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How Does FaceTime Work?

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Re: How Does FaceTime Work?

#111

Post by the_third_wave »

masterof0 wrote: post #71
t00 wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Anyone can become a Telegram (or Signal) user. For $0, infinitely less than $199.

I wonder how could you make a Telegram video call with no device. Or android devices are free?

Free, no. Less expensive and more widely available than iOS devices, yes. Telegram also works on Linux, Windows and MacOS. There is a web version as well which works anywhere there is a reasonably recent browser available. The web version does not yet support calls as far as I know, this will most likely be added in the near future given that it is a rather trivial addition with plenty of free-software implementations available.

Re: How Does FaceTime Work?

#112

Post by dr-detroit »

rrrrrrrrrrrryan wrote: post #109
miki123211 wrote: post #100

> For those of you old enough to remember landlines, it reminds me of those [...] When we all switched to cell service audio quality took a huge hit As a blind person with a lot of friends in different corners of the world, audio quality is very important to me. Surprisingly enough, I've seen side projects that took a weekend to develop that had much better quality than what mainstream services offer. Part of it is p…

I actually don't think bandwidth costs are responsible, nor DSP effects. I suspect the lousy audio quality in modern voice conferencing software is to compensate for people with lousy internet connections or underpowered devices: someone using an older phone in the car on 3G cell service with cell tower handoffs, or a crusty laptop using lousy coffee shop WiFi, etc. It's a tough problem to solve. Everyone on a call c…

Sorry, no. I am an IT janitor and my brother is a audio solutions engineer for major companies so we have discussed where it breaks down. Someone who is a demonstrable idiot decides to put a wimpy cheap processor in these devices and have them do a bunch of digital processing on the audio to "improve it" and so you get very very bad quality. Idiots literally rule our society I could go on but its basically like that Kurt Vonnegut book where the rich elites are sitting around listening to Beethoven records at the wrong RPM and nobody can convince them its wrong.

These audio engineering guys can do almost anything. Their requirements these days are bonkers.

Re: How Does FaceTime Work?

#113

Post by ubercow13 »

dylan604 wrote: post #57
throwthere wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Even if you have a 1.5Mb/s connection you should hear crystal clear audio.

Wow, take things litteral much? The numbers were just used to demonstrate, and not meant for actual comparisons. If the other party has a lower bandwidth than you, you are limited to that lower bandwidth. Fat pipe connected to little pipe means fat pipe can only move little pipe's worth of volume. If the other party has kids that are playing games, streaming youtube, listening to music, downloading torrents, etc, the…

GP said that both they and the other participant had faster than 25Mbps connections…

Re: How Does FaceTime Work?

#114

Post by the_third_wave »

Jcowell wrote: post #8
nizmow wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

FaceTime is also free, and Telegram’s audio and video quality is vastly inferior.

Not to mention has less friction

Only when you live in an Apple bubble which in practice comes down to the USA and parts of Europe. Elsewhere Apple is a margin player with the vast majority of mobile devices running Android. Telegram is available everywhere, for all "significant" devices and categories (desktop, mobile, web) which makes it a more universal option. It is growing at a rapid pace (200 million users in March 2018, 400 million users in April 2020, 500 million in January 2021 so probably around 600 million by now) with ~15% daily active users. This growth rate will probably increase with the recent brouhaha around Apple scanning devices in the hunt for illegal imagery.

Re: How Does FaceTime Work?

#115

Post by quesera »

dylan604 wrote: post #46
the-dude wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Landlines have been digitized too, a distinct difference to what an analog landline offered. It was more intimate, you could hear breathing for example.

It was also more hackable. You could litterally open up one of those grey phone company stumps with a 7/16" socket, and then just start rewiring the connections. I had a friend that knew which cables ran to their house, and could use a couple of wires to jump them to another line. They were able to "borrow" someone's line and routed to the 2nd twisted pair for their house. They rewired the phone jack in their room to…

A great deal of (most?) last-mile connections are still over copper, so this capability is still common.

Re: How Does FaceTime Work?

#116

Post by kilroy123 »

2rsf wrote: post #13
imagine99 wrote: post #10

Can anyone recommend a similar service that provides true high-quality video chat functionality on par with FaceTime but not requiring Apple hardware (but still easily usable on mobile)? We're looking for such a service for use in developing countries where iPhones are rare and connectivity is often mediocre at best. Tests with the like of Telegram, Duo and others have been okay-ish for voice-only calls but pretty ba…

WhatsApp does a decent job

I disagree. I think it's one of the worst. I've used it around the world and it's often terrible.

Re: How Does FaceTime Work?

#117

Post by calessian »

lqet wrote: post #16

> For those of you old enough to remember landlines, it reminds me of those [...] When we all switched to cell service audio quality took a huge hit I don't understand - are landline phones not in use anymore? I only use a landline phone to communicate with the family, because I simply cannot stand the audio quality of cellphones for calls which last longer than a few minutes. Edit: In Germany, there are about 40 M a…

I wonder how much that translates into actual use. A lot of internet providers (in Germany) technically include a landline using VoIP, but that doesn’t reflect the number of calls necessarily.

I’ve made some calls, but less than five in the last few years.

Re: How Does FaceTime Work?

#118

Post by CSSer »

ftio wrote: post #98
solarkraft wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> But I kind of guess the window has passed for it becoming open. It’s moving there. They’re adding a web interface this year.

That web interface is a customer acquisition and retention play. It enables FaceTime users to stay in the ecosystem when their friends don't use the platform they do (vs going to Zoom, which is available for everyone). And it enables non-users to get a taste of FaceTime without before they buy an iPhone. It's a brilliant move, but I wouldn't call it open. Maybe "open enough" :D

They have a lot of work to do if that is the case. The beta experience at present is downright poor, particularly on the non-Apple end of things.

Re: How Does FaceTime Work?

#119

Post by sgt »

throwthere wrote: post #39
sgt wrote: post #3

FaceTime is amazing. I keep in touch with my entire family using FaceTime video, often across thousands of kilometers. It's also such an equalizer, allowing even the non-computer literate to use it and focus on the actual conversations. In fact, my 103 year old grandmother is able to do video calls with me, which is great because I rarely see her in person these days. I don't think there exists an alternative she wou…

Semi-related question since I'm looking to get my grandma setup. Waffling between an iPhone and iPad, maybe an iPad mini but don't know if the air would be better (lighter I think). What device does your grandma use to FaceTime? Do you know does she do anything else with it?

She uses an iPad Mini.

I would also recommend a handle/knob type thing on the back so it is easier to hold it without accidentally touching the screen.

Re: How Does FaceTime Work?

#120

Post by slownews45 »

miki123211 wrote: post #100

> For those of you old enough to remember landlines, it reminds me of those [...] When we all switched to cell service audio quality took a huge hit As a blind person with a lot of friends in different corners of the world, audio quality is very important to me. Surprisingly enough, I've seen side projects that took a weekend to develop that had much better quality than what mainstream services offer. Part of it is p…

I'm actually also very sensitive to audio quality.

Oddly, I also landed on zoom has above the rest in terms of quality. Everyone on my team uses headsets, this avoids need for echo cancellation and the weird muting effectings that generates - so I HIGHLY recommend this - two people can talk at once comfortably so you pick up the little cues of interjections etc.

Facetime audio only is good in quality in my experience, but not so great in latency (may be for reasons outside apple's control obviously).

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