Rumor: Microsoft working on FaceTime competitor for WP7

[Jos]

Microsoft is working on a competitor to Apple’s FaceTime mobile video chat feature, according to Neowin. The site claims to have gotten tip from a key Windows Phone 7 employee in an “off comment fashion,” but digging into the mobile operating system’s registry keys, mentions of "VoIP" and "SIP" were found hidden inside the "ControlPanel" section. Although both entries were disabled and Neowin didn’t have write access to switch them on, it’s an interesting finding which has sparked speculation that Microsoft could link this with other Live services.

When the question was posed about why they would not just use Skype, the response was that the FaceTime competitor will reach beyond the hand of Skype. The addition wouldn’t come as much of a surprise. Apple’s release of FaceTime revived a lot of interest in mobile video chat and now Skype has enabled the feature as well in an update towards the end of last year that allows iPhone users to use the functionality over Wi-Fi or 3G. There's no word yet on when a similar update for Android-based devices or other platforms will arrive, but we have to guess it's just a matter of time.

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https://www.techspot.com/news/41923-rumor-microsoft-working-on-facetime-competitor-for-wp7.html

 

[mario]

Apple said they would make Facetime and open standard but I haven't heard more about it, it's a shame it would be great to have interoperable video chats using the same protocol.

 

[Guest]

Apple and Open used in the same sentence, now that's news

 

[princeton]

Apple and Open used in the same sentence, now that's news

Best guest comment I've seen in a while.

 

[Guest]

Microsoft chasing Apples tail yet again for the millionth time.

And by the way, Microsoft are far far worse when it comes to open source. Quite visibly anti actually.

hxxp://www.apple.com/opensource/
hxxp://www.microsoft.com/opensource/directory.aspx

Apple has more than twice the projects.

Even the foundation of Apple's OS is open source ( Google OS X Darwin ).

I feel bad for all those so envious of Apple's success. Apple is the primary innovator right now and you owe them a heck of a lot for getting everybody else to pull their socks up.

Having both a mac and a windows pc, I cringe whenever I'm forced to do anything in Windows. It's like driving a Pinto instead of Porsche. Yuck! Luckily, that is almost never now.

 

[princeton]

Guest said:
Microsoft chasing Apples tail yet again for the millionth time.

And by the way, Microsoft are far far worse when it comes to open source. Quite visibly anti actually.

hxxp://www.apple.com/opensource/
hxxp://www.microsoft.com/opensource/directory.aspx

Apple has more than twice the projects.

Even the foundation of Apple's OS is open source ( Google OS X Darwin ).

I feel bad for all those so envious of Apple's success. Apple is the primary innovator right now and you owe them a heck of a lot for getting everybody else to pull their socks up.

Having both a mac and a windows pc, I cringe whenever I'm forced to do anything in Windows. It's like driving a Pinto instead of Porsche. Yuck! Luckily, that is almost never now.

Apple isn't innovative in the slightest. You're the kind of person who would call the ipod nano an "innovative device" even though apple just ripped off the design from other companies. Apple takes existing designs, slaps a logo on, puts in last generation hardware and sells it at a premium.

 

[St1ckM4n]

Wait, what? Anything going up against Facetime isn't a competitor - it's a superior thing. Facetime is so outdated it's not funny.

Also I thought the Skype app now let you do video calls over wifi/3G?