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I just finished a quick FaceTime session with my friend James in Taiwan. The audio and video came through just fine, and establishing the connection was really fast. Further, there wasn’t any lag or echo, but that’s where the good news ends.

The last truly awful Apple software that I can remember using were the first few OS X releases, Kodiak, Cheetah and Puma. Well, those fading memories have been firmly displaced by FaceTime for Mac, now available as a beta.

Whereas audio and video performed fine in the handful of Mac-to-Mac calls I’ve made so far, this software isn’t ready for primetime:

• If a person isn’t in your AddressBook, you can’t call them
— Names and email addresses can only be added via AddressBook
• There’s no way to search in-app contacts
• There’s no chat functionality
• You can only call one person at a time
• There’s no way, other than putting a piece of tape over the camera, to turn off video
• There’s no file transfer functionality

Also, I’ve noticed that when someone tries to call me using FaceTime when it’s not running on my Mac, my face pops up onscreen in a black FaceTime-shaped overlay (it’s not a window), or at least that’s what I think’s going on. Interestingly, the little green activity indicator light next to my iMac’s camera didn’t come on, yet there I was — more than a little freaky.

Apple’s Support Discussion Forums are already chock full o’ people experiencing FaceTime issues, from login problems to an inability to establish calls.

An unsound call

So, yes, Apple calls it a beta, but it’s really more akin an alpha. That said, for FaceTime to be successful, Apple really needs to raise its game and build in the features we’ve come to rely on (and take for granted) in Skype and iChat.

I really think Apple should have held off on the release of FaceTime for Mac at least until it was an actual beta…

What’s your take?