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Just tried it with a friend. Failed twice in a 10-minute call. I don't think I'd use it much even if it worked perfectly, but it isn't quite ready for prime time yet.

Did you know you can try the feature by calling 888-Facetime???

Japan has had video chat on their phones for years except you could do it over the cell network. Quality was decent too. My friend and I watched a football game on it once by having his wife put her phone in front of the T.V. Seems like it never really caught on though.

Much as Face-time looks great at the demo when Steve presents it, it is a complete dead duck.

I had 3G video calling 5 years ago (Nokia N73, which was a great phone) and could never find a good reason to use it. Of the handful of calls I made with it in the one year I had it, most were to people in the same room. How clever.

Receiving a video call in the office, in a bar, on the street, is absolutely impossible and unbelievably anti-social.

To have video calling which is platform specific (iPhone) and needing wi-fi is just absurd. I will have more one-legged friends than Face-time buddies.

I'm looking forward to this technology becoming available on the other iOS devices (iPad and iPod touch). Of course, that implies a set of cameras for each of them too.

Acceptance of the "video phone" concept has been an uphill battle ever since its debut at the 1939 New York's World Fair but that, I think, is due to a lack of a second or redirect-able camera. We are still a rather self-conscious bunch. However, I found Apple's video of use cases compelling -- we just need to be more innovative in our uses of this technology.

Facetime calling right now, does have limited appeal for many. I wonder if it will work with the "MiFi" type of wifi hotspots. But for some companies were instant video communication is worthwhile... Multi location companies could visually show production or design problems, or the latest designs, to the home office for instant decisions. Some companies may be able to ditch their tele-conference system and use a couple of iPhone 4's at great cost savings. Remember, this is just the beginning and there isn't much of a barrier to tying this in with Video Chat. If they put the cameras on the next iPod Touch and iPad... I think we'll be seeing many new and un-thought of uses pop up over the next few years. Heck with two iPhones, you have a video nursery cam.

dgturc83, on 24 June 2010 - 10:04 PM, said:

Who wants to PAY for it over here? I certainly don't, nor do my Japanese associates. Technology is great so long as it doesn't cost me an unreasonable amount extra. That's why it hasn't caught on here in Japan.

" you can directly initiate a FaceTime call, with no need to rely on AT&T"

But this requires that your iPhone knows where/how to contact the other iPhone. This means that there needs to be a central server somewhere which your iPhone is registering with so other iPhones know where you are on the internet. iChat uses MobileMe and/or AOL's chat servers for this. What is FaceTime using since not everyone has a MobileMe account.

I have said it before and I will say it again: Facetime is for phone sex. That's the killer app!

In France (and in the other european countries) we have had video calls on 3G included in our basic flat fee for a few years. We had Nokia selling two camera phones for a while. (two, three years ?).

It was a major selling point for 3G technology, before carriers understood that the real need is mobile Internet.
In reality, it was a complete and total flop. Just nobody use it, and it is included, for free, in essentially all the contract, and double camera phone are common.

And before anybody talk about easy of use, how easy to use is making a phone number (or clicking/tapping a contact) and have a video call instead of a voice call ?

It seems that nobody actually want to make a video call from the street.

But i think that the whole point of FaceTime is missed here; FaceTime is an internet video chat application; you can bet that next version of iChat will support the protocol. The real target here are Skype and Google Voice, and FaceTime is just the first brick of a more complex strategy to come.

Maurizio

What surprises me most is that Apple missed the boat by not enabling FaceTime to iChat connectivity. There are already millions of Mac owners with the capability to use iChat. Since both technologies use wifi to connect, how could they not have made the link automatic. Apple...I sometimes wonder about you.

The people in the screenshots above look pissed, like they're goons from a collection agency who want you to see their faces so you can tell how serious they are about collecting Mr. Desoto's money. Now.

One major explanation for why video chats haven't caught on is that many people simply do not want other people to see them.