We know that the next smartphone from Apple, the iPhone 4G/HD, will have a front-facing camera but it looks like loose-lipped actors are saying Apple is already prepping advertisements to show off the video-calling capabilities.
This isn’t much of a surprise, as we’ve seen other hints at this, but an actress on Twitter reportedly said, “audition tomorrow for F***ing Apple commercial directed by Sam Mendes. going to go pray for like 24 hours straight for a miracle.” Needless vulgarities aside, Engadget posted this comment and the original tweet has now been fully deleted, which is odd. Needless to say, @ViFlaten isn’t gong to be getting the part. There was also another California actor who tweeted something similar and I’m sure his chances are torpedoed, as well.
It’s neat that Mendes is directing the ads but it’s even cooler that the next iPhone will be getting video calls. I’m still not sure how anxious I am to make video calls on the go but it could be a godsend for business travelers on conference calls, or for letting grandma see the latest addition to the family (not to mention the teenagers will get some mileage out of it). You readers in Europe, Japan, Korea, etc. can laugh at us Yankees all you want, but video calling from a mobile phone is still something that elicits excitement.
The EVO 4G is making a big huff out of its ability to do two-way video-chatting via Qik and this could give Apple feature parity. Apple’s version will probably wind up with a larger installed base, as well, but that gives me a ton of concern for how AT&T’s network can handle this.
We know that Steve Jobs will be headlining Apple’s WWDC in a few short weeks, so we should see a live demonstration of this soon. We’ll be there live-blogging the event, so keep it locked here during the keynote. Any guesses who Jobs will video call?
[Via Engadget]