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FaceTime works from a plane

by Erica Sadun Jul 13th 2010 at 9:00PM



Loyal TUAW reader Bill G. was kind enough to face chat with us this evening. What made this especially fun was that he was in flight over Arkansas at the time. On the way to Texas via American Airlines service, Bill was able to use FaceTime with the plane's in-flight WiFi service.

It was a great connection given the circumstances. Video did flake out a little towards the end of our experiment (although audio continued just fine) and might have re-established itself if we had given it a little more time. All in all, just chalk this one up to the "wow, that's so cool!" list for the iPhone 4.

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Loyal TUAW reader Bill G. was kind enough to face chat with us this evening. What made this especially fun was that he was in flight...
 

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Chaim

The only problem is that Gogo will block it soon.

July 15 2010 at 3:27 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Djchino3

I've used facetime while in Seoul, S. Korea to my wife back in Tx with wi-fi and my phone on airplane mode. You can go to a contact and scroll down to the bottom to initiate a facetime call directly without calling a person 1st.

July 14 2010 at 3:20 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
no name

Gentlemen, brace yourself for arrival of thousands of douchebags who yap on their damn phones in flight.

July 14 2010 at 12:34 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
MaryBethLowell

That's absolutely amazing considering it used to cost $25 to make a 5 minute phone call using the phone on the back of the seat in front of you. Do those even exist anymore?

July 14 2010 at 11:42 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
alf

erica - very cool and thanks for sharing this with us! you should do voiceover work, as you have a very distinctly nice tone.

-a

July 14 2010 at 10:56 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Mark

Aren’t we all missing the most surprising thing about this video?

"Tyoo-awe"?! Who knew?

July 14 2010 at 9:57 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Wade

Seriously?? Some of you guys need to crawl out of your basements and get some freaking sunlight.

Great video Bill and TUAW! thanks for Sharing!

July 14 2010 at 9:42 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
emil

"FaceTime is so simple to use, even a rabbit can do it!"

July 14 2010 at 9:37 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Roberto

Today the skies. Tomorrow SPACE!

I can't wait for the double-cameraed A4 iPod Touch. Hopefully it will be thinner so I can strap a Verizon modem on the back.

July 14 2010 at 12:26 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Bill Gaiennie

@Mike

You are incorrect. You can establish a FaceTime chat without a cell connection. I was in 'airplane mode' the entire time. I clicked on my wifes contact info, then at the bottom of the screen there was a little box that says FaceTime. I touched that box and it attempted to contact my wife. You can try it yourself, it works. No voice connection necessary.

July 14 2010 at 12:04 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
2 replies to Bill Gaiennie's comment
Rick Smith

IIRC, I believe you have to have made a cell call to that other device at least once before the FT will work. Not the same call with escalating to FT from cell - just a previous call.

July 14 2010 at 12:08 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Bill Gaiennie

@Rick Smith

You are also incorrect. The FaceTime chat that was captured in the video was between me and Erica, an author on TUAW. She and I have never had a call before, yet we were able to easily establish a FT Chat.

The whole thing came about because after I was already in the air, I tried this with my wife, not thinking it would work. After it did work, I sent an email to TUAW (while still in flight) and as part of that email I offered to initiate a call to show that it worked while in flight. Which we did, it worked, no previous call ever made, nor one since.

July 14 2010 at 12:19 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
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