Facetime

Facetime is a way for Iphone users to communicate with each other through a live stream video chat. This voice over protocol product was created by Apple incorporated, for supported mobile devices running iOS and Macintosh users running OS X. The video version of Facetime is supported on any iOS device with a forward-facing camera and on any Macintosh computer equipped with a Facetime Camera, formerly known as an Isight Camera. I look forward to what apple has in store for the next face time upgrade.

Steve Jobs announced Facetime in his keynote speech on June 7th 2010 and the World Wide Development Conference. Steve Jobs also announced the supporting devices for Facetime at the same event the iPhone 4 and ipod touch 4. The name Facetime was bought from Facetime Communications who changed their name to Actiance. Facetime was released on June 24th 2010 on iOS and February 24th 2011 on Mac. Codenamed Venice, FaceTime is a complex accomplishment that includes many pieces such as networking for seamless interaction. Garcia and four other engineers were specifically assigned to this project, and various other teams worked on pieces related to the technology. Apple's core audio team did the audio backend, dealing with the microphone and speaker, Garcia said. The video codec team also was involved, as was the application team, "which draws pretty buttons and things like that," he said.

Facetime is easy to use and accessible on all apple devices. Facetime helps families feel a little closer to home. When asked about Facetime a fellow student said "My grandpa was having his eighty fifth birthday party, and some of the family members were far away. The ability of face time allowed us to see them face to face. This was a very cool experience for my family because we were able to have a face to face communication with one of my cousins from florida and another of family member who was studying abroad in Italy." Facetime quickly gained popularity among users.