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Cingular Sees The Next Big Thing: Video Calling
from the history-repeating dept
Apparently now that Cingular is a part of AT&T, it's been forced to take up an idea that AT&T just can't let go of: video calling. The mobile operator is bragging that it will show off the feature that nobody wants at next week's Consumer Electronics Show. It's calling it "video sharing" this time around, since it's implemented a little differently and uses an IMS platform, but that doesn't change the fact that video calls have never caught on, despite the perennial wild predictions and operators' repeated attempts to launch them in various formats. For some reason, AT&T remains particularly attached to video calls, dating back to the 1960s -- despite its repeated failure to actually get people to buy the machines. Apart from the relatively narrow market of deaf people who seem to like it, no operator has made a success of selling video calling -- and that's not likely to change, no matter what new technological platform comes along that supports it.
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son: but mom, do i have to?
mom: yes, it will make your company grow up strong
son: everybody says video calling sucks
mom: well if everyone jumped off a bridge, would you?
son: but i don't want to video call
mom: don't make me get your dad.
dad (yelling from other room): YOU HEARD YOUR MOM, GET TO WORK ON VIDEO CALLING.
son: ok, but I don't have to like it...
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Price
Gives me the chills somethimes.....
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Re: Price
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Re: Re: Price
If I'm out with my buddies and my girlfriend calls - I really don't want her to see what "guys night" entails. Or what if I'm cheating...?
Plus, if you are doing something guilty - how do you explain why you don't want to video chat in that instant?
...it's just a complicated matter. And personally - another reason to support bad drivers.
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Video calls and you
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personal agenda
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Not useful
Does anyone really need to see YOU when you get a call? I think of the Jetsons when Jane would pull a shade down in front of the TV phone because her hair wasn't done.
Phones are so much a part of how we communicate it isn't always practical for someone to see you, whether you are doing something you shouldn't or not.... besides being (in the past) impractical, this would (to me) be a main reason not to bother.
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Never used.
They can't give it away!
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Great for families though . . .
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Re: Re: Price
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Re: Not useful
Wake up and smell the coffee man. Japan already has this kind of stuff and America is so behind in technology like this, probably because of people like you.
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Video calls will never take off
Who wants the other person to see you doing that? And that's just normal everyday behavior, to say nothing of the nefarious activities mentioned by some of the comments above.
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UMTS video in Europe and Japan
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as a feature...
as a substitute for vocal communication, i seriously doubt it will catch on.
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Re:
Way too much information! - I think you need to prioritise?!
I hope I don't know you but just in case I'll be listening out for bathroom echo on the phone in future! ;0)
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In The UK...
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Re: Re: Not useful
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It is even more beneficial for younger children. My parents have visited their grandson maybe 6 occasions in his first 3 years due to distance limitations but at their most recent visit this Christmas he was more than comfortable with his grandparents because he has not only talked to them on the phone but SEEN them while talking to them usually at least once a month.
Without this wonderful tool he would have probably been shy as all hell for the first 2 days of a 5 day visit.
Video phones won't be used on a daily basis for casual calls but if they manage to bring this kind of technology to people with great ease of use then I can imagine all sorts of grand parents video chatting with their grand children all the time.
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Re: In The UK...
I've never participated in a single one since.
It's a sci-fi technology, glamourised by fiction and forever talked up by those who do not realise there is no practical demand for it.
It has niche utility, for journalists, for remote operatives - say a field engineer inspecting damage and relaying footage back to base in real-time.
I once saw a man in a supermarket in France pointing his phone at some shelves and shouting "Qu'est il?!" Presumably his wife was on the other end trying to help him choose a product. But because of the lag, by the time she said "That one!" he was pointing at the wrong thing, so it became "non! Non! a droit! ... non a gauche! Hilarious really.
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Stop the Insanity
Hence why the company sucks a big dick. Completely resistant to change and market needs. They have to resort to buying good companies like Cingular (and fucking them up) to fluff their own name. Land lines are becoming a thing of the past. Can someone please explain to me how the fuck one is supposed to talk on a cell phone, while taking video, while WATCHING video??
Did IQ's drop sharply while I was away? WTF is going on
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Re: Great for families though . . .
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Stop the Insanity by Deep Dickingson
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video phones / price.
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video phones / price.
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video calling
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