I can just pick up the phone and dial any phone that has a front facing camera.. I love how we have the ability to but I still can't video chat with any of my friends who have the new iphone.. I don't know anyone with the Evo.
Ever try fring with a skype account?
Didn't know it worked cross platform.. Links to evo chating with iphone?
Video chat is a novelty item people love to complain about when phones don't have a front facing camera, then when they do, they realize it is just that, a novelty they will quickly grow tired of.
Until every wireless carrier has LTE type speeds and can handle the kind of data it requires and any phone on any network can use the same standard protocols it's pretty much useless.
Sure their are some people, such as a dad that travels all the time and gets to see his kids when on the road etc... but laptops/home computers have had this feature for years and it's still not what people first ask for. Apple's Facetime seems to be a step in the right direction of a one button, don't have to think about it system, but of course ATT can't handle the data so it's limited to Wifi for a few years anyhow.
When HTC and the rest of the handset makers have a simple easy to use, standard solution that is as simple as touching a button, like you switch to speakerphone etc... to enable a "Facetime" type of transition, then it may become more popular and mainstream. That imo is probably 3 to 5 years away.
If your IP friends get Skype on their phones (iPhone Apps ? download Skype for iPhone and iPod touch) and you get Fring, add your own Skype account, voila you have a connection. There are bugs on our side with Fring though, like adding people needs to be done through the computer Skype app, then updated on Fring via signing on/off, unregistering/registering our account. But it works.
3-5 years? We have the tech now as we speak. It just needs to be tweaked and refined. In 3-5 years our phones will have quad core processors ,3D screens, HD Resolutions, Nano Cell Batteries, 1080p video recording, HD Radio,128GB plus flash memory, ETC. Technology is on a rapid pace like never seen before.
It has nothing to do with the phones, it's the wireless networks. At least in the US, they are driven by profits and profits ONLY. They will upgrade to LTE as slowly as they can so they can continue to soak up profits from the current data plans. The phone hardware is not the issue, pretty sure if you read my post, that was clear.
Right, thats why I said it need to be tweaked and refined. I just dissagree with you time frame IMO.
I hope I'm wrong on the time frame as well... but considering how slow even 4G has taken to roll out in the US it's just my thoughts on it. If not mistaken Sprint started rolling out 4g in Baltimore back in Oct 08? It's taken 2 years to reach a few dozen cities and from what I understand Wimax is cheaper than 3g cell sites, smaller and can be placed in many more places. LTE based on what i've read, which is clearly someone else's opinions none the less are talking a min of 2015 until the US is fully rolled out into LTE coverage from all the big 3 or 4 carriers.
I'll be the first one that is happy if I'm wrong, but if history is any indication of how fast the wireless companies will move to roll out faster data networks, were in for a nice long wait.
I'm curious what you think the timing will be and why? I'm assuming you feel it will be much shorter. Everything I find to read about "4g" in general points 3+ years until it would be considered fully deployed. Love to see anything stating it's on the way sooner.
** I miss understood your "tweaked and refined" comment to mean the software and hardware on the smart phones needed help, not as the networks. Clearly the networks need help. I don't however see anything short of "new" full LTE networks being rolled out to support heavy data usage that features such as video calls will need.
Video chat is a novelty item people love to complain about when phones don't have a front facing camera, then when they do, they realize it is just that, a novelty they will quickly grow tired of.
Get Tango! Just confirmed video chat from EVO to iPhone via 3G.
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