FaceTime video call works beautifully on airplane's in-flight WiFi (video)
By Darren Murph 
posted July 13th 2010 10:05PM
posted July 13th 2010 10:05PM
posted July 13th 2010 10:05PM
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I'm enough of a plane nerd to tell you that he's flying on American Airlines.
@Independence76 Score! He is!
@Independence76
How is this even possible???!!!!!
I thought that Facetime required cellular access to receive a text message? Either someone is receiving 3G @30,000 feet of this thing is bogus.
@Independence76 Which airline is the worst and which is best?
@Independence76 at first i thought this was real awesome than i realized that facetime is working over wifi OMG really doesnt matter if its on a plane or in your house wifi is wifi
@Teslanaut good question. haha do i smell an engadget review? ;0)
@iqbalj have you not payed attention to how facetime works? Wi-Fi is the only way that it can be used as of now.
@Independence76 Of course it'll work fine...its meant to work on wi-fi.
@iqbalj It's called in flight wifi, it said in the article and FaceTime requires wifi and no one said anything about a text? Btw @the *first* commenter, since when does American airlines have in flight wifi?
@Indefinite Implosion you may be right skype doesnt work but i've used msn on delta's wifi and it worked for me thats why i am saying that im not really impressed
@Independence76
So, facetime on Iphone 4 works in the house, in the office, and now in the plane..... with wifi. Terrific. What a huge technological breakthrough.
/s
@MicrosoftOwns dont be a hater i am no apple fan but facetime is the best version of mobile video chat, the only thing holding it back in my eyes is that it is wifi only. Once they allow 3g video chat it will actually take off.
@audrywienerdog
For being a Apple muttonhead. You really do not know about your Apple products. Facetime requires you to make a call over the cellular network first then switch to video chat which transfers the call over to voip over wifi
@DefPoet my apologizes. i did not get technical. i will remember to shove my head up my ass a little further next time.
@DefPoet U could do FaceTime directly without calling some. First learn to use the phone then talk crap.
@Independence76 How do you know!
@weinerschnitzelboy
The seats.
AA uses the exact same seat design with the same blue cloth pattern on all of their current Economy products. American is currently renovating their entire Boeing 737-800 fleet with a new cabin system and seats, the but the cloth color and design is the same.
@Independence76
Is this the Facetime ad I read about a few days ago?
@Jean Marc
i think we can all agree "facetime" is a gay word.
@That guy 2
A few months, actually.
@Independence76
You guys pay for first class.
You guys pay for first class.
@DefPoet Not strictly true. If you read the comments on Erica's original post at TUAW, you'll see that she and her chat partner were able to establish a FaceTime call without any cell call/voice call preceding it.
@DefPoet
you don't have to make a call to FaceTime. just simply press FaceTime when vieiwing contact info.
@Indefinite Implosion
Only problem is, that Skype has never been a problem in a Gogo connection (Delta at least), so yeah, wifi works... whoopie....
Although it always gives me rush anyway when I connect my webcam to my laptop on 40k feet and start a videocall... :) (Where are you? Uhm, somwhere between JFK and LAX... )
@Indefinite Implosion ...yet
@Independence76 Great an easy way to hi-jack planes
@Captain Obvious
Sure, because we all know how dangerous a video call is... Fly this plane into the white house, else I will start a video call!
They only thing I can think of, (if I think Hollywood style) is to kidnap childeren and or wife/girlfriend of pilot, only trouble is that you don't need communication for that and if you do, you could use the onboard communication of your own satelite phone... (let alone the fact that you could treaten a pilot in advance...)
One more thing... We now virtually strip naked during routine security checks, to get an "enemy" who has managed to hide explosive first in shoes, and after 4 year come up with the idea to hide them in your underpants... It will probably take them another 4-8 years before they start puting them in the rectum or other body cavities... We're really gonna enjoy flying after that one...
@Independence76
Apple should market it this way: "FaceTime. The 'only' way to make a call!"
@Jean Marc Qik is way better because it is usable over a number of platforms, like the computer. The quality of FaceTime and Qik are virtually identical over the same connection.
@Nice
no, I think he may be right; paranoia knows no bounds. consider that they've already broken the auto-update feature on all seat-back flight maps, which hardly seems any more dangerous. you could display anything over facetime, eg crew positions between cabins, you name it.
@Roger Moore Don't forget about mcdonalds free wifi!!
@NHAnimator
Yes, because iPhone 4s can't make voice calls.
Oh wait, yes they can.
@Independence76 NOW, CAN ANY OF YOUR ANDROID PHONES DO THAT??
@Captain Obvious
Please explain how easy it is to hijack a plane using video chat.
This will be blocked by gogo in 3,2,1....
@coolbreeze
When Lufthansa offered wifi, I made skype calls while traveling on trans Atlantic flights...wonder why they discontinued it...
@coolbreeze
Let's hope it gets blocked...the last thing i need is a lady with a voice like fran drescher chatting next to me on facetime for 3 hours on a flight.
Omg this is awesommmmmmme!!! Haha what airlines have wifi on them??
@tan92 Delta airlines.
@tan92 Airtran has gogo on every plane too.
dudes at engadget ...even you guys talk about a front facing camera as if its the latest and greatest add-on to a phone and invented by Apple.
@njsrikar I know its pointless no one who has an iphone 4 even uses it (me included)
@tu eres estupido its not whether anybody uses it or not ...its about the feature being in a phone. Many many mobile phones have got a front facing camera on them, its nothing new.
As much as I hate Steve Jobs, I appreciate his marketing skills and pity his customers.
@njsrikar i know its just like you don't see "Qik working on android phone on an airplane"... its always iphone iphone iphone
@njsrikar what are you talking about?! is that what you got from this web blog? all you read was "iphone has this latest and greatest thing called a front facing camera, man i dont know of any phone that has this. man this is cool, huh huh huh he he he".
re-read, very slowly since you weren't paying attention the first time or just too slow to understan. the topic is FACETIME VIDEO CALL WORKS BEAUTIFULLY ON AIRPLANE'S IN-FLIGHT WIFI.
just from the title you will get the just of what the meat of the article is about. lets break it down since a whole sentence obviously poses a challenge to comprehend.
FACETIME VIDEO CALL---FaceTime is a video calling software feature for iPhone 4's phone application, developed by Apple and announced at WWDC 2010. It is based on numerous open industry standards and Apple has pledged to release it as an open standard allowing other companies to develop around it.
WORKS BEAUTIFULLY--- meaning that the above iPhone 4 phone application (Currently, it only works with a Wi-Fi connection, as there is no 3G (UTMS/HSPA) data support at the moment) works as stated, over a wi-fi connection which happens to work beautifully over wi-fi which happens to be provided in-flight, i hope i dont have to explain what Wi-Fi or what an airplane is. which WAS NOT CREATED BY APPLE by the way.
dont want anyone mistaken engadget for claiming Apple were the first to implement Wi-Fi to the world or be the creator of the airplane.
if you need more assistance of understanding what the words you are reading on your screen mean, please feel free to contact your nearest Sylvan Learning Center.
@njsrikar
No what you see is a company that actually made video chatting over a phone part of the system, it's free, it works, and there is no set up. Let's see "qik" say that, qik is 3rd party, it's NOT that great, you have to pay for options and you have to set up server settings etc., hardly "for the masses".
@audrywienerdog you think you're funny, but you're just heading closer towards oblivion fanyboy
@tu eres estupido 1.) i am funny, or so i am told more then i am not. 2.) im in no way trying to defend engadget and their articles. im making a point. in which many commentators are too dull to get.
i understand why all the "iHaters", or what ever term is being coined now, take their time out to read each individual article about the iPhone that Engadget writes. They subconsciously are in love with iPhone and apple products.
the sooner the folks who are so opinionated about Apple and who writes about Apple figure out they need an apple product in their life to be that closer to fulfillment, the sooner they will be at peace with them self's
@audrywienerdog i just don't want to see a good blog turn into CNET... apple fanboy heaven