Would you ever buy a video phone?

[yoda313]

So would you ever buy a video phone? I know there are supposed to be some out there now but what about quality? Do you have to have a t1 line to make the frame rate tolerable? How would it handle for those with under a 1meg of broadband speed??

Seriously how many actually use webcams for conversions??? Are you mostly just using a mic with skype???

I would like to see them make a dick tracy video watch though - that i'd be cool on the small scale. Isnt the 3g network supposed to be beefy enough to handle full motion video?

[MOVIEGEEK]

They have been talking about video phones for 40 years and everytime one comes to market it flops because it's too expensive and the quality sucks.
I expect video cellphones to flop for the same reasons.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Videophone

[redwudz]

The people I know that have video cell phones use them mostly for recording things that happen around them during the day. They have been banned from most locker rooms.

Sending live video over the phone would probably increase your cell phone bill fairly rapidly.

[gadgetguy]

Even if they had perfect quality and reasonable prices I wouldn't have one. I have no interest in having to "be presentable" just because the phone might ring.

[lordsmurf]

Even if they had perfect quality and reasonable prices I wouldn't have one. I have no interest in having to "be presentable" just because the phone might ring.

Same here.

[nic2k4]

No, but a videophone answering machine could be fun...

[overloaded_ide]

HELL NO!

I got to look at that fat lumpy lazy tub of lard when I get home (untill I get the divorce soon), why should I look at her when she calls to say stop and get bread and milk!

I guess for those 1 900 numbers some of you guys might call it would be handy to make sure your talking to some young fox, not a 68 year old hag with a nice voice.

I can see it now, video porn, dial 1-900-785-9866 only $5 a minute charged to your phone or credit card, watch some slut play with herself.

WHO CARES!

Really what good is a video phone anyway if it did work. Oh, you can see the ugly dude selling you a product taking your order, or some pimply faced geek while you call in your cars insurnace payment or your phone bill.
Hey I just don't want to see that pizza guys face when I order my food ok!

And then you got slinky skimpy dressed broads in string bikinies saying "hey if you take this Master card or Visa Card I'll take my top off for you". YA gimme that $60 a year card at 22% interest, I don't care I want to see those boobs! No thanks!!!!

Well that's what I think of Video Phones!

I see my mom when I visit her, talk to her on the phone. I don't need to see how she is aging day by day, I see that when I visit her a couple times a year or more. Dads 1,000 miles away, Moms 800miles or so, I see them both often enough each year to know how old they are getting already, I don't need weekly reminders ok!

Oww ya a video phone, well one fun thing would have been I could have called the video rental store and asked that foxy gal to show me how she was dressed each day. Always something low cut and she had nice breasts and a tight tummy , MMM yummy.

The world is full of brain dead crap already, we don't need more useless crap!

[Bjs]

Got one , but definitely not interested in the video side .

Video messages I hate .

----

Remember they wanted to try another funny stunt here in au .

Everytime you walked by a vending machine , you mobile would ring to let you know of local specials .

I would have taken an axe to them over that ... thank god they saw common sense and canned it asap .

[mats.hogberg]

Nope. It's good to be able to talk to people without having to see them (or having to be seen). Much like this place - Would you post if your posts had to be a video of yourself?

/Mats

[overloaded_ide]

Much like this place - Would you post if your posts had to be a video of yourself?

Hmm. NEW thought, if I answer the phone NAKED in my home is that porn? IF I call you from my home while naked IS that PORN?

OK with the above?

Would you post if your posts had to be a video of yourself

Well, if I was naked just out of the shower and it was not porn, I guess that would be ok, and then if we have ladies that like such things and sent replies also as videos just out of the shower , then maybe I could get a real life started with someone with the same video interests instead of stuck with a dead head that just wants to work for the man and have no life of her own!

Ya, I am nearly single gals and looking! Looking for a gal that has an interest in a real life, nice looking is good, and required is being fairly smart with an interest in doing something for yourself!!!

[mats.hogberg]

Ancient history:
Saw a "video" phone at CES(?) in Atlanta some 20 years ago - A regular phone with a 7" B/W CRT. Took ~ 1 minute to display one still image of the person at the other end. Wasn't impressed then. Isn't now.

/Mats

[handyguy]

For the Deaf, one online Relay is giving free web cams (Lifecams). You visit their site & make phone calls in sign language

[usually_quiet]

MOVIEGEEK is right. People have been imagining vid phones since the 1960's. (The image of Jane Jetson answering the phone in her mask just popped into my head. ) I think that they even had a demonstration at one of the World's Fairs, though of course the phone was huge and stationary.

I don't think there will ever be a huge demand for them for home use. Business use, maybe.

The only way I'd even consider having one at home is if the camera turned itself off automatically whenever a call was over, and had to be manually turned on after the phone was picked up.

I don't think I'll ever even want a camera phone for personal use. I don't see that many things that I really need to share with anybody else.

[John]

I have one t-mobile Ameo, sucks as a phone but shit hot pda. even if I had any friends to call, I dont think I would ever use video, how would you got to the toilet and talk at the same time, or while shes going on and on put the phone down to pour yourself a large one. Ive had a web cam for years and never used it.
I remember reading an article years ago, when sombody in the future, went up a loft and found a phone, and said, what you can pick this up and just talk to somone.

[EddyH]

No... don't even use the webcam i have (had?). It's just a crap idea. Same as replacing portable music players with portable video players, it hasn't really caught on. I have a friend with an iPod video... amount of time spent using it for music? Lots. Amount of time using it for video... er? I don't even know if I've seen him play any videos on it, at all. The reasons are the same for lack of widespread adoption of videophones despite easy availability of the tech - regardless of the technology it's just not a practical prospect. You can't really make much use of it in the same way you do a regular voice phone/music player, and the communication/entertainment isn't enhanced all that much by the facility, certainly not enough to counter out the disruption it would cause to the other tasks you're typically doing whilst talking on the phone or listening to music - taking notes, following directions to find something (in the house, in a city, whatever - though this could be enhanced by the person on the other end being able to see where you are), just carrying on with general chores, walking through a busy town, driving (with hands free kit), or in my case earlier tonight, cooking dinner with a CD on. Having the video to go with it would have been something I simply couldn't have paid attention to, but I was able to sing along whilst applying heat and motion to diced food items and sauce. I'd argue it's even more disruptive than text (which at least has discretion, alternative forms of expression, and flexible reception time/easy storage as advantages as an addition to - not replacement of - voice calling) because you have to stop doing most other things to look at and pay attention to whats in front of you. People are good at dividing their attention when it comes to sounds, as it's generally an unfocussed 360 degree experience anyway, but visually, we are built to look closely at one small patch of the environment and have the rest in fuzzy peripheral mode, relegated to nothing more than a predator early warning system.

My brother had a video phone for a year. I think he made one, maybe two voice calls on it, and sent a couple of video messages - basically test clips. Used it as a regular voice + text mobile for the rest of the time he had it, then sold it on when upgrading. Just a pointless technology. The things that are built into my (and his) current handsets are far more useful - voice record, mp3/aac playback and fm radio, 2mpx digital camera (a pretty good one at that) with shockingly basic, but functional, video recording, wap/basic http internet access, LED torch and bluetooth file transfer. Video calling isn't even thought of in it's conceptualisation.

And are webcams really used for much more than cybersex, selfcentred videoblogging on youtube, and bitching about your parents (ok, points 2 and 3 are much the same)?