Newsworthy

Keep up to date with what’s new at Eyejot here. We’ll publish new information and useful links when they become available and also use this forum to highlight new features and product plans.

iOS 8 doesn't like HTML5's video tag

When iOS 8 was released a couple of months ago we were excited as everyone else to download it to our iPhones and begin using all of its new features. Unfortunately, Apple introduced a big compatibility issue related to how their email client displays HTML messages. Specifically, how it stopped being able to properly process the HTML5 <video> tag.

This tag allows smart clients (like previous versions of the email client and all the current versions of Safari) to display and play MPEG4 videos directly within the windows containing that special video tag. This was super cool because it meant users could view and play video messages directly from their email clients – without having to click to an external web page.

Sadly, this stopped working when iOS 8 was released. It’s a known problem without a known resolution date. What this means, though, is that, for the time being, we’re all stuck having to live in a world without this functionality – even if our devices (and desktop clients) understood and continued to work with the HTML5 video command. When people receive your Eyejot video messages they’ll see a preview from your video with a “play” button superimposed over the image. It’s likely no one will be confused what to do and will click on the image with their mouse. This will automatically cause a browser window to open where your message will play for them.

We’ll continue to lookout for word of a fix. When we learn of it we’ll switch our templates back to supporting the video tag directly. In case you were wondering why we can't easily support both situations – for clients that still work and for those that don't – it’s because the core of the email message is generated once - and sent to recipients before we know what kind of client they're using. 

Yes, we’re still here!

Some of our users have asked us recently if we’re still operating. It’s a fair question considering there haven't been any dramatic updates to the platform in some time, even to our iPhone app. And, many people will realize that we still haven’t released a native Android app. 

Even this page will reveal the rate at which we contribute blog posts is, to put it mildly, fantastically intermittent (our old blog is located at http://blog.eyejot.com; we’ve copied selected entries and have included them here).

The fact remains, Eyejot remains operational and continues to attract and service new users every day. We’re still working to improve both the core site and our mobile applications. And, it’s still our goal to release an Android application.

GeekWire cover's Eyejot’s new iPhone App

John Cook, writing for GeekWire, took a first look at our new iPhone app today, calling it "slick." In his article "Watch your email? Eyejot unveils iPhone app for video-based email, business cards" he shares a dialog that he and Eyejot's founder had, sharing video messages with one another.

GeekWire is a nationally recognized content leader focused on covering the high tech scene in the Pacific Northwest.

Our iPhone App is Available!

After a long development and testing cycle we're pleased to announce that version 1.0 of the Eyejot Mobile Client for the iPhone and iPod Touch is now available for sale in the iTunes App Store. We have prepared a separate product page here that offers additional information about the app.

We are fully committed to delivering a robust mobile video mail platform and hope you'll give our latest product a try if you're a current iPhone or iPod Touch user. If you've got an Android phone don't worry. We're planning to release a version for the Android platform soon.

Customizing template colors

We've added a new way of customizing your standard Eyejot template colors after some users reported having trouble using our Template Tuner. You'll find our new Manual Color Settings interface through your Profile page on the Customization tab, next to the Template Tuner link.

After you click the new link you'll be exposed to a panel that lets you edit all fourteen (14) of our standard template CSS elements. If you're working with a specific set of colors and want to manually enter them, you can paste their values directly into the edit fields on this page. If you'd like to choose colors from a pallate you may do that by clicking on the lower right-hand corner of the color picker control next to each field.

Press the Save Color Settings to save your settings. To help you become familiar with the various CSS field names we've included an element map which can be revealed by pressing the link labeled Display guide which will display this image.

Eyejot for Educators

One of our users, David Taylor, has produced some exceptionally detailed and visually stunning overviews of Eyejot features that are available on YouTube. In one video, aimed at educators, David walks users though steps necessary for creating and sending Eyejot messages. He utilizes screencasting techniques in a highly artful and effective manner.

We'd like to thank him for producing these videos and for supporting Eyejot. We're glad our platform has helped both educators and students alike communicate with one another.

You can view his recent video aimed at educators here.

Taking advantage of file uploading

If you find yourself traveling and and don't always have ample bandwidth for live video recording through Eyejot there's an easy solution. It's to pre-record your message and then upload it to Eyejot (provided you have a PRO or PRO Plus account).

The image below is an example of using the Mac's built-in program Photo Booth to record a video. The 30 seconds piece ended up being about 3.5MB and was uploaded with ease, even over a slow connection.

Not only is this solution ideal for travelers, but the quality of video is often better because it's pre-recorded and doesn't have the same limitations recording live Flash video has. If you're a on a PC you can use Movie Maker to do the same thing.

Get it now for $1.99 on the app store!