
Apple Change Quietly Makes iPhone, iPad Into Web Phones - Flemlord
http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2010/01/iphone-voip/?intcid=inform_relatedContent
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socratees
Now iPad becomes a phone - and you don't need to have a cell phone
subscription. May be what we're seeing is the future model of the telecom.
Wireless carriers still make money, but its up to us whether we buy a regular
phone or go with an iPad. What are your thoughts?

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ryanwaggoner
My thought is that I'd rather not pull my iPad out on the bus and try to
answer a call. Seriously, now people are going to carry around a huge, heavy
phone that only works with headphones? I don't see it.

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puns
Simple: bluetooth headsets. If you think about it, the current way of using a
phone -- i.e. holding up a device to your ear and keeping it there for the
duration of the conversation -- is quite clumsy. Making a call on the tablet
and talking through a light headset is much more elegant.

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tcdent
"Making a call on the tablet and talking through a light headset is much more
elegant."

To place this call you're going to need a method of input that fits in your
pocket, allows you to select recipients and screen incoming calls in addition
to sending and receiving the audio. Essentially, a iPad lite, also known as an
iPhone.

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puns
Good point, but you don't necessarily need this input device to be in your
pocket, and it doesn't have to come in the form of a phone. For example,
here's one solution: accept/decline calls right from your headset without
taking the iPad out of the bag. Perhaps the headset will tell you the caller
id when you press a certain button so you can choose whether or not to take
the call. Dialing can be done through voice as well, or take out the pad and
make the call using the touch screen.

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stcredzero
Not going far enough, either of you! Why not make a Skype peripheral, but
operating over Bluetooth and not USB? It wouldn't even need a fancy display.
Let a headset take care of sound and the anwser button, just take care of
other input/display tasks. A commodity display from an _old_ cellphone would
do the trick, and these must be dirt cheap by now. You could probably get the
button count down to 6, which is what it is for the Apple Remote. The
components would be dirt cheap. Margins would probably be very handsome at
first. Make it the size of an old PC card. It would sell like hotcakes!

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n8agrin
To me this isn't about making phone calls over IP. This is about video
conferencing over IP. I'm guessing that Apple has toyed with forward facing
cameras in their iPhones and their iPads and I'd be willing to bet they pulled
them from the iPad's launch so they could have something to refresh the iPad
line up 9 months or so after launch. My guess is in iPhone OS 4, the next
iPads and possibly the next iPhone will contain some sort of multitasking
capable option, forward facing cameras and thus video supported
communications. The iPad, in particular, will finally make video conferencing
comfortable. In fact, I might call live video the iPad's killer app.

