Future iPhones, iPads to have video chat?
It looks like there is pretty definitive evidence that the next version of the iPhone operating system is going to include support for video chat in its SDK, presaging the existence of a second iPhone camera.
Some interesting information came to light over the weekend about the capabilities of the next iteration of the iPhone operating system 3.x. A sneak peek at the SDK for iPhone OS 3.2 shows functions that seem to point at video chat for an upcoming iPhone and perhaps for an upcoming iPad, as well. The existence of such native support for video chat on the three Apple mobile platforms also give watchers a hint that at least some future iPhones, Touches, and iPads will have a video camera which faces the user instead of facing away from them, something which would be a first for Apple mobile devices.
The video chat rumor was broken in a story on 9to5mac.com, in which there are alleged screenshots from the SDK of function icons bearing the names “AcceptVideo” and “DeclineOrEnd Video” which is indeed a clear indicator. But if that is not enough to convince you, there is also an entry in the iPhone Telephony strings file which includes the phrase “ForVideoChatWithFrames.” If that does not spell out a video chat capability, nothing ever will.
It is possible that Apple will provide native support for video chat with a new, standard iPhone app of their own, but certainly VOIP providers like Skype would have more than a passing interest in adding this functionality to their iPhone apps. It seems likely that the video might be a little choppy given the low bandwidth capabilities of the AT&T network, but it would still be mobile video chat and that is all that would matter to a lot of users. One cannot help but wonder how many more traffic accidents could be caused with video chat than with just plain mobile audio conversations.
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February 23rd, 2010
Hello
I think now there is no wonder about this information of video chat.I am very much interested in this technology as I want to experienced it.Thank you for this post.
February 24th, 2010
iPads will have a video camera which faces the user instead of facing away from them, something which would be a first for Apple mobile devices.