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TUAWxperts: September event predictions
With the September 2010 Apple media event just days away, here's a quick team round-up of our takes on the likely product introductions. Victor Agreda: I'm betting on an iPod nano with touchscreen (because flicking is the new scrolling), and an iPod touch with a camera and retina screen. As for the "One More Thing?" How about a digital shelf in iTunes for your music for MobileMe subscribers? I'm expecting a new iTunes supporting this feature (and more) later this year. Megan Lavey: I'm with the crowd on the iPod nano and iPod touch rumors, but I think if the smaller-form nano is true then the shuffle will be quietly retired. I will go out on a limb and say that if there is no iTV/Apple TV mention this time, it'll be there in January. I think "One More Thing" will be a cloud-based subscription to iTunes, of which the seeds are already there. Erica Sadun: My money rests on a 4th generation iPod touch and a new nano. I'm expecting the touch to introduce a camera (with FaceTime), retina display, and A4 chip. I'd also like to see iTunes get updated, possibly centered around features arising from the Lala streaming music acquisition. My outlier is an iPad refresh, shipping around November with device options that leverage a newly seeded 4.2 iOS beta.
And here comes the FaceTime porn
FaceTime live sex chat is for real, courtesy IP4Play (link goes to an adult site, likely NSFW). It's a natural extension of phone sex lines and chat cams, and plenty of people had the idea when Apple unveiled FaceTime. After all, the white-hot fervor around Chatroulette had just died down when the iPhone 4 was announced. Currently IP4Play has five ladies available online, although at the time I wrote this none were actually available for a call. As Cult of Mac reported, you can buy blocks of time (5, 10, 20 or 30 minutes) starting at US$4 per minute. You'll need a Visa or Mastercard, plus all the requisites for FaceTime (WiFi, iPhone 4) and preferably a private place to have your conversation. The service calls you back once you've registered and purchased your minutes, although no word on what the turnaround time is for a callback. I think we'll see a bunch more players in this space, IP4Play just happens to be the first. They started advertising for models on Craigslist a while ago, so I have little doubt other operators will follow suit, some of them potentially big names in the adult industry. If you think about it, a five-minute FaceTime call from a real porn star would probably cost a lot more than $4 per minute, and be insanely lucrative for the performer. Juice up those batteries, FaceTimers.
Email-based FaceTime support surfaces in iOS 4.1 beta 3
Fool us once, shame on us. Fool us twice? Fuhgetaboutit. Apple has a thing for introducing new iPods each fall, and given that the existing touch is being given away gratis with a new student computer (not to mention how long in the tooth it is), we're guessing the tradition will continue in 2010. We'd heard earlier on in the year that Apple may toss FaceTime over to the iPod line whenever it finally gained a front-facing camera, and now the evidence is nearly too strong to ignore. In the latest iOS 4.1 beta (numero three, if you're keeping count), there's an option to connect to a contact via FaceTime by ringing their digits or by pinging their email address. We're guessing that the latter is there mostly for iPod touch users (the ones without Apple Peel 520s, anyway), and it's the most glaring sign yet that the next generation touch will flippin' finally boast a camera (or just a way around that SMS-based activation?). Still, we wouldn't get our hopes up too high -- falling ain't no fun, you know?
Apple iPod touch LCD screen with front-facing camera slot spied?
You may or may not be aware, but Apple has a penchant for announcing new iPods in early September, as it has for years. With just over four weeks to go before the most likely (but nigh confirmed) press event week is upon us, expect the rumor mill to ratchet up appropriately. Here's one care of Mac Rumors; the gang's been sent some pictures from parts supplier iPhonerevivers that allegedly show a new iPod touch LCD screen And sure enough, in place of an earpiece is a slot perfectly suited for that oft-rumored (and possibly email-based) front-facing camera. It's not the first time we've seen this piece -- the resemblance to early July's leak doesn't escape us -- but these photos are decidedly fresh and from a different source. Mounting evidence... or are we all just being had? Wouldn't surprise us if we found out for sure before ides of September.
Rumor: Fourth gen iPod touch to include Facetime camera
Is the above picture of the fourth generation iPod touch's faceplate? MacRumors thinks so -- they say they got the pictures from an iPhone parts supplier, who claims it's what you'll see on the front of the newest iPod touch. And of course right there on the right side of the case (which would be on top of the screen), you can see a little cutout for what's presumably a front-facing camera meant for Facetime. That lines up with what we've heard in the past, that the iPod touch would use email addresses for Facetime rather than phone numbers. All that said, don't throw your current iPod touch away just yet. Besides the obvious veracity issues here (Photoshop is a powerful drug), we've seen prototypes before that never actually made it to production. In the shot above, you can see "Apple c 2010" (on the little tag off of the case), and in the other picture posted, there's a date stamp that says "10-04-29," so either the design or production of this thing is from much earlier this year (before Facetime was ever announced). And don't forget that there have been other rumors as well -- just because one prototype of the iPod touch has a Facetime camera doesn't mean we'll ever see that (or even only that) go into production. But it's an interesting shot of course, and the evidence is building that we'll see some form of Facetime implemented in Apple's other devices.
Low rent FaceTime: Create your own FaceHanger
Webcams are cheap and ubiquitous. iChat ships with every Mac. Despite those facts, it's becoming ever more common to FaceTime from our offices. We can carry our conversations with us as we travel from one room to another, and FaceTime basically guarantees that both parties are properly equipped and ready to chat, even before you tap your first button. The biggest problem with FaceTime remains arm fatigue. Tired arms drift downwards. This eventually produces a minimally attractive conversation between chins and nostrils instead of, well, faces.
FaceTime 3G data consumption tested: about 3MB per minute
The folks over at 9to5Mac have kept up their investigation of FaceTime over 3G with a quick and dirty data usage analysis. Lest you've forgotten, jailbreaking Apple's Quattro permits walled garden escapees to FaceTime each other using dusty old 3G, and now we've got some numbers to show how much of an impact doing so will have on your bandwidth allowance. A 5-minute call resulted in 14.7MB of data transfers -- including both uploading and downloading -- for the 3G-riding iPhone, which breaks down to a rate slightly lower than 3MB per minute. That's not too horrible when you consider some streaming services use that much just to feed you video of England embarrassing itself in global football tournaments. Then again, we'd be remiss not to note that Fring does it at a claimed 1MB a minute and sans the jailbreak -- but who are we to begrudge having more options? [Thanks, Sam]
iOS 4.1 beta 3 now available to developers
Hey, that was a quick week for beta 2, wasn't it? Beta 3 is now available to developers, and according to MacNN it yanks support for Game Center from iPhone 3G's and second-gen iPod touches. Go grab that sucker and let us know what else you find, aside from the proximity sensor fix and additional parental controls for FaceTime and Game Center.
Debunk: 'camera' reference in iPad configuration policy is likely a copy-paste error, not evidence of new iPad
Look, we don't doubt for a second that Apple's working on an iPad with a front-facing camera to support FaceTime. That's the obvious next step in Apple's relentless, iterative product-refresh cycle that keeps the money rolling in. But a story loose on the interwebs claiming "evidence" of Apple's intent is likely bunk, having more to do with a copy and paste error made by a low-level tech writer than Apple inadvertently revealing plans for the next generation iPad. As the story goes, Apple tipped its hand by adding a bullet to its "iPad in Business" deployment overview document describing the ability to restrict the iPad's non-existent camera via Exchange policy or configuration profiles. Thing is, the text is a word-for-word copy of the existing "iPhone in Business" document as shown in the image above. Move along folks, nothing to see here... literally, Apple already removed the camera bullet from the iPad document.
iPhone 4 jailbreak enables FaceTime video calling over 3G
We'd actually already hacked up a 3G FaceTime video call using an iPhone 4 and a MiFi, but now that Apple's latest handset has been jailbroken, you can toss the extra hardware -- you just need a little Cydia app called My3G, which lets you run WiFi apps over 3G. FaceTime video quality appears to be unaffected, but from what we've seen the framerates suffer depending on your connection -- pretty much what you'd expect to get when running a video stream optimized for high-bandwidth connections on a smaller pipe. Still, it's instantly the best reason to jailbreak your phone -- check a video after the break. P.S.- If you're averse to jailbreaking, remember that Fring lets you make video calls over 3G without any shenanigans -- and unlike FaceTime, you can also video call non-iPhone users. Just sayin'!
My3G bypasses 3G restrictions
This morning, I learned several things about using FaceTime in public. First, I realized that holding an iPhone a foot or two away from your face and talking tends to make you speak very loudly. This, in turns, tends to annoy other patrons in the restaurant. And this, in turn, tends to attract the same kind of people who love to stop and watch accidents happening. Second, I learned that keeping your arm elevated as you FaceTime is really, really awkward (not to mention tiring). As you're probably aware, if you've used FaceTime for any length of time, if you don't hold your unit fairly high up, you tend to share unflattering nasal visuals.
Sex industry embraces FaceTime, world feigns surprise
When I first saw the iPhone 4 FaceTime demo, I knew it wouldn't take much time before rule 34 took effect. It was inevitable that Apple's video chat tech would be used by the sex industry as a new way to deliver live adult content to customers. Despite Steve Jobs' best efforts to keep the iOS platform porn-free, the sex industry continues to find ways to work around the edges. While the iOS platform may be carefully guarded in terms of adult-oriented applications, there's little Apple can do to make sure your phone calls, chats, videos and Safari browsing stay clean. Truthfully, for iPhone users who are consenting adults, it's not really Apple's business. Joel Schectman of the Associated Press reports that the 3 million+ device iPhone 4 ecosystem is already an attractive target for the porn industry. Porn companies are advertising for model positions specific to FaceTime in at least five different cities on Craigslist. Meanwhile, adult production studios like Pink Visual -- not coincidentally one of the first adult production companies to create an iPad optimized service -- says it will let customers video chat with some of the same models in their videos. Pink Visual's service will be released in the next few weeks and will probably cost around $5 to $6 a minute.
FacePlant brings quick FaceTime chats and video voice mail to the iPhone 4
By now, everybody who owns an iPhone 4 knows how cool FaceTime is. They're also probably frustrated with the fact that a) you need to make a call at least one time in order to verify that a friend has an iPhone 4 and can actually do FaceTime chats, b) you can't see when friends are on Wi-Fi and ready to talk, and c) you can't leave them a video message when they're off a Wi-Fi network or have their phone turned off. An upcoming free iPhone app, FacePlant, hopes to change all of that. FacePlant is from the same folks who brought you 12seconds and Rally Up, so they had the necessary savvy to supply both the video messaging piece and the social networking feel that FacePlant provides. Here's the concept: you sign up for a free FacePlant account, which consists of your name and iPhone 4 number. The app goes through your contacts list, and if there's anyone in that list who is registered with FacePlant, they show up on a list of contacts. If they're ready and willing to talk, their name shows up surrounded by a bright orange bar; if they're offline, their name is outlined in gray. Tapping an active (orange) name displays a dialog that asks if you want to make a FaceTime call, a voice call, or leave a video message.
FaceTime video call happens from most remote oceanic point, inspires sailors everywhere
Yeah, this same feat could've been accomplished three centuries ago using an early form of telepathy, an N95 and an insanely long string, but for whatever reason, Apple's FaceTime has managed to encourage all kinds of video chats where there previously were none. Video calling from 35,000 feet? Been there, done that. But video calling from a boat in the single most isolated oceanic point in the world? That's a feat that was just recently tackled by the crew aboard Pegasus, a boat entered into the Pacific Cup 2010 en route to Hawaii from San Francisco. Right around halfway between SF and Honolulu lies a point where no land can be found within 1,000 miles in any direction, and it was there that the ship's captain decided to give colleagues back on the mainland a look at the conditions. Mash play below if you're interested in seeing more, and be sure to drop us a line when someone does something similar from Mars.
Rumor: Apple to launch 4k video format?
HardMac is reporting that they've been told by one of their sources that Apple is gearing up to launch a new video format. Apple's supposed new format would be based on the Dirac codec which was developed by BBC Research. The codec is open source and currently supports 1920x1080 resolutions, but Apple plans to up the format to support 4k video – that's a resolution of up to 4096x2160. HardMac points out that many people still do not have 1080p HDTVs at home, much less TVs capable of supporting 4k resolution, but they theorize that Apple would be planning to enter the HDTV market from the high end – at the same time introducing not only stunning hardware, but making Blu-ray discs look archaic with their "low" resolution. Apple has always maintained the Apple TV is a "hobby" and indeed, they haven't done much to promote the device since its launch in 2007. Still many prominent analysts believe that it's not a matter of "if" but "when" Apple will enter the the home television market full-force. The logical step, it would seem, would be to merge the Apple TV digital receiver into a large LED display and offer an iPod touch-like remote control and Bluetooth keyboard support. Throw in a built-in camera with FaceTime and the world of The Jetsons is one step closer to reality.
Camera phone inventor makes a FaceTime call from racing yacht
In a fitting tribute to a technology that he had a hand in creating, entrepreneur and sailing yacht racer Philippe Kahn recently used a satellite hookup and his iPhone 4 to make a FaceTime call to his office from dead-center between Santa Cruz, California and Honolulu, Hawaii. While the video isn't as smooth as what we're used to via land-based Wi-Fi and broadband networks, it's pretty incredible to see Philippe talking to a co-worker from the deck of the racing sailboat Pegasus in the Pacific Ocean. Kahn is a pretty bright guy. He was one of the founders and former CEO of Borland, an early programming tool development company, is credited with the invention of the mobile camera phone in 1997, and is now the CEO of FullPower Technologies, the company behind the MotionX GPS apps for iPhone and iPad. Kahn's invention of the mobile camera phone was triggered by the birth of his daughter Sophie in 1997; he mentions during the video that he called his "camera phone baby" at home using the same setup. Thanks to Richard for the tip!
Rumor: FaceTime for iPod touch will use email address
There are rumors about the next iPod touch getting a front-facing camera with support for FaceTime. Once it gets an A4 processor and some more RAM, we can't see why it wouldn't. Since there's no phone app, however, how will users initiate FaceTime calls from an iPod touch? According to Boy Genius Report (BGR), the FaceTime app will look for a registered email address. Paraphrasing an anonymous source, BGR claims that users will register their Apple IDs (typically a MobileMe email address) on a given device. That way, iPod touch owners can initiate a FaceTime call via this registered address. Push notifications will inform you of an incoming FaceTime call. It's still unclear how an iPod touch will initiate a call with an iPhone, as that currently requires the iPhone's phone number. BGR speculates that the registered email address method will be carried over to all devices. iPods are typically refreshed in September, so we'll see if anything about this surfaces before then. [Via Engadget]
iPod touch FaceTime calling to be based on email addresses?
We've been assuming that the next iPod touch will get in on Apple's FaceTime video-calling action, but the open question has been how calls will actually be initiated without phone numbers, and BGR's saying it has the scoop: it's going to be based on email addresses. Registering an email address with the touch and FaceTime will let people videocall you using that address, but apparently calling an iPhone user will still involve knowing their phone number, which is a little odd -- but BGR believes the email-based system will extended to the phone eventually as well. It all sounds plausible enough, but we'll wait and see -- we've been burned waiting for Apple to add a camera to the touch before, after all.
ZVRS to support live sign language translation via iPhone 4's FaceTime for calls between deaf and hearing users
While SMS and mobile email are great, they still can't match the emotion, interaction, and intonation of a live conversation with someone -- that's why our phones still ship with microphones and speakers, apparently. Of course, this is much more difficult when one of the parties is deaf or hard of hearing, which is where video relay services come in. With the help of a videophone or your computer's webcam, you can make a call with a live translator, who speaks your signed ramblings out loud to the hearing person on the other end. Of course you're usually stuck at a desk when doing this, but now ZVRS is going to be supporting calls made from the iPhone 4 over FaceTime. It might not be quite as sexy as Apple's goosebump-raising iPhone 4 commercial, since the phone obviously makes two-way sign language calls possible, but if the person on the other end doesn't have an iPhone 4 or doesn't know sign language, ZVRS seems like the next best thing. The new service will launch on July 26th. Check out a video of it in action after the break, the actual call starts at 2:25.
Video relay calling breakthrough uses FaceTime to help the deaf
In the past, the only way for the hearing impaired to communicate was either in person or by way of the TTY (teletypewriter); the TTY is a device that's about as large as a laptop computer, and it allows the hard of hearing to type on a QWERTY keyboard and have the communication transferred. However, iZ breaks that barrier; it will allow the deaf to pull an iPhone 4 out of their pocket and effectively communicate. Now, another technical impediment will be on its way out. This is wonderful news. At first, the technology will only be available through Wi-Fi and the iPhone 4, but it's a safe bet to say that it will eventually filter down to other devices and be able to use cellular service. For now, though, it's quite a start. [via AppleInsider]
