With my sister living in London and my daughter on her way to college for a summer session we have been playing around with various video conferencing/video chat software.
Apple computers/iPhones/iPads come with a program called FACE TIME. While an excellent program, FACE TIME is an Apple to Apple exclusive program, it works across all the Apple devices.
There is also a free service called SKYPE that works across platforms, so its great for Windows to Apple, Windows to Windows or Apple to Apple. If you are a windows user, or if you have a Windows user to which you wish to communicate, then SKYPE is your default choice.
My observations are that FACE TIME is dramatically superior for Video Chat, the resolution is good, the bandwidth use is lower, the latency is virtually non-existent on transatlantic video calls, the frame freeze frequency is much lower than on SKYPE, plain and simple it works very well for a free service. We held a 45 minute video conference today on FACE TIME without ever dropping the connection, we did have 2 or 3 screen freezes that lasted a few moments to maybe 30 seconds before the system resumed functioning properly.
Only minutes before the FACE TIME call we held a similar video conference between the same two computers, but we used SKYPE.
SKYPE is a great service for free 'telephone' calls internatonally or to replace long distance domestic calls. You can call from computer to computer free, or phone to computer/computer to phone for very low rates. The video feature of SKYPE has been around for a few years, its good. BUT it is good if you have 2 high speed rock solid connections. If one of the connections is a bit slower than the other, if one is a bit less reliable, then using SKYPE for video is somewhat problematic. Screen freezes are very common, but unlike FACE TIME, each time the screen froze for us it also terminated the call. Video is also pretty sketchy with some serious latency issues. Its like watching a movie where the audio is not synced to the movement of the actors lips. You see the lips moving, wait a second or two, or even three, then you hear the words.
Anyone else using either of these services?
What are your observations?
Apple computers/iPhones/iPads come with a program called FACE TIME. While an excellent program, FACE TIME is an Apple to Apple exclusive program, it works across all the Apple devices.
There is also a free service called SKYPE that works across platforms, so its great for Windows to Apple, Windows to Windows or Apple to Apple. If you are a windows user, or if you have a Windows user to which you wish to communicate, then SKYPE is your default choice.
My observations are that FACE TIME is dramatically superior for Video Chat, the resolution is good, the bandwidth use is lower, the latency is virtually non-existent on transatlantic video calls, the frame freeze frequency is much lower than on SKYPE, plain and simple it works very well for a free service. We held a 45 minute video conference today on FACE TIME without ever dropping the connection, we did have 2 or 3 screen freezes that lasted a few moments to maybe 30 seconds before the system resumed functioning properly.
Only minutes before the FACE TIME call we held a similar video conference between the same two computers, but we used SKYPE.
SKYPE is a great service for free 'telephone' calls internatonally or to replace long distance domestic calls. You can call from computer to computer free, or phone to computer/computer to phone for very low rates. The video feature of SKYPE has been around for a few years, its good. BUT it is good if you have 2 high speed rock solid connections. If one of the connections is a bit slower than the other, if one is a bit less reliable, then using SKYPE for video is somewhat problematic. Screen freezes are very common, but unlike FACE TIME, each time the screen froze for us it also terminated the call. Video is also pretty sketchy with some serious latency issues. Its like watching a movie where the audio is not synced to the movement of the actors lips. You see the lips moving, wait a second or two, or even three, then you hear the words.
Anyone else using either of these services?
What are your observations?
