Considering the proliferation of 3G, WiFi, in-home broadband, and front-facing cameras on phones, you'd think that there'd be far more obvious ways to bridge video calls between phones and PCs -- but alas, it's virtually impossible, particularly in the States where carriers have a complete aversion to the topic. Enter
Fring -- one of the mobile industry's VoIP pioneers that has spread its love from Symbian to almost every smartphone platform worth mentioning over the years -- which is stepping out today with a new build for
S60 handsets that offers video support through Skype. The way we see it, this is great news for a couple of reasons: one, Skype is one of the few videoconferencing systems with widespread traction, and two, this suddenly makes front-facing cams useful to a whole swath of Nokia users on networks (ahem, AT&T and T-Mobile) that don't offer video calling themselves. Whether we actually use it is another story altogether, but hey, it's cool to have it if we absolutely must see your beautiful face
right now in stunning low fidelity. Follow the break for a video demo.
posted November 24th 2009 1:06PM
D:
I was bummed when i found out my winmo phones front camera was completely useless. This is really cool i wish skype would just add native support for it but their excuse has always been the wide variety of hardware, maybe it was just laziness.
@(Unverified)
Yeah, Great! I can now use my Nokia 5800 for video calls with my friends and family in foreign countries, without using cam or being near a computer.
Yeah, one more reason to go Symbain ;)
@(Unverified) You can use that front camera on your windows mobile with iVisit Mobile. They've had video chat on mobile devices for a while now, they even do multiparty. www.ivisit.com
Don't expect to have this option on Verizon for under an additional $30 on top of your data plan...
Another option I can't wait to use and avoid paying for, e.g. tethering.
@(Unverified)
Yeah Verizon should be locked up. Whos cares about the network if you can't use it the way you want to. I had Verizon for a week here in Wisconsin and found their network no were near as sweet as they make it out to be. I was going to pay almost $150 for one line when with Sprint (Who around here at least has better service) I could get two lines with everything for $50 less ( I do have a 25% IBM discount with Sprint) When i went in to cancel they made fun of Sprint. When the manager asked why I was laughing i told him I never have been to a place so unprofessional that they would outright call another company a "loser". It is funny but come on a sales person needs to be professional.
Any word if this will be available for other OSs soon? Like WinMo perhaps? How come Skype hasn't added this feature themselves?
Can we get an uglier dude on the video please?
@Mattd00d
are you volunteering?
@Mattd00d
ZING!
@Mattd00d
unfortunatly not all playboy bunnies are into programming...
Can't wait to see this on the N900. We need a Maemo port ASAP.
@Eternity
Thank God that isn't YouTube HD.
@Eternity
You gotta give it up to the asians. They sure know how to market a product with hot girls. I don't know what these guys were thinking. Surely there must be at least an attractive secretary at Fring that they could of used to push the new feature?
@Eternity Having the N900 might help first. I'm still waiting Nokia :(
@Eternity
Why would you need Fring for your N900 when Maemo fully integrates Skype functionality into the OS? Fring exists on the S60 platform because Skype is too lazy to make software that delivers actual, worldwide VOIP calling for the platform.
I know that but it doesn't support video calling natively. A move I think Nokia has done to avoid getting into beef with carriers in Europe who offer video calling plans. Which doesn't make sense anyway because it has built in SIP and VOIP. I mean that's enough drama right there.
would be nice if they would make fring app for the flippin BlackBerry!!!!
@webmastir
At least here in the US it seems like they picked the least used OS to put this on. I know over seas people use Nokia a lot but come on how about we make it for an OS that isn't 5 years behind.
Finally! but not too great video quality, the video looks small and laggy.
@(Unverified)
Uh...I was replying to the guy above... :/ (must be the broken reply system :P)
@(Unverified)
baby steps my man, baby steps
@(Unverified)
Well, most phones targeted primarily at the US market (iPhone, even most Android phones and others...) don't even have a front facing camera.
Whereas phones which are primarily targeted at the European (and Asian) markets, usually have a videocalling camera, since it's been a standard feature here for quite a few years now. And those phones are mostly Symbian.
@(Unverified)
The problem is that most US phones other than Symbian (and WM?) ones don't even have a front facing camera.
I even heard that AT&T is modifying the Nokias by removing videocalling functionality...
@(Unverified)
You're an idiot, Symbian is actually the most popular smartphone OS in the world by units sold.
I agree, AT&T made Nokia remove the front facing camera in E71x.
That's some looker there in the photo. I just lost my lunch.
what's the point if nobody else have a phone with front-facing camera/network plan to utilize it? Talking to yourself gets old real quick.
@pika2000
in europe most people have phones with front facing cameras.
but nobody uses video calling anyway.
so i doubt many people will use this.
@iroq d mullet I'm always down for some modeling.
@Endadget
Eh, I was replying to the guy above.... :/
looks like that guy is sitting on the john, based on his face expression. classic.
Holy broken reply system, Batman! :S
@ Pika -
The point is that you can use it with Skype contacts, not just Fring contacts.
I tried this out on my Sony Satio to a Skype contact and it works very well... much better than what the video shows. The video quality is not the best, but it is to be expected from a VGA pinhole camera. It's a huge deal because there are so many devices with the worthless front facing camera, and now we can actually use it!
It worked well over wifi, haven't tried on cellular yet.
This is a HUGE step for things to come, not just for S60. I hope that they implement other protocols, AIM, Yahoo, MSN, Google, etc, so we can finally have true mobile presence with video.
@Zero SiX
So you say this works on the satio?
Cause I just tried it on my OmniaHD and it in fact does not work -- it won't install.
They work on things like this video support, yet neglect to address the quality issues, such as major lag in skype that is there more often than not, at least on a winmo phone. TBH, a video is nice to have, but the only time i am probably going to use that is when testing if it works.
@(Unverified)
I totally agree, no one really need video calls on such small screen with a VGA camera. i have this option on my UTMS network and i never use it, and know any one that does.
it is a cool feature but nothing more.
Fring should see what Nimbuzz are doing. Fring should add normal voice quality before they add video calls, there are so many basic features fring is lacking, no serious update over a year now.
Haha I actually use that front camera as a mirror to tell you the truth it works great. If I ever need one it's there
Hello Beautiful!
All I'm saying is that the next-gen iPhone in 2010 better have a front-facing camera, or I may have to jump ship, both from the device and the carrier!
@(Unverified) please. they just gave you MMS this fall and you expect them to have front facing camera? LOLz!
I am not so much interested in front facing camera as I am in making it easy to get into video conference/share mode while in a phone call. It's useful when you're at an event or even at the store and want to verify you're getting the right item for somebody.
Seems like it's a tad bit laggy, but nonetheless it's an awesome breakthrough for mobile devices with that front facing camera.
There alredy is aMSN for Maemo5/N900. It's free. It does video calling and is 80% there, the last piece missing is to do two-way video. As it it works right now, you can see the other party, but they cannot yet see you, OR, you can see each other and write message but there's no sound. Kakaroto of aMSN has put it together in his spare time. Pretty impressive!
For WinMo there's VZOChat. It's a paid subscription service, though and it's $5 a month or so. Both parties have to use the software.
So there are alternatives until Fring's Skype client is ported.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r0rTjALJaoY
The Haptic phone in South Korea has been doing this.
@mabienz
So has almost every 3G phone released in Europe in the last 5 years or so...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VP19WoVBeU4
@(Unverified) I blame Obama and Education :P
...and battery life dead
I for one would appreciate this; it'll be useful to have for when you really don't want to whip out the full laptop in the middle of the airport but still want to make free overseas international calls.
@Moisiom
To clarify: free calls with video. It's kinda a big deal if you see the face of someone you haven't seen in ages.