So, just to jump into the wild frenzy after WWDC 2010 and the introduction of iPhone 4, I checked out the official iPhone 4 introduction video here. Again, what an amazing phone! Gotta love Apple.

Except for one thing that caught my attention: the FaceTime feature. Basically, it’s a video calling feature, using Wi-Fi connections (I’m sure telcos won’t allow it on 3G networks) The video allows quite a bit of time to introducing the feature, almost making me think “is this the biggest leap this year?” Check out the background music; it sounds like Apple now wants to be a family commodity, giving me quite a bit of the Microsoft-ish chill.

Anyhow, the reason I’m talking about Facetime on TechnoKimchi is simple. We’ve been doing that for a very long time in Korea and it has not turned out what everyone had expected. Conclusion: not too many people use it; and when used, it’s mostly for different purposes–that is a tool for honesty probing. Like when housewives want to make sure their husbands aren’t actually cheating on them, when they tell them “I’m staying late at work today, honey” and the wives go, “yeah, let’s have a video talk. Honey, I wanna see your face”, which actually means “You’re guilty until you’re proven to be innocent with no girls around you through this very real-time video call!”

As much as family is supposed to be built around love and trust, we’re living in a world where trust often fails. Parents call upon their children to make sure they’re studying right. Husbands and wives. Oh, this one will hurt: bosses and employees. Ouch.

Here’s the transcript of Scott Forstall talking about what kind of family value Facetime will bring about:

“The very first time I had a facetime call, I was blown away. It’s amazingly engaging, personal, it’s all about connecting people.”
–> All good.

“I think of my own children, like 7, 8 years, off to college and I can imagine being able to call them and see them. But also, look into their eyes, see how they are really doing.”
–> You’re saying this because YOU TOTALLY KNOW WHAT COLLEGE LIFE IS LIKE!!! Of course, you love to see your children in college because you’ve been through that and you know, it’s pretty w-i-l-d. So, in short, yes, you wanna “look into their eyes, see how they are really doing” but in reality, no, you don’t. Simply go to Google and type in “college wild” for image search and look at the results (WARNING: not home-safe, work-safe, or even soul-safe). You sure you wanna see your children in watery and red eyes?

“What makes it even better is that it switches from the front camera to the back camera, so you can show someone what you’re seeing. and because it’s so mobile as your phone, you’ll be able to chat anywhere there’s a wi-fi.”
–> Your kid is at a wild frat party. And the back camera?

I’m not sure. Maybe video calling used for honesty probing might pertain only to the Korean market. I hope so. But, not only it feels strange to see Apple trying to project itself as such a Microsoft-ish family-friendly brand, but also it was quite interesting how it gave even more meaning to FaceTime than retina display.

All in all, it’s Apple and everyone loves it. Can’t wait to see iPhone come out next month in Korea. Yes, South Korea was on the list!

(Oh, by the way, the satire above was for a good joke. I was just having fun with it =)