[dharma1]

I expect mobile phone cameras to kill webcams. All the innovation happens there and when people already have something getting closer to dSLR quality each year, why invest in a specialised webcam?

Apple just needs to bake webcam sharing/remote camera control into iOS and come up with a nice attachment for the phone that works with MacBooks and displays so you don’t have to look at the camera at a weird angle.

Maybe some magsafe sticker behind the display so you can snap your phone to the back of the display easily, with the main rear cameras pointing at you above the display

[GekkePrutser]

> Apple just needs to bake webcam sharing/remote camera control into iOS and come up with a nice attachment for the phone that works with MacBooks and displays so you don’t have to look at the camera at a weird angle.

> Maybe some magsafe sticker behind the display so you can snap your phone to the back of the display easily, with the main rear cameras pointing at you above the display

You do realise they just did exactly this, right? :)

But look at it and see why it doesn't really work.. It's an awful contraption, and your phone is tied up for the duration. And I doubt it will work well with every case either.

[dubya]

Something has changed in Monterey so it is possible to use virtual webcams even with Apple apps (Facetime, Safari, etc). See https://daringfireball.net/linked/2022/05/06/camo-1-6

So it should work not just for iPhones.

[spockz]

That is nice! Now I can’t wait to have a video conference on the Apple TV.

[joshspankit]

Apple already did this as discussed, but I’m going to make a different point:

This whole idea is against what Apple wants to be and so I think they will kill it (“evolve past it”) as soon as they can. Using an iPhone as a webcam is below Apple’s threshold of sleekness.

Apple would be the kind of person who doesn’t have anything in their pockets because that would “ruin the lines”, and when they need to buy something at a store instead of carrying a credit card they just call their lawyers and tell them to buy the whole thing so they are free to take whatever they want and write it off inventory.

When they interact with someone who is not as sleek, they look down and imply they are poor. “Why would you carry around that big thing (card) when you could simply buy the store? I don’t know if we should associate with each other...”

[atombender]

I frequently use my phone while in a meeting. I can't see how using your phone as a webcam would be productive. Using a phone, like an old iPhone model you have upgraded from, would be neat, though. But there are a bunch of apps that let you do this today, I believe.

[ako]

I would expect most people to be more productive during a meeting if they can't use their phone at the same time...

[adrusi]

They announced just this at WWDC a couple weeks ago.

[numpad0]

That was the goofiest thing happened in Apple presentation in a long time: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q5D55G7Ejs8&t=5226s

[p1esk]

Link?

[simondotau]

The feature is called “Continuity Camera”.

[drewg123]

This appears to support just photos and document scanning. And also seems to use BT and WiFi.

I have a friend who lives in a high rise with incredibly crowded wifi spectrum. Anything wireless that involves latency sucks in their apartment. They tried to use an old iPhone for VC, but the jitter added by their crappy wifi made that a non-starter. By contrast, this product uses a USB connection, and I'm guessing would perform far better for them (and really anybody with crappy wifi, which is most people).

[simondotau]

> This appears to support just photos and document scanning.

Maybe try Googling again?

https://www.theverge.com/2022/6/6/23156834/apple-iphone-webc...

As for the issue with wifi, that's a legitimate shame for your friend, but isn't a reason for the feature not to exist for anyone.

[drewg123]

Silly me, I just clicked on the first link that wasn't an ad, and it was the official apple support article: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT209037

I agree that it would be awesome to use an iPhone in this context. But given the problems my friend has, and given the problems in general with mac wifi and latency, any use as a webcam would be far better if it were wired. Hopefully that will leave a niche for this company. That, and using Android phones, and hooking any phone to a Windows box.

[sjs7007]

Welp, that feature is basically going to kill this company then.