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 at iphone.eyejot.com 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.

New support for downloading vCards in Eyejot

We've added the ability for Eyejot to place a link to a downloadable vCard on your message viewing (mview) and user pages. You can activate the new feature through your profile. Simply mark the checkbox labeled Displaylink to download vCard on the Contact & Privacy panel. We have also added two new fields for storing your company name and your business title, if you want to include that information in your vCard.

When a visitor to your user or message viewing page clicks on your vCard link they'll be able to download and save a file that has been formatted using the vCard version 3.0 specification. These files can typically be imported directly into programs like OS X's Address Book or Microsoft's Outlook contact manager. It's a standard format that's widely recognized.

OS X Lion and Flash - allowing Eyejot to use your camera and mic

Some users have experienced problems configuring Adobe Flash to allow the use of their camera and mic with Eyejot (and other sites) under OS X Lion. One possible solution to this problem is to use the new Adobe Flash System Preferences panel to configure a site-specific override.

To get started, click on System Preferences in the Apple menu on your Mac. Then, locate and click on the Flash Player icon. It will likely be on the last row, labeled Other. If you don't see this icon be sure to upgrade your version of Adobe Flash to the latest version. Click here for more information.

To add a site-override setting so that Eyejot can use the camera and mic on your computer click the button labeled Camera and Microphone Settings by Site... and then, in the new window, add eyejot.com and www.eyejot.com.

Google Voice and Video Service Conflicts for OS X

We've heard reports from some Mac OS X users that Eyejot stopped working for them. Specifically, that they were unable to see themselves using their built-in USB webcam. The problem may be related to some incompatibilities between Google's voice and video tools and Adobe's Flash.

Symptoms have included users no longer seeing their USB webcam device (indentified in 10.6 as "built-in iSight") in their list of video devices or it, simply, not working.

A conversation thread on the Apple discussion and support site describes the problem and offers a solution. We've observed the problem and discovered that by running Google's own uninstaller for these programs that the problem is quickly rectified.

Here's a short set of steps to follow to try this out (note: this may interfere with Google's voice and video tools operating properly - but we're here to talk about Eyejot!):

1. Close any open web browsers
2. Open up a Finder window
3. Press SHIFT + COMMAND + G (this is the goto directory command)
4. Enter in the directory: /Library/Application Support/Google
5. Double-click on the uninstaller program found in that folder

That should uninstall the conflicting resources. Our testing showed that no reboot was required and that proper use of the webcam by Adobe Flash and Eyejot was immediately restored.

Adobe releases a 64-bit version of their Flash Player

 Adobe has released a 64-bit preview version of their popular Flash player, code named "Square." We gave it quick spin under Apple's OS X on one of our Macbook PROs and it performed well. While completely unscientific, our observations suggested that it appeared to come up and render Eyejot's interfaces quite quickly.

If you like living on the edge, give it a try. You can download it from here.

Welcome Tokbox Users!

Tokbox, a VC-funded San Francisco based company well known for providing a very good live video chat and video messaging service, recently decided to focus exclusively on live video chat and conferencing. To help support their transition, they kindly offered all their video mail users the opportunity to begin using the Eyejot platform.

If you're a Tokbox users trying out Eyejot - welcome! We have a great platform that should support all your video mail needs.

You'll find lots of similarities between Eyejot and Tokbox and many new, advanced features too. For example, Eyejot's PRO Plus service supports attachments and templates. It also lets you store frequently used documents and web links in our cloud-based document library. Learn all about these capabilities through our online help.

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.

 

Eyejot on Ubuntu Linux

Blogger James Guske writes about Eyejot working on Ubuntu Linux and provides some details about configuring his system to support his USB sound and video device. Thanks James for your kind words and sharing details. More info on Ubuntu can be found here.

Eyejot syncing with Microsoft Zune

Enthusiastic Eyejot supporter Nigel Cooke describes how he synchronizes Eyejot with his Zune. Thanks for the great write-up Nigel, and for continuing to use Eyejot. We're going to have to buy a Zune now.

Chris Pirillo's great idea

Chris Pirillo of Lockergnome fame and one-time host of TechTV's Call For Help is ready to change the dynamics of high-tech news and information again. This time he's creating another Call for Help and he's using Eyejot to gather questions from his audience. You can see more about his plans through his YouTube post. His fans are getting really excited about this.