We don't really know why Apple wouldn't have mentioned iChat at its
"tentpole"-filled keynote if it was all ready to go on it, but the eternal optimists within us would like to believe that the
merest glimpse of the app would instantly reveal a front facing camera on whatever new iPhone hardware is in the works, therefore relegating the app to secrecy. Still, the evidence does indeed seem to be mounting for the software's inclusion in the OS. Outside of the
iChatAgent process that was spotted last week,
9 to 5 Mac has pulled the covers off references within the SDK to moderators, chat rooms, encrypted video conferences, and more. They even uncovered the same notification noises that the desktop iChat application uses. Sure, this could all be
one big misunderstanding, but hopefully these breadcrumbs actually do point to a long-overdue, well-integrated IM experience on the device, video or no.
[Thanks, Maj0]
posted April 11th 2010 9:41AM
I wonder how much that will cost in the iUniverse.
@savagemike
Free for the iPhone, but probably 10 bucks for any other device that runs iPhone OS.
@Ryan Hemler
And what other device that runs iPhone OS can do video conferencing?
@savagemike Like every other iPhone OS feature, it will be free. :/
@Saad
Weren't they working on a screen that acts also as a webcam?
@Saad
What other device? No device that exists can! So it's not too stupid a thing to suggest that they might also introduce a front-facing cam to the next gen iPod Touch.
@savagemike
y is this "long over due"?? what's another phone i can buy that can video chat??
appreciate how advanced your phones already are, and perhaps change your tone in these articles. apple or any other company don't owe u anything, none of us prepaid them for any feature that's not available now
@savagemike
The front camera is probably just so Apple's iAd network can identify your
face and fit you into an advertising category.
Good ol' Steve always squeezing his biggest worshipers for more and more cash, it really is just like a good ol' American religion.
@hbueain
"what's another phone i can buy that can video chat??"
Seriously? Where do you live? In an Apple store basement? Pretty much every single other phone at or around the iPhone price point has had video chat for the past 7 years. The rest of us a pretty bored of it now.
@fourthletter Was it really worth wasting your time posting such nonsense?
@dboobis I know it's weird, but I do wish iPad comes with at least *some* kind of camera. I may hold on my iPad purchase until next year and get a new iPhone instead of getting an iPad now and holding onto iPhone 3G.
@dboobis
Oh so the Droid, Nexus One, Palm Pre have video chat, somebody colour me blind.
@hbueain
The first one I had was a Nokia N70 (released in 2005) I could AIM chat with friends, over here in Europe when 3G launched (2004/2005 in the UK)
They pushed video calls as the big feature but no-one really used it so it vanished off most phones, nice to see Apple so ahead of the curve LOL
@sonola777
Was it really worth your time replying to nonsense with more ?
@sonola777
Don't mind that dude with his nonsense, he thinks its funny.
@Kwame Nkrumah
I apologise. I should have clarified it with "pretty much every phone released in the parts of the world that aren't a technological wilderness like the USA has had video calling for the last 7 years". These superphones you talk of have next to zero market penetration in Europe, probably because they lack these basic features.
@dboobis
So those companies shouldn't add it because other phones from different parts of the world had it already? What sort of logic is that.
@onlymyrailgun
cool someone remembers. Apple has a patent submitted for an in screen camera where the pixels darken around it when in use or some such..
Personally that's what's been missing with video calling etc that you either look at the person or the camera. Most people look at the person so you both appear to be looking down.
No mutual eye contact, its essential.
Can only hope they have it figured out
@fourthletter Thats something to be afraid of on the nexus two. Let's not forget how much of our private information google likes to take, that's not apple buddy.
@Kwame Nkrumah
Eh? I'm saying they should ALREADY have it, because other phones have it already. Why would I want newer phones to have fewer features? That's crazy talk.
@dboobis
So those phones outside the US, do they have every possible feature ever imagined on them. I mean those companies should just release the same phones every single year because they have all the features!
@savagemike do people really use chat that much anymore?
@Kwame Nkrumah
Go to Japan. Answer your own question.
Alternatively, yes there are phones out there with every currently viable feature in them. Future iterations will add new or upgrade features that are either not cost-effective at present, or simply don't exist. That's how I like my tech companies to operate. And don't go telling me that multitasking, copy & paste, and video chat were not cost-effective when the iPhone or any subsequent model was released.
@dboobis
Please show me these phones with every imagined feature on them,
@dboobis I like how "Pretty much every single other phone at or around the iPhone price point has had video chat for the past 7 years" evolved to phones in Europe, and then phones in Japan, without actually naming a single phone, let alone a number to support the "pretty much every single other phone" claim.
@thaifoodtyphoon
LOL don't mind the dude, he keeps shifting goalposts.
@fourthletter Take a look at your comment, its been down-ranked into oblivion. Clearly I'm not the only one that thinks what you have to say belongs there.
@Kwame Nkrumah
Ok, you tell me what the...N97 is missing. Or the Samsung Pixon12. To name 2 phones. When you come back with your missing features, I'll give you some more.
@dboobis Does it work well on the Droid or nexus one? How about blackberry. I even had a Sony Ericsson with a front facing camera the W880, but video conferencing didn't work... not sure why. It had a menu option but the video call option was never supported.
A Nokia I saw had one, but the camera performance was terrible. So bad that it was much better to turn the thing off!
@jaffreywali
Droid and N1 don't have video calling (I'm not sure if Android even supports it, as no Android phone I've looked at has it). Availabilty is up to the network, perhaps your network simply didn't support it? Same goes for quality, better networks give you better calls.
@Kwame Nkrumah On Android via USBWebcam, QIK, or if rooted try PikMe. While none are great options yet, with Android being open source I expect that OS to have a pretty good solution well before you see this on an iPhone.
@dboobis Really? Name 2 that came out 7 years ago.
@fourthletter Bacause Apple doesn't release stuff unless they can make it usable. That's why Apple is worth what it is. They are not in the selling beta products business. Just so you know....
@bullshitexpresscom
Sony Ericsson Z1010
Samsung P400
Motorola A835
Siemens U15
There's 4, all released in 2003.
@dboobis
hehe, i remember those, my operator promoted the Z1010 with the launch of their 3G network. Back then the biggest advertising point they were using to get people to switch to 3G was video calling :D
So much so that the vast majority of people (including myself) thought the only difference between a 2G and a 3G phone was video calling.
@dboobis Lmao... The N97 google it, even Nokia thinks it's trash. The point isn't getting every feature no matter how pathetically integrating into the phone, it's to have them work. Apple is teaching everyone this lesson, why do you think iPhone is such a big success in Europe and Asia?
@ezy
Explain to me how Nokia believes their flagship phone is trash. Explain to me why they introduced the N97 Mini because the original is trash. Explain to me how the N97 series of phones sold 2 million in the first 3 months if it's trash.
@dboobis
Dude read what one of the executives at Nokia had to say about the n97:
http://thenokian97.com/is-the-nokia-n97-a-disappointment/
@dboobis Name some SMARTPHONES that can have the ability to video chat, So according to you there have been phones with videochating since 2003 i want to see one of those phones, since i believe until 2006 laptops started coming with integrated webcams how could cellphones gotten them sooner?
@Kwame Nkrumah
I'm not seeing "piece of trash", I'm seeing "we had some teething problems, some consumers had some problems, we tried to fix them but made other things worse, but now we're at a point where everything works as intended". Seems reasonable to me. Besides, we weren't talking about user experience, we were talking about features. Nowhere in that article did the guy say Nokia were disappointed with what the N97 brought to the table.
@dboobis
You must have missed this part:
"N97 has been a tremendous success for us when it comes to how many we have shipped and how much money we did collect, but it has been a tremendous disappointment in terms of the experience quality for the consumers and something we did not anticipate."
@Sil
Read a few comments up, there's some phones from 2003 with video calling capability. I'm fairly sure there were laptops with integrated webcams before 2006, but the reason phones were released and promoted with it was because it was the most visible feature of the brand new 3G networks (released 03/03/03 in the UK).
As for smartphones with videocalling, pick a Samsung, any Samsung. Or any Nokia N-series phone. Or several other phones made outside America.
@Saad
There's where Apple shines. $10 to unlock the front camera you never knew existed on the 3GS.
@Saad
Not one. I'm hoping this means the next iPad will have a webcam.
@Kwame Nkrumah
Does that say "this phone is crap, don't buy it"? Does that say "we have major OS problems we don't know how to fix, so steer clear"? Does that say "the phone was lacking some pretty basic features, and the ones it did have were sub-par"? I'm going to stick with "no" on all three counts.
haha front camera ? i had that on my n95 5 freaking years ago. iphone still getting features what other phones had for years lol. revolutionary my a$$
@dboobis Firstly, my friend had that piece of crap n97 and he's the biggest nokia fanboy and he hated it, it was the shittiest user experience I have ever seen, have you even ever tried to use one? Secondly what about my Other points? If Europe and Asia have phones with "every feature imaginable" then why did the iPhone kick the N97 and any other piece of craps ass in those markets? Explain that to me. Let me put it this way, video calling has never taken off really but I'm willing to bet that if Apple does it, we'll see a surge in use beacuse they take their time and do it right.
@dboobis
Dude when a company admits their phone is dissapointing, you know they believe its crap.
@ezy
While the iPhone has been a remarkable success, I don't think 17% global smartphone market share can be classed as "kicking every other piece of craps ass". Let me know when they at least hit 51%.
I have tried using an N97, I'd imagine a lot more recently than your friend did, because it was pretty flawless to me. Admittedly it was the N97 Mini, which was always a lot more stable, but the fact remains that it sold a hell of a lot and still does a lot more than the iPhone.
@Kwame Nkrumah
You're mistaking honesty with someone meaning more than they say. He was asked if the phone was a disappointment, he said yes it was, outlined the exact reasons, and then went on to say how they spent a lot of time and money fixing the problems. I don't think a company the size of Nokia would waste their time fixing something they thought was useless.
@ezy
you have no idea what you're talking about, the iphone doesn't sell good in Europe, apple has only sold 50 million phones in 3 years while nokia sells more than 90 million phones in 1 year. get your facts straight and stop making $hit up. as for video calling dude your country USA is so backwards, we have had 3g networks(hsdpa) in Europe for almost a decade so what the hell are you talking "do it right" ? there's nothing right to do. i have been enjoying video chatting for 5 years now hence some countries already adopted 4g networks while your country still implementing it. you can't speak for other countries and companies. go fap to steve jobs itard