Microsoft Is Working On FaceTime Rival Service

Are you guys crazy for the smartphones bearing front facing cameras for video-call/chat ever since Apple showed its FaceTime feature on the iPhone 4. The latest manufacturer to join the flock is Microsoft. A website called Neowin has evidence of a chat application that will use front-facing camera application for the Windows Phone 7 platform. This platform is intended to compete with the Apple's FaceTime.

Recently, Skype released a new version 3.0 App for iPhone and iPad platforms. It allows to make video calls over 3G and Wi-Fi. As per Neowin, a key Windows Phone 7 employee talked about several upcoming features for the WP7 platform at a high profile event. 

An ex-Microsoft Silverlight Program Manager, Justin Angel, furnished a screenshot of a Microsoft.Phone.Media.Extended.dll file that mentions of making use of SelfPortrait Camera aka the front-facing camera. This video chat service might come as part of Microsoft Live services for the Windows Phone 7 platform.  It's unsure whether it would be shown at the Mobile World Congress 2011 or later this year. 

Microsoft needs to buckle up for introducing the Video call/chat service for Windows Phone 7. We can anticipate this feature to come along with Windows Phone 7.5 update, rumored to be codenamed as Mango. Google has already shown Video Chat feature through Android 3.0 Honeycomb meant for Tablets only.

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Apple Gadgets Antennas to Hide Behind Logo

Antenna's technology was a big problem area when Apple introduced its iPhone for 6 months ago. Steve Jobs, CEO of Apple did clarify the issue pertaining to the new Antennae technology used in iPhone 4. We also got a glimpse of Apple's Antenna Design and Test Labs - Apple. At these Labs, Apple Engineers are now working on a new Antenna design to place it behind the Apple Logo of portable devices. Patently Apple spotted a patent that describes a filing about Logo Antennas in Apple's portable products.

The Apple iPad has its antenna just behind the logo, which clearly shows what Apple's hardware engineers have been aiming to do. Apple Hardware Engineers are now working to place the Antennas behind the Apple Logo to gain stronger signal without intervening metal or interference from other conductive housing walls. Antenna won't be limited just to Wi-Fi but would cover cellular telephone bands such as GSM 850/900/1800/1900/2100MHz data bands. Apart from the multi-band telecommunications, the antennas would also support Global Positioning System capabilities. 

Apple's Patent calls the new antenna technology as Logo Antenna and hardware engineers state that it's possible to cram behind the logos of mobile devices such as iPhone or iPod touch. Even laptops such as MacBooks can have this antenna behind the logo and hence might offer telephony option.  In addition to that, these antennas can be placed in desktop machines like iMacs and Mac Minis. 

Logo Antennas would be placed Apple products within housing machined from precision unibody aluminum block or other metals. The walls of housing might be used to hold conductive components such as displays. So the conductive antenna cavity might help isolating the Logo Antenna from other circuit inside the housing. 

Year after year Apple aims at offering slimmer products and thereby increasing the challenge for hardware engineers to place the antenna in the best location in the product. It would be interesting to see future Apple products carry the Logo Antenna technology.

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White iPhone 4 gets spotted in New York

The elusive white iPhone 4 that a lot of people are waiting for has been spotted in New York. The guys over at Pocket-lint caught hold of a guy who was seen carrying around a white iPhone 4, which at the moment, is as rare as spotting a penguin in Africa. 

Turns out the guy managed to get hold of his white iPhone 4 through someone who obviously has good contacts with the people at Apple's headquarters in Cupertino (or presumably works there himself) and as it turns out there are a lot more where that came from.

The reason, according to the person who owns the said iPhone, why you cannot just walk into an Apple Store and buy a white iPhone 4 for yourself is because Apple is having problems matching the shade of the white colored parts from its two suppliers. We are talking about the Home button and the front panel of the phone.

So that's apparently the reason for the MIA status of the white iPhone 4. It's because Apple wants to make sure you get the same, uniform shade of white across the device. While that's awfully nice of them, we are assuming most people probably won't care less if the home button is slightly darker or lighter than the rest of the phone, that is if they spot that it looks different in the first place. 

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