Apple is ready to release a new MacBook Air, an updated iPod Touch, and will possibly be bringing FaceTime to the iPod Touch and iPad. Both of these should be available later this year. According to Mingchi Kuo, senior analyst at Digitimes Research:
- Citing discussions with upstream component makers, noted that the 11.6-inch MacBook Air will feature an even slimmer and lighter design than the previous-generation models and the technologies used for the design and concept are expected to be broadly used in the company’s other product lines to boost their competitiveness.
- The new iPod touch will feature a 3-megapixel camera, capable of both photo and video recording, and will adopt Apple’s latest A4 processor, which is also used in the iPhone 4.
What we don’t see here are dual cameras for the iPod Touch, which would make it a prime candidate for FaceTime. According to Boy Genius Report, Apple is working on making FaceTime work for devices besides the iPhone. To do this, you will be able to start FaceTime video calls using your Apple ID. This ID is registered to whatever device you’re connecting from. Apple will use push notifications to alert you of incoming FaceTime calls. Allegedly, FaceTime in the new iPhone OS 4.1 beta already has support for recognizing these push notifications.
One area that isn’t clear is how a non-iPhone device would start calls to an iPhone. It seems like you would still need to use the phone number, which raises the issue of the calling device not actually having phone capabilities. In this case, an Apple ID associated with the iPhone itself seems the most likely solution.
This is a logical progression for FaceTime. During its initial demo at WWDC, Jobs said that he wanted FaceTime to become an industry standard for video calling. The first step would be to activate FaceTime on non-iPhone Apple devices like the iPod Touch and iPad. This would lay the groundwork to extend the capabilities to other manufacturers. An Apple ID is simply an email, so calls could be initiated across carries and manufacturers using any email address you have associated with your phone. Of course, this is all still in the rumor phase, but I think FaceTime on Android would be pretty cool.