A Viral Video with Massive Heart, Energy & a Difference

Sometimes I see something that moves me and is sufficiently “right on” that I feel I need to post it. This is one of those times:

Recording a Skype Video Call, Good Fun


Yesterday, I had a pro bono client who wanted to demo a new voice mail system at a conference. I came up with the idea of using Skype to record the call and found Call Recorder (for Mac).

Today, because I had Call Recorder demo installed, while I was on a video conference call using Skype with a client, I had the idea of recording a message to my designer/producer having the client acknowledge his work in a video clip. Presto. Easily done with a click of a button.

Nice software. It works. Does what it’s supposed to as far as I can tell and only costs $15. Nice.

PS. Bonus, because Call Recorder records the calls as Quicktime movies, I can easily go into iMovie and add visuals to enhance the voice mail demo. Very nice. 🙂

Yikes: All Internet Data is Lost! ;)

And now for a dweeby 2 minute humor break. Enjoy!

thanks to TechCrunch

Video Shows (or Channels) Are Attracting Real Money


Beet.TV is calling this a “boom time for niche media” as in Believe It: Boom Time in Niche Media is Now: Mediapost Sells for $23 Million….WallStrip Producer Explains the $5 Million Value Proposition for CBS..and More! Impressive sales for producers who started their own thing, only on the web. Real sales for real substantial dollars. Nothing pie in the sky. Unquestionably, internet video programming has become a REAL market.

NYTimes covered the MediaBistro sale

A New Way to Distribute Your Videos on the Web

What’s a video producer to do? We all want to have as many people as possible see whatever we produce… So should we upload our clips to MySpace, to YouTube, to Google Video, etc. etc. Or, wouldn’t it be nice to have a simple web-based service that does this kind of distribution for us?

Well, now there is. It’s called Hey!Spread. Get it? They help you spread your video around the web.

It’s a basic, practical, straight-forward service (but you do need to set up accounts at the services you want them to populate with your clips) and most importantly, it’s immediately useful. I like that. 😉

Thanks to TechCruch for their mini-review of this service.

Steve Jobs & Bill Gates Together, The Complete Coverage


I don’t think there are two better visionaries on the planet (of course, I’m partial to Steve Jobs), and while their joint appearance with Wall Street Journal’s Walt Mossberg was covered in the news, I just discovered the complete coverage including transcripts and video clips (an edit of video excerpts is included below). Good stuff!

Special thanks to Dr. Mac, Bob LeVitus for this link via his most-excellent Mac e-newsletter. You can subscribe here: http://www.boblevitus.com/

Here’s the video highlight reel:

Windows on the Mac Making Moves Toward Totally Transparent Integration

ParallelsMacs with Intel chips have been progressing toward total two-platform (Windows and Mac OS) integration on one desktop. Unfortunately, Apple’s BootCamp requires you to reboot.

Parallels Desktop 3.0 for Mac is just released and offers significant new features that really seem to enable a legitimate, simultaneous two-platform environment. Way cool! Now I just need to time to buy and install Windows XP on my Intel Mac and then to get Parallels going. As I like to say, “Time, not space, is the final frontier.” 😉

Anyway, The NYTimes’ David Pogue has written a pretty definitive review of the new version of Parallels Desktop for Mac including tests using powerful Windows voice recognition software. Bottom line, use Windows XP, not Vista!

What We Call the News: “Only the Truth is Funny”

Happy Monday. I’m on the run, but (as some of you know) what I think matters most about all this new media revolutionary… internet, digital video, and other technologies that are associated with the potential democratization of media (and so forth) is that all of this new media offers an alternative to the media circus that has largely replaced honest and informative journalism in our mainstream media. Thus, my enthusiasm and salute to the Jib-Jabbers who created the following bit of parody and spot-on comedic commentary. Enjoy.



Or, you may view “What We Call the News” at JibJab.com

New Apple TV Ad

Business 2.0 has a new “get-a-Mac” Apple TV ad before it’s release on a day when Apple stock reached new heights, pre-iPhone’s release (for which surveys are showing a strong demand). Seems it’s a mad, mad new Apple world where the superior platform is even gaining market share.

Skype Video Call Gives Me a New Taste of the Global Village

I know this is nothing new, but the experience is somehow different, especially when it happens to you unexpectedly. Here’s what happened…

I have a prospective consulting client in the UK. We’ve had a couple of phone calls and numerous emails. I was away on vacation last week and we planned to talk yesterday to catch up and finalize details. She suggested we use Skype. Truthfully, I’ve used Gizmo Project for internet phone calls. For a while, I used it quite a bit, but not lately. I had downloaded Skype for Mac just in case while a client was overseas, but hadn’t really used it.

I scrambled… First, upon plugging in my USB headset, I found that it was recognized right away. I was able to confirm this quickly with a nifty test call feature that was built right into my “buddies” list. Then, unexpectedly, the prospective client suggested we might do video; and before I knew it, I could see her!

I have a MacBook Pro with a build-in webcam. I opened Skype’s preferences and told it to automatically activate the camera. She called back and presto, we were in a face-to-face meeting. Just like that, my first transcontinental video conference call. Very much like being in a meeting, but without the travel time.

I was impressed with Skype’s ease of use, neatly supported by the Mac’s ease of use and the fact that Skype supports the Mac. It’s easy to see why Skype is the clear leader in VoIP calling.

And, despite writing about this stuff for years (and even consulting with VDOnet years ago when they had one of the first webcam networks), I was struck by the immediate reality of our global village. It reached out and touched me in a concrete way, and gratefully in a way that may well benefit my bottom line.

It’s a treat when all this stuff we write and think about comes up to you and gives you a nice warm fuzzy nudge. 😉