[fmvela]

Hello,

A colleague just picked up the iPhone 4 and I was amazed to find that it had a forward camera (approximately the size of a pinhole) on the front of the device for video conferencing.

Being a fan of the BlackBerry, does any one know if something like this is in the works for RIM? This would be a very handy feature for us "business minded" folks who rely on our devices to get things done...

[Seymour324]

there was talk about it before but i havent heard anything in a very long time and new devices sporting 6.0 have surfaced all without front facing cameras so the outlook is dim

[mutambo]

i think that will come in the next generation, not yet this one due to the network infrastructures. the video-conf isnt yet a mainstream product (in fact, its only supported via wifi at this time) on the iphone... making it, useless. are you going to connect to wifi each time you want to talk to someone? what about when you are on the go and you cant?

i think in the future this is something that will come about, i think we may even see it on the tablet that is due out (IMO)

[derekmckee]

I didnt read much about pics of the Blackberry Bold/Torch 9800 touch/slider on engadget, but it looked like it had a front facing camera, plus the regular rear facing camera too.

[JRSCCivic98]

In 2015 RIM will finally make this happen. It'll be in a completely new BB design that will look like what you have now, but with a new model number and marketed as a completely new and revolutionary model. lol

[JRSCCivic98]

I didnt read much about pics of the Blackberry Bold/Torch 9800 touch/slider on engadget, but it looked like it had a front facing camera, plus the regular rear facing camera too.

Yeah.... it doesn't. lol What you saw on the front if the LED indicator.

[bpgui]

In 2015 RIM will finally make this happen. It'll be in a completely new BB design that will look like what you have now, but with a new model number and marketed as a completely new and revolutionary model. lol

I thought Apple had the monopoly on adding existing things to their devices and marketing them as completely new and revolutionary.

[fecurtis]

Hello,

A colleague just picked up the iPhone 4 and I was amazed to find that it had a forward camera (approximately the size of a pinhole) on the front of the device for video conferencing.

Being a fan of the BlackBerry, does any one know if something like this is in the works for RIM? This would be a very handy feature for us "business minded" folks who rely on our devices to get things done...

Not to my knowledge. Only ones I know of are the iPhone4 and Motorola has announced they'll have a few devices running Android that'll have video conferencing.

[i7guy]

Making a video call would be kind of cool. But that's where it stays in the "cool" realm.

[mas3222]

Video conferencing is stuck in the cool realm for sure until at least enough people have the phones to make it worthwhile. And I'm not always up for people seeing me anyways so its a feature I wouldn't really use that often my opinion though as many users will disagree and say it will be the most useful thing ever.

Posted from my CrackBerry at wapforums.crackberry.com

[fecurtis]

Video conferencing is stuck in the cool realm for sure until at least enough people have the phones to make it worthwhile. And I'm not always up for people seeing me anyways so its a feature I wouldn't really use that often my opinion though as many users will disagree and say it will be the most useful thing ever.

Posted from my CrackBerry at wapforums.crackberry.com

About 99% of features on smartphones are merely "cool".

None of us certainly need BBM or anything like that, that's merely in the "cool" realm.

Nothing wrong with that. The more features a phone has, the better, you never know when it'll come in handy.

[AmigaDude]

Earth shattering technology

I wonder why someone else did'nt think of this first? Oh wait, ...
Nokia N95

The black N95-3 has a soft touch texture, similar to the Samsung BlackJack, T-Mobile Wing and T-Mobile Dash (we haven't seen or touched the bronze colored version, so we don't know if that has the soft touch finish). Though this is the US version, the front video conferencing camera is still there, despite the fact no US carrier supports 2-way video conferencing. The slider mechanism is unchanged (no more or less wobbly than the N95-1) ...

[jallot]

Video conferencing is not going to happen with BIS. Too much delay sensitive traffic for the RIM NOC to handle. There's always a trade-off if one chooses to proxy traffic.

[fecurtis]

Video conferencing is not going to happen with BIS. Too much delay sensitive traffic for the RIM NOC to handle. There's always a trade-off if one chooses to proxy traffic.

No worries, RIM could do the same thing Apple does with the iPhone4...you can only use video conferencing over WiFi.

[Radius]

Please, anyone who's ever stuck their head outside North America knows front facing cameras are old tech and have been around for ages. We're the only ones wowed by it because most people here have never seen it before.

Apple, RIM, etc. are all playing catchup to the rest of the world in North America finally. But as far as overall phone tech goes, we're still way behind.

[fecurtis]

Please, anyone who's ever stuck their head outside North America knows front facing cameras are old tech and have been around for ages. We're the only ones wowed by it because most people here have never seen it before.

Apple, RIM, etc. are all playing catchup to the rest of the world in North America finally. But as far as overall phone tech goes, we're still way behind.

You specifically mean places like Japan and South Korea.

Their phones also double as credit cards and boarding passes.

You're missing one key thing though, they make fantastic, advanced hardware...they lack the sophisticated software. It's well known that the iPhone's software impresses Japanese developers. The phone itself...not so much. Different cultures, we use our phones as a compliment to our PC's...Japan simply uses them as PC's.

[_StephenBB81]

I do not see for a second how Video Chat on the phone will be used in Business, as someone who has to do those, you need to take notes while on a video conference call, unless someone is taking notes for you, but then why not be at a computer or in the conference room?

I see video Chat being purely a consumer toy, I actually think you'll see it more like a pervy consumer toy then anything, sexting is what they call sex related txt messages, put front facing video camera's on phones with a chat client, and see how many pin sharing threads become video chat request threads.

Not saying it's a bad thing, just don't see it's usefulness from a business standpoint,

[avt123]

Anyone see Fast and the Furious Tokyo Drift? If so, remember the race at the end and the live broadcasting they were all doing on their phones of the race? That was pretty cool.. It was also from 2006...

[fecurtis]

I do not see for a second how Video Chat on the phone will be used in Business, as someone who has to do those, you need to take notes while on a video conference call, unless someone is taking notes for you, but then why not be at a computer or in the conference room?

I see video Chat being purely a consumer toy, I actually think you'll see it more like a pervy consumer toy then anything, sexting is what they call sex related txt messages, put front facing video camera's on phones with a chat client, and see how many pin sharing threads become video chat request threads.

Not saying it's a bad thing, just don't see it's usefulness from a business standpoint,

I don't think they're trying to market it as a business feature. Just something that consumers may find cool.

Lots of people video chat, the iPhone4 just tries to take advantage of that feature.

[_StephenBB81]

Hello,

A colleague just picked up the iPhone 4 and I was amazed to find that it had a forward camera (approximately the size of a pinhole) on the front of the device for video conferencing.

Being a fan of the BlackBerry, does any one know if something like this is in the works for RIM? This would be a very handy feature for us "business minded" folks who rely on our devices to get things done...

I don't think they're trying to market it as a business feature. Just something that consumers may find cool.

Lots of people video chat, the iPhone4 just tries to take advantage of that feature.

I was more commenting to the OP, over the general usefulness of the frontfacing camera

[Radius]

You specifically mean places like Japan and South Korea.

Their phones also double as credit cards and boarding passes.

You're missing one key thing though, they make fantastic, advanced hardware...they lack the sophisticated software. It's well known that the iPhone's software impresses Japanese developers. The phone itself...not so much. Different cultures, we use our phones as a compliment to our PC's...Japan simply uses them as PC's.

Except for China. They seem to by copying or stuff as fast as we can make it and incorporating the advanced hardware too. I have seen a few phones already while I was over there that had very modern OS's and could pick up FM radio, TV as well as use some pretty advanced apps. Nice phones but I would not want to bring them here as I love my warranties.

The gap in software is a very simple one for them to fix, with very mature hardware and a little more work on software they will smoke us in every way.

[mountainman]

I can see how, for instance, if I were away on business, and my kids wanted to "chat" with me, the video-phone feature might be cool.

But mostly, I would never use it. Scrap it and put in IR so I can control my TV, any TV.