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How Does FaceTime Work?

matduggan.com

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Re: How Does FaceTime Work?

#61

Post by caddybox »

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…

I think it is unfair to label a platform with a two hundred dollar entry barrier as an equalizer. VoIP and allied technologies are the real enablers and ad-supported platforms like WhatsApp et al. have been true equalizers by allowing anyone to communicate with anyone at marginal costs. The ease of picking up the phone and calling somebody with no consideration of cost has enabled so many people to connect and communicate on a more frequent basis.

Re: How Does FaceTime Work?

#62

Post by majjam »

dahfizz wrote: post #18
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…

Everyone already has cellphones, so a landline is an extra monthly cost for something that you're already paying for.

Its spam calls that ruined it for me

Re: How Does FaceTime Work?

#63

Post by LivelyTortoise »

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…

Is there anything that sets FaceTime apart from cheaper competitors like WhatsApp / Signal video calling in this aspect of ease of use?

(I say cheaper because you don't need to buy an iDevice to use those)

Re: How Does FaceTime Work?

#64

Post by EGreg »

philjohn wrote: post #54
EGreg wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No. Otherwise why would things cost $3 a minute until VOIP?

Because VOIP hadn't come along, so they had a monopoly and could charge pretty much what they wanted. They switched to digital because it reduced their costs, instead of multiple trunk lines you could get away with fewer fibre lines.

Why didn’t they compete with each other to bring costs down?

You mean they had a cartel for decades, kept prices artificially high, didn’t compete and the government did nothing?

Yeah sounds like the cablecompanies…

Re: How Does FaceTime Work?

#65

Post by acdha »

dekoruotas wrote: post #58
throwthere wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

Just three days ago I've set up my 93 year old grandfather on a Lenovo Smart Display 7. I think it has multiple benefits over an iSomething: - Always plugged in - no need to remember to charge - Shows our family picture albums that I can remotely update via my Google Photos - It is loud. Left the volume at 3/4 - Sits on a table and you're never holding it wrong™ - No settings to mess up, two previous tablets were too…

Those are good selling points but all but the last applies equally to a tablet (e.g. there’s no law requiring you to use a tablet on battery).

The key point is the single function: a general purpose computing device has more UI & management than some people want to deal with. This is something the industry really hasn’t done a great job with, especially since it overlaps with the problem of treating things as disposable because the revenue model for single purpose devices is mostly broken and so people are often forced to churn them because the device they’re used to has been discontinued or no longer works with their WiFi.

Re: How Does FaceTime Work?

#66

Post by t00 »

suprfsat wrote: post #19
yohannparis wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't understand your point, you can't start a Telegram call if you aren't a Telegram user as well.

Anyone can become a FaceTime-calling Apple user for a mere $199. https://www.apple.com/ipod-touch/

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

Re: How Does FaceTime Work?

#67

Post by xrisk »

LivelyTortoise wrote: post #63
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…

Is there anything that sets FaceTime apart from cheaper competitors like WhatsApp / Signal video calling in this aspect of ease of use? (I say cheaper because you don't need to buy an iDevice to use those)

You can take the call on a computer?

Re: How Does FaceTime Work?

#68

Post by raviisoccupied »

mosselman wrote: post #15

We used to use Skype with my wife's parents and it sucked: there were delays, freezes, low quality video, etc. It worked great with my mother, but she had far better internet than my wife's parents. The alternatives were even worse: Telegram, whatsapp, jitsi. Then we tried FaceTime: the difference was night and day. Everything was smooth, the sound was better, no stuttering, we could actually read things they held to…

macOS Monterey will include screen sharing for FaceTime! It should be released in a month or so.

Re: How Does FaceTime Work?

#69

Post by masterof0 »

LivelyTortoise wrote: post #63
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…

Is there anything that sets FaceTime apart from cheaper competitors like WhatsApp / Signal video calling in this aspect of ease of use? (I say cheaper because you don't need to buy an iDevice to use those)

Don't you also need to buy a phone/computer/tablet to use whatsapp or signal? How does whatsapp is cheaper than facetime? But anyway, yeah, I noticed Facetime's both video and audio calls have better quality, in my personal experience. Also, most if not all my friends and family use iDevices, so I dont need to convince them to install signal/whatsapp/telegram etc... But YMMV.

Re: How Does FaceTime Work?

#70

Post by dylan604 »

lotsofpulp wrote: post #59
FemmeAndroid wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wonder how much of this has to do with the speed of a connection and how much has to do with Jitter? Especially on wifi, Jitter can become a huge barrier to overcome, even if the speed of your connection is extremely high.

I wish other statistics about connections were more public, since there is much more to a connection than just bandwidth.

With that kind of information publicly available, they'd have a hard time getting people to join the network!
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