We have our eyejot on you!
by
on February 06, 2007,
We have seen some innovative and exciting services and products come out of the DEMO 07 conference in the last few days, and now we got the opportunity to test yet another. Eyejot.com is a comprehensive video messaging platform suited to personal and business application. The site offers users the ability to create, send and receive video messages without spam. The program does not involve the installation of a client so users can begin using the utility immediately. All I had to do was submit a valid email, user name and password and POOOOF, I was off!
According to the DEMO press on Eyejot, the new site supports iTunes, iPods, mobile devices and social network applications. So many new sites are coming out with these video sharing capabilities that one has to wonder which one will be the preferred application. Each one has just a little bit different utility or feel and this is true of Eyejot too. Eyejot really approaches this new media trend from a slightly different approach by making Eyejot much more like conventional email but in video form.
Eyejot essentially records a message from your existing web cam and sends it to the recipient. Eyejot says that they do not intend to replace email but rather they want to enhance it. The site supports iPods and RSS streams and users also add the Eyejot applet to their MySpace pages.
The Take
Eyejot is really simple! I mean, so easy and simple you can't help but want to send someone a message. There are not that many programs out there that do not require some learning curve, but this one is a real no brainer. You have to like things that accomplish tasks with a good degree of flexibility without imposing time or technical constraints on you. This simple site is tailored for busy people on the go.
How does it work? Eyejot was built by using Adobe® Flex® to design this new class of RIA (rich class Internet application). Eyejot utilizes Adobe Flash® Player so that users will not have to download other programs. As we all know, nearly every user on the Web has access or use of this flash component, so Eyejot users do not require anything more than their name and some video to use the neat little site. Another neat aspect of Eyejot is that the person receiving your message does not have to be online. The recipient receives your messages in like an email!
It only takes 3 steps to send an Eyejot message.
- Go to Eyejot
- Record the video message
- Send the message
Your friend is alerted that they have received your message via email. This is really cool people. I am not the world's greatest videophile, but I do like to send video once in a while, so this is perfect for someone who is not familiar with video formatting etc.
Eyejot messages are free and users can send messages of up to 60 seconds with some storage capability. This may be the only drawback to the site (besides the ads), as well as the fact that messages expire relatively quickly. There is always a catch, so I am not all that upset given the fast and simple nature of the intended audience. Eyejot (of course) is coming out with a not so free $29.95 Pro version that has more advanced features including: up to 5 minutes of recording time, longer expiration of messages, support for cell and iTunes forwarding and no advertisements. It is a cheap price really, but I think most people would just IM or pack longer video to their friends, the short, free version would seem to be the most attractive version to me.
All in all, Eyejot provides a useful and simple utility to send video messages online. The premise and the program are simple. I like it, and I am sure lots of other people will too. The only problem I see is Eyejot having low usage early the morning after, as I do not want my friends to see me on really ugly days!
You get the generic screenshot because it was too early to see me.
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skindeep
Svetlana Gladkova
Michael Fidler 
jiri
Try using their service from a dial-up internet connection - you’ll see some very poor quality video then as the flash approach to creating video is directly dependant on how fast your internet connection is.
Thanks for the info Alex, to tell the truth it skipped my mind to think about using a dial up to test this site with. It is good for your readers to know. I will also pas that info along to the folks at eyejot too. Phil
Thanks Phil, but I would assume that the folks at eyejot would already know that.
I’m not knocking the service, even if it doesn’t work well for dial-up users, but typically the easiest approach to implement isn’t always the best one.
You are probably right Alex, I just did not want to sound rude by admitting that this service is probably not intended for dial up. Then, none of these newfangled gadgets really are. I had a hard time testing Joost because my computer only runs at a little over 1.1 ghz
I have been on dial up several times, and would not really reccommend watching “hips don’t lie”, because they would at 28.8 kbs. Thanks for the insight though, I like it when people pay attention to the details!
We’re definitely intending Eyejot to be used with Broadband connections due to the live encoding that takes place. We typically need about 20KB/sec (160Kbits/sec) to handle the upstream traffic. The one advantage of this model is as soon as you’re done and press “send” it’s delivered. There’s no additional uploading. While we would like to support every possible model, the modem connected environment is a tough one for us and our current design. However, Sightspeed (http://www.sightspeed.com) has an excellent application for Windows and OSX which can do offline recording and sending. In the near future we may address this issue, but for now Broadband is required. Although on the edge (no pun intended), EVDO works quite well. I’ve used it a number of times traveling with Eyejot and it works great.