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Topic: Operating Systems

Is Apple trying to claim it invented video calling?

Summary: Here's an aspect of Apple that annoys me - trying to claim it invented something that's clearly been around for years.

Adrian Kingsley-Hughes

By for Hardware 2.0 |

Here's an aspect of Apple that annoys me - trying to claim it invented something that's clearly been around for years.

What's worse is when normally sensible tech pundits seem too suffer collective amnesia and go along with the deception.

Take video calling, or FaceTime as Apple is calling it. Watch this video, and pay attention to how the company describes the FaceTime feature:

OK, it seems easy to use, and being able to flip between the front and rear camera is nice, but video calling isn't new. Heck, my Nokia E71 can do a video call ... in two clicks ... to any other video-enabled handset ... over 3G ...

Get my drift? What Apple is doing here is rewriting history. And what's especially annoying is that a year from now people will associate video calling with Apple and the iPhone 4, think it's something new and something that wasn't available to anyone before.

This is what big bucks ad money buys a company like Apple - the chance to rewrite history. Second best thing to having an iTimeMachine!

Topics: Operating Systems, Apple, Browser, Google

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292 comments
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  • phone to phone video calling is only possible if..

    A) it's easy enough that people will use it.. Apple's implementation has ZERO set up.. just dial another phone.. if your feature is too hard for average users to use and no one uses it it's a non-feature..<br><br>B) you have to have enough installed base such that you have another phone to video call... i.e. remember Zune's squirting feature.. well it's really a non-feature because no one ever had anyone to squirt too right? <br><br>So Adrian, have you ever done a phone to phone call with that Nokia? if so how many.. 1? 2? maybe 3 times?<br><br>by the end of the year Apple will have millions of these phones out there and millions of people to do video calls too.. and it will be SO easy to do so that they will actually use it.. therefore it will be Apple that makes this a real feature.. it's not enough to have a feature.. what's important is doing it in such a way that it actual becomes an everyday feature used by everyone.. that hasn't happened yet, but it will with Apple.. that's what counts.. making an actual impact on society with your device..
    doctorSpoc
    Reply Vote

    • "Millions of People do video calls..." Just as AT&T...

      @doctorSpoc ...changes it's data plan rates. Coincidence? How many video calls will you do before you suddenly find yourself bumped up a price tier?
      cornpie
      Reply Vote

      • this thing came out yesterday.. i think it's called WiFi? LOL..

        AT&T is not even allowing 3G calls at this time.. hotel room to home, school to home.. yes.. millions of video calls will be made.. and NO it will not put you over you data plan because they will be made over WiFi..
        doctorSpoc
        Reply Vote

      • How about, you won't?

        @cornpie As DS says, at least to start, Facetime is WiFi only. However, you seem to be equating a rate change for the iPad as a rate change across the board for iPhones as well. What proof have you that such is true? As yet, I haven't seen anything that even hints at a rate change for the iPhone itself.
        Vulpinemac
        Reply Vote

      • RE: How about, you wont?

        @vulpine: if you do a search online, you will find that the AT&T data plan change is for iPhones as well, not just 3G iPads.
        mrbofus
        Reply Vote

      • RE: Is Apple trying to claim it invented video calling?

        @doctorSpoc
        Video calling's been available for a while, even in Nigeria where i live, it's the costs that are restrictive not the phones, considering that my recently lost Sony-Ericsson K800i had a front facing camera (and that's no smartphone).
        This just reminds me of claims made recently by some Apple fans that Apple invented the smartphone!
        As for making video calls over wifi, I wonder how that will affect your data plans at home?!
        oscardetoy@...
        Reply Vote

    • Spot on!

      @doctorSpoc <br><br>When Apple make the statement they are bringing a feature to the world, they're not saying they invented said feature. Just that they're making it user friendly enough for the world to accept. For the rest of us to use. And they have a track record to back that statement up.
      dave95.
      Reply Vote

      • as much as I hate it

        @dave95. I've got to side with you on this one. They only claimed to "bring it to the world". I guess the proof will be in the number of people that start using this feature. I'm wonding...I4 to I4 only? With iPhone at 20 some percent (I think) of the market, subtract out the people that don't have the I4 yet and I'm guessing you can video call maybe one in twenty people at some point this year. I feel like they beat everyone else to the punch so I guess they can make their claim... but it's like saying the Russians brought space flight to the world. They may have been first - but it wasn't like they were the only ones building rocket ships (just the first to launch). I think, when they truly do have a good number of their users iVideoCalling, they sure won't be the only ones doing it.
        javahead76
        Reply Vote

      • Not only did they not invent it, they didn't even make up the name!

        @dave95.

        see: http://www.tomsguide.com/us/IOS-iPhone-4-iPad-iPod-touch,news-6997.html

        They bought the iOS name from Cisco and bought the Facetime name from another company.
        cornpie
        Reply Vote

      • Their track record...

        @cornpie , javahead76 <br><br>Let's take a look at the Webkit engine and mobile safari as yet another example. Apple did not "invent' full web mobile browsing on the iPhone (full as in desktop web); and they certainly was not the first. But they definitely set a usability standard for the rest of the industry to follow in how mobile browsing should be. Now look who's using the same webkit engine and Apple's code - Google, Rim, Palm....<br><br>App store - they were not the first, but look at the market today after the App Store launched. Companies and carriers trying to run the same App Store and business model. <br><br>iPod, iTunes and the selling of digital music wasn't the first but look at the market after. The iPad/Tablet, certainly not first - it's not about being first or claiming invention but about implementation. It's about innovation, taking something and making it even better for mass consumption. Not sure why we are all so stuck on invention. Who does that anymore in this industry?
        dave95.
        Reply Vote

      • "... they didn't even make up the name!"

        @cornpie: And there's something wrong with that? At least we know up front that they licensed/purchased the names for these features.
        Vulpinemac
        Reply Vote

      • That is a bunch of boloney

        Apple has been doing this for years. I remember an ad that claimed Apple was the first to provide a CD player in a computer that did not have a drawer. You could just slide the CD in, like in a car stereo. At the time I had a bunch of old Compaq desktops that did the same thing, obviously a couple of years ahead of Apple.
        deepee912
        Reply Vote

      • RE: Is Apple trying to claim it invented video calling?

        @dave95. I looked at the video again - this makes the 3rd time and I've yet to hear the words "we've just invented video calling." I guess if you want to get people going, you do what Adrian did in his article using the very tactics he's accusing Apple of doing - misleading the public, that is.
        It's like saying "Windows 7was my idea!" ha, ha
        rcollins@...
        Reply Vote

      • RE: Is Apple trying to claim it invented video calling?

        @dave95. Right on! Well said!
        cfcoder
        Reply Vote

      • RE: Is Apple trying to claim it invented video calling?

        @dave95. I think you're missing a key point of the article. Sure Apple may not be saying explicitly that they invented video calling, but the massive amount of dollars into their advertising sure makes it come across that way -- which in turn perpetuates a myth that the company will remain silent about, and ultimately take credit for.
        doverbay
        Reply Vote

      • RE: Is Apple trying to claim it invented video calling?

        Brainwashed! User friendly? Hahaha. It's apple that screws things up and makes the procedures non-standard, and non intuitive, like the old fashioned backwards calculators from HP and TI.
        yesplease@...
        Reply Vote

      • For The Common Good!

        @dave95. "Just that they're making it user friendly enough for the world to accept."

        Funny, that's what Hitler did with the Jewish question.

        No thanks for unitary top down solutions.
        brianpeterson@...
        Reply Vote

      • RE: Is Apple trying to claim it invented video calling?

        @dave95.

        Just how are they making it 'user friendly enough for the world to accept' ? How much easier does it get than having a dial button for making a video phone call, just like making a normal voice call ? I don't know what gizmos you've been trying to use, but that's how easy it was using my Nokia. The other person just needs to have a phone that supports it - and most newish phones do (not just Nokias). As far as I'm aware the feature is quite widely used here in the UK (and in Ethiopia I noticed someone said).
        martin@...
        Reply Vote

      • RE: Is Apple trying to claim it invented video calling?

        @dave95.
        I do this via MSN Messenger all the time and I am not limited to an iPhone.

        Lame.
        rhonin
        Reply Vote

      • RE: Is Apple trying to claim it invented video calling?

        @dave95. which wouldn't be annoying but for the mass of people who believe that aple invented and has the world's best music players, notebook computers, super-exclusive virus-shy operating systems, and style.
        thatroom
        Reply Vote
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