Seen it? Heard it? Video-calling is hard to avoid and new webcams and services are making it easier to keep in touch.
Video-calling has been “the next big thing” for more than a decade. Ever since the world’s first webcam – trained on a coffee pot in a Cambridge University computer lab – was connected to the internet in 1993, the idea of being able to see as well as speak to people has threatened to revolutionise phone conversations.
Now, however, and with little fanfare, that quiet revolution is playing an increasingly important role in our daily lives. The availability of fast mobile-phone networks, broadband internet and miniaturised technology has united businessmen and grandmothers: conference calls using video-streaming and large plasma TVs are standard; and Skype and instant messaging mean that keeping in touch with family halfway round the world is straightforward and doesn’t break the bank.
Initially, video-calling was hampered by three problems. Image quality, and delays of transmission, meant that the benefits were wiped out by grainy pictures that added little to conversations.
The technology itself was often cumbersome, with endless tweaks required to make gadgets that looked like beige plastic spiders deliver anything approaching reasonable quality.
Finally, a sheer lack of familiarity made video-calling an improbable prospect. Without critical mass, the technology was stymied.
The solution, however, has come almost by accident. Now it’s hard to buy a laptop that doesn’t include a perfectly adequate webcam built in to a tiny bezel above the screen. That, and the greater ubiquity of WiFi connections, have done away with the ugly wires that made setting up a webcam and getting online so unattractive. Increases in web speeds, meanwhile, allow for higher-quality images to be delivered over a conventional broadband line.
The tipping point, however, came as MSN Instant Messenger and all its equivalents began to make less fuss of video, and simply put a “video chat” button as an option next to all their “conversations”. Google Mail users are now two clicks from a video chat with any of their contacts, so long as both users have the right equipment.
It’s unlikely, in truth, that video-calling will entirely replace other ways of communicating any day soon – mobile phones, for instance, are seldom used for the purpose, although some new devices, such as the watch phone from LG, do place an emphasis on video chat.
But in the debate about how technology is changing our lives, video-calling has genuinely marked a shift in the way we interact.
By Claudine Beaumont and Matt Warman
Source: Telegraph.co.uk
Showing posts with label News. Show all posts
Showing posts with label News. Show all posts
Friday, August 7, 2009
Saturday, August 1, 2009
VZOmobile Video Chat
Mobile video chat for Windows Mobile.
VZOMobile is a Videophone program for Windows Mobile. Mobile video call tool is easy to use and completely free. Allows you to make video calls to other communicators and to ordinary PC`s using the Internet connection. Register on VZOchat web site and use video chat in your own way. Your friends will be able to call you from VZOchat.com even if they are not registered on VZOchat. Also you can place web widget for video calls on your own web page. Functions: turning on/off camera and microphone in a conference, camera switching (before the conference) , an address book, Today screen and Outlook integration, selection of the Internet connection, automatic bitrate tuning to a real bandwidth of your Internet connection and low bitrate requirements. Changes: Improved interface and usability, settings were moved to main program, added extended support of a video capture rotation. Many new devices were supported. With this program you will be able to show the most important details of things that around you. Video calls are supported on phones with Windows Mobile 5 and 6.x. 400Mhz or better CPUs are recommended.
VZOmobile uses the same technology platform as VZOchat video service. It uses scalable distributed architecture that has a lot of servers around the world: America, Europe and Asia.
VZOMobile is a Videophone program for Windows Mobile. Mobile video call tool is easy to use and completely free. Allows you to make video calls to other communicators and to ordinary PC`s using the Internet connection. Register on VZOchat web site and use video chat in your own way. Your friends will be able to call you from VZOchat.com even if they are not registered on VZOchat. Also you can place web widget for video calls on your own web page. Functions: turning on/off camera and microphone in a conference, camera switching (before the conference) , an address book, Today screen and Outlook integration, selection of the Internet connection, automatic bitrate tuning to a real bandwidth of your Internet connection and low bitrate requirements. Changes: Improved interface and usability, settings were moved to main program, added extended support of a video capture rotation. Many new devices were supported. With this program you will be able to show the most important details of things that around you. Video calls are supported on phones with Windows Mobile 5 and 6.x. 400Mhz or better CPUs are recommended.
VZOmobile uses the same technology platform as VZOchat video service. It uses scalable distributed architecture that has a lot of servers around the world: America, Europe and Asia.
Friday, July 31, 2009
TinyChat Twitterfies Video Chatrooms
We’re big fans of TinyChat (TinyChat) (in fact we use it to power the Mashable Lounge). Their live broadcasting web-based platform enables anyone with a webcam to create video chatrooms with social integration.
Today they’re announcing some pretty big updates to the service that will not only improve function, but also enhance their feature set. The freshly released updates will let users better control their own live show, benefit from better video quality, private message other chatters, and have access to the previously Mashable (Mashable)-only feature that can give your chat room a big boost — tweet your chat.
If you’re unfamiliar with TinyChat, it’s a live broadcasting and video conferencing service that pre-dates the new live video for Twitter (Twitter) services (think TwitCam (Twitcam)), and allows multiple users to do live video chat, invite others to view and participate in the chatroom, and record and download sessions (for pro users).
TinyChat’s has just pushed out a few new goodies, including two new commands/options that give room owners even more control over their broadcasts. The newly implemented changes mean you can control who can come on or off camera during your broadcast, and assign room owner controls to other users. The end result is that you can now manage a dynamic live show with very little effort.
Today they’re announcing some pretty big updates to the service that will not only improve function, but also enhance their feature set. The freshly released updates will let users better control their own live show, benefit from better video quality, private message other chatters, and have access to the previously Mashable (Mashable)-only feature that can give your chat room a big boost — tweet your chat.
If you’re unfamiliar with TinyChat, it’s a live broadcasting and video conferencing service that pre-dates the new live video for Twitter (Twitter) services (think TwitCam (Twitcam)), and allows multiple users to do live video chat, invite others to view and participate in the chatroom, and record and download sessions (for pro users).
TinyChat’s has just pushed out a few new goodies, including two new commands/options that give room owners even more control over their broadcasts. The newly implemented changes mean you can control who can come on or off camera during your broadcast, and assign room owner controls to other users. The end result is that you can now manage a dynamic live show with very little effort.
Wednesday, July 15, 2009
Cisco to introduce video-chat feature for televisions
Cisco Systems, facing waning demand for networking equipment from businesses, is working with phone and cable carriers on products and services that let consumers hold video conferences through their televisions.
The offerings, which build on Cisco's TelePresence corporate-video conferencing system, will debut within 12 months. In addition to holding video chats, users will also be able to exchange messages and leave videos for friends, said Ned Hooper, head of the consumer business at Cisco.
Cisco, the largest maker of networking gear, is accelerating its push into the consumer market. In May, the company bought Pure Digital Technologies, maker of the Flip video camera, for $590 million. Cisco plans to use software from that company to expand in the market for home-networking gear, camcorders and video applications, which will grow 50 percent to $60 billion by 2013, Hooper said.
"There's a big opportunity for us," Hooper, 42, said in an interview. "You will start to see very big growth numbers on top of the base consumer business we report every quarter."
Increased use of video would also benefit Cisco's main business of selling routers and switches that direct Web traffic. Slowing demand in that business has resulted in back- to-back sales drops at Cisco in the past two quarters. Video, which Chief Executive John Chambers has called "the killer app," needs more bandwidth than voice and data, pushing service providers and consumers to buy more gear to accommodate the bigger loads.
Internet traffic will grow fourfold by 2013 as video consumption increases, Cisco said last month. Video now accounts for a third of consumer Web traffic and will jump to 91 percent by 2013, Cisco said.
"The consumer market is very critical to Cisco," said Erik Suppiger, an analyst at Signal Hill Capital Group in San Francisco. "Enabling consumer devices to connect to the Internet is more strategic for Cisco than being a provider of the device itself." Suppiger rates Cisco shares "hold" and doesn't own any.
The consumer TelePresence products will integrate software from Pure Digital, Hooper said. The Flip software automatically uploads video to the Web when users plug the camera into a personal computer's USB drive. Hooper, who also runs Cisco's mergers and acquisitions team, said Cisco may provide a product that includes a camera and allows two-way video conversations.
While Pure Digital had sold more than 2 million Flip cameras, Cisco bought the closely held company mostly for the software, Hooper said. Cisco will focus less on delivering devices and more on helping customers such as AT&T and Verizon Communications offer video conferencing to consumers, he said.
Verizon's FiOS television and Internet services can already deliver video chat on televisions, said Eric Rabe, a spokesman for the New York-based company. "We think there's some great potential there," Rabe said. "It's certainly something we're interested in."
AT&T, based in Dallas, is also studying video chat, spokesman Fletcher Cook said. Both AT&T and Verizon declined to say whether they are working with Cisco and said they aren't ready to announce a service.
Cisco may struggle to challenge services such as eBay's Skype, said Jayanth Angl, a Toronto-based analyst with Info-Tech Research Group. Skype, which lets people make voice and video calls from their computers, has more than 443 million users and increased its revenue 21 percent in the first quarter.
Cisco will also face competition from consumer brands such as Apple, which offers videoconferencing through its iChat service, and Google, whose Gmail program includes video chat.
By Rochelle Garner
Bloomberg News
The offerings, which build on Cisco's TelePresence corporate-video conferencing system, will debut within 12 months. In addition to holding video chats, users will also be able to exchange messages and leave videos for friends, said Ned Hooper, head of the consumer business at Cisco.
Cisco, the largest maker of networking gear, is accelerating its push into the consumer market. In May, the company bought Pure Digital Technologies, maker of the Flip video camera, for $590 million. Cisco plans to use software from that company to expand in the market for home-networking gear, camcorders and video applications, which will grow 50 percent to $60 billion by 2013, Hooper said.
"There's a big opportunity for us," Hooper, 42, said in an interview. "You will start to see very big growth numbers on top of the base consumer business we report every quarter."
Increased use of video would also benefit Cisco's main business of selling routers and switches that direct Web traffic. Slowing demand in that business has resulted in back- to-back sales drops at Cisco in the past two quarters. Video, which Chief Executive John Chambers has called "the killer app," needs more bandwidth than voice and data, pushing service providers and consumers to buy more gear to accommodate the bigger loads.
Internet traffic will grow fourfold by 2013 as video consumption increases, Cisco said last month. Video now accounts for a third of consumer Web traffic and will jump to 91 percent by 2013, Cisco said.
"The consumer market is very critical to Cisco," said Erik Suppiger, an analyst at Signal Hill Capital Group in San Francisco. "Enabling consumer devices to connect to the Internet is more strategic for Cisco than being a provider of the device itself." Suppiger rates Cisco shares "hold" and doesn't own any.
The consumer TelePresence products will integrate software from Pure Digital, Hooper said. The Flip software automatically uploads video to the Web when users plug the camera into a personal computer's USB drive. Hooper, who also runs Cisco's mergers and acquisitions team, said Cisco may provide a product that includes a camera and allows two-way video conversations.
While Pure Digital had sold more than 2 million Flip cameras, Cisco bought the closely held company mostly for the software, Hooper said. Cisco will focus less on delivering devices and more on helping customers such as AT&T and Verizon Communications offer video conferencing to consumers, he said.
Verizon's FiOS television and Internet services can already deliver video chat on televisions, said Eric Rabe, a spokesman for the New York-based company. "We think there's some great potential there," Rabe said. "It's certainly something we're interested in."
AT&T, based in Dallas, is also studying video chat, spokesman Fletcher Cook said. Both AT&T and Verizon declined to say whether they are working with Cisco and said they aren't ready to announce a service.
Cisco may struggle to challenge services such as eBay's Skype, said Jayanth Angl, a Toronto-based analyst with Info-Tech Research Group. Skype, which lets people make voice and video calls from their computers, has more than 443 million users and increased its revenue 21 percent in the first quarter.
Cisco will also face competition from consumer brands such as Apple, which offers videoconferencing through its iChat service, and Google, whose Gmail program includes video chat.
By Rochelle Garner
Bloomberg News
Tuesday, July 14, 2009
Video chat startup TokBox fires half its engineers
San Francisco video chat startup TokBox has cut six of its 12 engineers, and the last of the company’s founders has left, a company spokesman has confirmed.
The terminations were not “layoffs,” and the company immediately posted eight job listings in operations, engineering and product development, said Tom Suiter, a Grow Marketing representative speaking on behalf of the company.
The staff changes, reported earlier by online technology news site TechCrunch, were part of strategic overhaul of TokBox by new CEO Ian Small, Suiter said.
TokBox is advertising for eight positions in engineering and product development. Efforts to get comment from the company were unsuccessful.
TokBox offers a product that allows for multi-user video chat from a browser, but it hasn’t really managed to take off, much to the chagrin of the company’s investors who include Sequoia and Bain Capital. TokBox has raised $14 million to date, a lot of money for a video and chat startup, especially when similar sites have begun offering some of the same functionality.
Small is the company’s third CEO. Founder Serge Faguet was replaced by Nick Triantos last July, who in turn was replaced in May by Small, a former Mark Logic exec, according to TechCrunch.
TokBox’s last remaining co-founder, CTO Ron Hose, left the company in May to pursue other opportunities, Suiter said.
Source: San Francisco Business Times
The terminations were not “layoffs,” and the company immediately posted eight job listings in operations, engineering and product development, said Tom Suiter, a Grow Marketing representative speaking on behalf of the company.
The staff changes, reported earlier by online technology news site TechCrunch, were part of strategic overhaul of TokBox by new CEO Ian Small, Suiter said.
TokBox is advertising for eight positions in engineering and product development. Efforts to get comment from the company were unsuccessful.
TokBox offers a product that allows for multi-user video chat from a browser, but it hasn’t really managed to take off, much to the chagrin of the company’s investors who include Sequoia and Bain Capital. TokBox has raised $14 million to date, a lot of money for a video and chat startup, especially when similar sites have begun offering some of the same functionality.
Small is the company’s third CEO. Founder Serge Faguet was replaced by Nick Triantos last July, who in turn was replaced in May by Small, a former Mark Logic exec, according to TechCrunch.
TokBox’s last remaining co-founder, CTO Ron Hose, left the company in May to pursue other opportunities, Suiter said.
Source: San Francisco Business Times
Monday, July 13, 2009
Tweeting, video chatting atop North America
MOUNT EVANS, Colo.--It's the first day of summer, and I'm driving through a snowstorm.I'm here, on the highest paved road in North America, and my fingers are numb from the cold. But I'm online, and I have to say, that's pretty cool.
This was supposed to be a live-blog, but circumstances got in the way. More on that later.
I drove to just below the summit of 14,264-foot Mount Evans (see video below, with audio affected by heavy wind) on Sunday, the first official day of Road Trip 2009, my journey through the Rocky Mountains and Great Plains of the United States.
I got online via Inmarsat's BGAN mobile satellite modem, which, when pointed in the right direction, gets a pretty good signal. Good enough, in fact, that I was able to video chat with my wife and a friend. They said it was the "coolest thing ever." I don't know about that, but it is pretty sweet.
I tweeted from the top, as well, but I wasn't able to live-blog. It was quite cold, the wind was fierce, and I was sitting precariously on some rather uncomfortable rocks at the very top. I'd also hoped to take the Internet signal from the BGAN and share it via the MacBook Pro I'm using with the iPod Touch I've got with me. But for some reason, the Touch couldn't get online, even though it could see the signal coming from the Mac. I blame the rather extreme conditions.
Regardless of a few technical snafus, however, this was a pretty successful venture. As I perched atop North America, live-chatting with my wife and my friend, several people scrambled up to the top, saw me sitting there with my computer and the BGAN, and asked what I was doing. And that felt good.
But what felt even better was being able to pick up the computer while on the video link with my wife and moving it around so that she could see where I was. She can't be with me right now, but in this small way, I was able to bring her along.
by Daniel Terdiman
Source: CNET
Thursday, June 4, 2009
Dad Serving in Iraq Watches Baby's Birth through Video Chat
Technology brings a Lancaster County family together. Today, Allison Cuthie sat in her hospital bed at LGH’s Women and Babies Hospital. Cuthie had her 2-year-old twin girls on her lap, her baby girl, born Tuesday to her left, and her husband to her right, participating via video conference.Cuthie’s husband, Robert, is a Military Captain who has been serving in Iraq since January. He was able to witness the birth of his newborn through video chat. Today, he joined his family again and got to see his twin toddlers for the first time in about 5 months.
Allison says she appreciated the video conference more than she had originally anticipated.
“I could take it or leave it, I though, before hand, but when everything was going on, it was so neat to have him here. And even at this point with him being able to see the girls makes me feel better knowing they get to see him and he gets to see them,” explains Cuthie.
The video conference is possible through the non-profit organization “Freedom Calls”, meant to help soldiers virtually participate in family events, while deployed in a different country.
Copyright 2009 Newport Television LLC All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
By Jenni Joyce
Source: whyptv.com
Tuesday, June 2, 2009
CBS News to Let a Web Site Pick Up Its Live Coverage
Seeking a younger audience more accustomed to watching the news on the Internet than on television, CBS News said Monday that it had joined with a live video Web site to simulcast its newscasts and special reports.
The Web site, Ustream, will show the “CBS Evening News With Katie Couric,” breaking news coverage and unfiltered news conferences and speeches. While CBSNews.com already shows many of those live streams, the news division says it hopes to expand its audience by providing video to third-party Web sites.
As their television audiences have stagnated, news providers have tried to connect with younger consumers on the Internet.
Reaction has been tepid to some efforts by networks in recent years, like afternoon Web-only newscasts. But some of Ms. Couric’s online efforts, including a YouTube channel and a Twitter feed, have been well-received.
CBS, which has tried mightily to make inroads as a top news destination on the Web, hopes it can make a dent by working with Ustream, which makes the video more interactive by allowing users to chat beside the live coverage and embed the video player on other sites.
“What we’ve realized is that, as opposed to just keeping all your content on your own Web site in a proprietary manner, we are better off pushing our own news content to as many sources as we can,” Sean McManus, the president of CBS News, said.
Mr. McManus added an important caveat: revenue. Media companies are increasingly willing to spread their video far and wide, but usually only if advertisements are attached. CBS said it would sell the ads on Ustream.
Local affiliates have expressed concern in the past about Internet simulcasts of network shows, but CBS has streamed the “Evening News” since 2006. On television, the newscast remains in third place behind competing offerings on NBC and ABC. In mid-May, the program averaged 5.4 million viewers daily, holding steady from that period last year.
CBS News’s Internet sites were visited by 10.8 million people in April, according to Nielsen Online, up 9 percent from April 2008 but paling in comparison to news sites owned by MSNBC, Yahoo and CNN, which each draw 35 million to 40 million visitors a month.
By BRIAN STELTER
Source: NY Times
The Web site, Ustream, will show the “CBS Evening News With Katie Couric,” breaking news coverage and unfiltered news conferences and speeches. While CBSNews.com already shows many of those live streams, the news division says it hopes to expand its audience by providing video to third-party Web sites.
As their television audiences have stagnated, news providers have tried to connect with younger consumers on the Internet.
Reaction has been tepid to some efforts by networks in recent years, like afternoon Web-only newscasts. But some of Ms. Couric’s online efforts, including a YouTube channel and a Twitter feed, have been well-received.
CBS, which has tried mightily to make inroads as a top news destination on the Web, hopes it can make a dent by working with Ustream, which makes the video more interactive by allowing users to chat beside the live coverage and embed the video player on other sites.
“What we’ve realized is that, as opposed to just keeping all your content on your own Web site in a proprietary manner, we are better off pushing our own news content to as many sources as we can,” Sean McManus, the president of CBS News, said.
Mr. McManus added an important caveat: revenue. Media companies are increasingly willing to spread their video far and wide, but usually only if advertisements are attached. CBS said it would sell the ads on Ustream.
Local affiliates have expressed concern in the past about Internet simulcasts of network shows, but CBS has streamed the “Evening News” since 2006. On television, the newscast remains in third place behind competing offerings on NBC and ABC. In mid-May, the program averaged 5.4 million viewers daily, holding steady from that period last year.
CBS News’s Internet sites were visited by 10.8 million people in April, according to Nielsen Online, up 9 percent from April 2008 but paling in comparison to news sites owned by MSNBC, Yahoo and CNN, which each draw 35 million to 40 million visitors a month.
By BRIAN STELTER
Source: NY Times
Thursday, May 28, 2009
AT&T's faster 3G network could signal video chat coming with new iPhone
Faster data speeds would be welcomed regardless of video, however
If the next iPhone model supports video chat, as some rumors say it will, AT&T Inc.'s plan to expand to a faster wireless network called HSPA 7.2 later in the year would enrich the experience of iPhone users who take advantage of that feature.
And even if video chat is not coming in the expected July release of the next-generation iPhone, faster network speeds with the 3G upgrade would still be welcome news.
An AT&T spokeswoman wouldn't comment today about whether the new iPhone would offer HSPA 7.2 support, although she said "multiple" HSPA 7.2-compatible laptop cards and smartphones will be introduced later in 2009. AT&T is the exclusive carrier for Apple Inc.'s iPhone in the U.S.
Some analysts said that they believe AT&T's HSPA 7.2 plans are part of a general trend among wireless carriers to support smartphone wireless traffic of all kinds, and don't necessarily make room for video chat. But it's inevitable that video streaming will keep growing, even if the video isn't real-time and moving in two directions, as is the case with video chat.
"Smartphones are growing like crazy, and the networks are rushing like crazy to upgrade to meet the choking demand," said independent analyst Jeffrey Kagan.
Some analysts said they don't believe a video chat feature on the next iPhone would be used very much. However, based on the usage trends of some other phones with that capability, Cisco Systems Inc. and Polycom Inc. are expecting a burgeoning market for wireless video chat on handhelds.
One CIO who supports a large college IT infrastructure endorsed the concept of video chat on the iPhone. "One feature I would love to have [in the next iPhone] is two-way videoconferencing," said Jorge Mata, CIO for the Los Angeles Community College District, by e-mail.
"You would have a small kickstand in the back of the device and you could set it down on a table and have a videoconference (Skype-like) with others," he wrote. "That would be great for collaboration, especially if it ties into enterprise unified messaging systems."
If the theoretical speed of HSPA is 7.2Mbit/sec., as AT&T says, the new network would help video chat, but it's not clear whether that speed is sufficient for a quality video chat experience, especially if there are many users on a single cell tower.
Earlier this year, Polycom CEO Robert Hagerty described ways that his company has enabled videoconferencing via a Palm Inc. handheld with Ericsson networking in Italy, although he didn't reveal the network speed. He said Polycom's technology supports high-quality laptop videoconferencing inside airports over Wi-Fi, which tops out at 54Mbit/sec. for 802.11g wireless networks.
So Wi-Fi will still be faster than HSPA 7.2 by far, although AT&T also touts its prowess in that realm, boasting that it supports 20,000 Wi-Fi hot spots. Publicly, the question of whether AT&T is getting ready for video chat is still a subject of speculation, but realistically it's probably a matter of when, not if, the carrier will support that capability.
By Matt Hamblen
Source: Computer World
If the next iPhone model supports video chat, as some rumors say it will, AT&T Inc.'s plan to expand to a faster wireless network called HSPA 7.2 later in the year would enrich the experience of iPhone users who take advantage of that feature.
And even if video chat is not coming in the expected July release of the next-generation iPhone, faster network speeds with the 3G upgrade would still be welcome news.
An AT&T spokeswoman wouldn't comment today about whether the new iPhone would offer HSPA 7.2 support, although she said "multiple" HSPA 7.2-compatible laptop cards and smartphones will be introduced later in 2009. AT&T is the exclusive carrier for Apple Inc.'s iPhone in the U.S.
Some analysts said that they believe AT&T's HSPA 7.2 plans are part of a general trend among wireless carriers to support smartphone wireless traffic of all kinds, and don't necessarily make room for video chat. But it's inevitable that video streaming will keep growing, even if the video isn't real-time and moving in two directions, as is the case with video chat.
"Smartphones are growing like crazy, and the networks are rushing like crazy to upgrade to meet the choking demand," said independent analyst Jeffrey Kagan.
Some analysts said they don't believe a video chat feature on the next iPhone would be used very much. However, based on the usage trends of some other phones with that capability, Cisco Systems Inc. and Polycom Inc. are expecting a burgeoning market for wireless video chat on handhelds.
One CIO who supports a large college IT infrastructure endorsed the concept of video chat on the iPhone. "One feature I would love to have [in the next iPhone] is two-way videoconferencing," said Jorge Mata, CIO for the Los Angeles Community College District, by e-mail.
"You would have a small kickstand in the back of the device and you could set it down on a table and have a videoconference (Skype-like) with others," he wrote. "That would be great for collaboration, especially if it ties into enterprise unified messaging systems."
If the theoretical speed of HSPA is 7.2Mbit/sec., as AT&T says, the new network would help video chat, but it's not clear whether that speed is sufficient for a quality video chat experience, especially if there are many users on a single cell tower.
Earlier this year, Polycom CEO Robert Hagerty described ways that his company has enabled videoconferencing via a Palm Inc. handheld with Ericsson networking in Italy, although he didn't reveal the network speed. He said Polycom's technology supports high-quality laptop videoconferencing inside airports over Wi-Fi, which tops out at 54Mbit/sec. for 802.11g wireless networks.
So Wi-Fi will still be faster than HSPA 7.2 by far, although AT&T also touts its prowess in that realm, boasting that it supports 20,000 Wi-Fi hot spots. Publicly, the question of whether AT&T is getting ready for video chat is still a subject of speculation, but realistically it's probably a matter of when, not if, the carrier will support that capability.
By Matt Hamblen
Source: Computer World
Monday, May 18, 2009
Growing Pains for Online Video Chat
Seesmic, TokBox, and other startups in this area of social media must contend with issues of personality and, especially, privacy
Turns out, even the most outgoing social media animals get shy once in a while. Tom Sparks can be found just about everywhere on the social Web, with profiles on Twitter, Blip.fm, Tumblr, Flickr (YHOO), Delicious, Last.fm, and more. He aggressively pursues every online chance to find interesting connections and experiences. When he had the chance to try new Web-based video chat tools, Sparks signed up with Seesmic. While it was still in a very early "alpha" test stage, Sparks recorded conversations regularly and responded quickly to other people's videos.
Then something strange happened. Unlike with other social networks, Sparks soon found himself feeling uneasy about the lack of privacy and the pressure to perform. Sure, social media mavens have to produce pithy and useful tweets on Twitter and post attractive photos and witty status updates on Facebook. But it's another thing entirely to speak in front of a Webcam while potentially thousands of strangers watch, judging your looks, delivery, and every gesture. "They cause performance anxiety," Sparks says of video chat sites. "It takes an extrovert personality to be able to do it consistently, and I got tired of it.…My interest fizzled." As blogger Robert Scoble once told me, "You have to be outrageous and over the top." Most people don't have his gargantuan ego.
Ultimately, a good social app is driven by a strong sense of accessibility, simplicity of use, and even privacy. Otherwise users get turned off. That's what happened to Seesmic; it had a hard time retaining early adopters and didn't grow beyond a core user base. Seesmic peaked at 150,000 monthly unique visitors in October 2008 before dropping to its current level of 92,000. Another startup, 12 Seconds, was heralded by tech pundits as the Twitter of video but suffered a similar fate. It's now nothing more than a micro social video community.
Loss of Control
What went wrong? Startups are essentially experiments—works in progress where assumptions are tested on a daily basis. In Seesmic's case, the assumption was that people would be excited to use video. They may be in the future, but not now. People can control their tweets and Facebook posts. Not so with video, says UCLA Internet historian and social media expert Brad Fidler. "Putting yourself on video is a major thing," Fidler says. "Most people don't want their faces on video when they don't get to control their own content." Seesmic users had a greater sense of security when the site was in test mode, he explains. "It was protected and everyone got to know each other and they felt safe," Fidler says. "Once Seesmic went public, that was not there anymore."
We give up some anonymity when we use the social Web, but many people aren't willing to give it up quite so completely. "Anonymity allows greater freedom because there are things you don't want your employer or family to know about," says Amanda Lenhart, an analyst at the the Pew Internet & American Life Project. "People have public and private personalities, and video sites take that away." On Facebook, for instance, users still control the content and how it's used, tagged, and distributed. "With text and photos we can create an image we like and want to present to the outside world, but video makes that difficult to accomplish," Lenhart says. "The way you come across on video also depends on the quality—the ambient light and how you display yourself."
Video also lends itself to more extroverted personalities, Lenhart says. "It also includes your voice and mannerism and this requires a bold personality," she notes. "Not everyone is charismatic enough to pull it off and most people have limits as to what they want to expose in public." This is evident on both Seesmic and 12 Seconds, where certain individuals dominate the public conversation.
Promoting "Personality"
While we can't blame the video sites for the human banality and narcissism we encounter in their public video streams, they do deserve some blame for promoting it. For example, Seesmic founder Loic Le Meur tried to control the conversation flow by introducing provocative topics and hosting celebrity guests like Deepak Chopra and Paulo Coelho. It was a costly gimmick that wasted VC money, yielded poor results, and baffled many users. "They wanted to shape the conversation flow," Fidler says. "That clearly backfired on them.…You can't force people to open up to strangers." The folks at 12 Seconds are guilty of similar tactics, enticing users to participate in social karaoke. "12 Seconds was like a comedy show—but then I got tired of trying to be funny and clever," Sparks says.
Seesmic seems to have gotten the message, giving users more ways to protect their privacy. "As a company we had to change focus," Le Meur says. "We understood that people didn't want to share with strangers and they wanted more privacy.…Now, instead of telling people to join the Seesmic community, we tell them to share with your community." Seesmic is also putting more energy into what it calls Seesmic Desktop, a tool that lets users more easily post and share video. "We have three years of funding," Le Meur adds. "So we'll wait for video to take off."
For some, the wait may not be so long. One of my favorite video chat sites is TokBox. With more than 180,000 unique monthly visitors, TokBox has achieved some success with a straightforward interface that lets you manage private and public video chats with relative ease. If you want to chat with another member just push the "Talk" button and you're connected. If you want to invite someone who is not a member, TokBox lets you create a video chat channel and give unregistered users entry through a private link.
TinyChat's Impressive
But the most exciting new player in my view is TinyChat, a cool startup launching later this month that offers video and text chat. TinyChat takes private Web-based video chat to a new level. The Web interface is also the best I've seen so far in terms of simplicity and elegance. "It's completely private and only those who know the link can enter your video chat room," says TinyChat co-founder Daniel Blake. "The app won't save the video conversation unless you decide to save it for future access." In private demos, I was able to talk to up to seven people at once in real time without a glitch and Blake says the app can handle up to 12 people per video chat room. This is a remarkable tool for individuals and small businesses and you can't help but admire the underlying technology.
TinyChat learned from the mistakes of others. It's the advantage of being a small operation—you can take your time focusing on the technology and user experience before trying to figure out a way to make money. Currently, the startup is self-funded. In the future, it may try to make money by selling ads, offering premium services for a fee, or licensing its technology to others, Blake says. "We're ready to experiment with different business models."
I showed TinyChat to Sparks and he too was impressed with the level of privacy and minimalism. "I'm definitely using this when it launches," he says. At the same time, his response was subdued. Having been burned once, he's approaching future video chat sites with caution—an approach likely to be taken by a lot of chat-site users in these early days. That's a challenge Blake is all too willing to face, because in his view, "Video chats are the future."
Zeledon is a former research analyst for International Data Group in San Francisco. He is currently researching the growth of the financial social Web and runs a digital consulting firm, Myagito.
By Max Zeledon
Souce: Business Week
Turns out, even the most outgoing social media animals get shy once in a while. Tom Sparks can be found just about everywhere on the social Web, with profiles on Twitter, Blip.fm, Tumblr, Flickr (YHOO), Delicious, Last.fm, and more. He aggressively pursues every online chance to find interesting connections and experiences. When he had the chance to try new Web-based video chat tools, Sparks signed up with Seesmic. While it was still in a very early "alpha" test stage, Sparks recorded conversations regularly and responded quickly to other people's videos.
Then something strange happened. Unlike with other social networks, Sparks soon found himself feeling uneasy about the lack of privacy and the pressure to perform. Sure, social media mavens have to produce pithy and useful tweets on Twitter and post attractive photos and witty status updates on Facebook. But it's another thing entirely to speak in front of a Webcam while potentially thousands of strangers watch, judging your looks, delivery, and every gesture. "They cause performance anxiety," Sparks says of video chat sites. "It takes an extrovert personality to be able to do it consistently, and I got tired of it.…My interest fizzled." As blogger Robert Scoble once told me, "You have to be outrageous and over the top." Most people don't have his gargantuan ego.
Ultimately, a good social app is driven by a strong sense of accessibility, simplicity of use, and even privacy. Otherwise users get turned off. That's what happened to Seesmic; it had a hard time retaining early adopters and didn't grow beyond a core user base. Seesmic peaked at 150,000 monthly unique visitors in October 2008 before dropping to its current level of 92,000. Another startup, 12 Seconds, was heralded by tech pundits as the Twitter of video but suffered a similar fate. It's now nothing more than a micro social video community.
Loss of Control
What went wrong? Startups are essentially experiments—works in progress where assumptions are tested on a daily basis. In Seesmic's case, the assumption was that people would be excited to use video. They may be in the future, but not now. People can control their tweets and Facebook posts. Not so with video, says UCLA Internet historian and social media expert Brad Fidler. "Putting yourself on video is a major thing," Fidler says. "Most people don't want their faces on video when they don't get to control their own content." Seesmic users had a greater sense of security when the site was in test mode, he explains. "It was protected and everyone got to know each other and they felt safe," Fidler says. "Once Seesmic went public, that was not there anymore."
We give up some anonymity when we use the social Web, but many people aren't willing to give it up quite so completely. "Anonymity allows greater freedom because there are things you don't want your employer or family to know about," says Amanda Lenhart, an analyst at the the Pew Internet & American Life Project. "People have public and private personalities, and video sites take that away." On Facebook, for instance, users still control the content and how it's used, tagged, and distributed. "With text and photos we can create an image we like and want to present to the outside world, but video makes that difficult to accomplish," Lenhart says. "The way you come across on video also depends on the quality—the ambient light and how you display yourself."
Video also lends itself to more extroverted personalities, Lenhart says. "It also includes your voice and mannerism and this requires a bold personality," she notes. "Not everyone is charismatic enough to pull it off and most people have limits as to what they want to expose in public." This is evident on both Seesmic and 12 Seconds, where certain individuals dominate the public conversation.
Promoting "Personality"
While we can't blame the video sites for the human banality and narcissism we encounter in their public video streams, they do deserve some blame for promoting it. For example, Seesmic founder Loic Le Meur tried to control the conversation flow by introducing provocative topics and hosting celebrity guests like Deepak Chopra and Paulo Coelho. It was a costly gimmick that wasted VC money, yielded poor results, and baffled many users. "They wanted to shape the conversation flow," Fidler says. "That clearly backfired on them.…You can't force people to open up to strangers." The folks at 12 Seconds are guilty of similar tactics, enticing users to participate in social karaoke. "12 Seconds was like a comedy show—but then I got tired of trying to be funny and clever," Sparks says.
Seesmic seems to have gotten the message, giving users more ways to protect their privacy. "As a company we had to change focus," Le Meur says. "We understood that people didn't want to share with strangers and they wanted more privacy.…Now, instead of telling people to join the Seesmic community, we tell them to share with your community." Seesmic is also putting more energy into what it calls Seesmic Desktop, a tool that lets users more easily post and share video. "We have three years of funding," Le Meur adds. "So we'll wait for video to take off."
For some, the wait may not be so long. One of my favorite video chat sites is TokBox. With more than 180,000 unique monthly visitors, TokBox has achieved some success with a straightforward interface that lets you manage private and public video chats with relative ease. If you want to chat with another member just push the "Talk" button and you're connected. If you want to invite someone who is not a member, TokBox lets you create a video chat channel and give unregistered users entry through a private link.
TinyChat's Impressive
But the most exciting new player in my view is TinyChat, a cool startup launching later this month that offers video and text chat. TinyChat takes private Web-based video chat to a new level. The Web interface is also the best I've seen so far in terms of simplicity and elegance. "It's completely private and only those who know the link can enter your video chat room," says TinyChat co-founder Daniel Blake. "The app won't save the video conversation unless you decide to save it for future access." In private demos, I was able to talk to up to seven people at once in real time without a glitch and Blake says the app can handle up to 12 people per video chat room. This is a remarkable tool for individuals and small businesses and you can't help but admire the underlying technology.
TinyChat learned from the mistakes of others. It's the advantage of being a small operation—you can take your time focusing on the technology and user experience before trying to figure out a way to make money. Currently, the startup is self-funded. In the future, it may try to make money by selling ads, offering premium services for a fee, or licensing its technology to others, Blake says. "We're ready to experiment with different business models."
I showed TinyChat to Sparks and he too was impressed with the level of privacy and minimalism. "I'm definitely using this when it launches," he says. At the same time, his response was subdued. Having been burned once, he's approaching future video chat sites with caution—an approach likely to be taken by a lot of chat-site users in these early days. That's a challenge Blake is all too willing to face, because in his view, "Video chats are the future."
Zeledon is a former research analyst for International Data Group in San Francisco. He is currently researching the growth of the financial social Web and runs a digital consulting firm, Myagito.
By Max Zeledon
Souce: Business Week
Wednesday, April 29, 2009
Short-term long-distance doesn’t mean the end
Summer is upon us once again and a good number of students are in an unexpected state of disarray. Maybe you are one of these students, or maybe you just have a friend in this boat.
This awkward place is one I like to refer to as short-term long-distance. To clarify, this is the uncomfortable place you find yourself in when you start dating someone you met away from home and continue to date them while you are apart for the summer. It’s not exactly a long-distance relationship (as you’ll only be apart for three months), but for a short time you will not be as close as you’re used to.
The obvious reaction here is to realize that this will suck. While three months isn’t a very long time in the grand scheme of things, it can seem like an excruciatingly long period if you are used to seeing your significant other all the time, or even if you’re just used to seeing him or her moderately often. If you’re anything like I am, the more often you think about the prospect of being apart, the scarier the idea gets. Never fear, my young Casanova, there are solutions.
First and foremost, talk about it. Make sure you and your partner are on the same page for the summer. It sounds stupid, but I’ve seen plenty of situations where one person remains unwaveringly faithful while, unbeknownst to the faithful one, his or her partner thinks the two are on a sort of break. Cue the palm to the face.
Communication breakdowns do not need to ruin your relationship. These three months should be used to strengthen your relationship and gain a greater appreciation for your partner. In my experience, many college students develop unhealthily dependent relationships because it is easy to spend all of your time with just one person. In these situations, the three months apart is an even better idea. Codependency is something to avoid this early in your life. Even if you are married, you need to know how to take care of yourself and not depend on your partner for things you could, or should, be doing for yourself.
Modern technology makes it more possible than ever before to stay in touch with your sweetheart. With video chatting software like Skype and iChat, you can talk it up to your heart’s content and never even have to get out of bed, though that’s not exactly recommended. These methods are definitely also something to keep in mind if your special someone might be studying abroad eventually, too. However, there are countries where video chatting won’t be an option due to the lack of necessary technology, so don’t let cell phones and land lines become a thing of the past just yet. When all else fails, everybody likes getting good old-fashioned snail mail. You could even seal it with a kiss.
With just a little planning and communication, summer suddenly becomes less scary. Short-term long-distance isn’t something you should stress about. It’s a healthy way to develop a good amount of independence in your relationship while really growing to appreciate your partner when you see him or her again. Next August is closer than it seems.
Originally appeared in The Daily Evergreen
This awkward place is one I like to refer to as short-term long-distance. To clarify, this is the uncomfortable place you find yourself in when you start dating someone you met away from home and continue to date them while you are apart for the summer. It’s not exactly a long-distance relationship (as you’ll only be apart for three months), but for a short time you will not be as close as you’re used to.
The obvious reaction here is to realize that this will suck. While three months isn’t a very long time in the grand scheme of things, it can seem like an excruciatingly long period if you are used to seeing your significant other all the time, or even if you’re just used to seeing him or her moderately often. If you’re anything like I am, the more often you think about the prospect of being apart, the scarier the idea gets. Never fear, my young Casanova, there are solutions.
First and foremost, talk about it. Make sure you and your partner are on the same page for the summer. It sounds stupid, but I’ve seen plenty of situations where one person remains unwaveringly faithful while, unbeknownst to the faithful one, his or her partner thinks the two are on a sort of break. Cue the palm to the face.
Communication breakdowns do not need to ruin your relationship. These three months should be used to strengthen your relationship and gain a greater appreciation for your partner. In my experience, many college students develop unhealthily dependent relationships because it is easy to spend all of your time with just one person. In these situations, the three months apart is an even better idea. Codependency is something to avoid this early in your life. Even if you are married, you need to know how to take care of yourself and not depend on your partner for things you could, or should, be doing for yourself.
Modern technology makes it more possible than ever before to stay in touch with your sweetheart. With video chatting software like Skype and iChat, you can talk it up to your heart’s content and never even have to get out of bed, though that’s not exactly recommended. These methods are definitely also something to keep in mind if your special someone might be studying abroad eventually, too. However, there are countries where video chatting won’t be an option due to the lack of necessary technology, so don’t let cell phones and land lines become a thing of the past just yet. When all else fails, everybody likes getting good old-fashioned snail mail. You could even seal it with a kiss.
With just a little planning and communication, summer suddenly becomes less scary. Short-term long-distance isn’t something you should stress about. It’s a healthy way to develop a good amount of independence in your relationship while really growing to appreciate your partner when you see him or her again. Next August is closer than it seems.
Originally appeared in The Daily Evergreen
Saturday, April 4, 2009
Ugly face of Video Chatting
While Video Chatting is a major technological advancement, it showed its ugly face recently in Italy when a husband killed his wife charging her of having affairs with an online partner. The accused called Giyusepe Castro (35) said that he could not see his wife, Maria (41), of having an online affair with someone and killed her. Police have recovered three computers and various account details from their home.
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