Videophone
Feb. 3rd, 2011 01:19 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
bktheirregularIn early December, I went home to celebrate my father's 80th birthday. I took advantage of the trip to get a latest-generation iPod touch; my old Pocket PC was starting to die, and the iTouch looked like the best replacement, with an ebook reader and the potential to easily install a Greek-English dictionary for reference.
(Actually, I got two dictionaries, because in my experience, sometimes you have to use multiple dictionaries to divine the proper translation of a word in a particular context.)
The thing also has fore-and-aft cameras, and came with the highly touted FaceTime chat software. In effect, it was a handheld videophone.
I didn't use it as such. Why? Because for it to work, the person on the other end had to also be using FaceTime, which was only on the latest and most expensive iPhones, or in beta on recent iMacs and MacBooks and the like. Small percentage of the population, and restrictive hardware requirements.
Then right before New Year's, Skype came out with a video-enabled version of their app for the iPhone and iPod. And that changed everything, at least for me.
Why?
Skype isn't hardware-limited. Just about any computer with a broadband connection, a speaker, and a microphone can use it for voice calling, and adding just about any video camera - or using the video cameras built into the majority of modern laptops - allows video calling. I've been using Skype video to talk to my folks back in the States for years now - and all of a sudden, that capability got extended to the little device I carry in my shirt pocket. I can contact my parents, my brother, friends who've got Skype - and I've even managed to do it from the central plaza in front of Parliament. Two-way video calling, from an open-air plaza in Athens to an apartment in New York City, using a device the size of a deck of cards (actually the size of one suit of a deck of cards; about a quarter of the thickness, before I put on the protective case). Near enough to real-time to be practically unnoticeable, good quality (okay, variable quality, but that was the case with phone conversations anyway), and no need to get expensive specialized equipment on both ends.
Imagine, if you will, that Apple sold the iPhone, but it was only possible to use it to contact other iPhones. No landlines, no non-Apple phones. It'd be a pretty useless product, wouldn't it?
Open up access, and everything changes.
At least that's how it seems to me.
So if you call me on Skype and my video turns on ... don't be surprised if there's an open-air background or something.
Or maybe even the Parthenon.
(Actually, I got two dictionaries, because in my experience, sometimes you have to use multiple dictionaries to divine the proper translation of a word in a particular context.)
The thing also has fore-and-aft cameras, and came with the highly touted FaceTime chat software. In effect, it was a handheld videophone.
I didn't use it as such. Why? Because for it to work, the person on the other end had to also be using FaceTime, which was only on the latest and most expensive iPhones, or in beta on recent iMacs and MacBooks and the like. Small percentage of the population, and restrictive hardware requirements.
Then right before New Year's, Skype came out with a video-enabled version of their app for the iPhone and iPod. And that changed everything, at least for me.
Why?
Skype isn't hardware-limited. Just about any computer with a broadband connection, a speaker, and a microphone can use it for voice calling, and adding just about any video camera - or using the video cameras built into the majority of modern laptops - allows video calling. I've been using Skype video to talk to my folks back in the States for years now - and all of a sudden, that capability got extended to the little device I carry in my shirt pocket. I can contact my parents, my brother, friends who've got Skype - and I've even managed to do it from the central plaza in front of Parliament. Two-way video calling, from an open-air plaza in Athens to an apartment in New York City, using a device the size of a deck of cards (actually the size of one suit of a deck of cards; about a quarter of the thickness, before I put on the protective case). Near enough to real-time to be practically unnoticeable, good quality (okay, variable quality, but that was the case with phone conversations anyway), and no need to get expensive specialized equipment on both ends.
Imagine, if you will, that Apple sold the iPhone, but it was only possible to use it to contact other iPhones. No landlines, no non-Apple phones. It'd be a pretty useless product, wouldn't it?
Open up access, and everything changes.
At least that's how it seems to me.
So if you call me on Skype and my video turns on ... don't be surprised if there's an open-air background or something.
Or maybe even the Parthenon.
