FaceTime Audio is Apple’s biggest little feature addition in iOS 7. “Quietly, gradually, but clearly Apple is building platform lock-in into its iOS products, with some features that are deeper than just a rich third-party software ecosystem,” Darrell Etherington reports for TechCrunch. “FaceTime Audio is the latest of these, VoIP calling built on the back of its FaceTime video chat service, which is tightly integrated to the phone app to make placing free international calls almost a pleasant surprise for those looking to connect with far-flung loved ones,” Etherington reports. “FaceTime Audio joins iMessage as another reason to sign on with the Apple camp and get an iPhone or iPad device, and then never to depart again. It’s a little odd to see it arrive so much later than FaceTime’s video calling feature, but the reversal of feature rollout makes a lot of sense ; audio-only calls are uncomfortably close to standard phone calls, which is still one of the sole remaining areas that carriers control.” Etherington reports, “Critics will say that services like Google’s Gmail calling and Skype have offered free international or long-distance calling for years, but Apple’s service is integrated directly into a user’s Phone, Contacts, Messages and FaceTime apps, which they’re already comfortable using, and doesn’t require having a separate account or third-party app open. That makes an immense difference in terms of barriers to usage for people who may not be all that technologically savvy. My less expert family members are already extremely comfortable with FaceTime Audio and how it works, not even a week into the feature’s launch, even if they’d never managed to make a habit of using Skype in the past.”
Posted on: Tue, 24 Sep 2013 19:20:17 +0000
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