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

Mliii said:
If you are like me, you'll find you use it a LOT more with the family once they have it available. I can't get people who have access to FaceTime to give me regular phone calls any more! They prefer the video AND the cost- ZERO!:)
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That's my case. My family and friends love it and prefer it as well.
 
I just use Tango now. Video calling over 3G. Now I never have to wait til the other party is on Wifi. I just video calling anyone anywhere. Being able to video call anywhere makes it a drastically better experience over Facetime, where you are always just stuck at home mostly.
 
Used it twice on the launch day (and it was very unreliable).

I don't see the point in video calling. My last few phones have had 3G video calling on them and my operator doesn't charge anything for the calls (it comes out of the voice allowance) - also never used.

FaceTime is obviously more restricted than that (fewer devices, Wi-Fi only), so I see its utility being even more limited.
 
Daveoc64 said:
I don't see the point in video calling.
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Family scattered across the globe, little kids, parents, aunts uncles, cousins, holidays, sharing daily events with family from Iraq...that's just a few things it's been good for. You may not see the point, and that's great because no one is forcing you to use it. But for some of us, it's a lifeline to relative family normalcy.
 
My wife is a nurse and often works weekend nights. We use it so that she can help tuck them in at night so they can see mommy.

That alone is worth having it around for us.
 
I would be more likely to use it if facetime was capable over 3G. The fact that it only works on wifi defeats the purpose, I'll just go on skype on my imac instead if I'm home.
 
NYY FaN said:
I would be more likely to use it if facetime was capable over 3G. The fact that it only works on wifi defeats the purpose, I'll just go on skype on my imac instead if I'm home.
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Try this app Tango, video conferencing over 3G. Been using it quite often the past week. Works quite well depending on your connection. Works with 3GS also but they can only use your back camera.
 
My wife has been out of the country for a couple months, and thanks to AT&Ts horrible international data and text packages Facetime has become heavily used.

I purchased my wife a 4th gen touch since she is able to get wifi access where she is staying from time to time. I do wish that I could do Facetime over 3g since we are in different time zones it makes it very easy to communicate.


I know that I can make voice calls over skype but its just not the same.
 
Obviously, there are a minority of iPhone owners who may be away from their children who use it, as evidenced by this thread, but for the most part I doubt many people use it. I don't want to see someone I'm talking to. I don't want them to see me. It's one of those ideas that seems cool until you have the ability. I haven't used it once. Nobody I could even see myself using it with.
 
No I don't use it, but I feel like Facetime could've been more popular if there was like an iChat app for iPhones, you know like bbm for BB, but this one you can text and also video chat.
 
eye said:
Obviously, there are a minority of iPhone owners who may be away from their children who use it, as evidenced by this thread, but for the most part I doubt many people use it. I don't want to see someone I'm talking to. I don't want them to see me. It's one of those ideas that seems cool until you have the ability. I haven't used it once. Nobody I could even see myself using it with.
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This is why it was very amusing to see the legions of followers decry how good Facetime will be and how it'll change the way we communicate forever... only for them to find out what the rest of us already knew, that video calling isn't what it's cracked up to be, and that on the whole, people don't want to be able to see each other when talking on a phone. Yeah, Facetime has some niche uses, but for the general masses, I don't think it'll ever take off in a big way. But then I've been thinking that for years now since I made my first video call about 5 years ago.
 
mrochester said:
This is why it was very amusing to see the legions of followers decry how good Facetime will be and how it'll change the way we communicate forever... only for them to find out what the rest of us already knew, that video calling isn't what it's cracked up to be, and that on the whole, people don't want to be able to see each other when talking on a phone. Yeah, Facetime has some niche uses, but for the general masses, I don't think it'll ever take off in a big way. But then I've been thinking that for years now since I made my first video call about 5 years ago.
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I'm not part of any legion of followers of anything. The question posed by the OP was who uses FaceTime? I explained how I have used it and how, in my particular case, niche use or not, it's a success. Lately, I've been struck by the number of posts here on MR that go into this lengthy tirade about 'I never use x feature, therefore it's worthless'. That's great- if you don't need to use a feature, you're not being forced to. That doesn't delegitimize the need others may have for whatever the feature is. Video calls may not be the wave of the future or even an echo of a wave from the past. It's just a feature that some people use successfully.
OT true story, I once had a client who argued with his wife at a dinner I took them both to about the virtues of chocolate cake vs vanilla cake. She told him she preferred vanilla because it tasted better. He told her 'well, you're just wrong'. He was dead serious. We seem to be getting a lot more people who think those who use features they don't need or think important are just wrong...:rolleyes:
 
Mliii said:
I'm not part of any legion of followers of anything. The question posed by the OP was who uses FaceTime? I explained how I have used it and how, in my particular case, niche use or not, it's a success. Lately, I've been struck by the number of posts here on MR that go into this lengthy tirade about 'I never use x feature, therefore it's worthless'. That's great- if you don't need to use a feature, you're not being forced to. That doesn't delegitimize the need others may have for whatever the feature is. Video calls may not be the wave of the future or even an echo of a wave from the past. It's just a feature that some people use successfully.
OT true story, I once had a client who argued with his wife at a dinner I took them both to about the virtues of chocolate cake vs vanilla cake. She told him she preferred vanilla because it tasted better. He told her 'well, you're just wrong'. He was dead serious. We seem to be getting a lot more people who think those who use features they don't need or think important are just wrong...:rolleyes:
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Yep, stating opinion as if it were fact has definitely become a lot more prolific on forums of late, as is calling someone a fanboy if they happen to disagree with you. I just wish for some sensible discussion for a change that isn't ruined by the people who do those very things.
 
mrochester said:
Yep, stating opinion as if it were fact has definitely become a lot more prolific on forums of late, as is calling someone a fanboy if they happen to disagree with you. I just wish for some sensible discussion for a change that isn't ruined by the people who do those very things.
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Well said...
 
Mliii said:
I'm not part of any legion of followers of anything. The question posed by the OP was who uses FaceTime? I explained how I have used it and how, in my particular case, niche use or not, it's a success. Lately, I've been struck by the number of posts here on MR that go into this lengthy tirade about 'I never use x feature, therefore it's worthless'. That's great- if you don't need to use a feature, you're not being forced to. That doesn't delegitimize the need others may have for whatever the feature is.
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I should hope that the inverse works logically as well right? There was a bit of yelling match a few pages ago regarding this..
 
Mliii said:
Family scattered across the globe, little kids, parents, aunts uncles, cousins, holidays, sharing daily events with family from Iraq...that's just a few things it's been good for. You may not see the point, and that's great because no one is forcing you to use it. But for some of us, it's a lifeline to relative family normalcy.
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+ 1. I didn't use it much until I had leave my girlfriend and son for my deployment. It's been great especially over the holiday since we can show each other our decorations and I plan on doing this on Christmas day.
 
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Everyone I know now uses Tango because it works without wifi. Ill use it with my friends and girlfriend atleast once a week.
 
I used it exactly once.

Whats the point if you have to be on wifi?

Hey, you just won the lotto! we're going to give you 1 billion dollars, but we have to break your legs and hands so you cant enjoy it ok?
 
I used it once with my MacBook. No one I know has an iPod Touch 4 or an iPhone 4. Wait! That's a lie. My landlady has one, but why would I Facetime her?
 
I use Facetime almost everyday since i'm living away from home,at University.
 
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I never use FaceTime cause I also don't know a lot of people w/ the iPhone 4... My girlfriend has it but she refuses to FaceTime with me because she sees me anyways so I guess I'm SOL there haha.
 
I've used it a few times, doesn't like to connect sometimes though. I called my Mac from iPhone just for the hell of it and my iPhone froze and then died! Wouldn't turn back on and had to restore it.
 
iBark said:
5x per week. Once a day -- during the workweek.

GF has an iPod Touch 4G, plus WiFi at work for employees to use during breaks. So it saves her on using up cell minutes.

She didn't buy the iPod w/FaceTime as the selling point -- but it turned into a useful feature.
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Skype is free too :p So are mobile to mobile minutes between other AT&T phones.
 
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_2_1 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/533.17.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.0.2 Mobile/8C148 Safari/6533.18.5)

I've used it once with my best buddy who lives in LA and thought it worked really well. I know people complain about lack of cross-platform and 3G compatibility but in all the years I had a phone with video calling, I didn't use it once.
It's a nice gimmick but it wouldn't be a deal breaker if the iPhone didn't have a front camera.
 
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