We’re really excited to announce that SnapYap will be featured at the TechCrunch Meetup in Boston on Friday, November 16th. Here at the office we are huge fans of the TechCrunch blog so we are really excited to be launching our open beta of SnapYap and some new features at the event. If you’re going to be there, stop by our table to say hi and introduce yourself.
SnapYap is now in full swing and we are gearing up to release a beta version. More people are using the site and we’ve been working through the bugs so keep those bug reports and suggestions coming. I’ll keep you posted on new features. We’re buying more bandwidth and server capacity to make room for more users. We’ve also purchased more beer and pizza to fuel the programming fire.
A small band of dedicated SnapYap devotees have started to chip in on a part-time basis. They help with bugs, design, copy and even some programming and they’re all very helpful because there’s quite a bit of nitty gritty that goes into that.
Today I was able to demo a proof of concept of SnapYap to my parents. They got to interact with their grandson right over the webcam. Granted, they were doing most of the interacting. My son was distracted with smashing the keyboard. He was living every programmers dream. ;)
The much hyped and ballyhooed iPhone has been released. Steve Jobs is a master pitchman and he has cultivated a very receptive audience, so it’s not surprising that the iPhone has been widely praised by iPhans, and don’t get me wrong, I think the iPhone has a lot going for it. I think you could call it a first-generation fusion gadget that combines a powerful consumer brand - iTunes - with the utility of the web, wireless phone service and a digital camera. It is not like the early versions of fax/copier/printer/scanner machines (if you remember those) that weren’t really good at anything. The iPhone is better than just Good Enough, it is flat out good. Expensive, yes, but also good. However, I was really disappointed that it doesn’t support Flash or have a video recorder. I had been hoping to use the iPhone to record a video and send it via SnapYap, but no such luck. We have a workaround going, but it’s not quite ready yet.
I’ve decided to call this app, or site, or both I guess, SnapYap. SnapYap seems like a name that suggests talking with ease. I like it. No, I LOVE it. My wife was only mildly impressed. I told her the name would grow on her. After I repeated the name about a dozen times she produced a grimace that suggested it wasn’t growing on her. Still, I’m sticking with it. SnapYap. Now I just have a few more lines of code to write to go with it…
This is either a massive over-kill or something that could turn out to be pretty cool.
We live several hours drive from my family, which means that the grandparents do not get to see their grandson very often. To try to get them more face time with my son, several nights ago I attempted to get my parents to video conference via a webcam with us. My parents are not technically savvy, but they do know how to email and use a web browser. To make a long story short, it was several hours of phone calls before we actually had something set up and working, in no small part because they are afraid of downloading and installing software. Theirs is a concern you’ve probably heard quite often: “Will the computer break if I click the wrong button? The computer is asking me a question, what should I do?” Web video conferencing shouldn’t be like that. It should be easy and aggravation-free even for people who don’t think of themselves as computer savvy.
So, using what I know about Flash and Video Streaming I am endeavoring to build a simple video conferencing app that will allow you to hook-up with your parents, friends, pets, etc. by just clicking a link. I’ve decided to start this blog to record the whole experience. I will keep you posted.
