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FaceTime is coming to Android and Windows via the web

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Re: FaceTime is coming to Android and Windows via the web

#341

Post by Grustaf »

dhruvdh wrote: post #335
Grustaf wrote: post #327

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't know if they use the word "prevent" or not, but we both know that they are not in fact trying to literally "prevent" anyone from buying an Android phone. They just don't want to give them some of the benefits of iOS if they do so. No reasonable person would call that "prevent".

They are specifically and intentionally limiting the ways in which their customer can use their devices unless they buy more. Is that simple enough to understand?

No they don’t, they “limit” the way people can use Android devices.

Re: FaceTime is coming to Android and Windows via the web

#342

Post by varanauskas »

pfranz wrote: post #158
skunkworker wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's suspected that this was thwarted by the VirnetX lawsuit. And Apple had to do a "design around" [2]. https://www.cnet.com/news/steve-jobs-promised-to-make-faceti... [2] https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2013/08/report-after-pat...

I doubt this actually matters, but it looks like almost all those patents expire very soon. US7418504B2 - 2021-08-05 US6839759B2 - 2019-10-29 (expired) US7490151B2 - 2022-01-24 I'm guessing rearchitecting to circumvent the patents means they're not going to unrearchitect just to open it up. If I'm understanding things correctly, instead of p2p it gets tunneled through a server to avoid the patents. Since FaceTime lau…

Still I think 2 way calls would benefit customers by reducing lag and Apple by reducing server load if using p2p

Re: FaceTime is coming to Android and Windows via the web

#343

Post by dhruvdh »

Grustaf wrote: post #341
dhruvdh wrote: post #335

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They are specifically and intentionally limiting the ways in which their customer can use their devices unless they buy more. Is that simple enough to understand?

No they don’t, they “limit” the way people can use Android devices.

Their customers cannot use their devices to iMessage their friends or family on Android.

Re: FaceTime is coming to Android and Windows via the web

#345

Post by floatingatoll »

floatingatoll wrote: post #108
kevincox wrote: post #18

Wow. That is unexpected. I have to say that FaceTime in a browser sandbox is one of the few Apple products I would consider using. I wonder what made them take this path? I also wonder if someone could build a Matrix bridge if it is available via web, that would be fairly cool. Some questions: - Is it phone-number based IDs? Or can I pick a username or get a random ID? - Is spam going to be a problem? Previous Apple…

My theory is that FaceTime calls can only be initiated/scheduled from an Apple device. That prevents most of the spam problem, since you won’t be able to initiate a call through web.

Theory confirmed:

> Non-Apple users can join a one-on-one FaceTime call or a Group FaceTime call, effectively making FaceTime a more platform-agnostic video service that is no longer just limited to iOS users. You do, however, need an iOS user to start a FaceTime call and send a link.

https://www.macrumors.com/2021/06/07/facetime-pc-android-use...

Re: FaceTime is coming to Android and Windows via the web

#346

Post by mercutio2 »

radicalbyte wrote: post #330
mercutio2 wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What's broken about the contact list? What's wrong with ringing all your Apple devices?

The weird mix of emails/phone numbers, which isn't obvious to merge/fix. It's an Apple product, I expect more. Ringing: because I have three Apple devices (MBA, MBP, iPad) and it doesn't automatically ring on the device I'm using. Again, that would be fine for someone else, but I expect more from Apple. It's like I don't get mad if a junior developer in my team makes a mess in PHP, but I would if a senior did. I have…

Ah, so when you go to autocomplete, you’d like there to be less of a mixture of different handles, and more like Messages, which has one row per person?

The two are much more similar in iOS 15.

Re: FaceTime is coming to Android and Windows via the web

#347

Post by musicale »

someonehere wrote: post #109
Someone1234 wrote: post #44

A lot of Apple's previous attempts at "web apps" have been pretty half-arsed. Including Apple Music currently. Let's see if this is any different. I'm currently using Signal on Windows/Android/iOS and apart from two annoyances it is fine. - No gif support on Windows (Android/iOS only) - Cannot add a second phone but can add a tablet. As soon as it detects a SIM card slot (with or without SIM in it) it only allows you…

You want half assed? FaceTime when it was announced by Steve Jobs, he himself up on stage said it would be open source. The developers in the front rows looked at each other and said, “did we say it would be open sourced?” It’s still not open sourced to this day.

> Steve Jobs, he himself up on stage said it would be open source

This seems to be the quote you are referring to:

“FaceTime video calling. Now, FaceTime is based on a lot of open standards — H.264 video, AAC audio, and a bunch of alphabet soup acronyms — and, we’re gonna take it all the way. We’re going to the standards bodies, starting tomorrow, and we’re gonna make FaceTime an open industry standard.”

Note Jobs promised open industry standard and not open source. They are not the same thing. But you are correct that we are still waiting for Jobs' promised open standard!

This CNET article also misconstrues "open industry standard" as "open source" and also blames VirnetX:

https://www.cnet.com/news/steve-jobs-promised-to-make-faceti...

Re: FaceTime is coming to Android and Windows via the web

#348

Post by distances »

nikolay wrote: post #332
distances wrote: post #291

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How is Zoom an ecosystem? I was more than a year to the pandemic before joining the first Zoom meeting, to me it all seems to be Teams/Meet/Jitsi. Which obviously is a very biased view too, and just to suggest the Zoom dominance is probably only in your own circles.

Zoom Apps [0], On Zoom [1], and more. Things like breakout rooms, SSO, hosts/co-host, polls, whiteboard, raising hands, webinars, live streaming to YouTube and Facebook, etc. Do you even know what Zoom offers today?! [0]: https://zoom.us/docs/en-us/zoom-apps.html [1]: https://on.zoom.us/

No, I don't really know. I thought it's just the video call. TBH I have no intention to delve in either, they've been so shady that I will keep pushing my groups for anything else.

Re: FaceTime is coming to Android and Windows via the web

#349

Post by seanicus »

Grustaf wrote: post #296
dhruvdh wrote: post #295

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The intention behind not letting it work for their competitors is immoral and potentially illegal. They want to do it to prevent their consumers to buy their competitors products for their family, even if their competitors product are better; just because they already have a device in the Apple ecosystem.

They are not "preventing" anyone from doing anything, they are simply, until now, refraining from improving their competitors devices by releasing their software for it. Of course they prefer people to buy iPhones for their kids, there is nothing wrong with that, and there is absolutely nothing wrong with not actively working to make the experience of mixed Android-iPhone families slightly better. There are literally…

It is immoral and illegal that McDonalds won't serve me a Chik-Fil-A sandwich.

This is such a great rubric!

Re: FaceTime is coming to Android and Windows via the web

#350

Post by nikolay »

distances wrote: post #348
nikolay wrote: post #332

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Zoom Apps [0], On Zoom [1], and more. Things like breakout rooms, SSO, hosts/co-host, polls, whiteboard, raising hands, webinars, live streaming to YouTube and Facebook, etc. Do you even know what Zoom offers today?! [0]: https://zoom.us/docs/en-us/zoom-apps.html [1]: https://on.zoom.us/

No, I don't really know. I thought it's just the video call. TBH I have no intention to delve in either, they've been so shady that I will keep pushing my groups for anything else.

I do and most people who chose to use Zoom over Google Meet and other competitors do it for those features. For classrooms, there's no other vital option except Microsoft Teams.
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