Video conferencing is about to get more panoramic and interactive. Stealth startup Altia Systems is introducing a new system that stitches together video and creates a panoramic viewing experiences that viewers can zoom and interact with. Read more »
Hookflash is launching an iPad app by the same name Thursday that integrates LinkedIn’s directory, giving business users a free over-the-top alternative for voice, HD video and messaging. It’s the first communications app to build upon LinkedIn’s social graph. Read more »
At WWDC Apple unleashed FaceTime on the 3G network. While you would think a high-quality video chat service would be poison to consumers’ restricted data plans, there’s another way to look at it: Compared to what mobile operators charge for voice, FaceTime is really a bargain. Read more »
Today’s launch event for Airtime, the Sean Parker and Shawn Fanning social video chat service, was a good representation of the product it was showcasing: the star-studded event was not well planned and showy without enough depth. Airtime can still succeed but it needs more substance. Read more »
Shawn Fanning and Sean Parker have finally taken the wraps off of Airtime, their social video chat service that is part Skype, part Chatroulette, part SocialCam with Facebook as the layer for matching users by their interests. Read more »
Video is becoming more of a casual form of communication, with people leaving video chat services like OoVoo on in the background for hours on end. Video sharing is becoming more immediate with more live broadcasting of your life. Read more »
Just as the older members of my family are finally getting used to Skype and FaceTime, along comes a 3-D hologram concept project! Dubbed the TeleHuman, the system uses six Microsoft Kinect sensors and a 3-D projector inside a 1.8 meter tall acrylic cylinder. Read more »
The recruiting ecosystem is changing, led by professional social networks like LinkedIn and Viadeo and companies like Jobvite and BranchOut, which are building Facebook apps for hiring and career development. The bottom line is that technology enables the recruiting process to be more streamlined, scientific and democratic. Read more at GigaOM Pro »
Fuze HD for iPad shoots and displays 1080p HD video, and also supports a number of collaboration tools. The app allows multiparty chat with up to 10 participants and interoperability with a number of high-end telepresence systems. It also lets users record and share iPad video. Read more »
A few weeks ago, I wrote a post about how consumers will soon be buying more TVs, and upgrading them ever faster. After seeing the best that CE manufacturers had in store at CES, I’m even more convinced. But not for the reasons you might think. Read more »
Cisco’s move into living room video conferencing with its Umi product never got going, hampered by a high price and competition from free alternatives. Now Cisco has confirmed that it is no longer selling the consumer telepresence gear, though it will continue to support existing users. Read more »
Web conferencing tools are a double-edged sword; you can connect with your team anywhere, but there’s no way to know if they’re listening intently or honing their doodling skills. Fear of distraction may be understandable but it’s also misplaced according to experts. Read more »
Vidyo has raised a $22.5 million Series D round of financing led by QuestMark Partners, with participation from existing investors Menlo Ventures, Rho Ventures, Star Ventures and Four River Group. Since being founded in 2005, the startup has raised a total of $96 million. Read more »
Any video call between users of Skype’s newest Windows client automatically uses Google’s open video codec VP8. Being embraced by a company that’s soon part of Microsoft is a big boost for Google’s open video strategy, and it could quell potential fears of patent lawsuits. Read more »
ting, a web conferencing solution that we’ve written about previously, has unveiled the ability to create high-definition video conferences. The new service, dubbed HDFaces, allows users to create video conferences with up to six attendees at no additional cost. Read more »
LifeSize, a supplier of video conferencing products that was acquired by Logitech in 2009, is aiming to address the usual drawbacks of traditional enterprise HD video conferencing systems — cost, complexity and incompatibility — with some new products that it announced Wednesday. Read more »
8×8 Virtual Room is designed to appeal to small and medium-sized businesses looking for video conferencing services. At $199 a month, it provides unlimited multi-user chat sessions with up to 20 participants at a time. But can it compete with free offerings like Google+ Hangouts? Read more »
Michael Dell likes Google’s new group video chat service Hangouts so much he wants to use it as a tool for customer service and sales. Dell revealed his thoughts about Hangouts on Google+, the social network that Google launched at the end of last month. Read more »
Leonado DiCaprio, Dexter Morgan and your mom are only some of the people who are using Google’s new and much-hyped video chatting feature Hangouts, if we can believe screenshots taken by users of the service. But of course, the question is: Can we? Read more »
Google’s new Hangouts video chat service is one of the most interesting features of its Google+ project. A look behind the tech curtain reveals that Google has big plans for Hangouts, using cutting edge technology to make it run natively on a wide range of devices. Read more »
The video conferencing market is getting inundated with new products focused on bringing collaboration tools to the large number of small and medium-sized businesses that can’t afford a traditional teleconference room. But will they be able to compete with products that are already “good enough”? Read more »
Skype opened up its development platform to all comers Tuesday, but it still has a disconnect between revenue generation and its platform efforts. Like many companies trying to build a dominant position in the technology ecosystem, Skype is navigating the path between dollars and devs. Read more »
Looking at the previous two Tales from the Trenches, a reader could get the impression that all web workers are employed by small firms or as independent contractors. But large organizations are putting the advantages of wired working to use as well, including global telecom giant Orange. Read more »
Video conferencing startup Vidyo is known primarily for low-cost telepresence systems that compete with the likes of Cisco. But a set of APIs and an upcoming program through which partners can develop and exchange applications could give a boost to its white-label video conferencing business. Read more »
One of the major drawbacks with traditional room-based telepresence installs is that systems from different vendors are typically incompatible with each other. Video conferencing and online meeting provider FuzeBox, makers of the Fuze Meeting service, announced Fuze Telepresence Connect, which hopes to overcome these interoperability problems. Read more »
Want a high definition video conferencing system for your meeting room, but don’t have the budget for a costly room-based telepresence system? You might like to check out the MondoPad, a huge 55-inch, 1080p multi-touch LCD display that’s effectively a giant tablet computer designed for collaboration. Read more »
I’ve increased my usage of video and multimedia presentations and conferencing, both for collaboration with external business contacts and for internal product development. I decided I needed a better and more permanent setup in order to remain productive and comfortable, without constantly rearranging my workspace. Read more »
WordPress bloggers can now embed video chats right into their sites, thanks to a new plug-in from Bay Area-based video chat specialist TokBox. The plug-in is geared towards media sites, making it possible to host talkshows and one-on-one interviews in front of a larger audience. Read more »
Microsoft confirmed that it has agreed to acquire Skype for $8.5 billion and plans to integrate the Internet communications service into a wide array of products from Kinect and Windows Phone 7 to Lync, Outlook and Xbox Live. Read more »
Does video really perform as well as face-to-face interaction? How does it compare to audio-only communication? Does it always outperform text-only channels like email? Let’s look at different types of tasks and see how video affects the work and communication quality experienced by remote teams. Read more »
Skype’s new beta client for Mac computers is vastly improved with a native look, group video chat across platforms, floating toolbars, offline messaging capabilities and Address Book integration. All of a sudden, Skype for Mac looks sexy, and you can thank Apple’s FaceTime client for that. Read more »
We really like the Skype platform, so when looking for a way to overcome our technical challenges we looked for ways to “piggyback” on our existing system. I believe we have found our solution with VuRoom, a video conferencing plugin for Skype. Read more »
With 560 million registered users (124 million of which are active), but only 8.1 million paying customers, Skype could use some help. Cisco makes a great deal of sense as a buyer, because it can monetize Skype’s user base in a way that Skype never could. Read more »
Enterprise video conferencing is growing 29 percent per year, but growth is still hampered by the fact that there is no interoperability between systems deployed by some of the biggest vendors. GigaOM Pro analyst Lisa Pierce is predicting that the sector could explode without those barriers. Read more »
Skype has rolled out a new version of its software that will finally allow more than two people to video conference with each other. With the latest update, groups of up to five friends can now chat with each other via video through the Skype application. Read more »
Just so you know, this is not an April Fool’s joke: video conferencing startup Vidyo — the same company that powers the ultra-popular Google Talk video chat client — has raised a $25 million Series C round of financing, it announced today. With the new cash, […] Read more »
Skype announced earlier this year that it was looking to bring video conferencing into the living room, with deals to embed its software onto HDTVs from LG and Panasonic. Now it’s expanding the number of TVs that will carry it, adding two new LED TV lines […] Read more »
Juniper and Polycom will deliver products and services to answer the looming threat Cisco plays in the videoconferencing space. But by taking a page from Cisco’s playbook, they may have doomed themselves to failure. Instead of marrying the network and device, they should open things up. Read more »
Cisco’s $3.4 billion bid to take over Tandberg has moved one step closer to reality, as the networking giant said today that it’s gained control of 91.1 percent of the Norwegian company’s shares. But the deal still needs approval from the U.S. DOJ. Read more »
First Cisco Systems decided to buy Norwegian video conferencing equipment maker Tandberg for about $3 billion. This week, Logitech, a Swiss computer peripherals maker, acquired LifeSize, an Austin, Texas-based private company, for about $405 million in cash. The two deals have brought the fast-growing but often-overlooked […] Read more »
