5 ms·

Facetime on OSX is expected but huge.

• eli 16y ago
  I don't really get it. Why is this a big deal?
  • tvon 16y ago
    Because every Mac laptop and iMac for the past ~3 (?) years has shipped with a built-in camera. edit: To be clear, "huge" is relative, it's a big deal for the potential legitimacy of Facetime since the potential user base just grew quite a bit.
    • mike-cardwell 16y ago
      All those people can use Skype. Skype is a more well known brand than FaceTime currently. Plus they can Skype their Windows buddies, but they can't FaceTime them. What was with the multiple references to a "FaceTime Camera" anyway? I'm assuming it's not FaceTime only. I wouldn't call my Macbooks cam a "Skype Camera" either...
      • tvon 16y ago
        They can still use Skype, and "something else is better known" has never been a reason not to introduce an alternative. And what you're seeing is branding. It used to be an iSight camera, now it's a FaceTime Camera.
        • mike-cardwell 16y ago
          "has never been a reason not to introduce an alternative" If you read what I wrote again, you'll notice how I never suggested anything of the sort.
          • tvon 16y ago
            Ah, I got the impression you were saying "why FaceTime if there is Skype".
    • eli 16y ago
      But iChat has already done video conferencing on macs for some time, right? (Not to mention skype.) So this is different because it can also connect to iPhones, provided the iPhone user is on WiFi. Doesn't seem too useful to me. Now, if they announced that Facetime would work over the cell network, at least that would be something new.
      • tvon 16y ago
        > So this is different because it can also connect to iPhones (...) That's exactly why I think it's a big deal. There are already techs/apps/whatever that let people video chat and video chat with phones, but Apple has a pretty good track record at exposing this kind of thing in a way such that non-techies actually use it.
        • eli 16y ago
          Video chat with people who have new iPhones and are connected to WiFi is a thing lots of people want to do?
          • tvon 16y ago
            I'm speaking in terms of FaceTime as a feature of the iPhone. As an iChat/OSX feature it is not remarkable, but as a iPhone 4 feature, you now have a significant pool of people you can now video chat with that you couldn't before (through Facetime).
  • zyb09 16y ago
    It's not really gonna be a big deal, but you gotta consider there's an Apple keynote being broadcasted live right now, that usually means RDF is pulsing at 100%, so my advise is hide and don't question anything!
    • mahmud 16y ago
      I downvotted you because I think it's harmful to the discussion to be dismissive of others and their opinions, even if they appear to you to be under some kind of a spell. FWIW, whatever he said sounded attractive to me, but I think they have painted themselves into a corner having saturated their own high-end market with gadgets, and are now getting into the sub $1k notebook \w keyboard market. As attractive as their offerings are, I have no doubt that it's no match to the stampede of Androids that's gonna run over them; equally speced at half the price.
      • lzw 16y ago
        Of course there will never be an android device that is equally specced but half the price. This is just the kind of lie that apple bashers have been spreading for decades. Falsely comparing the Air to a netbook running atom processors and claiming that Apple is overpriced. Reality is, for the market segments apple competes in, they generally deliver significantly more value for slightly less price. But getting an honest comparison from apple bashers is pointless-- they don't really care, they just hate apple.
        • mahmud 16y ago
          Come ooon. We just went through the name calling thing with the parent, and now you're being his dialectic-opposite with the 'apple-basher' label.
          • lzw 16y ago
            You don't get to criticize me about name calling when you did so in the post I was responding to. If you don't want to be called an apple basher, don't say asinine things like "android device with the same specs for half the price."
  • alanthonyc 16y ago
    It's a big deal in that it's one further step towards making phone carriers irrelevant.