I think it niche applications, showing distant relatives what the kids are doing, calling family when away for work, that kind of thing.
But the quality sucks, and 3G coverage isn't quite good enough yet, or I'd be overseas when making any kind of mobile roaming call is extremely expensive, let alone a video call. It's not a killer feature for me, but not entirely useless, and not something I'd use as a daily mechanism for communication. Anyway, the iPhone doesn't take video, so all the prisms in the world aren't going to help. I suspect the next version will have a front facing camera - and take video - and integrate with iMovie etc etc etc... On Jan 29, 7:50 pm, Tim Büthe <[email protected]> wrote: > The Thing ist that: Nobody likes or uses it, till someone comes up > with a great solution for it. Three years ago, we could have the exact > same discussion about Internet browsing on mobile phones. Till the > iPhone arrived, what lead us to a new generation of phones, you > _could_ browse the Internet but it was a pain in the ass. Nowadays, I > do it without thinking about it. > > Tim > > On 28 Jan., 22:27, Casper Bang <[email protected]> wrote: > > > > > The hearing impaired are very pleased to now be able to make phone > > calls among themselves, so I wouldn't call it a solution looking for a > > problem. And I suspect the video use case is a direct reason for why > > we can now enjoy 14.4Mbps bandwidth - and that drives other > > interesting use cases like live TV etc. even without DVB-H. > > > /Casper > > > On Jan 28, 9:48 pm, Reinier Zwitserloot <[email protected]> wrote: > > > > Dick suggested that there will be an iPhone gadget to bend the light > > > around to the camera in #227. Was that a joke? That is completely > > > ridiculous. > > > > Nobody cares about video calling. Here in the Netherlands it worked > > > technically, it didn't have any extra costs (other than, at the time, > > > a relatively expensive phone), and I had one, and so did a few of my > > > friends. We never video called. They never video called. There was > > > some research that asked everyone with a video phone if they even > > > cared. Nobody did (had the phone for the nice big display, not for the > > > video calling feature). > > > > This makes sense: We're all used to the concept of a phone call. We > > > don't need video because it is far too restrictive (have to LOOK at > > > it, which, even if everyone walked around with a headset or the > > > quality of speakerphones was -phenomenally good-, is still annoying. > > > People call while walking, etcetera) for the meager benefits (attempt > > > to see emotion through pixellated grainy laggy video, joy!). In > > > particular, the main thing it tries to solve (convey emotion) is > > > already done quite adequately by voice. We already subconsciously > > > exaggerate our voice-based emotional cues when we make a phone call - > > > we (modern man) has interned the ability completely already. > > > > A video conference call is somewhat different - you're really sitting > > > down for that one, and you are prepared. Therein lies the key: With > > > notebooks and subnotebooks already near ubiquitous, and the notebook > > > data revolution coming any day now (for you iPhone owners that did the > > > right thing and you jailbroke it - welcome to the revolution! Just > > > download pdanet and you're on your way!) - that's the future of video > > > calling. > > > > Mark my words: Video calling using mobile phones is a solution in > > > search of a problem. It'll never become popular. > > > > I'm not sure if apple has consciously decided that video calling is a > > > crock when they designed the iPhone, or if they went for the slightly > > > less definitive 'meh, we'll wait until someone else makes this work'. > > > Note also how absolutely nobody is complaining that iPhones have no > > > front cam. > > > > Either way, using glass or plastic to warp the camera around would > > > require a giant and very expensive widget, whereas your average simple > > > webcam costs maybe 5 bucks. Assuming you can pump the video data into > > > the iPod connector and the restrictive iPhone SDK allows you to get at > > > this data, a cheap dongle that contains its own camera would be far > > > more likely. That's presuming that people care about video calling - > > > which they don't. --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "The Java Posse" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/javaposse?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
