For years now, we’ve talked about that mythical day when the crowd, armed with live video cameras, can broadcast live from just about anywhere. Where live video is just part of the ethos of human communication — like picking up a phone. After watching today’s unveiling of the new iPhone 4 and Facetime (video), I think we can safely say that day is arriving.
In a quick nutshell, the new iPhone (which debuts later this month) allows you to video chat over WiFi. That may sound like nothing too new, but the new iPhone makes it easy — with front and rear cameras, so you can switch from showing yourself to shooting live video of something else. It’s in the context of communicating, not “broadcasting” or “webcasting.” As we’ve learned from Facebook and Twitter, people are much more likely to share content between themselves than send it to an organization, like a local TV station.
The live video calls require WiFi (for now), because the feature would likely crash AT&T out of the gate if it ran on 3G. And it’s unclear how other web/mobile applications can tie into it, but you can be sure there will be lots of activity around it in the coming months.
The new iPhone also allows 720p high-def video recording, with a better video editor. With all these features, the increasing ubiquity of WiFi, the popularity of the iPhone, and the geolocation layer over the top of everything, you can see how the iPhone 4 will very quickly spark a new live video culture. It’s just another way to communicate — everyone instinctively shoots and shares with ease, in real-time, all mapped to real-world locations.
The implications are many, especially for the world of television and online news. That mythical day is just about here, and I can’t wait to experience it.