When I was 13 I went to the Evoluon in Eindhoven, which was a building that resembled a flying saucer and showed off the latest developments from Philips. That was many years ago. I used a wired video phone at that time. The technology never really took off. Many people said that the fatal flaw was that women wanted to make themselves presentable before they let someone see them. Without pictures, you could happily take a phone call on the thrown, or even in the bath.

Vodaphone have just launched their 3G network in NZ and one of the standard features is videotelephony. They are offering the same rates as for ordinary voice calls. Of calls before you can call someone you have to know someone who also has a video capable phone, but that will come. Will it take off this time? I'll be interested to see what controls you have, eg deciding when to allow the camera to operate.