Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
Since facetime uses wifi....can we make face time calls without cell signal?
- Thread starter hefeglass
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
Good question. Supposedly all of the data (video AND audio) goes over wifi, so there is a good chance it will be possible, but I don't think we will know for sure until someone with an actual iPhone 4 checks it out.
And why exactly would Apple allow that to happen?
They have a contract with at&t, you could imagine them not being so happy.
Same thing happened with push-to-talk, carriers were not happy people could avoid charges, so in the end almost no carrier allowed it.
My guess is facetime will never be 'free', you will always need a cellphone signal. The front camera might even not be usable with skype, cause whats the point in using facetime over the phone while it can be used for free using skype??
Luckily there is cydia
They have a contract with at&t, you could imagine them not being so happy.
Same thing happened with push-to-talk, carriers were not happy people could avoid charges, so in the end almost no carrier allowed it.
My guess is facetime will never be 'free', you will always need a cellphone signal. The front camera might even not be usable with skype, cause whats the point in using facetime over the phone while it can be used for free using skype??
Luckily there is cydia
And why exactly would Apple allow that to happen?
They have a contract with at&t, you could imagine them not being so happy.
Same thing happened with push-to-talk, carriers were not happy people could avoid charges, so in the end almost no carrier allowed it.
My guess is facetime will never be 'free', you will always need a cellphone signal. The front camera might even not be usable with skype, cause whats the point in using facetime over the phone while it can be used for free using skype??
Luckily there is cydia
Can't see why. Apples site seems to indicate on reading that it can be iniated straight from contacts list, and as it's going over wifi only for now, carriers are not involved in any way, excepting that it can be initiated whilst on a phone call.
Might, assuming it gets jailbroken. But that wouldn't factor into carrier consideration really, as it's not normal use of device.
The way I saw it was you would call someone normally then when it detected you were both on iPhone 4 and on Wi-fi/3G the option to make it a video call would become available.
Then you also have a list of contacts that are available to make a video call to, and you just tap their name and it would go straight to a video call over Wi-fi, perhaps bypassing having to make a call but I think the first method would require a signal because you're calling them normally first and the second way wouldn't.
Then you also have a list of contacts that are available to make a video call to, and you just tap their name and it would go straight to a video call over Wi-fi, perhaps bypassing having to make a call but I think the first method would require a signal because you're calling them normally first and the second way wouldn't.
The answer is definetely NO since you just call someone. And when you call someone, you can turn on FaceTime (which goes over WiFi).
I had wondered this as well. Look at the link above to the Apple site that dicusses Facetime. It states that you can initiate a video call directly from contacts as well. It will be awesome if there iis some sort of indicator (blue dot) next to those contacts who are currently on wifi.
Sorry bro, you're wrong. Either you call someone and switch over to Facetime OR (wtf?!) you select a contact and press the FaceTime button located next to the SMS button. Don't have a picture but that's the way it is.
One-tap simple.
FaceTime works right out of the box no need to set up a special account or screen name. And using FaceTime is as easy as it gets. Lets say you want to start a video call with your best friend. Just find her entry in your Contacts and tap the FaceTime button. Or maybe youre already on a voice call with her and you want to switch to video. Just tap the FaceTime button on the Phone screen. Either way, an invitation pops up on her iPhone 4 screen asking if she wants to join you. When she accepts, the video call begins. Its all perfectly seamless. And it works in both portrait and landscape modes.
If the audio went over the cell provider and the video over WiFi (broadband provider), you'd never be able to keep the audio & video anywhere near in synch with one another. I have to believe that once you kick in Facetime that everything is going over WiFi.