Comments on: iPhone 4: FaceTime Mobile Video Conferencing

By: fedya

fedya — Fri, 18 Feb 2011 15:20:52 +0000

What do you mean Facetime will not let people to record their conversation?
I’ve just bought a new soft – special facetime recoder. IMCapture for facetime – it works and records))

By: Vinay

Vinay — Sat, 07 Aug 2010 16:21:27 +0000

Nice article. Any idea how Apple manages to have a real-time video encoding over relatively low-end A4 processor? Or are they using other extra graphics hardware?

By: grumble

grumble — Tue, 03 Aug 2010 22:40:08 +0000

the photos are fake. The video quality is far far from what the advertisement shows. This is nothing short of false advertisement.

By: MJ

MJ — Sat, 17 Jul 2010 10:56:54 +0000

WELL ITS APPLE THATS LATE ON BUILDING IT WHILE ANDROID HAS CAME OUT WITH IT FOR EXAMPLE I HAD A MY TOUCH AND HAD IT FOR 1 YEAR BEFORE THE IOS4 CAME OUT AND ALL THE THINGS YOU CAN DO ON THE IOS4 I DID IT ALREADY ON THE MY TOUCH AND THE MY TOUCH HAD MORE FEATURES THEN THE IOS4.

By: George

George — Tue, 22 Jun 2010 09:54:00 +0000

Does anyone think someone will develop the software so that people with iPhones can video call users on a computer? That would make the device much more versatile especially since the video calling is only available on WiFi anyway. Just wondering if there was any info about such a feature floating around.

By: Wat?

Wat? — Sun, 20 Jun 2010 18:23:47 +0000

My over 4 years old Nokia N70 could make Video Calls with a VGA-camera.

By: Cole

Cole — Sun, 13 Jun 2010 16:50:32 +0000

it's pretty easy to find someone who just like to dislike everything apple, android is still really just the copy of everything apple comes out with first.

By: Andy Boothe

Andy Boothe — Sat, 12 Jun 2010 02:58:45 +0000

Interesting point. I’m not sure how much the feature is really “worth.” It’s definitely cool, but I’m not sure how truly valuable it is. I don’t think I get anything more from a video call than I do from a voice call.

From what Jobs said at WWDC, it’s clear that “the carriers” (pronounced “AT&T”) are the reason that FaceTime only works over a Wi-Fi network. It also seems that AT&T isn’t worried about people getting “free minutes” on their iPhones by switching to data-only communication over FaceTime when they run out of cell minutes because: (a) the (cheap) all-you-can-eat data plan is (rumored to be) on its way out, so FaceTime likely wouldn’t give you many minutes anyway, and (b) FaceTime only works between to iPhone 4s for now, which means only a very small proportion of AT&T customers could use this technique.

That says to me that AT&T is worried about capacity. This should come as no surprise to any AT&T wireless customer. Capacity is a chronic issue for the company’s network. (It’s such an issue that that AT&T is actually offering free Wi-Fi in some places, like NYC, to take some of the burden off its saturated towers: http://www.cnn.com/2010/TECH/mobile/05/25/att.free.wifi.nyc.cnet/index.html)

As far as the Overdrive and MiFi go, because they’re Wi-Fi, you’re right: you’ll definitely be able to use them to make FaceTime calls. But note that those products don’t use AT&T’s network. This is pretty clearly a defensive move on AT&T’s part to keep as much data as possible off its data network.

AT&T, you do realize that you seriously need to upgrade your data network, right? If Apple ever opens up the doors for the iPhone to operate on any other network — like Verizon’s, just for example — you’ll lose so many customers so fast it’ll make your logo spin.

By: Michael Middleton

Michael Middleton — Thu, 10 Jun 2010 15:46:43 +0000

Does anyone know if Apple is ever going to develope an FM accessory for the iPhone. There is one that still works for the iPod Touch but not for the iPhone, very annoying!!!

Thank you

By: Strongfist

Strongfist — Thu, 10 Jun 2010 09:37:30 +0000

Ill admit the iPhone 4 is a sexy device. But its still playing catch up in many areas compared to Android. Android is a head overall. All the iPhone 4 has is a really nice screen and thats about it.

You can read just how iPhone is just playing catch up to Android here:

http://getyourgadgetsgoing.com/2010/06/10/areas-that-iphone-4-still-crumble-to-android/