The name ‘Skype’ has becoming synonymous with video calling on the internet. As personal computing transitions from the desktop/laptop paradigm to mobile platforms ala iPhone and Android devices, a new format has emerged, mobile video calling. Apple wowed the tech world with the release of iPhone 4 and their proprietary video calling app ‘FaceTime’. The future had arrived, now you could make a call from practically anywhere and see the face of the person you are talking. The promise of FaceTime proved to good to be true though as Apple chose to place a major restriction on the app, all video calls were limited to Wifi connections only. Everyone paying for that great 3G data service couldn’t tap into cell towers for calls. In comes Skype for iOS to rectify this oversight and bring mobile video calling to the iPhone 4 and iPod touch 4th generation.
Now that Skype and Facetime are available for iOS, the question is which provides the better call experience. Check out the video to see how the two perform side by side. This test used an iPhone 4 and iPod Touch 4th Generation for the comparisons.
With the Skype app users can:
- Make free Skype-to-Skype voice and video calls over 3G and WiFi.*
- Share video calls on Skype with people on iPhone**, PC or Mac.
- Talk face-to-face or show what you’re seeing with front- and rear-facing cameras.
FaceTime users are limited to making video calls to iPhone 4 and iPod Touch 4th generation over wifi only.
You can follow me here: @KevinMinott
