Droid X no front facing cam....i see no point

[trophynuts]

i just want to get some opinions cause the more i think about having a front facing cam the more i think it is pointless...

Untill 80% of phones out there have ffc's then who cares. For instance on the Ifail4...ffc...but it only works on wifi and with some other ra **** that owns one..So to me even if they had a front facing cam on the BB i'm currently using or the Droid X i'm probably getting next week i could care less. Cause if i had it...there is a chance i'm probably not going to get that much use out of it yet. Anyways just thought i would ping you guys on your thoughts. Cause i see some people on here that sound like someone just shot their dog cause the Droid X doesn't have an ffc.

 

[2009m6]

no LTE yet, i see no point. why have the half assed ip4 setup?

 

[trophynuts]

i agree i would much rather whomever the manufacturer is to use that money/technology else where that might actually be used within the next year. If FFC's become a real deal and video calling becomes what texting is now i would say its a good 3 years away.

 

[2009m6]

3 years really? i figured at the most, 1 year.

 

[verdegallardo]

I could see it being useful to say a father who travels for work and gets to video chat with his kids. But to me it's pointless. I have no kids, only a wife..and I see her enough as it is

 

[Exiled]

Thats what I was thinking...
My friend has the "iFail 4" (lol!) and was bragging about the video chat. But then when she tried to show it to me, she could only call her dad cause he's the only one she knows with the iPhone, and it wasn't working because they were not both on wifi at the same time.

 

[ckochinsky125]

Yes until LTE there really is no point and you know apple had to put a ffc on so they can try and sue someone else saying they were the first to use that.

 

[2009m6]

there ARE plenty of uses for ffc..i wont elaborate. just use your imagination.

 

[teeno]

Thats what I was thinking...
My friend has the "iFail 4" (lol!) and was bragging about the video chat. But then when she tried to show it to me, she could only call her dad cause he's the only one she knows with the iPhone, and it wasn't working because they were not both on wifi at the same time.

if u connect an iphone via android hotspot, will that serve as a wifi connection?? thus enabling the video chat??

 

[drhill]

The better question is. When would you actually use it? I completely understand people using video chat for showing the kids off to their parents. But that is easily done at home on a laptop (if your parents can handle their part).

But are you going to be walking down the street holding your arm all the way out will talking on the phone (in speakerphone mode no less). In the car? Bad idea. At home or work. Other things you could be giving as much effort for. Then there is the whole privacy and "Too much information" angle. Do you want the person on the other end see that you are watching tv, making faces, or nekked?

Lastly, that I can think of at this moment, the person on the other end has to have the hardware, bandwidth, and software that is compatible with your phone.

Video chat is a cute idea, but I can't see much use for it ever.

 

[2009m6]

if u connect an iphone via android hotspot, will that serve as a wifi connection?? thus enabling the video chat??

yes but the other end of the connection has to be on wifi as well. i havent tried this, but technically it should work. Unless apple locked down the authentication on the ip4 through the software.....

 

[dsjr2006]

iPhone front facing cam works for other apps too like Fring and Skype if they ever update it. Facetime has a definite quality advantage so far. Fring already released their app for iPhone 4. I think it's makes plenty sense to have it, but not really a deal-breaker that it doesn't.

 

[trophynuts]

I could see it being useful to say a father who travels for work and gets to video chat with his kids. But to me it's pointless. I have no kids, only a wife..and I see her enough as it is

i don't even see it useful for a person wanting to video chat with his kids. He can do that with his laptop and that way all his kids don't have to have the stupid iphone.

i say 3 years cause video calling won't be available on the current gen networks. so it will have to be on 4g or LTE, and neither of those next gen networks in my opinion are going to be at their full potential for at least a couple of years after they launch.

 

[droidSPARX]

now that Fring announce u can chat with iPhone and Android users. kinda want.
But I text mostly anyway

 

[swagner53]

eh--- cool factor is high but I would rarely use it

 

[tsanuri]

The FFC is nothing but a gimick to me. It has been on phones in Asia for years and is not used very much. The only reason it has even become an issue is because Steve Jobs said it is. Same way that until he said it was important nobody looked at these screen through a magnifying glass and now every reviewers seem to be doing it.

 

[ylexot]

I can see the usefulness for some people, but I will say that the iPhone 4 missed the target in a BIG way. Not sure why they didn't make it compatible with their computer video chat program. That would have increased the usefulness a lot. I'd guess that AT&T forced them to limit it to Wifi. Oh well, apparently, other programs on it are already working on 3G and will work with PCs.

As for not having it on the X...if I find that I really want it, I'll make a periscope and use the camera on the back.

 

[paul89]

I see no point in the early stages of it because the quality is really crappy, and it cant be used just anywhere! For know I think I would stick with a pc webcam if I were going to do a once in a blue moon video chat!

 

[jazzman09]

it's a feature that no one will hardly ever use. Like another poster said in foreign countries with faster data networks they have it and not many people use it. Just a gimmicky thing.

 

[Vihzel]

Right now it's not too useful as the vast vast vast majority of America does not have a FF camera. Companies such as Samsung knows right now that it isn't the right time because they even took off their FF camera for their Galaxy S US reiterations. It is used very widely in Asian markets of Korea and Japan, but it didn't do so well in countries such as France. It might work here, but I don't think it'll catch on until 2012. Even then... it'll only be used by a very small portion of the population.

 

[AJ_EVO]

I couldn't care less that there's no front facing camera.

 

[trophynuts]

Right now it's not too useful as the vast vast vast majority of America does not have a FF camera. Companies such as Samsung knows right now that it isn't the right time because they even took off their FF camera for their Galaxy S US reiterations. It is used very widely in Asian markets of Korea and Japan, but it didn't do so well in countries such as France. It might work here, but I don't think it'll catch on until 2012. Even then... it'll only be used by a very small portion of the population.

...i go to South Korea many times a year and if fact i will be going back over in August..and i've never seen anyone using ffc. Also the internet network over there sucks so i doubt the quality would be that good.

either way i'm glad i'm not the only one that thinks it is a waste of technology at this current time.

 

[Vihzel]

...i go to South Korea many times a year and if fact i will be going back over in August..and i've never seen anyone using ffc. Also the internet network over there sucks so i doubt the quality would be that good.

either way i'm glad i'm not the only one that thinks it is a waste of technology at this current time.

The internet network in South Korea isn't good? How so?

 

[trophynuts]

well in most of the hotels/cities i've been in it has sucked. Basically slow speeds. Or work good one day then not at all the next then start working again. No consistency at all.

 

[Growler48]

I think it's too soon to jump on the bandwagon. There are too many limitations. When we're all on an LTE network, don't need wifi for it to work and we're all carrying phones w/FFCs, then I'll consider it. It's worthless to me at this point.