Technological prophets have forecast the triumph of video calling ever since 1936, when Germany's Reichspost launched the first public videophone service. But a flurry of announcements from technology companies suggests that its time may have come at last. On October 6th Cisco unveiled a video-calling system for the living room called "umi telepresence". The same day Logitech launched a television set-top box that doubles as a videophone. Microsoft's new Kinect Xbox game console, due in November, offers video conferencing.
展开▼
