Why Is Apple Charging $1.19 For Video Chat?

New MacBook Pros are here, with spiffy HD cameras popped into their faces. Neat! HD video chat sounds fun. Less fun? The fact that Apple’s FaceTime app – you know, the program for the chat protocol they’re trying to make ubiquitous – is no longer free.

The 1.0 release – up scantly, from the previous (free) 0.9 version – adds virtually nothing in the way of new features, aside from 720p HD video call support. But that’s a given – the new MacBook Pros have HD cameras so that you can make HD calls. Apple didn’t put those in there so you can make goofy, high resolution portraits of yourself in Photo Booth – the HD camera is to give FaceTime a shot in the arm.

The new app is a buck. Which is very little. But this is a piece of software that’s now required to unlock one of the new models’ shiny touted features. Why would Apple put a dollar barrier – a psychologically high one – across the platform it’s trying to push into every one of its devices? Why would Apple charge anything to let you use every feature of computer you dropped well over a grand on? The extra dollar is trivial, yes, but it’s a confounding choice and insulting to users. Will there be a $1.19 app to eject a DVD next year?


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