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More confirmation Video Chat for the iPhone 4G

video chat

launched in '03 over 3g in the UK - video chat failed to take off. too expensive, poor experience. apple need to do something new

better quality
even BETTER quality over wi-fi
turn to voice chat activated by proximity sensors maybe
BUT MAINLY...
allow video chat to PC webcams!
 
seenett said:
Did anyone read the actress's twitter post from the Engadget article? I guess she doesn't have to worry about her "f****** Apple" audition anymore. She has zero chance of getting it now.
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I'm sure the people who got the job had to signed NDAs so, either she was rejected or she just couldn't resist to talk.
 
yoak said:
I only use it with my wife and daughter, but it really is great when you are in a different country for a longer period working. To be able to see them "live" at no cost in my hotel is great
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I guess most people until now rationalized it this way: If you're away for that long, chances are you will have your laptop with you. :)

More features/choice is good, though.
 
Espo said:
Well said. I remember having a Sony Ericson phone when the 1st gen iPhone came out. Was very content with my phone at the time, but then my brother offered to buy me the iPhone and it has been addiction since then... Apple is good @ what they do.
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My previous japanese 'dumbphone' (the "Knight Rider" one) had a front facing camera and you could video-call. Cell-phones only, and the other guy had to have the feature too. Everyone has a different device; fragmentation was an issue. Now it's gonna be better because so many people have iPhones, and likely you will be able to chat with PCs too.
 
Nuvi said:
Its useless. I've had it with couple of phones and never really used it. GPS gets you to places but video chat is just pointless waste of money. A lot of times I walk and talk. Try doing that while video chatting. Soon you notice that people might be in awkward places, walking, driving etc. and not really ready for video call.
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I can think of a situation where it would be really useful.

- Where are you?
- I dunno... what is this place? There is a building, like...
- Show me where you are.
- OK.
- Oh, I see. Wait there, I'll be in a second.
 
My thoughts:

If this is true (it's still only a rumour) you can bet that Apple have a way of packaging this that will make it a "must have" feature. As many have said, other phones (not even smartphones) have had this since 2003 or earlier. I've had a few of them. Tried them out. Never successfully got any of them working (and I was working as an integration engineer with handset manufacturers at the time!). That's one thing that Apple will bring to the table with this - joined-up-end-to-end-it-just-works functionality.
I doubt that this will be a carrier provided feature. This will almost certainly be internet based. They'll probably bundle iChat Mobile with the OS, but have probably already worked with Skype to make sure it works there too (although it may not require much in terms of new API support).

Then there's the marketing. They'll just need to provide, or even suggest, one thing that you could use it for that you hadn't thought of before and then leave it up to third party devs to find more.

We'll soon be delugued with apps that use the new camera support that we've not even conceived of yet - but can no longer do without.

For the record. When I was an integration engineer one of the things I worked with a lot was MMS. I was involved with it at an implementation level, and had to test it out a lot.

But getting it to work on damn end-product devices was a nightmare! Eventually I just gave up and wrote MMS off as a failed concept.

So I was underwhelmed when it became available on the iPhone. However the support for it is so seamless that I actually use it all the time now and don't even thing about it. I'm not claiming that no other device has offered such seamless integration, but it's certainly not been the norm.

We could be able to see a repeat of this with video calling.
 
MrCubes said:
GPS is quite useful for this too :)
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I know, and I agree. The maps app changed my life for once. I can walk to anywhere now!

But remember some people suck at reading maps! And sometimes the maps don't have easily recognizable landmarks (shops, etc.) on them, only the shape of the blocks/roads.
 
MrCubes said:
My thoughts:

If this is true (it's still only a rumour) you can bet that Apple have a way of packaging this that will make it a "must have" feature. As many have said, other phones (not even smartphones) have had this since 2003 or earlier. I've had a few of them. Tried them out. Never successfully got any of them working (and I was working as an integration engineer with handset manufacturers at the time!). That's one thing that Apple will bring to the table with this - joined-up-end-to-end-it-just-works functionality.
I doubt that this will be a carrier provided feature. This will almost certainly be internet based. They'll probably bundle iChat Mobile with the OS, but have probably already worked with Skype to make sure it works there too (although it may not require much in terms of new API support).

Then there's the marketing. They'll just need to provide, or even suggest, one thing that you could use it for that you hadn't thought of before and then leave it up to third party devs to find more.

We'll soon be delugued with apps that use the new camera support that we've not even conceived of yet - but can no longer do without.

For the record. When I was an integration engineer one of the things I worked with a lot was MMS. I was involved with it at an implementation level, and had to test it out a lot.

But getting it to work on damn end-product devices was a nightmare! Eventually I just gave up and wrote MMS off as a failed concept.

So I was underwhelmed when it became available on the iPhone. However the support for it is so seamless that I actually use it all the time now and don't even thing about it. I'm not claiming that no other device has offered such seamless integration, but it's certainly not been the norm.

We could be able to see a repeat of this with video calling.
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Agreed - and, as I just said - allowing it to video call the myriad webcams stuck into pcs, laptops, netbooks etc - nobody has done this yet.
 
chugachpowder said:
Maybe alongside their face detection software they could have penis detection and be able to filter some of that out.
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LOL! Maybe even a penis dimension filter, let′s say you want just the big ones! :p

I want to use it to chat with friends who live in other countries, so I hope it will be integrated with the new version of Skype. I can′t wait to see the iChat on iPhone, too!
 
ranReloaded said:
I know, and I agree. The maps app changed my life for once. I can walk to anywhere now!

But remember some people suck at reading maps! And sometimes the maps don't have easily recognizable landmarks (shops, etc.) on them, only the shape of the blocks/roads.
Click to expand...

But there are apps (such as CoPilot) that will send your GPS location back to someone else. I use this when my wife gets lost. I can see her on the map - and if necessary use Google Streetview to supplement :)
 
Front facing cameras have been around in the UK since late 2003/early 2004 with the 3 network. I used the video chat function once as a test. But it was quite cool :) hoping Apple will do something to make it even better and fun.

Also the NEC handsets which offered it at the time had poor quality cameras and the call charges was extortionate at 50-60p per minute.

Now in 2010 it may become a very popular function like visual voicemail. I didn't see the excitement in it when it was first announced but now I can't live without it.
 
thebez said:
Sure we did. And we all drove flying cars too.
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I don't know anybody without a front faceing camera on their phone, except the ones who have iPhones. Video chat is just a feature of UMTS/3G, and even the first UMTS phones in 2003 had this feature. I got my first phones with a front facing camera in 2005. At least in Europe it very hard to find a 3G capable phone without video conferencing capabilities. :eek:

And what lacks in the UMTS standard is video conferencing from phone to PC, and if Apple's smart they will make an iChat app where you can do this, as has been mentioned earlier in this thread.

But please don't think that video conferencing on a cellphone is Apple's invention.
 
Almost hearing impaired people need video chat on mobile to use ASL (American Sign Language) that could communicate with deaf callers and/or VRS (Video Relay Service). I can't wait to see it!!! I think that should use two-way video chat Fring under Skype to PC, Mac and mobile.
 
Assuming this is going to be present on the iPhone 4 that is going to be launched at WWDC, does that mean AT&T will support it at first? And if they do, I wonder what Steve had to do to get AT&T to go along with it. Twisted arms? Threatening to go to Sprint and Verizon?
 
Video not catching on

For a long time now we have all had computers with Webcams - and the option of video chat has been sitting there. But we don't use it.

There are a bunch of reasons for this.

1. Bad software. - Incompatible software - Technical issues.
iChat is an okay piece of software. But has some real issues with firewalls. And connects only to other iChat users. iChat is based on AIM and no-one outside the US uses AIM.

MSN will not offer video chat to Mac users until the next version.

The first really robust bit of video-chat software is probably Skype, which works between Mac and PCs and punches through any firewall.

Ideally we need a much more universal solution.
Perhaps a cloud-based service-interpreter which would let us talk to anyone, regardless of the particular service being used at either end.

2. Eye contact. In all video-chat demos... including the ones that Apple showed in the keynotes and the ones in science-fiction movies....the person on the other end of the line looks straight out of the screen. The callee is looking directly into the camera.

But no one ever does this. Because in a video call - we want to look at the face of the caller. We intuitively look at their eyes, not into the camera.

So in real-life video chats there is the unsettling experience of talking to a person without making eye-contact. Ideal for those with Aspergers, but less good for the rest of us.

3. Price. Mobile phone companies think they can charge for voice calling. So they might think that video calling should cost more. If they do, no one is ever going to use it.

C.
 
Will I conceivably use video-chat within the next few years? No.

Do I want a phone capable of video-chat? Sure!

A front-facing camera, however, will be very useful. I hate when I need to take a picture of myself, and have to turn my iphone away from me, both guessing what's in the shot and where the button to take the picture is. It's a painful experience.
 
Those dweebs you're mocking are the same people who invent 99% of the technology you're praising.


CFreymarc said:
IMO, so many shunned by society over the past two generations migrated to a social life on the Internet since their looks, lifestyle or political views were shunned by their local community. Now the Internet is catching up with the rest of us that have social lives.

Back then, it was only text and the occasional picture to communicate. With sites like Chatroulette and Omegle Video conferencing, we are seeing a divide of the socially acceptable and non-socially acceptable using this quick video connection technology. The video conferencing on the iPhone will just make this divide bigger.

Notice the types of people you see in Apple ads, they are energetic, fun, happy and social. Dweebs hide behind their non-video computers. Have fun you legacy pre-common video Internet types, you need another rock to hide under!
Click to expand...
 
Whether mobile video chat takes off will depend entirely on how Apple implement it.

On one hand I trust they will come up with a novel way to do this. But then again, this is the same company that left out physical volume controls from the first iPod touch. A walled-off iChat app, requiring people to register for an account (and thus obliging users and their contacts to switch IM networks for those not yet on iChat), will mean slow take-up and grumpy users (we've been spoiled, I know).

Here's a few ideas for video chat that I hope they've considered:

  • Integrate chat across all apps that use contacts - status and menu options of out chat buddies into Phone, Messages, Mail and Contacts
  • Tie in access to the chat network to iTunes accounts, to avoid requiring re-registration
  • Open up the iPhone chat network to other IM networks, both those that support video (Gmail, Skype, MSN) and those that don't (Facebook), to avoid our contacts having to be on the iChat network

Last note - I'm pretty sure video chat will be WiFi only from the outset (remember VOIP over 3G still isn't widely supported). But this could easily be added with a software update.
 
Personally neither I, nor my victim wants to be staring up my nose for half an hour on a video call. ‘Course I wouldn’t mind all those 'wrong numbers' like in Demolition Man :rolleyes:
 
CFreymarc said:
IMO, so many shunned by society over the past two generations migrated to a social life on the Internet since their looks, lifestyle or political views were shunned by their local community. Now the Internet is catching up with the rest of us that have social lives.

Back then, it was only text and the occasional picture to communicate. With sites like Chatroulette and Omegle Video conferencing, we are seeing a divide of the socially acceptable and non-socially acceptable using this quick video connection technology. The video conferencing on the iPhone will just make this divide bigger.

Notice the types of people you see in Apple ads, they are energetic, fun, happy and social. Dweebs hide behind their non-video computers. Have fun you legacy pre-common video Internet types, you need another rock to hide under!
Click to expand...

Whoa, where did that hatred come from? :eek:
 
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