4 ms·

It's great to see them follow through with this. I remember when Steve Jobs went on stage and said that FaceTime would be an open standard. Haven't seen that ha

It's great to see them follow through with this. I remember when Steve Jobs went on stage and said that FaceTime would be an open standard. Haven't seen that happen yet.

erydo 11y ago
Re FaceTime, I recently read an unsubstantiated but plausible comment that they'd run into patent issues that caused a redesign that caused issues open sourcing it.
- AlphaSite 11y ago
  They were definitely sued very heavily over face times architecture.
- chrisbrandow 11y ago
  and according to someone I heard on a podcast, many of the engineering leadership heard the open sourcing comment for the first time while Steve was up on stage as well.
  - mcphage 11y ago
    Probably both are true.
  - 9935c101ab17a66 11y ago
    Mind linking the podcast? Generally curious.
    - rsynnott 11y ago
      Not sure which particular episode (you might be able to find it by looking through old shownotes) but this was mentioned on Accidental Tech Podcast, I think by John Siracusa (of really long MacOS review fame)
LesZedCB 11y ago
According to this reddit thread[1] they were sued for patent infringement[2] [1] https://www.reddit.com/r/apple/comments/1xuzif/what_ever_happened_to_making_facetime_an_open/ https://www.reddit.com/r/apple/comments/1xuzif/what_ever_hap... [2] http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-20236114 http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-20236114
w4 11y ago
> I remember when Steve Jobs went on stage and said that FaceTime would be an open standard. Haven't seen that happen yet. FaceTime has been the subject of multiple patent lawsuits, which is what has prevented it from being opened. See: http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-20236114 http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-20236114 and http://www.techzone360.com/topics/techzone/articles/2014/09/29/390008-apple-sued-patent-infringement-concerning-facetime-software.htm http://www.techzone360.com/topics/techzone/articles/2014/09/...
- iheart2code 11y ago
  Ah, that would explain it. Thanks!
- fulafel 11y ago
  Why would this affect opening the protocol? Patents aren't about keeping implementations secret.
  - mikeash 11y ago
    My understanding is that the patent nonsense forced Apple to transform FaceTime from a peer-to-peer protocol into one that transmitted all data through centralized servers, specifically Apple's servers. That meant that if the goal was for interoperability, Apple had to either provide server capacity for a bunch of other people's traffic, or they would have had to come up with a way to federate the system. Federation certainly could have been done, but that's a lot of sudden extra growth in scope compared to just taking what they had and releasing it.

It's great to see them follow through with this. I remember when Steve Jobs went on stage and said that FaceTime would be an open standard. Haven't seen that happen yet.

erydo 11y ago

Re FaceTime, I recently read an unsubstantiated but plausible comment that they'd run into patent issues that caused a redesign that caused issues open sourcing it.

AlphaSite 11y ago
They were definitely sued very heavily over face times architecture.
chrisbrandow 11y ago
and according to someone I heard on a podcast, many of the engineering leadership heard the open sourcing comment for the first time while Steve was up on stage as well.
- mcphage 11y ago
  Probably both are true.
- 9935c101ab17a66 11y ago
  Mind linking the podcast? Generally curious.
  - rsynnott 11y ago
    Not sure which particular episode (you might be able to find it by looking through old shownotes) but this was mentioned on Accidental Tech Podcast, I think by John Siracusa (of really long MacOS review fame)

LesZedCB 11y ago

According to this reddit thread[1] they were sued for patent infringement[2] [1] https://www.reddit.com/r/apple/comments/1xuzif/what_ever_happened_to_making_facetime_an_open/ https://www.reddit.com/r/apple/comments/1xuzif/what_ever_hap... [2] http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-20236114 http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-20236114

w4 11y ago

> I remember when Steve Jobs went on stage and said that FaceTime would be an open standard. Haven't seen that happen yet. FaceTime has been the subject of multiple patent lawsuits, which is what has prevented it from being opened. See: http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-20236114 http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-20236114 and http://www.techzone360.com/topics/techzone/articles/2014/09/29/390008-apple-sued-patent-infringement-concerning-facetime-software.htm http://www.techzone360.com/topics/techzone/articles/2014/09/...

iheart2code 11y ago
Ah, that would explain it. Thanks!
fulafel 11y ago
Why would this affect opening the protocol? Patents aren't about keeping implementations secret.
- mikeash 11y ago
  My understanding is that the patent nonsense forced Apple to transform FaceTime from a peer-to-peer protocol into one that transmitted all data through centralized servers, specifically Apple's servers. That meant that if the goal was for interoperability, Apple had to either provide server capacity for a bunch of other people's traffic, or they would have had to come up with a way to federate the system. Federation certainly could have been done, but that's a lot of sudden extra growth in scope compared to just taking what they had and releasing it.