As a part of the new look of TBL, all employees received an upgrade to the iPhone 4… and no, we have not experienced any of the issues surrounding the iPhone 4 in the press. We have, however, enjoyed many of the new features of the iPhone 4 and iOS 4 – including FaceTime. FaceTime is a mobile video conferencing app that is embedded in the iPhone 4 and is a seemless integration into the phone calling interface. Any cell-to-cell call between two iPhone 4’s that are connected to WiFi networks will allow the callers to initiate a video call across the data network (thre are promises that this feature will be implented to work across the 3G network in the future). It is a new age for cell phones indeed when video is added to the mix, and while the recreational applications abound, there are definitive buisness uses as well. Once such instance recently inspired me to write this post.

David Cantwell and I were arranging the furniture in our two new Cisco TelePresence 1100 rooms, and wanted to be sure that the same amount of desk was visible across the bottom of the screen for both room – to complete the nearly in person exerience of TelePresence. The challenge is that while each of us could clearly see the amount of table the other room had showing on the 65″ plasma display in front of us, neither of us could see how much of the table we were sitting at was being captured by our own camera and displayed at the far end. While a tape measure could have easily remidied the situation, none was available. How about a FaceTime call? I suggested? Now eachof us could compare the view of ourselves captured on the other’s iPhone 4 and displayed on our own iPhone to the image right infront of us on the plasma screen. David slid his table back a bit more, and all was right. Scientific? Not nearly. Cool use of technology? Definitely.