Will Facetime ever come to Mac OS X; desktops & laptops

[MrMister111]

Hi

I now have a iPhone 4. Cant use Facetime as yet, and only a few people have an iphone 4, and they are workmates.

It would be great to be able to use Facetime on an iMac or even a Win PC with an integrated webcam, as I understand that Facetime is "Open format" for others to implement?

I would love to be able to use it with a Computer so eg I could use Facetime for my daughter when Im out and about on my iPhone 4, and she at home on Win PC/iMac?

Will this ever come? I know its only WiFi so far, but surely for it to work it has to go over cellar network and use Computers?

comments? thoughts?
cheers

 

[angelwatt]

I'd guess they would integrate it into iChat.

 

[Satori]

Hi

I now have a iPhone 4. Cant use Facetime as yet, and only a few people have an iphone 4, and they are workmates.

It would be great to be able to use Facetime on an iMac or even a Win PC with an integrated webcam, as I understand that Facetime is "Open format" for others to implement?

I would love to be able to use it with a Computer so eg I could use Facetime for my daughter when Im out and about on my iPhone 4, and she at home on Win PC/iMac?

Will this ever come? I know its only WiFi so far, but surely for it to work it has to go over cellar network and use Computers?

comments? thoughts?
cheers

No one knows for sure except the folks at apple, but if I were a betting man, I'd put my money on it being one of the 'big' features of 10.7, with iChat being upgraded to do facetime calls.

 

[fcortese]

No one knows for sure except the folks at apple, but if I were a betting man, I'd put my money on it being one of the 'big' features of 10.7, with iChat being upgraded to do facetime calls.

I think Satori is spot on. It is a natural transition where all of Apple's platfroms-laptops, desktops, iPhones, iPads, etc will be intergrated even more so. It is a natural feature for an iChat upgrade.

 

[BornAgainMac]

And I hope Windows gets iChat if that was the case. They need it too.

 

[norsemen]

Why wait for 10.7, which would be one year away from now?

I would think that Facetime for OS X will appear in iLife 11 soon.

 

[MrMister111]

Why wait for 10.7, which would be one year away from now?

I would think that Facetime for OS X will appear in iLife 11 soon.

I hope its neither of these, means you have to pay for the "upgrade" to get Facetime on Mac then. I have Snow Leopard, and iLife 09, so dont really need either yet.

Also I was hoping as Facetime is supposed to be an open app, that Windows PCs would get it too?

 

[R94N]

Also I was hoping as Facetime is supposed to be an open app, that Windows PCs would get it too?

Yes, Jobs said that FaceTime was going to be an open standard, but I doubt it going over to the Windows platform. It seems integrating it into OS X via iChat seems more likely, but the only people who'll know for sure are the folks at Apple.

 

[zorinlynx]

This brings up another issue... Why is iChat not on the iPhone? The iPhone could benefit a lot from having IM capability built-in rather than having to use third party apps.

Apple should standardize iChat across all its platforms.

 

[R94N]

This brings up another issue... Why is iChat not on the iPhone? The iPhone could benefit a lot from having IM capability built-in rather than having to use third party apps.

Apple should standardize iChat across all its platforms.

Good point, and I agree. iChat is really a 'forgotten' app on the Mac, sadly. All the attention's on Skype for video calling services.

 

[zap2]

This brings up another issue... Why is iChat not on the iPhone? The iPhone could benefit a lot from having IM capability built-in rather than having to use third party apps.

Apple should standardize iChat across all its platforms.

They really should, having recently enter college, I use iChat quite a bit, some prefer iChat, but I prefer iChat. Its a same Facetime doesn't support iChat(or Apple doesn't release an iChat app for iOS)

 

[Middling]

Yes, Jobs said that FaceTime was going to be an open standard, but I doubt it going over to the Windows platform.

If it were an open standard Apple wouldn't be able to prevent someone from making a Facetime client for Windows.

It's pointless anyway since, despite Jobs saying during the keynote that they would be approaching standards bodies that day, there still hasn't been any news on it actually being submitted as a standards proposal.

I suspect that Apple realised how poorly thought out the design of Facetime is, which is why they bolted-on the ability to use email addresses as identifiers in iOS 4.1 (and it's still poorly thought out).

What they should have done is used existing standards for Facetime; XMPP for presence and Jingle for audio/video. That way Facetime could interoperate with existing clients that already support standards and Apple would have an easy avenue for adding IM in the future should they want to.

 

[ianray]

FaceTime will definitely come to OS X; the question is: when?

I suspect that Apple realised how poorly thought out the design of Facetime is, which is why they bolted-on the ability to use email addresses as identifiers in iOS 4.1 (and it's still poorly thought out).

What aspect of the protocol do you dislike?

 

[mulo]

you guys forgot one very important thing!
the 10.6.5 betas out there are asking developers to focus on ichat amongst a few others.

 

[MrMister111]

you guys forgot one very important thing!
the 10.6.5 betas out there are asking developers to focus on ichat amongst a few others.

mmm didnt think about this, I wonder, I hope so! at least one more app, then just need a release for Windows, if Facetime really is "open".

 

[mulo]

mmm didnt think about this, I wonder, I hope so! at least one more app, then just need a release for Windows, if Facetime really is "open".

as of now its not open. but will be later on, probably when we get facetime in ichat.

 

[Frosties]

The ichat camera camera can handle better resolution than vga but is software restricted now to the lower vga resolution. I don't think it's good enough for the facetime resolution and frame rate though.

Selling point will be "purchased a mac? Here's a new one with a better camera for facetime!"