FaceTime calls.
 
I have an iPod Touch with FaceTime on it... my wife has FaceTime on her laptop. We tried it a few times, worked out well but... I have to say that iChat's video was much nicer on the laptop, not just the video but the way it was presented. I wish FaceTime on the Mac would work like iChat did... why recreate something that worked well?
 
I haven't done so much iPhone-to-iPhone FaceTime but only because not many people I'd be close enough to want to call have iPhone 4s. However the iPhone to Mac FaceTime I've used every few days. My girlfriend lives 120 miles away and has a Mac but not an iPhone. With 3G unresctrictor I can call her anywhere over a really solid 3G connection. It's really revitalised FaceTime for me.
 
InsanelyApple said:
Who really uses FaceTime? I asked a lot of people I know with the iP4 and only one said yes. So do you use FaceTime?
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Great Question! I know over 40 people in my circle of friends with iPhone 4's. About one forth tried it when their phones were new (I wasn't one) and not one has used it since. Much ado about nothing.

I'm not saying it lacks usefulness. I just don't know anyone who finds it compelling. It's one of those "gee whiz" features that plays well in the fantasy world of television advertising, but flops in the real world.

A very typical move for a narcissistic personality like Jobs. He probably plays with it like it's the greatest "Apple Invention" of all... Heh!
 
3-4X per week on average, usually with a couple of work colleagues and my in-laws who live several states away.

With my colleagues, its often used when one of us can't "be there" for a quick show and tell where we may have normally snapped a bunch of still pics and emailed/MMS'd them back and forth. This is far, far faster. They can show me what issue they are dealing with and I can get a feel for it as if I'm right there. This wouldn't have been practical with traditional webcam's given the types of environments we are talking about....they need something untethered that they can easily move back and forth to emulate zooming in and out from a lot of different angles.

For family, it just adds a warmer vibe to the whole convo when you can see the niece or nephew, look at something they want to show you (house decorated for Xmas or whatever), etc.

Great addition to the iPhone.....when I first heard about it, never thought I'd use it. Boy was I wrong!
 
I use it multiple times a day for family and friends scattered across the globe. It's a feature I enjoy using and I'm kind of surprised how much I find myself using it actually. It's not just a gimmick for me.
Also, with the beta version working from Mac to iPhone and vice versa, it's opened up the usefulness to people who don't have iPhone 4's.
 
When it came out I thought it was something I'd use once for the neatness factor and then never again. Wrong. I use it about 2x a week. More when I'm traveling for buisness.
 
i use facetime very frequently and i would use it 100 times more if the school i attend did not block the ports.
 
I have used facetime the same number of times as I used video calling on any of my previous 5 phones that had it prior to getting my 3G. Once to test it. Most over hyped feature by far in my opinion. Especially being only over wifi, I could video call over 3G back in 2004, I didn't then and nothing has changed.
 
If you have young kids and travel there is nothing better to check in.
 
had it for about 6 months, have not used it even once. Although I have used Fring and Tango since they're not iphone specific. My wife has an Evo which works great with it.
 
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