Apple’s iPhone 3G S: still no video calling
The new iPhone 3G S seems designed to prevent video calling applications. The feature is called "Video Recording," not a webcam. The phone sports a great new camera, built for video. But only the one camera, facing away from you, the wrong way for video calls. Video calling needs a camera next to the screen, something Nokia’s N series phones do well. This isn’t great news for Skype users. iPhone programmers can use the webcam to store video to a file, but won’t be able to write apps that manipulate or route the stream. This means Skype for iPhone won’t be able to add video calling any time soon. Why didn’t Apple make that leap? It could be simple manufacturing economics: it’s too early in the iPhone’s life to get the cost of video components down. It could be learning curve: vid-to-file is easier to design and manage than streaming video. It might be battery life: video eats up CPU and batteries quickly. It may be a carrier issue: mobile operators have been hostile to anything that looks like VoIP.