Video Kinect + WP7: iPhone Facetime, eat your heart out!

June 15, 2010 | By rush24

At the E3 conference press conference today, Microsoft officially unveiled "Kinect" formerly known as project Natal to the world. As I watched the conference with an impromptu audience consisting of a 14 and a 12 year old, all we kept on saying was "I’m so getting this when it comes out". Mind you they hadn’t even gotten to the games yet! So you ask what does this have to do with phones? I say Video Kinect!

According to the post from our editor earlier and just as logical step since it is compatible with Windows Live Messenger, this will come to Windows phone 7 in the near future if not at launch. What makes it even more appealing is that it transcends the phone (unlike Facetime which is limited to iPhones only) into the living room with Xbox 360 and hopefully a Windows media center embedded HTPC and finally the PC of course through WLM. Add to the recent reports of MS investing in server side compression technologies to ease data congestion woes, the potential for its availability through 3G networks is real.

Microsoft has not officially announced the support for the feature in WP7 but their competition must quaking in their boots because they have nothing currently to match this. Apple with Facetime and Android with the Qik and Fring solutions come in a distant second.

As the pieces of WP7 continue to fall into place, the hints of the OS turning into a game changer continue to get clearer. I for one can’t wait to finally retire my trusty old Cingular 8125 and delve into the new great era of Windows Phones.

25

About Rush24

Rush24 loves everything Microsoft and is fascinated by the influence of technology in everyday life.

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Tagged iphone facetime, video kinect, wp7

David

Zune music also made it to Xbox…three screens and a cloud http://windowsphone.mobilitydigest.com/zune-music…

http://www.facebook.com/expectafight Evan Anthony Powell

great point

http://www.facebook.com/expectafight Evan Anthony Powell

facetime isn't limited to iphones only. its an open standard…it is however, limited to wifi right now.

http://intensedebate.com/people/rush24 rush24

From Apple's own website http://www.apple.com/iphone/features/facetime.htm… it is a feature available only on the iPhone 4.

http://www.facebook.com/expectafight Evan Anthony Powell

at the time being its iphone 4 to iphone 4 but it's still an open standard. I'm sure they will market that aspect to commercial software devs. I would love to see interoperability btwn qik, facetime and kinect but it's not going to happen naturally (here's looking at you xda…).

GTRoberts

FYI – FaceTime is just a protocol from Apple. Its not OPEN nor a STANDARD.

Its is NOT OPEN because it contains non-Apple patents that will require licensing payments (just like Google's VP8)

Its is NOT a STANDARD because neither of the internet or web governing bodies have ratified it.

http://intensedebate.com/people/l3v5y l3v5y

3G video chatting is an open standard, and is supported by a massive number of phones, over 3G.

http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=746307628 Ricardo Dawkins

and…..Microsoft will be left behind because they don't follow logical steps and directions. They will not commit to this. They will come in distant third or fourth with this obvious feature for Windows Phones. Just watch.

http://intensedebate.com/people/Lennard Lennard

yeah just like they did with the xbox, right? I remember when the xbox just came out there were many comments just like yours…and look where they are now? more than 40 million xbox360s sold…beating the previous gen heavy hitter.

we willl see what happens with the next couple of generation releases.

http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=746307628 Ricardo Dawkins

Maybe you should review the Microsoft portable devices history before posting…. here are a few hints:
Tablets PC
UMPC
PlaysforSure
Zune
Windows Mobile
and a few more

There was nary any logic or committing with any of those endeavors

http://www.facebook.com/expectafight Evan Anthony Powell

what company's first (few) portable device(s) were ever wildly successful? Every major company selling portable electronics has had some commercial failure and if the company is prospering now, chances are they had early failure.
http://intensedebate.com/people/l3v5y l3v5y

MS have changed a few things recently, and the recent releases are all excellent, and sell very well.

W7, XBox, Zune HD etc.

http://intensedebate.com/people/djguapo djguapo

I'm as big an Apple anti-fan as any other, but you gotta give credit where credit is due: Apple has said that FaceTime is an open standard, and I'd bet that they are working to bring iPhone-to-iChat video calling.

http://twitter.com/mackenziepricee mackenziepricee

People use iChat? Lol!
Joho

Open standard, so what? so MS, Skype and all the other companies that has invested millions in R&D for video chat should all drop that and use Apple standard? Why not Apple try using other ppl standard some more. What a load of shit! We'll hw the FaceTime adoption rate goes, for an unreleased and unproven standard.

Argh

Non-proprietary messengers (Pidgin, Miranda, Trillian, etc.) don't tend to support video chat for the majority of messengers. If the FaceTime protocol is open enough, it could catch on with these messengers.

Then again, a "standard" still allows Apple to patent it and charge for licensing.
McDave

Errr – it's not an Apple standard, it's an Open Standard – that's the point! A bit like the Webkit open standard they started (used in Google Chrome & Mobile browsers) and FireWire served us well for 7 years while USB got up to speed – kind of. They do use other real standards like UNIX for their OS & H.264 for video, they're actually more standards based than most of the rest. If anything they don't like closed, proprietary technology like Flash, Kinect, Windows Messenger or Windows Media.

McD

Murani

LOL. You just said they don't like closed proprietary technology yet they make sure you can't load OS X on other hardware.

The iPhone is the epitome of a closed operating system. Everyone knows it so why even go there.

http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=746307628 Ricardo Dawkins

Why reply to the ifanboy name MacDave?

his last sentence shows his true color

http://intensedebate.com/people/l3v5y l3v5y

An yet they HTML5 demos only work on Safari?
GTRoberts

McDave … just WHICH WebKit are you referring to?? Chrome, Safari and Firefox all use a different WebKit base!

http://intensedebate.com/people/rush24 rush24

Why is it that people are so easy to give Apple a pass.? Let each company be it MS, Google or any other company create their solutions and if they agree to a cross compatibility that will even be better. In the end the market will determine the best one.

http://www.facebook.com/expectafight Evan Anthony Powell

that's assuming that the market is level.

http://intensedebate.com/people/l3v5y l3v5y

3G video chat has been an open standard for a lot longer (and is supported by more than one device, and isn't fixed to WiFi)

http://intensedebate.com/people/rush24 rush24

I agree. I think also Microsoft is onto something big with Video Kinect and everyone else knows it but just refuse to come to terms with it. Just check out this crazy article from gizmodo. http://gizmodo.com/5563218/microsoft-and-everyone…

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