Tech Talk » Phones

Spending FaceTime with clients and family

Philip — Fri, 21 Oct 2011 15:30:10 +0000

One of the more brilliant features included with the iPhone 4, and now the iPhone 4S, is something Apple calls FaceTime. It’s a video chat service that is dead simple to setup and use. For other iPhone users, it uses your phone number to identify you (no additional account needed) and for other Macs and iOS devices, it uses your ubiquitous Apple ID or email address to identify you. It works like a phone, so there are no screen names (a la Skype or AIM) to remember or setup.

This past week, I received a call from my next-door neighbor and friend, Kendall, who is a food rep. He was traveling to Charleston to present a new line of meats to a restaurant but the other food rep who would be working with him would need to drive over 8 hours from Florida in order to join the meeting. Instead, he asked what would be involved in having him video chat for the meeting. Kendall is not a Mac or iPhone owner, but I told him about Skype and that we’d need to buy a web cam for his laptop. Then it dawned on me, tell him about FaceTime.

Our family has had a lot of experience, this year, with FaceTime. Either my wife or I both have been traveling for work almost every month this year. Many times, due to my wife’s job change in February, we have not been able to afford the time off to travel together, and so one of us would be home with our daughter while the other traveled. FaceTime has enabled us to talk while we’re in hotels and traveling and see each other. It has performed as well as all the Apple ads have portrayed it and really, it is a feature I would really, really miss if I lost it today. It has let me and my wife talk with our girl about her day, let her tell us her stories and let us tuck her in at night before bed. My wife was able to read the nightly bedtime story, just like she were at home (especially since my daughter has a few favorite books and my wife has memorized those).

As I relayed this story to Kendall, I could hear his enthusiasm grow. “Philip, you might be on to something there,” he said. And surely, we were. So, I offered to lend him our family iPad and work with him to get everything setup. We added a set of external speakers to make the audio louder, because were concerned that the restaurant might be noisy during the meeting. The only other step was to add a contact for his associate, and we were all set. (As a failback, we also setup Skype, just in case, but it was not needed).

Kendall’s business associate had an iPad and one quick phone conversation had him we were testing FaceTime from home. Kendall traveled to Charleston as planned and tested everything from the restaurant the night before and it performed great.

On the day of the meeting, the restaurant staff gathered around for the presentation. Kendall setup the iPad and started the FaceTime call with his his iOS enabled business associate. And the presentation began. There were few thoughts about the underlying technology that enabled it because it just worked. The only issue of the day was that some of the staff could not see the remote associate well on the iPad screen depending on their angle, but they could hear him and he could see everything going on there. And the ability to see what was going on in the room made the presentation go off fantastic. Kendall was the arms and legs for the presentation, able to talk to and cater to the staff while his associate spoke and watched remotely. All of this enabled by two 1lb. gadgets that are easily transportable and WiFi in the hotel and restaurant.

Certainly, this isn’t an Apple only ability. Skype and other video chat applications could do the same and pre-date FaceTime, but with so many iOS devices and Macs in the world, the ability to have a platform like FaceTime that just works is a huge advantage for customers. Skype will run on PC’s and other tablets and lots of devices, so it has its advantages, too, certainly. But, one of the biggest for FaceTime is that it is dead simple to use and that goes a long way with less technically inclined folks.

Up next for FaceTime – a birthday party… I just sent off an email to my in-laws who will not be able to make it to my daughter’s birthday party this year, but I hope that they will attend using FaceTime. They have recently made the Apple transition with iPhones and Macs, so we will try to let them join us virtually, wish their grand-daughter a happy birthday, and even watch live as she opens her present from them… Those miles between us just shrank to nothing, and that is a huge accomplishment.

What are your mobile apps telling about you?

Philip — Mon, 20 Dec 2010 16:07:09 +0000

I found a very interesting article today linked from the Wall Street Journal. The Journal did a set of tests on popular iPhone and Android apps to find out what personal information is being collected and sent back to the developer or third party companies about you, sometimes without your consent. The info-graphic is pretty alarming. I found several apps I use frequently – like Angry Birds and Bejeweled on the list. I also found apps like Facebook, Google Maps and even LifeChurch’s Bible app that are reporting back and sharing some of your information. For its part, Facebook only reports back to its developer and the information is not shared. In some cases, it is as simple as your device’s ID that gets sent back, but marketers are surely using this information to track and build profiles on users. In many cases, your location is sent back. Luckily, I believe that Apple’s Location Services privacy settings saves many of us unknowingly sending our location to markets to track our movements and usage.

The information for WSJ is pretty details – and you should check it out yourself: http://blogs.wsj.com/wtk-mobile/

iPhone 3.0 arrives and impresses

Philip — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 15:26:34 +0000

I’ve been silent for the last week and enjoying my newest toy – the iPhone 3.0 upgrade which dropped last week. I’m very impressed with the release and with the incremental steps that Apple has delivered to all of us customers. In the meantime, I’ve been one-up’d at work by many co-workers who have upgraded to the iPhone 3Gs handsets with video, improved cameras, and more speed (yes, just a wee bit jealous).

I am really enjoying many of the improvements in 3.0, including landscape mode for several applications – including mail and messages. A blogger I follow tweeted this article from CNet which details how to enable tethering on the iPhone… Draw your own conclusions as to its legality, but its one of the features I want most on the iPhone and AT&T is not allowing it at this time.

I’m also enjoying push notifications as of today for Beejive IM – an excellent pay-for IM client for all your different accounts. I installed that app this morning and I’ve had it running at work. Noteworthy features include Facebook chat, a really smooth chat switching method when you’re having mutliple conversations, and push notifications, of course. The service/software keeps you signed into your accounts even after disconnecting and will forward any received messages or statuses to your phone via a push notification which displays on your home screen. This is Apple’s work-around to background processes on the phone, which, they say, kills battery life.

iPhone 3.0 also grants the ability to subscribe to CalDAV calendars and integrate those. I have a friend who needs this setup, so I should be trying that soon. I use MobileMe, personally, for my family and our calendars and it works great – but to give enterprise customers who have invested in OS X Server the ability to leverage iCal Server is a great feature, in my opinion.

And speaking of my MobileMe subscription, a new feature has been added there – Find my iPhone – a locator service and the ability to display a message on-screen and have the phone play a tone. For those of us who lose things, its a nice feature when you’re looking for your phone while its stuck in the couch. At least one person has already used the service to successfully reclaim a stolen iPhone… That story is a very good read.

Another problem for the T-Mobile G1

Philip — Mon, 29 Sep 2008 19:34:16 +0000

The much hyped T-Mobile G1 handset will hit the market next month, but its in my eyes, it has a major obstacle to overcome – the overwhelming lack of a 3G network to operate on. Many site AT&T’s 3G coverage (or lack) as a weakness with the iPhone 3G models, but T-Mobile’s 3G network coverage is abysmal. It looks like parts of Texas, New England, Atlanta and spots of California are the only lucky 3G coverage in T-Mobile’s network from examining their coverage map.

What makes matters worse is the fact that AT&T and T-Mobile, our nation’s only GSM network operators, aren’t on compatible 3G frequencies, so phones from one network can’t even roam onto the other provider’s network. While this might be nice for the network’s “customer loyalty”, its horrible for customer choice. It means monopoly for handsets and shackles for users. Lack of choice is never a good thing in any market. I hope that we will see this change, but incompatible networks has long been the de-facto operating stance for American phone providers.

For clarity sake, T-Mobile lists the following cities (look how many are Coming Soon) with 3G coverage (source):

Atlanta
Austin
Birmingham – Coming Soon
Boston
Chicago
Dallas
Denver – Coming Soon
Detroit – Coming Soon
Houston
Kansas City – Coming Soon
Las Vegas
Los Angeles
Memphis – Coming Soon
Miami
Minneapolis
New York
Orlando
PhiladelphiaPhoenix
Portland
Sacramento – Coming Soon
San Diego
San Francisco
Seattle
Tampa – Coming Soon

T-Mobile intro’s the G1 and its not the iPhone killer expected

Philip — Thu, 25 Sep 2008 15:31:46 +0000

Saw a lot of media coverage about T-Mobile’s introduction of the G1 handset. I’ve watched several demos and I’m not really sure what I think of the handset yet. Its certainly not got the wow factor that I had after seeing the introduction of the iPhone. Maybe the missing piece was the Steve’s reality distortion field.

The software looks compelling in the demos that I have seen, but lacks the polish of the iPhone. Google has done a good job creating a platform, though I’ve seen some outstanding UI concepts that are not integrated into this particular handset. What seems to be lacking is the cohesiveness that makes the iPhone great. The UI looks a little disjointed with the main menu which scrolls in and then the ability to dock widgets and app icons on the “desktop.” I really don’t know what else to call it – home screen maybe.

Surprisingly, the capacity of the G1 is very minimal – sitting at only 1Gb of storage. That is a major limiting factor, but reflects the fact that the G1 isn’t an all-in-one, convergence device. Its just a smart phone with internet. That is the iPhone’s biggest competative advantage, but then I don’t think we’re seeing Google squaring off the device against Apple. Apple has turned out to be a great partner which showcases many of Google’s online products within the iPhone, so the G1 isn’t going head to head with the iPod capabilities of the iPhone for sure.

AppleInsider has a great piece about the differences and goes much more into depth comparing the devices – worth a read for sure…