Sweet

Yes I have 5 sets of speakers connected and two printers so it works well. I can listen to anything around the house and garden.

O2 have published some of the info regarding their deal for pay monthly upgraders.

If your upgrade is due, you can get an iPhone 4 day of launch (presumably at some cost, which they haven't announced yet)
If you aren't due for an upgrade, between launch and July 24th, you can pay £20 per month remaining of your contract and then upgrade as above. That's on average roughly half what it would cost you to buy out your contract without the offer, for iPhone owners. Probably not much of a deal for someone with a non smart phone.

I'll have one month due on mine so I'll probably pay the 20 quid but I can't see many people who have more than a couple of months left going for it. In the US AT&T's deal is effectively 'if you have less than six months left on your contract you can upgrade for no extra charge'.

Yes but in the US AT&T are facing losing the monopoly and are so trying to tie in as many as possible before that happens. No details have been announced of the Verizon iPhone yet so that is why AT&T are trying to stop as many as possible jumping ship as soon as they can.

An interesting look at Apples new "FaceTime"

Clicky

I don't think I would use it, but then I am rather shy.

I watched the Keynote earlier. The phone looks good.

I think that FaceTime could be a game changer in terms of video calls. Before very few people had video capable phones so it was rare, then the cost was prohibitive. Now the iPhone 4 will be sold in huge numbers and it will make it actually practical. It will use Wifi so will be cheap to use and the latency issues might not be as severe.

I'd prefer proper 3G video calls, like nearly every other 3G phone does and real Skype or iChat. The FailTime just doesn't seem to make sense, unlike 3G video calls, you can only talk with other iPhone 4G users and unlike iChat or Skype, you can't talk to other smartphone users or computer users, just iPhone 4G users...

Yes but since iPhones are becoming the market leaders is that a problem. I think that Apple are also trying to get FaceTalk to be accepted as a new standard which means that it will not be an issue. Though whether there will be enough other phones out there capable is another matter. I think that the iPhone is the phone of choice for the majority of the public who have expressed an interest.

Market leaders? In smartphones, maybe, but in video call capable phones, they are several hundred million units behind!

In my friend circle, I have probably 50 or 60 people with 3G video capable handsets and 2 friends/family with an iPhone 3GS...

are you sure? Few people had video capable phones? The N70 I had over 5 years ago could do video phone calls and I believe there may have been the odd one or two other phones since then that have sold quite well.

Since my k800i I had over 4 years ago had it, ever phone I have had since has had it also, k850i and my X1i

I think all the people goin "omg my phone from 1991 had video calling" are missing the point.

Video calling is CRAP! Apple are trying to imrpove it - and if it is as good over 3G as it is over Wi-Fi then they have improved it. A lot.

I personally think the wi-fi only restriction for the moment, is due to the phone companies rather than Apple. Infact, didn't Apple even say that?

if that was aimed at me then No, I havent missed the point. I was pointing out to Amnesia10 that its been around for a long time on a stupidly large amount of phones.



Is it? I dont do video calling as I have no deesire to see someone Im calling and Im sure they have no desire to see me either.



AFAIK Its due to AT&T all the european networks have been supporting video calling for a long time (although its expensive). So the rest of the world is being held back by the backward US telephone system. Although it could be a trojan horse to get people to accept doing video calls before "allowing" 3G video calls and thus get even more wonga, through the revenue sharing Apple have with the Telcos.

It's not though, over a decent 3g network connection it's entirely possible, free alternatives which support wi-fi and 3g already exist and are decent

http://gizmodo.com/5549494/fring-for-an ... the-future

You don't need (or want to be honest) a 5 bazillion megapixel camera doing the capture as it will require a huge amount of bandwidth, even a vga camera will do the job and help keep the bandwidth down.

The wi-fi restriction is due to AT&T, not phone companies, just them