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FaceTime is amazing. I keep in touch with my entire family using FaceTime video, often across thousands of kilometers. It's also such an equalizer, allowing ev
by sgt 5y ago
FaceTime is amazing. I keep in touch with my entire family using FaceTime video, often across thousands of kilometers.
It's also such an equalizer, allowing even the non-computer literate to use it and focus on the actual conversations.
In fact, my 103 year old grandmother is able to do video calls with me, which is great because I rarely see her in person these days. I don't think there exists an alternative she would be able to use.
- randomdata 5y agoUnfortunately, calls with more than two people seem to fall apart quickly if the network connection isn't perfect, even where Meets, Zoom, etc. work flawlessly.
- acdha 5y agoThis substantially the opposite of my experience so I’d bet there is some factor for proximity to CDNs or traffic shaping done by your ISP. FaceTime is rock-solid; Zoom is also good but has noticeably lower video quality (but good noise handling). Meet’s native apps are good but their browser UI is coded to break Firefox so I don’t use it much.
- scatterhead 5y agoSo it sounds like Facetime's Firefox support is better in your experience?
- randomdata 5y agoThe benefit of FaceTime being an open standard.
- imwillofficial 5y agoIt’s not an open standard
- randomdata 5y agoNor does it currently work in Firefox. Hence the continuation of the joke. It was originally announced as an open standard, though. Anyone who remembers Steve Jobs would have caught on. It is easy for us old-timers to forget how long ago that was now, so I extend my apologies to the youngsters.
- imwillofficial 5y agoHahaha you’re right! I remember jobs saying that, or was it iMessage He was talking about?
- acdha 5y agoI’d flip it the other way: Google decided to remove the benefits of portability, similar to how Zoom removed the benefits of being able to use their service without installing a client first. FaceTime is limited to Apple devices until iOS 15 allows anyone with a browser to join a call, so you’d think they’d be emphasizing the benefits of portability more.
- blacksmith_tb 5y agoFacetime doesn't work in any browser, does it? On macOS and iOS it uses a dedicated app, the protocol is proprietary so no 3rd part clients exist?
- bleachedsleet 5y agoFaceTime is coming to the web https://www.theverge.com/2021/6/7/22522889/apple-facetime-android-windows-web-ios-15-wwdc https://www.theverge.com/2021/6/7/22522889/apple-facetime-an...
- jwineinger 5y agoAgreed. For me, the hallmark of a good system is being able to forget that I'm using it. That has never happened to me with Facetime.
- trompetenaccoun 5y agoIt's so great and easy to use it even works for video calls with a person in China, while all other foreign communication apps are blocked there. Isn't that interesting.
- randomopining 5y agoCCP doing analysis on foreigners' faces and call contents so that they can cull dissention after they take over in 10 years. But Apple wants to do business there!
- throwthere 5y agoSemi-related question since I'm looking to get my grandma setup. Waffling between an iPhone and iPad, maybe an iPad mini but don't know if the air would be better (lighter I think). What device does your grandma use to FaceTime? Do you know does she do anything else with it?
- lotsofpulp 5y agoI think iPad Air is worth it for older people since it does not cost much more and the grandparents in my family appreciate the size of the screen, especially since they use it with enlarged text size.
- dekoruotas 5y agoJust three days ago I've set up my 93 year old grandfather on a Lenovo Smart Display 7. I think it has multiple benefits over an iSomething: - Always plugged in - no need to remember to charge - Shows our family picture albums that I can remotely update via my Google Photos - It is loud. Left the volume at 3/4 - Sits on a table and you're never holding it wrong™ - No settings to mess up, two previous tablets were too complicated
- daemoon 5y agoYou're one those who cannot let other people use and enjoy Apple products just because you do not like them.
- acdha 5y agoThose are good selling points but all but the last applies equally to a tablet (e.g. there’s no law requiring you to use a tablet on battery). The key point is the single function: a general purpose computing device has more UI & management than some people want to deal with. This is something the industry really hasn’t done a great job with, especially since it overlaps with the problem of treating things as disposable because the revenue model for single purpose devices is mostly broken and so people are often forced to churn them because the device they’re used to has been discontinued or no longer works with their WiFi.
- 5y ago
- caddybox 5y agoI think it is unfair to label a platform with a two hundred dollar entry barrier as an equalizer. VoIP and allied technologies are the real enablers and ad-supported platforms like WhatsApp et al. have been true equalizers by allowing anyone to communicate with anyone at marginal costs. The ease of picking up the phone and calling somebody with no consideration of cost has enabled so many people to connect and communicate on a more frequent basis.
- epicureanideal 5y ago> I think it is unfair to label a platform with a two hundred dollar entry barrier as an equalizer. Even in poor areas, lots of people are walking around with iPhones. $200-500 gadgets are not out of the range of poor people. That works out to less than a dollar a day. One time amortized expenses aren't that much of a barrier, from what I've seen. The real barriers the poor face are things like high rents, high medical cost, high cost of education, etc.
- wpietri 5y agoAbout a quarter of the world's population lives on less than $3.20 per day. [1] $200-500 is a lot of money to billions of people. [1] https://www.worldbank.org/en/news/press-release/2018/10/17/nearly-half-the-world-lives-on-less-than-550-a-day https://www.worldbank.org/en/news/press-release/2018/10/17/n...
- krrrh 5y agoThe cost of entry should be expressed as the difference between lower cost or used iPhones and iPads vs similar android devices. Even though there is a cost premium for iOS devices the proven longer longevity of arguably makes them cheaper for most people, especially light users who are happy sticking with a device for 5-8 years. The family members who do tech support for them can mostly rest happy with automatic security updates turned on.
- skygazer 5y agoCertainly, equality is an overloaded term, so it's useful to note the context. He's not talking about economic equality. He's talking about bringing a simplified interface to an otherwise complex and confusing process, particularly for his elderly relative. Different people will suffer from the existence of different barriers. It doesn't have to be a competition. What Apple does to simplify things (prioritize simplicity and accessibility, obsessively remove or hide options, make reasonable defaults, broaden the happy-path) can be replicated on more affordable platforms. That said, I've struggled to teach my elderly mother how to even answer her iPhone -- she finds it overly complicated. If she could get over the technical hurdle, she could stay in better touch with remote family and friends who now prefer texting and video calls to snail mail and begin to alleviate her loneliness.
- LivelyTortoise 5y agoIs there anything that sets FaceTime apart from cheaper competitors like WhatsApp / Signal video calling in this aspect of ease of use? (I say cheaper because you don't need to buy an iDevice to use those)
- xrisk 5y agoYou can take the call on a computer?
- reayn 5y agomacs come with facetime preinstalled (the newer ones at least) and you can send facetime links to people and they can join using the web client if they dont have a mac.
- benhurmarcel 5y agoOnly on a mac.
- masterof0 5y agoDon't you also need to buy a phone/computer/tablet to use whatsapp or signal? How does whatsapp is cheaper than facetime? But anyway, yeah, I noticed Facetime's both video and audio calls have better quality, in my personal experience. Also, most if not all my friends and family use iDevices, so I dont need to convince them to install signal/whatsapp/telegram etc... But YMMV.
- thisisussbs 5y agoYes but a practical new Android phone with reasonable spec (I don't mean cheap Chinese oems with 1gb ram) can be had for $100 and can run WhatsApp/signal fine. The cheapest iphone is $399 iirc, the high entry costs that disqualifies a lot of people even in the US and certainly abroad where apple tax difference compare to base currency of usd399 exceeds regional sales tax differences (mexico for example)
- 5y ago