Leaked screens from Apple iPhone 4G hint at video chat
Steve Jobs' keynote at WWDC could include announcement of iPhone for Verizon
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Alleged screenshots of the rumored forthcoming Apple iPhone 4G OS suggests that adopters of the new device will be able to gloat face-to-face virtually via video chat. I wonder, though, whether the release and success of video chat (in the United States, anyway) would hinge on Apple opening up its platform to providers other than AT&T.
The screenshots, which materialized on Website Boy Genius Report, show a menu from the iPhone with "Video Calls Debugging" as an option. The second depicts a Video Calls Debugging screen with options to Enable All Logging, Disable All Logging, or Dump Logs.
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Video chat is among the more alluring features of the forthcoming phone, at least from a whiz-bang perspective. It's arguably more exciting than the prospect of an iPhone available in white! The phone's front-facing camera, as revealed by Gizmodo, lends credence to the rumored feature -- and 4G speed would almost certainly be a must for video chat to function at Apple's high performance standards.
That, however, leads to the other swirling rumor about iPhone 4G: that a CDMA-compatible version of the device will be made available for the Verizon network as soon as this year. Might the availability of video chat hinge on Apple's ability to squirm out of its heretofore exclusive contact with AT&T? The carrier has suffered plenty of abuse for its inability to support iPhone voice traffic -- and video chat traffic is far more demanding. Moving a portion of that traffic to another network could help ensure Apple's video chat performs to Steve Jobs' specifications.
