Hasta La Gadget!

Remember Airtime, the Facebook-integrated video calling / media sharing service with a Chatroulette flavor? Well if not, we don’t blame you — usage stats suggest it hasn’t quite taken off, but maybe the new features it’s testing will secure a few more fans. No longer is the service restricted to the here and now, as the major change is all about video posts. Use Airtime to record a message and you can post it to Facebook, Twitter, YouTube or via a traditional email to get the conversation started. Friends can then reply to your message through Airtime with a video post of their own, and so on. Its buddy list has also been given a little love, so now it shows friends as online, idle or offline, and details your interaction timeline. Whether the features are enough to inspire wider uptake is questionable, but for the few that actively use Airtime, the updates are out in the wild now on a “limited public release.”

Filed under: Internet

Airtime testing new video post features, improved buddy list originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 15 Aug 2012 14:34:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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If Cisco’s ill-fated Umi video conferencing system had been more like this, would it have survived? Logitech is about to find out, one way or the other, once its TV Cam HD — recently spotted at the FCC — arrives in the US this month. The $199.99 device hooks up to your TV and contains all the processing power needed to run Skype and transmit wide-angle, 720p footage of your couch over WiFi or Ethernet. Unlike the previous TV Cam, there’s no need for a Viera Connect HDTV — anything with HDMI-in will do. The company is banking on the notion that families will forgo the use of their existing mobile devices and laptops in favour of an always-on dedicated system with incoming call alerts, four noise-cancelling mics and a Carl Zeiss lens that “gets the whole family in the video call, so everyone from grandparents to grandchildren can move around naturally.” If you’re tempted, the publicity video after the break gives a decent overview of the product in action.

Continue reading Logitech launches TV Cam HD for living room video chats: built-in Skype, 720p, $200

Filed under: Home Entertainment, Peripherals, Networking

Logitech launches TV Cam HD for living room video chats: built-in Skype, 720p, $200 originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 03 Aug 2012 04:51:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Google continues to integrate their system in an ever-tightening web of connectivity with video chat for Gmail. This video chat comes in the form of Hangouts, the same system that’s currently working in their social network Google+. You’ll be able to use this chat system without signing up for a Google+ account, but Google is encouraging you to do so anyway, of course, for “even more” special features than you’d get without such an account.

This upgrade will be rolling out starting today and will be coming across the world in the coming weeks. Hangouts allows users to work with high reliability and “enhanced” quality over anything Google has used before for video chat. Because this new system is not just peer-to-peer, you’ll no longer have to worry about cut-outs and chopped-up video. This system also works not only with people on Gmail, but with people in Google+ in their browser or using their Android or iOS device as well.

Some of the features you’ll get if you grab a Google+ account as well are the ability to watch a YouTube video or chat with up to 9 people at once. You can collaborate on Google documents, you can dress yourself up like a pirate with enhanced facial-recognition technology, and one whole heck of a lot more! This system is made for simple video chat for Gmail and an enhanced experience for Google+ – in essence, it’s a hook.

And a hook is what you’ll get in the demonstration video above as well. At the end there’s a bit of some pirate action while the fine folks at Google explain your many abilities once you’re fully hooked up. This video chat system will appear on the left of your screen right next to where you’d otherwise be chatting with your contacts online. The video symbol will launch you into a window where you can invite additional guests and chat the day and night away. Let us know if you’ve gotten the upgrade already!

[via Gmail Blog]

Gmail gets Hangouts integration for super simple video chat is written by Chris Burns & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

During today’s shareholder meeting RIM CEO Thorsten Heins hinted that BBM, the companies celebrated group messaging service, might be getting some significant upgrades with the debut of BB10. In particular, the words “video chat” were tossed out as an example of how it planned to keep pace with the evolving mobile landscape. In response to a shareholder question, Heins said:

“BBM is a very, strong platform… With upgrading it into a new experience, think about adding features on BB10 such as video chat, for example, within BBM. There’s many other features to come with BB10 that will really level this BBM experience… which will upgrade that experience to a whole new social networking experience based on BBM… we want to use this to build a BlackBerry-driven social networking platform.”

So, does that mean BlackBerry is getting ready to take on Skype and Google? Perhaps. It would certainly make sense, but we’d stop short calling it a sure shot. What is clear, is that Heins really wants to push BlackBerry as the “social” platform focused on “experience” and seems content to let those other mobile OSes win the apps race.

Filed under: Software

RIM CEO hints at future BBM video chat feature originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 10 Jul 2012 14:46:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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