As everybody already expected, Apple "unveiled" the new iPhone tonight. It's called the iPhone 4, and brings the iPhone up to par with what's already available on other smartphone platforms, hardware wise, while raising the bar on a few specific points (the display, mostly). The company also announced a name change for its mobile operating system - it's now called iOS. What we didn't get during this year's WWDC keynote? News about the Mac, Mac OS X, or the Apple TV. Make no mistake: the iPhone and iPad is where it's at.
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Member since:2005-06-28
I'm sorry, but you're very wrong. I DO want video calls, and I wanted these video calls since 2003. The key is that I DO NOT want to do these calls via 3G/airtime. I wanted videochat to be free via wifi, and/or at least be part of the "unlimited data" package. But definitely not how it was implemented via the carriers so far. The reason why video chat did not take off all these years is because of the high cost (in Greece it is $1 per minute I think), not because "no one wants it".
I can assure you that my mom and I, would LOVE it, as she lives in Greece, and I live in the US.
Member since:2005-11-14
Ok, obviously SOMEBODY wants them, and somebody is probably using them.
But here they have always costed more or less like phone calls (a bit more) and still I've never ever heard of someone using them. I'm sure most people with UMTS handsets are not even aware of the purpose of the little front facing camera. I'm a geek, and I noticed it after weeks on my new work-phone.
Internet/wifi video chats are a whole different beasts, in my mind (and I suspect in the general public's mind here in Italy): if you want to do it you use skype and a computer.
Obviously it's also the consequence of the hideous cost the data transfers always had here. That's very slowly changing.
Member since:2005-07-06
Really? You want to do that on a little tiny phone screen?
When our family on the West coast (well, Phoenix) wants to video call our family on the East coast (NYC) we use our computers with much larger screens, better hardware, better internet connection speeds, etc.
Makes for a much nicer call experience.
Member since:2006-11-13
Member since:2007-04-25
"So in summary... Google has pulled the plug on support on a protocol they've helped popularize, after years of promising interoperability, for reasons that are dubious at best, and in a way that leaves people who don't jump to the new Hangouts app unable to talk to their contacts without any feedback that their IMs aren't getting through... And they've done that with no warning to anyone. I imagine there's a bunch of people out there wondering where some of their buddies have gone, or why their messages aren't getting responses, because this isn't documented anywhere." Google really messed this up. Such a dick move.
The Tizen Greek Community has some screenshots of a very recent build of Tizen running on a Samsung GT-i8800. It looks wholly unremarkable.Joint statement to The Next Web from Microsoft and Google: "Microsoft and YouTube are working together to update the new YouTube for Windows Phone app to enable compliance with YouTube's API terms of service, including enabling ads, in the coming weeks. Microsoft will replace the existing YouTube app in Windows Phone Store with the previous version during this time." Good to know these children stopped acting like little pricks. Can we have full Google support in Windows 8 now, please?
Yahoo is acquiring Tumblr, the microblogging and social networking website, for $1.1 billion USD. Tumblr offers little revenue but lots of eyeballs if Yahoo can monetarize them. Now Yahoo is bidding for Hulu, the streaming video service. After years of ineffective responses while Google, Facebook, and others took large chunks of the online advertising market, Yahoo is fighting back. Can Yahoo reignite the momentum it had at the turn of the century? What do you think?"Sources have described iOS 7 as 'black, white, and flat all over'. This refers to the dropping of heavy textures and the addition of several new black and white user interface elements." I couldn't be happier.
"Ilja van Sprundel, a security researcher with IOActive, has discovered a large number of issues in the way various X client libraries handle the responses they receive from servers, and has worked with X.Org's security team to analyze, confirm, and fix these issues."
"Google is facing a new antitrust probe by the U.S. Federal Trade Commission into whether the company is using its leadership in the online display-advertising market to illegally curb competition, people familiar with the matter said." Sucks to be Google today, apparently."In the midst of the major press blitz surrounding its annual I/O Conference, Google dropped some unfortunate news about its instant messaging plans. In several places around the web, the company is replacing the existing 'Talk' platform with a new one called 'Hangouts' that sharply diminishes support for the open messaging protocol known as XMPP (or sometimes informally Jabber), and also removes the option to disable the archiving of all chat communications. These changes represent a switch from open protocols to proprietary ones, and a clear step backward for many users." That's why I always say: only suckers trust companies."The wave of departures is a sign of internal struggle, but amidst all the bad news, there is a glimmer of hope. According to an anonymous HTC executive cited by WSJ, the crucial HTC One is selling 'pretty good so far'. The executive revealed that HTC sold about five million One units since launch, a performance that is deemed encouraging. However, sales have been limited by the persisting supply issues that still plague the production of the HTC One." Finally some good news for HTC. Five million units amidst supply constraints is very impressive.
"Sony gave the PS4 50% more raw shader performance, plain and simple (768 SPs @ 800MHz vs. 1152 SPs & 800MHz). Unlike last generation, you don't need to be some sort of Jedi to extract the PS4's potential here. The Xbox One and PS4 architectures are quite similar, Sony just has more hardware under the hood. Weâll have to wait and see how this hardware delta gets exposed in games over time, but the gap is definitely there. The funny thing about game consoles is that itâs usually the lowest common denominator that determines the bulk of the experience across all platforms. On the plus side, the Xbox One should enjoy better power/thermal characteristics compared to the PlayStation 4. Even compared to the Xbox 360 we should see improvement in many use cases thanks to modern power management techniques." AnandTech does its usual in-depth thing.
Member since:
2005-11-14
That's because it's a feature nobody wants video chat/call.
UMTS phones have been able to make video calls for ages here in Italy (since the arrival of '3', H3G) but simply nobody WANTS to use them.
There has been a huge push for YEARS for the videocall as the killer feature of 3G, but nobody cared. When I call someone I want to talk to him, not see him, much less let them see me.
The real killer feature of 3G is obviously internet connectivity and bandwith, but the usb 3G "modems" have only become common during the last couple of years.
The video-call is not even mentioned anymore in the ads because, frankly, it's a bogus feature.
Edited 2010-06-07 20:39 UTC