Once again, Apple redefines what a phone can do. FaceTime brings you phone calls like you’ve never seen before. Text and images look amazing on the Retina display — the highest-resolution screen ever on a phone. A 5-megapixel camera with LED flash and HD video recording and editing let you shoot and share from anywhere. All on the world’s thinnest smartphone.
Apple – iPhone 4 (6:14)
Direct link to video via Apple’s official YouTube channel here.
People have been dreaming about video calling for decades. iPhone 4 makes it a reality. With the tap of a button, you can wave hello to your kids, share a smile from across the globe, or watch your best friend laugh at your stories — iPhone 4 to iPhone 4 over Wi-Fi. No other phone makes staying in touch this much fun.
Apple iPhone 4: “FaceTime” – directed by Sam Mendes (1:53)
Direct link to video via Apple’s official YouTube channel here.
Nicholas Graham writes for The Huffington Post, “Apple’s excellent ad department has a new commercial, directed by Sam Mendes (director of American Beauty and Revolutionary Road, among others) extolling the wonders of the new video calling app ‘FaceTime.’ Despite knowing that it only functions between two iPhones and while on WiFi, we have to admit this ad is pretty effective–what do you think?”
Full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “MacVicta” for the heads up.]
I finally got some time to watch the entire keynote presentation. Steve Jobs is an awesome presenter, as usual. His delivery is perfect. After watching, iPhone 4 and all the features such as FaceTime look even more impressive.
So what was the big deal about this so-called “embarrassing moment for Steve Jobs.” I don’t know if the keynote video has been edited substantially or not, but I thought he handled it very well. He didn’t get mad or seem to upset about it (only seemed upset that he could not show off the demo maybe), and he even made it into a recurring joke for the rest of the keynote.
I guess the Apple detractors are playing up the WiFi issue during the keynote because they obviously can’t find anything bad to say about the new iPhone. Perfect product. Problem during introduction. Let’s focus on the problem during introduction.
(The only thing that was distracting to me was Steve’s belt…)
I didn’t notice his belt at all, but then again I wasn’t looking “down there.”
I absolutely love the new iPhone 4.
But what’s wrong with mr Ivy? he doesn’t seem credible talking in the way like he was possesed by Jesus or sth. It’s contrived I wann puke. And what’s with this all cheesy sentimental commercial?
Still wanting the iPhone 4
In Europe we are using videocalling on mobiles since 2005, and I used it maybe less than 10 times on my SonyEricsson. In Portugal a videocalling is free between Vodafone clients. One thing I’ve learned, nothing replaces text or sound. Even so it’s a nice feature on a smartphone.
let’s face it guys, when it comes to the video-calling feature, Apple is 3 years behind. However, the ease of use (no need to set up, single-button to use the feature, switching between the back and front cameras) certainly deserves the Apple engineers some credit.
Talking about the ads themselves, I believe this is one of the very few times that the focus of the ad is on human beings, and emotions. Most Apple ads are mostly focused on the product and the design (the exception being the Get a Mac ads). The heart-warming music adds to the impact of what is an emotionally charged ad.
everyone who likes the video should ‘thumb up’ it on youtube as there are many haters who thumb it down.
Love that track, love Louis “Pops” Armstrong, however I would like to see Apple to mix up the demographics a bit, i.e. stop portraying and focusing on the image of the affluent, middle-class, white-picket-fence populace.
–
Here’s to the crazy ones. The misfits. The rebels. The troublemakers. The round pegs in the square holes.
The ones who see things differently. They’re not fond of rules. And they have no respect for the status quo. You can praise them, disagree with them, quote them, disbelieve them, glorify or vilify them.
About the only thing you can’t do is ignore them. Because they change things. They invent. They imagine. They heal. They explore. They create. They inspire. They push the human race forward.
Maybe they have to be crazy.
How else can you stare at an empty canvas and see a work of art? Or sit in silence and hear a song that’s never been written? Or gaze at a red planet and see a laboratory on wheels?
While some see them as the crazy ones, we see genius. Because the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world, are the ones who do.
–
Adios T-Mobile!!! AT&T;can’t be any worse. Maybe just some different kind of shittiness.
I’m getting one.
In Denmark video-calling has been free for customer on 3 since 2004, and it has gotten over the yeats. I am sure Apple’s version of it will give higher quality than the rest but if you are not able to videospeak to your friend because he has a Nokia or SE phone, then its usefulness is quite limited.
They need to make a commercial where Spock or Captain Kirk’s communicator is down and a local inhabitant hands them an iPhone to talk to the Enterprise. Uhura will be asked, “Why can’t we do video conferencing on these tricorders?”
Al, “But that was 1 1/2 years ago, so this doesn’t change everything, except maybe for the quality of the video…”
The quality of the video *is* everything. Literally everything. That’s assuming you already have “easy of use” (easy to set up and call) and “doesn’t cost a kings random” worked out, too.
I’ve read literally a hundred posts or more likely several hundred about how “This has already been around in Europe” and “this is nothing new XXX phone has already done this since 3 days after we discovered fire.”
No joke: hundreds of posts.
But not ONE single post with answers to 3 questions.
1. How easy is it to make a call? (No one has even mentioned this)
2. How expensive is it to make a call? (I’ve seen partial answers to this question)
3. How good is the quality of the call? (Nowhere have I seen any comparison of quality of the calls, your posts here was actually the first where you called it “crappy”)
I’d like to see a fully detailed comparison of the various video calling options listed with a detailed run down of these 3 points. If anyone knows anywhere this has been done please fill me in.
Paulo: “In Europe we are using videocalling on mobiles since 2005, and I used it maybe less than 10 times on my SonyEricsson. In Portugal a videocalling is free between Vodafone clients. One thing I’ve learned, nothing replaces text or sound. Even so it’s a nice feature on a smartphone.”
Great you can answer my 3 questions above then.
I was curious about those 3 questions as well.
That’s the problem when Windows people complain that their computers can already do something that Apple is actually making usable. It’s possible to grind a car-sized boulder to powder using a tiny jeweler’s hammer, but using an industrial rock crusher is much more convenient.
Jay: “Apple’s version of it will give higher quality than the rest but if you are not able to videospeak to your friend because he has a Nokia or SE phone, then its usefulness is quite limited.”
I have to say that the quality is no small part of this. It’s literally everything. Choppy or low quality video is not true video chat. If you lose focus on the conversation due to the quality of the video it literally changes everything. You’re no longer having a “conversation”, you are having a “video chat”.
It’s literally the difference between wax fruit and real fruit.
If anyone else has had high quality, easy to set up, and affordable video chat before Apple I’d like to know about it. So far I have yet to see evidence anyone has had these 3 things locked down before. Simply saying “we had this for X years” isn’t impressive at all, unless the results were similar to what Apple is demonstrating here.
BTW to those people who have been saying “i’ve been doing video calls with my n900 already”, bear in mind that n900 doesn’t support video calling natively, at least not yet, with its Maemo software. you still have to use GTalk or Skype, and you’ll need the other person on the “line” to have a google or Skype account. and it’s not as easy or as fast to set up, compared to the iPhone4.
I should know. Many of my friends use the N900, and many are already jealous of the iPhone4.
Those who are allegedly “not jealous”, will find ways to justify their purchases, having already invested effort, time and money into the purchasing process. This is called Post-purchase Rationalization.
The FaceTime video is cool and all, but I’m not sure Mr. Mendes took into account in the scene where that asian lady is prego, showing her husband the sonogram, what are the odds there is an open wi-fi station in that clinic? How does the technician allow her to be on the phone near that equipment? I’m not so sure about the guy’s military base, but the odds where he is has wi-fi too? It’s cute, but unrealistic.
I could imagine (emphasis on imagination) that the hospital took the steps to get wi-fi in the room, so that the prego lady could send video to her husband, who is stuck on his way back from Europe (in a hotel room) due to the Icelandic volcano.
@ @Allen
The preggo lady’s husband is a soldier in a barracks
I was right there in the moment until Matt Damon showed up.
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@twilightmoon
1. Easypeasy. just choose between video or regular call (on both the Nokias and SEs that I have tried). Setup was done by “3” before you bought the phone, so no setup.
2. Free between “3” customers, a bit high for customers outside “3”, like the charges to call from a landline to a cellular (which is often 3 times the minute charge of a cellular-cellular call).
3. Quality is between ok and complete rubbish, depending on the signal. Which everyone will be depending on.
But I don’t doubt that Apple will do videocalls right. I just fear it will go the same way as it has in Europe with iChat, where not many people had AOL accounts already, so there wasn’t much reason to fire up iChat as there where not a lot of people to chat with. And it’s never caught on here. iChat is a great app, though. But I disagree with you in that the quality is “everything”, first you need someone to call who has the right hardware in the other end, and I think it’s gonna take a while before there will be a significant amount of people who does, and in the meantime you just forget about the feature and will never experience the great quality.
Therefore I think it could have been good of Apple to support the existing formats (with lower qualities) that the “established” companies seems to have agreed on, on top of their own. But maybe there will be an app for that, soon.
By the way I’m not a Windows person, never have been. But I think we should get real about what is marketing hype and what is the real “news” or attraction of a product, because all the other ballony people will see through anyway, and I think it actually devaluates the product when your present it like that.
And we should tell Apple when what they do is too centered in their own world and rings weird in our ears, as this does for me, sitting in Europe. Same with the the 1st gen iPhone and Edge. Europe (and parts of US other than CA, as I’ve heard) had long since moved to 3G already.