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Apple Planning Video-Call iPhone
An anonymous reader writes "The recently awarded iPhone patent contains hidden claims which indicate Apple is planning to bring video calling and recording features to the iPhone, according to InfoWeek blogger Alex Wolfe. Buried within the 'embodiments' section of patent number 7,479,949 is this: 'In some embodiments, the functions may include telephoning, video conferencing, e-mailing, instant messaging, blogging, digital photographing, digital videoing, web browsing, digital music playing, and/or digital video playing.' Wolfe also cites language indicating Apple is aware that having a rear-facing camera is an impediment towards video calls (and also taking pictures of yourself.): 'In some embodiments, an optical sensor is located on the front of the device so that the user's image may be obtained for videoconferencing while the user views the other video conference participants on the touch screen display.' Screen caps of the patent drawing are also available."
Why is this news?
A 3G phone which can do video calls!? Omg!! ...
A phone which can use its camera for storing videos and which can play music? No shit!
I had assumed the iPhone could already do video-calls, kinda shitty the 3G one can't (if that's really so.)
Someone can watch a video of my inner ear while listening to me
Nullius in verba
This is great! Now, can we please have MMS and copy/paste like smartphones from 8 years ago?
or was it their intention all along to release such a great new feature that you couldn't upgrade to without upgrading the whole phone, thereby having to buy a new one?
no apple would NEVER do something like that.. ;-)
frog blast the vent core
That's why Apple is introducing its newest iPhone add-on, the iMirror! For the low price of only $99, you can clip this shiny (ooooh, shiny!) rectangle to your iPhone, which then, through the magic of very high frequency electromagnetic waves, WIRELESSLY transmits your image to the camera on the backside of the iPhone. Now you can see your friends and be seen AT THE SAME TIME. Hurry! Supplies are limited!
This guy's the limit!
I prefer the iReflect, which uses a particle-based medium. The resulting picture is quite a bit more danceable.
have you been seen on slash?
Back in the 90's, I did some work for the Ontario Telepresence Project. We did lots of studies on videoconferencing, shared mediaspaces...
What strikes me given the relative lack of outcome of the project, compared to the ubiquity of today's camera phones, is that the Telepresence project had it wrong when it wanted to have people *face* each other during conversations.
It turns out, this is not what we want. Staring at your interlocutor's face is not what you do in a usual conversation, it's even embarassing. You look at a shared point of interest. Turning the camera the opposite side of the screen was the way to go. First, you could use the cell phone as a camera, and second, in a phone conversation, it's much more useful to say "look at this", than to offer a nice view of you're hairy nose.
Or, to put it like St. Exupery:
Life has taught us that love does not consist in gazing at each other, but in looking outward together in the same direction...