MobiolaWebcamera
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Mobiola WebCamera gets localization, AppleScript support
It's always nice when developers respond to the suggestions of reviewers. A few weeks ago, I wrote a review of Mobiola Web Cam from SHAPE Services. It's a combination of an iPhone app and a desktop (Windows and Mac) client that turns your iPhone into a webcam. At one point in my review, I suggested that it would be nice to see scripting support built into the Mac desktop client for automating the process of capturing screen shots or video from the camera. Just over two weeks later, the app has a slightly different name (WebCamera instead of Web Cam), it's localized in German, Italian, Spanish, French, and Dutch, and AppleScript support has been added. The app is currently on sale for US$1.99 from the usual $4.99 price, so if you're thinking about picking it up, now's a good time. A quick look at the Mobiola WebCamera Scripting Suite from AppleScript showed three new verbs: take snapshot, start recording, and stop recording. With these, and a connected property that's part of the application class, it's quite simple to write an AppleScript that waits for the iPhone to connect to the desktop app, and then takes a picture or timed video at regular intervals. I found that I also no longer needed to specify an IP address and port for the client and app to get the camera to connect, so it's obvious that the developers at SHAPE Services are paying attention to reviewers and customers to make a good app even better.
Mobiola WebCamera: a first look at an iPhone-based webcam app
At least once a week, I use the iSight camera on my iMac act as the video source for TUAW TV Live. While it works very well, I sometimes need to add a second camera to the Mac in order to demonstrate something on an iPad or other device. That just hasn't worked out too well, since many of the cameras that I've checked out are USB and tend to conflict with the iSight. And sometimes, I've just wanted a camera that I could take anywhere around my office to capture video. SHAPE Services, the developer of a number of other iPhone apps such as Business Card Reader and Smart Scanner, has just released Mobiola WebCamera for iPhone (US$4.99). It turns your iPhone into a mobile webcam, and I happy to say that even as a "1.0 release," it works very well. To use WebCamera on your computer, you need to download a free client software package for Windows or Mac. One download contains the installers for both platforms, so if you have both a Mac and a PC, you're in luck. Once the client app is installed and running on your computer, you use the app on your iPhone to connect to the computer over Wi-Fi and beam the live video to your computer. %Gallery-107348%
