Why Video Calling Is a Wasted Feature In the UK 232
An anonymous reader writes "Technology affects the way we live but sociocultural influences also dictate what technology we absorb into our day-to-day lives. Take video calling on the iPhone 4 for example; it was pitched as an impressive feature, but will people adopt it? According to one British writer, the UK is unlikely to start making lots of video calls because it's awkward and, well, not very British. 'It's not the way we look when we say them, but the way we say them in order to inject the most bile into a negative statement. Or, on our more enthusiastic days, finding the most wryly witty way to say something while indicating that you couldn't really care less about it. This is the reason we've taken so well to Twitter and are better at watching than creating YouTube videos, to put it in sweepingly generic Internet terms.'"
ha (Score:1, Interesting)
Why would I start video calling on the Johnie come lately iPhone 4.
That has been available on other devices such as the Nokia N900 for a while.
It must be said. (Score:2, Interesting)
Offtopic or not, what it the glorious melted cheese fuck is up with the new BSA advertisements on Slashdot? Debate over copyright infringement morality and legality aside, advertisements for a whistleblower hotline making a huge point that you will be paid for turning in copyright infringement is really apalling to see. I know slashdot is a place where there are a lot of eyeballs that work in company IT departments and also contain many disgruntled employees with a massive overlap on that venn diagram, but this is whoring out your audience in a huge way.
This is worse than those lame Visual Studio ads that have been on the last month that seem to think faking and/or only accepting comments to a feed that are short blurbs exclaiming how great it is is somehow going to influence whether a developer or company actually tries it.
I know i'm not the only person who is seriously considering the wisdom of continuing to subscribe and donate.
Wasted and wasted (Score:5, Interesting)
So in the beginning some people used it for the novelty factor, but nowadays it's mostly used by friends who are bored and have nothing else to do than video chat =P.
BUT. I guess a lot of people with problems hearing still use and love this feature. And as a lot of phones have this built in and the networks support the feature, I wouldn't say it's "wasted".
It may not be used by the masses, but the most people using it really like and need the feature, and AFAIK there is no large expenses for the carriers/phone manufacturers. So it's not "wasted" as much as "only really usable by a few".
Apple made a mistake, I believe... (Score:5, Interesting)
And they don't recognize a trend coming at them like a freight train. We started using email for convenience. Now that has been replaced somewhat by texting. Now that has been replaced by an even MORE in-personal way of communicating - the most evil thing in the history of the internets - facebook. The "After school popularity contest." People don't want to have conversations with others - they certainly don't want to see someone and have the other person see them - that's what text is for. To me - this is a step backwards.
Also, it might be good to know i've already deactivated my facebook account, without any qualms - after all, I had "ignored" 80% of people on there because... well - I don't want to hear about your baby's every bowel movement because you are extremely bored....
And two - its a breeding ground for ignorance. I always posted articles that I thought were.. thought provoking - very few people commented, but WATCH OUT if someone says "I'm going to have sushi for lunch."
Maybe this whole thing is indicitive of something else, but I think it caters too much to the "me" generation... What are we calling them? Gen Z? I'll tell you right now, Gen Z doesn't want to look at people when they are talking to them, so good luck there apple - I think you just wasted money.
Re:People prefer "normal" calls (Score:4, Interesting)
Maybe the reason it didn't work for them is, from your description, it seems that they felt compelled to use it every time in place of phone conversation instead of when it makes sense. Eat pizza at absolutely every meal, whether lunch, dinner, breakfast - and you'd get sick of it too.
Video Calls will make sense on the holidays like Christmas, Thanksgiving, Mother's Day, birthday, etcetera. They'll also make sense on other occasions perhaps when the boss wants to talk to you and be assured he has your full attention.
But a complete replacement for a phone call it is not. But then most people don't know what a phone call is either, so it's no surprise they failed at video calls.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jrBtSz5RReM [youtube.com]
Video calling is a niche market (Score:3, Interesting)
Why Video Calling Is a Wasted Feature In the UK
Is a wasted feature in most of the world, for most of the people most of the time. A grandma can want to video talk with her grandchildren, and in business settings can be also very useful, but for most of the people, most of the time, video just get in the way. My wife is now talking with her brother, that lives in other country, and they could video talk, but who wants to. She is playing MahJong while talking, and the brother is packing a suitcase (he has a headphone), so video would just be a damned nuisance.
My point is, if from the beginning of phoning, all calls had been video calls, we'd welcome the option of just-voice calls as a big liberation.
Deaf (Score:2, Interesting)
Bah.. (Score:3, Interesting)
But when I realized I could casually hook up with old friends and acquaintances I began to understand it. There's nothing particularly 'me generation' about it because it augments rather then supplants real conversion. The landscape is actually richer for it, it provides small peaks at what might be going on, chat still works well for one-on-one or even many, but depending on the level of intimacy involved texts, phone-calls, drinks, dinner and all the rest still apply, just like they always did.
I don't mind seeing that a buddy of mine is off on a road-trip. He doesn't have to tell me every tiny detail of his life, but if I'm bored or it's a timothy day on Slashdot it's nice to have something with things/people I care about to poke in on. Or share a little something I might not have.
Sure there are kids who think it's some kind of friend manufacturing machine, but there were always people like that. And you know what, some of your friends send stupid shit, but you probably already knew that about them, don't blame facebook!
And just because you think X is super interesting, depending on the diversity of your group you might be a little let down. I put up a remix recently I'd done in a day, turned out great, but my friends and family don't even really understand what it is, I get one or two hits and no comments. But if I wanted praise I should have picked my audience.
People are always talking about technology X as being the next social downfall, but I'm just not seeing that apply realistically with facebook. It's not a perfect platform, but it's helping people bridge a little distance. Families staying a little closer. Old friends picking up on each others lives. It's casual communication at it's finest, but it can be whatever you decide to make of it.
My advice is to not add anybody and everyone. Just the people *you* want to hear from. It's a lot nicer that way. And don't feel obliged to do anything with it. If I don't have anything to say so be it.
The one down-side is I'm realizing I'm going to have to start taking a trips and visit old friends more often. That means actually taking vacations. Soon hell will be freezing over and then we'll all be in for it.
2003 Called, they want their video calling back (Score:5, Interesting)
We've been here before, when 3G first came out in 2003 Video Calling was supposed to be the big selling point, but it never caught on (possibly because it was much more expensive than voice calling, possibly because people didn't actually want to see each other on the phone!)
Of course all the Apple hipsters will probably want to video call all their friends straight away to show off their new Iphone 4s, but will video calling actually last this time?
Here's one of the original Three video calling adverts.
http://www.visit4info.com/advert/3-Mobile-Video-Calling-Hutchison-3G-Network/8771 [visit4info.com]
Re:ha (Score:3, Interesting)
Front facing cameras and video conferencing have been on almost every 3G capable phone since circa 2003.
Yes, but it's entirely new and worthy of discussion when the sodding iPhone adds that feature.
It has never really taken off in the UK, it is cool to show someone something, but it costs 50p per minute, so people have never bothered.
While the price is probably an issue, I think the cultural and practical reasons given in the article and elsewhere in the thread- which have been mostly known for *years*- are the primary cause.