FaceTime for Mac calling iPhone: First impressions

Posted in iPhone News by admin. Published October 21st, 2010

FaceTime for Mac calling iPhone: First impressions

Earlier today, Apple CEO Steve Jobs revealed FaceTime for Mac, a beta version of the FaceTime video chat app that came to iPhone 4 this past June. One of our biggest complaints about FaceTime for iPhone was that it restricted video chat participants to those who own an iPhone 4. Today’s beta software exponentially opens up the FaceTime platform to include users of Mac OS X Snow Leopard–for the time being.

CNET Senior Associate Editor Scott Stein and I jumped on three phone calls. Scott used CNET’s high-speed Internet and a Web cam built into his New York-based iMac. I initiated and answered calls from an iPhone 4 in San Francisco using Wi-Fi.

I had a satisfactory experience overall from the iPhone side. Video technology has never been good enough yet on any platform (even Cisco’s Umi telepresence) for me to see it as more than an aid. It’s nice to have and helps forge a connection, but I wasn’t surprised that the video quality piping into the iPhone left something to be desired. Even on a relatively small iPhone screen (compared to a laptop or desktop), Scott’s face and background appeared washed out and indistinct.

As with video chats on many other platforms, audio was much more in sync than the video. Although my iPhone 4 dutifully recorded my own movements in a thumbnail image, Scott noted that my video feed froze a few times on his Mac. It also appeared that there was some video delay, since Scott and CNET TV Producer Wilson Tang resorted to shouting out times and gesturing to arrange for another call five minutes later, once they readied the video equipment in New York. And yes, we will embed a video hands-on of FaceTime on Mac and iPhone once that’s been produced.

The audio timing, on the other hand, was spot on from the San Francisco/iPhone end. I didn’t notice any delays, or crackles or distortions. FaceTime essentially uses the iPhone’s speakerphone functions, so I did have to ratchet up the volume to make up for the externals speaker’s volume loss.

Scott’s experience wasn’t as clear as mine in either audio or video departments. Stay tuned for his first impressions from New York, and his First Look video.

[Thanks: http://reviews.cnet.com]