Apple introduces the iPhone 3G Videoconferencing Kit, ZOMG!

WWDC SAN FRANCISCO—June 11, 2008—Apple® today unveiled the Apple Videoconferencing Kit®, the world's first videoconference accessory for the world's best phone, the iPhone 3G. Using a unique silicon-based mirror material and natural bamboo wood for its handle and base, the Apple Videoconferencing Kit measures an unprecedented 0.5 inches at its thinnest point. Its low weight and unique shape—developed following strict Human Interface tests and anatomical studies—will allow the user to easily hold it in front of the iPhone 3G camera, allowing face-to-face video communication with users all around the world.

"We've built the world's best cellphone—again," said Steve Jobs, Apple's CEO and famed fried tofu fan. "But it didn't feel... complete. So I said to Phil, hey! Phil, yo! Where's the damn front camera? Can we do iChat AV with this shit? He said we couldn't, but then... then he pulled out his hand mirror and said: 'what about this?'"

Phil Schiller, senior vice president of Worldwide Product Marketing and Apple's Cool Guy at Large, explained how it all went after that: "Steve thought it was ok, but he didn't like the pink plastic and shiny beads, so we asked Jon to come up with an evolution of the design." The team lead by Jonathan Ive was left with the challenge of making the Apple Videoconferencing Kit a reality: "We wanted the design to feel complete, as a whole holistic experience for the user, something that would talk from the inside, and be pure function. It just feels that way now."

The Apple Videoconferencing Kit ultra-shiny surface allows for an extremely clear image, the best in its class, and can be easily customized using any kind of materials, from stickers to Crayola. It will be available in July 11 for $29.

Apple ignited the personal computer revolution in the 1970s with the Apple II and reinvented the personal computer in the 1980s with the Macintosh. Today, Apple continues to lead the industry in innovation with its award-winning computers, OS X operating system and iLife and professional applications. Apple is also spearheading the digital media revolution with its iPod portable music and video players and iTunes online store, and has entered the mobile phone market with its revolutionary iPhone.

Indeed, it looks like Apple keeps pushing the envelope. [Other Gizmodo Fake News]

For those of you who don't get it, this is a criticism of the lack of front camera and video conferencing in the iPhone 3G. Looking at the new model, I think it is clear that Apple has decided to milk the current iPhone for another year instead of actually pushing the envelope big time. After all, why rush it when you are still entering the market and you can increase your margins?

While I'm sure that iChat AV-compatible videoconferencing will come to the iPhone, the fact is that Apple has decided we don't need it, expanding the lifetime of the previous generation by adding 3G and new software, in order to get more return out of their original investment. I can't blame them. And it even makes sense from a development point of view, making sure that every step works before taking another. However, as a consumer and gadget addict who wants it all, that doesn't make me happy.

The 3G video chat allows iPhone to iPhone video communications on the fly via the front camera. According to the text, you can also chat with your iChat buddies if you're using Wi-Fi as well. Hot. Hit up Crunchgear for the rest of the pics. The only weirdness that we can see is that the (RED) version has no power toggle. Here's hoping these leaked pics are real, because we're really stoked about that video conferencing feature (3G iPhone toilet chats here we come!). Who knows if they ARE real, however, since they can be faked in Illustrator and then taken pics of with an iPhone camera.

Update: That footnote on the iChat image says to us that iChat is coming for the iPhone (text chat and video chat) AND Windows, with XP2 and Vista as a base requirement. iChat on Windows. That's not unbelievable, following in the steps of Safari this past year. Only makes sense that Apple would want Windows users being able to Wi-Fi video chat with their iPhone buddies.

[Ed Note:Although Chen was diplomatic about it, and they're very pretty, I don't believe these are real for a second. ] [Matt Hickey's Crunchgear]

First, we already know that apps running in the background as a process is possible on the iPhone. The iPod app, SMS app, and various other apps all run in the background now and continue running no matter where you go in the phone. Also, user-made Installer.app apps like Apollo (an IM client) already run in the background just fine. So why did Apple make this limitation that all apps have to quit whenever the user switches out? Memory management. From Apple's Human Interface Guidelines for the iPhone:

Apple has no idea what combination of applications you could possibly install on your phone, and they can't control it. If you were to install two apps that took up loads of the iPhone's memory (we're talking RAM), and they both ran in the background, it would slow down the phone's other, more important tasks such as calling or iPodding. If this were the case, Apple would be blamed for making a slow or non-responsive phone even when it's not actually Apple's fault. This is exactly the thing that goes on in Windows Mobile devices. It's fine when you're just running normal, natively-installed apps, but when you get to multi-tasking with your own installed programs, the phone becomes sluggish and everyone curses Microsoft. Apple wants none of this.

So the implication to you, the end-user, is that you can't have apps running in the background, constantly checking the internet. This means no RSS reader that's always up-to-date and no IM apps that always sit in the background, listening for messages. If you're wondering Exchange's push email and calendars are going to work in this scheme, it'll be integrated into Apple's first-party Mail system, which can be allowed to run in the background.

But in the end, it's only a small portion of apps that are really affected by this rule. Games or utilities can save their app status to disk often so that you can resume where you left off when you start it back up. But until the iPhone allows SDK-applications to run in the background, you're probably better off using a web-based chat application in Safari (which already has permission to). [Tech Crunch]

He is still perfecting the effect, but while you wait you may download a .qtz file and add it to the following folder: {HardDriveName}/Library/Compositions/directory. This will enable the hologram effect in iChat, granted with a few glitches, but a hologram effect nonetheless! The necessary file can be found by hitting up the link at the bottom. As if that was not enough, fellow Macrumors member, Zneo11, has devised a stunning invisibility effect; think Predator vision. The method to obtain is much the same. We haven't tried these out yet, but let us know how you get on. Now, I'm off to get my girlfriend versed in the way of Princess Leia before I test this out. Hit the links to get downloading, Luke. May the force be with you, Predator. Awesome mash up idea instigating in my brain region... [Macrumors-Hologram, Hologram File, Macrumors-Invisibility]

Screen sharing also works most of the time, allowing us to remotely control the other person's desktop. When you can connect, it's beautiful. When it's hung at the connecting stage due to router configuration or some other error, it sucks.

And here's document share. The initiator controls scrolling through the document and you can see video of them on the left. Very sweet for collaboratively going through something (like, for example, a book you're whoring out).

• Google Talk support in iChat
• Full path view in Finder
• iPhone-like System Preferences icon

[ThinkSecret]

What does this do? Well, with this, you can forward your messages to your iPhone, which with the iChat-like SMS screen, gives you a kind of iChat-esque option for chat.

It's pretty ghetto, and it's pretty much the least Apple could do to get iChat onto the iPhone. How about we see a real iChat app, or better yet, a multi-client chat client like Adium?

AOL Mobile

–Adam Frucci

Also Macrumors.com is claiming that this will be linked to the rumored iPhone Call Ahead feature. Interesting.– Brian Lam

Leopard iChat Answering Machine [MacRumors]

Finally, Mr. Analyst says that the iPhone will most probably resemble an iPod nano.

Don't you just love random guessing?

What I want to know is, will the iPhone drop my calls, have a terrible battery life and useless camera? If it does, well, I already have a cellphone like that, thank you very much. – Nicholas Deleon

Analyst: Second iPhone in the Works [eWEEK/Yahoo! via SlashPhone.com]

Tamagotchi to Xbox: Why The World Can t Resist Phatic Technologies

Phatic communication, a term first coined by anthropologist Bronislaw Malinowski, is the international linguistic phenomenon of small talk; that is, exchanges meant to provide a social connection rather than transmit information. Think about your last ride in an elevator: did everyone suffer silently, or did someone attempt a connection by offering some idle chatter about the weather? That man was engaging in a bit of phatic communication.

The need to connect phatically is almost, but not quite, universal. A recent study from the University of Kansas, for example, found that Germans don t typically engage in phatic rituals. But the researchers found that phatic gestures are commonplace in the United States, Japan, and even Iran. And our tendencies to exchange social niceties influence the sort of products we design and use.

Some of today s most successful products have phatic properties that allow us to connect socially.

Consider iChat; often the content of the messages is secondary to the fact that people simply appreciate being pinged by their online pals. And sometimes just seeing your pals in the list, knowing they are there, is enough to feel socially connected.

Our innate affection for phatic interactions is best exemplified by the Tamagotchis. First introduced in 1996, these Japanese virtual pets satisfied the profound, hitherto untapped phatic desires of 14 million people to connect to lifelike avatars - hatched, grew, ate, and pooped before dying a slow death, only to be reborn with the click of a button like some digital phoenix rising from LED ashes. Today s Tamagotchis, equipped with infrared technology, can marry or create offspring by connecting with other pets in close proximity. So now we can connect to other owners, not just our virtual pets. These new Tamagotchis have upped the phatic quotient.

Phatic interactions abound in the wired community space as well. The advent of camera phones and sites like Flickr only reinforce the trend to moblog the world with mundane photographs. We are wired to connect socially with others, so of course sharing photos is addictive. Similarly, the Xbox Voice Communicator encourages phaticism between gamers. Most of the chatter consists of nothing more than sound bites like Nice shot! or Die, sucker! Meaningless verbal exchanges can occur during game play, on an elevator, or while out with the kids. A mom can use a walkie-talkie wristwatch to stay connected when her children are out of ear shot You there? Okay, just checking. Love you.

Products with phatic properties also allow us to connect with our inner selves. Like an updated Tamagotchi for the health-conscious consumer, the StressEraser relies on biofeedback to improve a user s breathing patterns and ultimately reduce stress. How s the weather in there? we ask our body, Are we sunny or cloudy today?

Clearly, manufacturers and consumers alike recognize the profound response to phatic technologies, but ironically the mass consumption, proliferation and market penetration of so many phatic devices herald the tipping point of their acceptance.

As phatic devices deluge our daily lives with cheery interpersonal messages, we will eventually develop an immunity to the power of the social network. Just like email, the more messages we receive, the shorter, more selective and delayed our responses will be. Even now, some people choose to hide behind their headphones, brandish their iPods like Harry Potter s Invisibility Cloak and donate their Tamagotchis to Goodwill. For phatic products to have a place in society s future, they need to allow the device user to choose an appropriate level of phatic engagement—we might not be able to turn off the guy in the elevator, but we should be able to turn off the banter of a fellow gamer or the bleeting of our own virtual pet.

Laura Richardson is a Senior Design Analyst in frog s Austin, Texas studio.

The frog Design Mind column appears every Monday on Gizmodo. Read more frog Design Mind.