Use FaceTime on the iPhone 4 over 3G

The iPhone 4 has a very nice video chat feature called FaceTime.   And even if you’ve never seen an iPhone 4, but have been near a TV in the past two months, I’m sure you’ve seen one of the commercials they have been showing non-stop.  The commercials are the only ones that Apple has aired for the iPhone 4, and they are all featuring this ‘new’ communication method (video calling has been available for a looooong time – since 1999 in fact – just never on a POPULAR, mass produced, “globally” available phone).

The big difference between previous video chat phones, and the iPhone 4’s FaceTime app, is that FaceTime doesn’t work unless you’re on WiFi.  This is due in part to the fact that the FaceTime video is smooth and uses either the VGA front facing camera, or the 5MP main camera on the back to transmit a very clear image and VoIP-quality audio.  But this has been very limiting on the usefulness of FaceTime to many people, and remote FaceTime calls were being achieved through MyFi hotspots, or even through other devices like the Nexus One, WinMob phones, etc.

Until now.

If you were waiting for the iOS4 jailbreak to be released, and ran like a madman to JailBreak your phone at www.JailBreakMe.com; you can now use your iPhone to complete a FaceTime call from anywhere you get 3G signal.  The setup is simple (and the app that enables this functionality also overrides the 20MB limit on app store and iTunes downloads).

1.  Goto www.Jailbreakme.com on your iPhone 4 and follow the instructions
2.  Open Cydia on the homescreen, then search for and download “RockApp”
3.  Open Rock and Download My3G (it’s $4, but is available with a 10-day trial)
4.  Open My3G and scroll down to “MobilePhone” and press on the arrow to select the options and set “Use Direct Flag” to ON.
5.  Goto the Settings of your phone, select WiFi, and set to ON
6.  Enjoy!!