Wow, finally this juicy nugget in the release notes for Flash player 10...

Up until now, it has not been possible to have keyboard controls when running Flash in full screen mode (the mode where a video or game fills your whole screen). This means we've not been able to have keyboard control on WorldTV for such things as play/stop, forward, rewind on video controls, or for keyboard control of games like Free Tetris running full-screen.

Adobe has held off on this for a long time because they were worried hackers would start using Flash to imitate your computer's desktop in Flash, and get you to enter passwords or other sensitive data. It was a valid concern, and they've addressed it by only allowing keyboard access to certain 'non-printing' characters like the arrow keys, space bar, tab etc, starting with Flash 10. This is an excellent compromise... and welcomed!

Now we can see some super cool applications where Flash can take over your whole screen and allow keyboard control of the application, effectively bypass the OS, something I first dreamed about 10 years ago...

Here's the relevant text from Adobe...

"Limited Fullscreen Keyboard Access — In Flash Player 10, key events are supported for non-printing keys such as arrows, shift, enter, tab, space, etc. Limited access to the keyboard will allow fullScreen games and video controls with keyboard access in a secure way."

Posted by Alx Klive 11:59AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Had a nice write up in the Irish Independent today. Nearly dropped the newspaper when I opened it in the shop. The article can be read online here.

Posted by Alx Klive 10:36AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

For years people have talked about the convergence between TV and the Internet. We'll watch the Internet on our TV's, we'll watch TV on the Internet.

Well the latter has arguably happened, although rights issues still hamper legitimate efforts to bring TV signals onto the web. The way the TV business has historically worked makes it highly difficult to broadcast TV stations on the Internet. That's another subject which I won't get into here, but suffice to say it's a mess, and is not likely to be resolved soon.

What I am interested in and what we spend a lot of time thinking about at WorldTV is how the Internet will come to the TV in our living room. It's clear that browsing the Internet on your television is not going to take off anytime soon, failed efforts such as WebTV demonstrate little demand for this service. If you've actually ever tried to browse the Internet on a TV, even a high-definition one, you quickly find that it's an unsatisfying and impractical experience. Not having a mouse is a big turnoff, and you need a TV the size of your wall to actually be able to read a webpage from your sofa without straining your eyes. Trust me, I've tried... and gone half-blind in the process.

Continue reading "Watch online video on your TV - A Layman's Guide" »

Posted by Alx Klive 2:27PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

In a previous article I showed how to very easily fix an overheating Dell laptop. From the comments I've received it seems to have helped a lot of people, so when my wife's Acer laptop started acting in a strange way, rebooting for no reason, loud fan noises, severe burning of the legs - I sensed it might be an overheating problem, and a new Layman's Guide beckoned...

If you have a laptop (or any computer for that matter) that is constantly restarting or rebooting for no apparent reason, the reason may well be overheating. If your computer is constantly rebooting and there are other tell-tale signs... such as the fan coming on more often than you remember and sounding louder, very hot air coming out of the side vent, you almost certainly have an overheating problem.

Continue reading "Fixing an Overheating Laptop - A Layman's Guide" »

Posted by Alx Klive 10:26AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I originally wrote the following as a response to a comment on a popular technology site. Long story but it never actually saw the light of day. One of our team really liked it and thought I should share it elsewhere...

The clear trend is towards video sites opening themselves up to other portals, aggregators and distribution outlets doing innovative things with online video. The walled garden approach is a highway to isolation and you only have to look at the massively expanding range of API's and strategic partnerships between sites to see this.

This announcement (regarding WorldTV and Qik) is about just such a partnership between one video site and another - allowing content to be freely shared between two video sites and offered in an alternative player environment that gives due credit, branding and linking to the other site.

YouTube, which you could argue has the most to lose, has itself begun offering a new chromeless (skinnable) player to empower sites like WorldTV to create new and innovative offerings. This is unquestionably the way forward and will help drive further growth for them in new markets.

If a playlisting and tools site like WorldTV which has an international focus and audience can bring awareness to new audiences, of video hosting sites (and those sites get significant branding and linking), this is clearly of benefit to both parties.

I think you will see a lot more of these types of partnerships being announced in the coming months.

Posted by Alx Klive 7:11PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

CamTwist is very clever free software for the Mac that lets you switch between different video sources on your computer, including webcams, movie files and also your computer's desktop. You can add a range of video effects, titles and other useful overlays, in multiple layers - such as news tickers (powered by RSS), logos and graphics, and then output the result as... another video source on your computer.

What this means is that you can use this program to intercept the video going into other programs that lets you choose a video source - think video editing programs, video chat programs (eg Skype) and flash-based online video services such as Ustream, JustinTV, Stickam and WorldTV.

Another way of looking at it is that the program lets you create your own software-based live video mixing studio that sits well with almost all other video programs, including streaming web video services.

You can take the video from your webcam, pimp it up broadcast style, and then send it onwards to a video chat session, recording or online video streaming session. Amaze your friends in Skype, do highly professional stuff online - possibly you'll do both.

The intercept approach is genius because of its flexibility, and it explains why leading web broadcasters like Chris Pirillo and Rhett & Link are using the software, made by an enthusiast, and supported through generosity of donations.

CamTwist is highly powerful (see demo video below), and you only have to see the results of that on the two sites I've just mentioned - both Chris Pirillo and Rhett & Link use the software for all of their live video mixing and compositing.

While CamTwist excels is in its depth and flexibility, it suffers a little in ease-of-use at this time. This should not put you off as it is well worth the investment, and the interface will improve as the software develops. It's still early days.

You can learn the interface in about 30 mins and once you've got the hang of it you'll quickly come to appreciate the power that it provides you, and most probably love the developer who made it. In short it is highly empowering software that has nothing else like it.

If you want a little more convincing before making the leap, I highly recommend reading Michael Pick's excellent coverage of the software.

Introductory Guide to CamTwist

There are two distinct parts to the application - the older legacy part of the application - the main window, which lets you set up sources and effects, which effectively become buttons for the main Studio window where you do the live switching. Basically you do all your experimenting and configuring in the first window, and the live switching in the second.

I recommend reading and watching the two Quick Start video guides on the site wiki - the first is for the main (legacy) window of the application, and the second is for the new Studio window. It's important to understand that the main, older window represents where the project is coming from, and the Studio window where it is going. Any quirks of use can be understood much better if you keep this in mind.

Another important point is that the program does not control or switch audio. The audio circuits of a Mac are separate from the video and this can actually provide you with much greater control. It's not yet been a problem for me, but I may revisit this subject later if it becomes so.

For an alternative viewpoint of how it can be used, Chris Pirillo's fascinating explanation of how he produces his online TV show is well worth a look.

This article is a stub - I intend to add to it over time.

Posted by Alx Klive 9:37PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

If you are trying to install Qik software (or any other software for that matter) on your Nokia mobile phone and are getting "Certificate error - contact application provider", there's an easy fix. Here's how to do it...

Go to Tools -> Settings -> Applications -> App Manager

Change the setting for Software Installation from 'Signed only' to 'All'. This should do the trick, but you can also change the setting for Online Certificate Check to 'Off' as an added measure. If you are looking for a great tool for Qik videos, be sure to check out WorldTV's integration with Qik which is very cool.

I have tested this on both the Nokia N95 and Nokia E51 and it works great. The Nokia E51 (with camera) is a good more economical substitute for the N95 incidentally if you want to use Qik's service.

Posted by Alx Klive 4:22PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I really can't complain. Running a startup with such a great crew of people, and with real signs of positivity and traction is a dream come true.

I stood on the rickety balcony tonight overlooking our Eastern European appartment block with my friend and lead developer Eugene, and we wondered aloud on how far we'd come in three years of working together. A year ago even I wouldn't have thought it possible we'd be here now, working our socks off, living, breathing and eating/drinking together, all staying in the same building along with his family, relatives and in-laws - four studio appartments strong and counting. Forgive the romantic excursion but it's been a real rollercoaster of a day...

We got to work this morning, we were 5 steps into our building and Eugene exclaims "Oh shit" (only it sounded more like "Orh Zhit"). The power was out, which explained the two hardy looking men we'd passed on the way in, who were removing huge metal breakers, the size and shape of axe-heads - by hand - from a rusty metal box on the outside of the building. Each of those goliaths must have been designed in some early 20th century soviet metalworks for carrying the entire power of a city - only right now they weren't working one bit.

The power came back on within an hour, no doubt to the efforts of those wizened men, but then our ISP called us to let us know that the Internet would be going off in half an hour. They called us to let us know the broadband was going off. Even here, in a decaying faded former USSR city on the outreaches of a broken empire, the broadband provider calls you to let you know the Internet is going down... before it happens.

For the rest of the day we were on and off the phone with them as they provided frequent updates of what was going on and when we could use the Internet, for how long - 20 mins here, 40 mins there. Our Internet flickered on and off all day, but with predictability. It was frustrating that it had to happen at all, especially with everything else that was going on all day, but given that it did, it could not have been a more pleasant experience.

We had a real lift during the afternoon with the news that the Guardian newspaper had run a major article on us and that it was complimentary. Some hurried calls back home to get people to pick up copies were followed by the realization that we had a critical *bug* with the main subject of the article - our live mobile phone video integration. As we like to say round here... something from the 'bad news department'.

Working with Michael and Bhaskar from Qik we got to the bottom of it within 4 hours and solved it - but boy was it a rollercoaster ride of a day!

Posted by Alx Klive 11:35PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Have just arrived at our 'Eastern' office and contemplating the last 24 hours.

The journey from London to Kharkov is not particularly far, but a little wearing. A 3am wakeup to get to Heathrow for the first flight out for Vienna, and then on to Kharkov with Austrian Airlines - who are the only western airline to fly to the Ukraine's second largest city. Arriving at Kharkov is like a step back in time, broken planes by the runway and a terminal that is straight out of World War 2.

I've done the journey a few times and it's always a 'roll-of-the-dice' - the connection at Vienna is tight (so luggage not making it is a real possibility), customs/passport control in Kharkov can be interesting to say the least. We had a brief scare when the customs found the Mac Mini that we were bringing in, but the language barrier worked in our favour this time and the guy couldn't be bothered it seemed to try and tax us (or bribe us). We were in.

We took two cars to the appartment for reasons I've not quite established. Cars here don't generally have seat belts in the back and the roads themselves are treacherous. Massive potholes everywhere and drivers swerve to avoid them with no hope of any warning. We saw one accident on the short drive and I've seen many others.

Our first order of business was to stock up on food and.... er... vodka! Four grown men heading round the supermarket each with their own trolley was a sight to behold. We got so much 'food' in the end that only two people could fit in Dmitry's rather diminutive car. Toby and Eugene walked home, I pulled rank.

We spent the evening settling in to our rented appartment, visiting our neighbours downstairs and generally catching up with our host and old friend Eugene.

This morning we woke up to... no hot water! I had a sneaky feeling this might be an issue. When in Rome...

Took the bus and subway into central Kharkov this morning. The bus cost 15p (30 cents) and the subway 7p. We worked out that the bus is 7 times more expensive in London and the tube is 60 times more expensive!

A short walk from the metro and we were at our new rented office. It's from here that we'll spend the next two weeks planning the next few months worth of development for WorldTV.

As mentioned in my previous post you can follow all these shenanigans on Twitter - my tweets are here, Toby's here and official WorldTV tweets here. I'm also doing live mobile phone videos using Qik and there's an archive of all the videos so far.

Am probably not going to do tons of blog posts since the above options are way easier. Funny how Twitter really is lowering the incentive to blog. Much less friction.

Incidentally, I still can't make up my mind about Qik's Twitter notification feature. At the moment I've got it on but it would be nice to set a custom default message instead of the 'I'm streaming live right now come chat'. I always forget to control it from the phone (which is possible).

Posted by Alx Klive 9:27AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

It's 4.55am and my colleague Toby and I are off on our way to the Eastern front for two weeks of hard labour development time.

I'll be blogging the trip through a combination of Twitter updates, live mobile phone videos and occasional blog posts. Hopefully the next one will be when I am slightly more awake.

UPDATE: To see archived videos from the trip, go here.

Posted by Alx Klive 4:54AM | Permalink | Comments (0)