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Ecamm introduces Call Recorder for FaceTime
Ecamm Network has made a name for itself with some really great Mac products over the years, things like Printopia, an app that makes it possible to turn any Mac or PC attached printer into an AirPrint-compatible powerhouse. Now the company has just introduced Call Recorder for FaceTime (US$29.95), designed to record FaceTime calls - both audio and video - to your Mac. We'll have a full review of the app next week, but in the meantime, feast your eyes on this list of features: Records FaceTime chats, podcasts and interviews in HD Calls can be converted to MP3 for podcasting or into internet-ready movies for YouTube or Vimeo Using Handoff to relay a phone call from your iPhone? Call Recorder can record it for you (perfect if you're calling Comcast to dump your account...) Sounds cool, right? Here's a short video describing the app in more detail. You can download and try Call Recorder for FaceTime for free for seven days to see if it does the job for you. The app requires Mac OS X 10.8 or newer, and of course FaceTime for Mac.
Friday Favorite: Yet another reason to love Printopia
I'm a huge fan of Ecamm's Printopia utility. For just 20 bucks, it enables you to print from iOS to any printer connected to your Mac. You don't need to buy a high-priced AirPlay-enabled system. I'm running Printopia with an old piece-of-junk Brother laser printer that is older than some of my kids. Until this week, I didn't really use Printopia's "Send to Dropbox" or "Send to Mac" features. I normally just connect my iPhone and iPad to my Mac using Image Capture to transfer pictures, which has been a terrific way to manage the images I need for TUAW write-ups. Yesterday, however, after installing Mavericks, that workflow broke. For whatever reason, Image Capture just would not connect properly to my iPhone. And that's when I thought of using Printopia rather than emailing individual pictures. The great thing about "printing" pictures is how well integrated the process is with the Photos app. It requires just a few taps to print. With Printopia's "Send to" options, I was able to transfer my pictures with a minimum of fuss and bother. Plus, bonus, I didn't need to connect any cables. It worked brilliantly. The convenience didn't stop there though. It occurred to me that I could "print" Safari articles that I wanted a copy of, directly from my iPhone without having to return to my desk. Sure enough, the Printopia Send to Mac option created a perfect PDF of the active webpage, saved it to my Documents folder and opened it in Preview. Although I haven't used these options much in the past, I can see myself starting to use them a lot more from here on. And, of course, Printopia still makes it simple and convenient to print from my phone.
Ecamm releases Printopia Pro for corporate users
Ecamm already makes the popular Printopia app; it's a Mac-based solution for printing from iOS devices (and other connected Macs) for those that don't wish to use or purchase specific AirPrint-supported printers. Now the company has released Printopia Pro to tackle the bigger challenges of AirPrint in corporate or institutional networks. Similar to Printopia, Printopia Pro leverages AirPrint, but without the need for investment in new, AirPrint-supported printers. Ecamm has taken the features of Printopia and powered them up in Printopia Pro to work in extremely demanding print circumstances. [Some enterprise users have aimed to solve this problem with Lantronix's xPrintServer hardware, which now comes in both office and home editions. –Ed.] Printopia Pro is scalable to support hundreds of users and supports all the existing printers on your network. With centralized management, you can manage print jobs, access controls, configure printers and monitor printer status in real-time and from any location. The product supports printing across subnets (a key drawback of the basic AirPrint service, which normally requires some DNS and wide-area Bonjour tweaking to overcome) and integrates with corporate directory services for access control to printers. Print jobs can be sent via Secure AirPrint, using SSL encryption to hide them from network snoopers. You can even configure Printopia Pro to provide PDF virtual printers, so iOS users can transparently print to web or server folders for paperless workflows. Pricing starts at US$79 for teams/small businesses and goes up to $499 for enterprise customers. Further details and a trial upon request can be found at the Printopia Pro website, here.
Getting your music outta a tight Jam
Jam (free) is one of those little apps that has found great traction over here at TUAW. From a pair of charming Australian developers, it helps you create silly, but engaging auto-tuned tracks in a variety of styles. It does have, as we discovered, one major flaw. It expects you to use and engage with Facebook. No Facebook, no Jam account, no music sharing. FACEBOOK! Okay, yeah, that's not the worst thing in the world, but it's one that some of us really don't care for. Jam, for whatever reason, has not engaged iTunes sharing. You cannot just hook up your phone and recover music from the iTunes app tab. What a pity! So can you enjoy the Jam and skip the Facebook? Why, yes you can! Ecamm's PhoneView ($29.95) allows you to browse your iPhone and visit the folders for each of your installed apps. It just keeps getting better and better each year. I connected my phone, navigated to the Apps, making sure to enable the Show All Apps checkbox and opened the Jam folder. Inside its Documents subfolder, I found my music. (This was along with a lot of other files that the School Marm iPhone Dev in me feels should properly live in the Library not in Documents. But I digress.) Recordings are stored in m4a format and labeled with the date and beats per minute. You can use PhoneView to grab those out to your desktop. From there, you can archive your creations, play them in iTunes or QuickTime and/or share them over email. Finding this solution has made me a lot more excited about purchasing some of the other Jam styles. I think I may spring for Pop or '80s Dance next! Oh wait.
AirPrint on steroids: first look at Printopia, bringing shared printer support for iPad
When Apple removed AirPrint shared printer support from Mac OS X 10.6.5, it created a functionality gap that developers moved quickly to fill. Yesterday, TUAW took a first look at FingerPrint, an AirPrint solution that enables iDevice printing to many Mac OS X shared printers. Today, we have an exclusive first peek at Printopia, a competing product from long-established Mac developer Ecamm. Like FingerPrint, the $9.95 Printopia allows non-supported printers to work directly with Apple's new wireless AirPrint functionality; both products also allow PowerPC users on Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard to share printers for iPad use (a great way to get some utility out of that G4 Mac mini in the closet). But that's just where Printopia gets started. This easy-to-use system control panel expands AirPrint features to provide support for Dropbox file sharing and printing to Mac-based PDF files.
Ecamm introduces iPad document management with PadSync
It's a sad fact. The current version of iTunes can barely handle the new document management features introduced by Apple. As part of the 3.2 release of the iPad and soon to extend to the iPhone, the Apps tab now allows you to manually add, replace, and delete documents from applications that support iTunes-to-user file sharing. The big problem is that iTunes does this poorly, with lots of bugs in its implementations. Worst of all, you cannot directly access files from iTunes to edit those documents in-place. Think about it: You offload a text document to your iPad, make some in-place edits, and want to continue updating that document on your Mac until you next hit the road. Enter Ecamm. The company, well known for its Mac and iPhone utilities, has released the first version of its PadSync tool. PadSync, which retails for $9.95, offers direct access to your iPad Documents folders from a desktop Mac application. As the gallery here shows, your shared files are accessible on an app-by-app basis. Double-click on a Word file, and you can open it in Microsoft Word, edit it, and save it back. Updates on the Mac instantly sync back to the iPad -- with one exception. Ecamm is still working on subfolder support, such as the Inbox that's created by the 3.2-and-later document sharing classes. Beyond that, PadSync offers all the instant synchronization you could wish for. Oh, and don't forget my favorite feature: since files are mirrored as well as synced on the Mac, you can access those files and queue up new ones even when the iPad is not connected to the Mac. PadSync offers a 7 day free demo, so you can test out the app before purchase. %Gallery-94504%
BT-1 Bluetooth webcam for Mac finally shipping
To think, we've been waiting on the edge of our seats since January to get our hands on Ecamm's BT-1 wireless, Bluetooth-enabled webcam for OS X. Sure, 640 x 480 / 15fps H.264 video quality is comparable to what our MacBooks get anyway, but hey, at least you can be a little more artsy on your Skype calls without losing that prime display viewing angle. All that waiting doesn't matter now, anyway, since it's finally shipping out. Price is $150 and it includes a mini-tripod and USB charger cable -- can't seem to get rid of wires entirely just yet. As for Windows support, it's still not there officially, but we've no doubt some intrepid young coder with an afternoon to spare will fix that.
Ecamm announces BT-1 Bluetooth webcam for Macs
It looks like Mac users tired of their built-in webcams and concerned about the clutter caused by regular USB cams will soon have another option to consider, as Ecamm Network has just announced what it's claiming to be the world's first Bluetooth webcam. Apparently, you can expect to get some standard 640x480 H.264 video out of the thing, along with 48 kHz AAC stereo audio and a promised four hours of talk time before you need to pull out that dreaded USB cable. None too surprisingly, you'll also have a pay a bit of a premium over your run-of-the-mill webcam, with the so-called BT-1 set to demand a hefty $150 when it rolls out sometime late in the first quarter of the year. No word on Windows support just yet, but we'd presume that'd follow shortly thereafter, officially or otherwise.
Cocotron lets you develop in Cocoa for Windows, with a little extra work
It kind of sounds like a developer's dream: create an app in Cocoa that automatically works on Windows, too. But that's what Cocotron promises, and the folks at Ecamm say the dream is there, even if it requires a lot of elbow grease. They tried using Cocotron to port an app called FileMagnet, and two months after they started, they say they did it. You can see the results above, and as they say, "Visual Studio was never opened."But of course it wasn't exactly one-click. They had to implement a number of Apple-specific methods, and there were UI bugs, strings support, and dreaded Vista compatibility to work out. But the good news is that Cocotron is all open source, and from what the Mac Daddies say, the devs working on the project are super helpful and supportive. So, not only is it getting better every day, but every bit of implementation that gets done is something that won't have to be repeated. Sounds like a lot of "fun" (for varying values of "fun" of course) for developers to be had here. The lines between Mac and PC, no matter what the commercials say, are blurring more and more every day, and this could turn out to be a way to develop in an environment as welcoming as Cocoa, and then bring programs back into an environment as widespread as Windows.
Ecamm releases renamed PhoneView
%Gallery-23025% Remember iPhone Drive? And MegaPhone? Well, Ecamm's pretty sure they're (finally) not going to get sued with their newly renamed "PhoneView." Along with the new name for the iPhone/iPod touch data access tool, PhoneView delivers an overall software refresh. You can now add and edit notes without rebooting after each change -- wait until you're done and tap "Apply Changes" for a single reboot instead. There's also undo/redo support for the notes editor. There's a new search feature for music, contacts, SMS, etc. Read on for more details.
iGlasses 2.1: improved stability and more application compatibility
It's always seemed to me that the image that comes from the built-in camera on my MacBook Pro should be more adjustable. We've previously mentioned iGlasses, a webcam utility (from the makers of the handy Call Recorder for Skype) which provides all of those missing controls. The utility recently updated to version 2.1, and adds a zoom button, stability improvements and compatibility with more applications. iGlasses 2.1 lets you control color, exposure, zooming and cropping of your iSight (or one of several other webcams). It also provides several color adjustment "effects", if you're into that, and it's AppleScript-able so you can automate settings. Personally, I'm mostly interested in zooming and controlling lighting/color settings, which it handles quite well. Once the free, 7-day demo is installed, the adjustment palette shows up in most applications that use the iSight: iChat, Skype, Skitch, Pixelmator, Photo Booth and about 60 others. iGlasses will set you back $9.95 and a free demo is available. The demo can be easily uninstalled by running the installer and clicking the "Uninstall" button.
Ecamm updates iPhone Drive
%Gallery-15145% Mac and iPhone/iPod developer Ecamm has just released a major upgrade to their iPhone Drive utility. iPhone Drive allows you to access the user data on your iPhone or iPod touch, both read and write. With it, you can copy files to and from the user partition. So if you need to bring some important files along with you, this utility turns your iPod or iPhone into a portable drive. What it doesn't do is this: It does not create a general-use USB device. You need iPhone Drive on both ends--to put data onto your system and to take it off. The new 1.4 version provides four major upgrades: you can play any song from your onboard music library directly from the utility, you can access your SMS message archive and call history, and you can view the photos you've snapped using your onboard camera. Obviously these last three options are limited to iPhones only but despite the name, the software works with both iPhones and iPod touches. These upgrades join iPhone Drive's existing feature repertoire that includes file I/O and read-only access to your music, ringtones, podcasts, audio books and notes. The 1.4 upgrade is free to users who registered versions 1.3 and earlier and $19.95 for new users.
Show floor video: ecamm networks with iLidz and more
The gentlemen at ecamm networks have a slew of products already in production: iGlasses, Call Recorder, and plenty more. Watch the video for demos of iLidz, iPhone Disk, and an unreleased video hack for the iPhone that's got to be seen to be believed. Video moved into the continuation for faster home page loading.
iPhoneCam streams video from your iPhone over WiFi
A fancy mirror contraption not quite what you had in mind for video conferencing on your iPhone? Fret not, friends; Ecamm Network is back at it, this time devising a way to stream video from the camera -- at 30fps, no less -- to the Mac of your choice over WiFi. Even better, the clever cats hooked it up with Bonjour, so the Mac just sorta sees it as a camera without any configuration needed. The possibilities are pretty endless (or limited, depending on your point of view), but we suppose it's nice for iPhone owners to instantly have a free, remote cam for iChatting, if nothing else. The download isn't available yet, but Ecamm is teasing that they just might be willing to demo it at their Macworld booth this week.[Via TUAW]
Use your iPhone as a webcam
Mac developer Ecamm has posted a sneak peak of iPhoneCam, an application that uses your iPhone's camera as a wireless Mac webcam. You can stream video from your iPhone over its WiFi to any Mac video application, including iChat, Photo Booth, or Skype. I have participated in one iPhone chat and while it's not exactly the most comfortable way to use a webcam, you've got to admit using an iPhone is way up there on the cool quotient. You can watch a demo video here.
TUAW Responds: Ecamm to the rescue!!
TUAW reader Tommy E. writes: A while back I installed Make it Mine and entered my custom carrier logo as "ROBOTS" -- when springboard restarted, nothing happened to my carrier logo. Now, I just restored and updated to 1.1.2 (not jailbroken) and suddenly and surprisingly my carrier logo now reads "ROBOTS"! My problem is that I need to visit the Genius Bar because my headphone jack is wacky. Is there some way to get "AT&T" back up there?"Fear not, Tommy. There's an easy fix for your problem. Ecamm's "Caption Crunch", which we discussed a while back can set or revert the time string. So today, I gave Glen of Ecamm an urgent "help our reader" IM. He responded by creating a custom version of their software that reverts the fake carrier logo created by MIM. In case you didn't read that last paragraph fully. Let me re-iterate. Glen of Ecamm. Created. A. Custom. Application. Version. for our TUAW reader in need. The software can be downloaded here. Make sure to send Ecamm a thank you note. And if you get a "No Carrier" message after setting the logo, just reboot.
Hacks: Caption Crunch loads custom messages onto your iPhone
Remember I wrote about that bunch of undocumented SpringBoard prefs? Ecamm has grabbed the bull by the horns (or possibly by the implanted iPod dock) and produced "Caption Crunch", a simple utility that adds a custom message to your iPhone using the fake time preferences. Caption Crunch works by modding the com.apple.springboard.plist file that gets stored on your personal computer in the backup files and actually talks to your iPhone and convinces it to upload a new copy of the prefs file. The iPhone will perform a "pseudo restore" and may reboot. I tested on an iPod touch and it worked great. Cool stuff indeed--but even cooler that Ecamm seems to have taken Mac/iPhone communication up to a new level. No Jailbreak necessary.
iGlasses goes 2.0
If you want to customize your iSight output for chatting or video recording, there's a quick and cheap way to do it: iGlasses from ecamm network, only $9.95 for a whole kit bag of adjustments, colorizations, exposure controls and pan/zoom options. The 2.0 version was released earlier today (a free upgrade for previous licensees) and adds exposure lock for the built-in iSight camera among other new features.I find myself using the exposure control a lot to manage iChat video in poor lighting conditions; you can check it out for yourself by downloading the demo here.Thanks Glen & Ken
Mirror-enabled videoconferencing on the iPhone
The iPhone application community continues to amaze me-- this time, Engadget's got the heads up on an iPhone video conferencing system, made possible by not only a cool little piece of code (designed for a C4 contest) that fetches an iPhone's camera input and feeds it out to another iPhone via a webserver, but also these ingenious mirror settings that work as a little periscope around the phone, and let you both see the image on the front while the camera on the back grabs yours. Wild!The Ecamm folks are old hands, apparently, at the ingenious use of mirrors around an Apple camera, but this definitely tops anything I've seen in the past. Just an amazing hack, both in terms of software and hardware. Unfortunately, the source (for either hack) isn't available yet, but they promise that something is coming soon. In the meantime, just bask in the glow of what these iPhone guys are capable of.Thanks to everyone who sent this in!
Mirror-based video conferencing developed for iPhone
It's pretty obvious that Apple didn't design the iPhone with video conferencing in mind -- what with the camera on the back and all -- but that doesn't seem to have dissuaded the folks from Ecamm Network, who recently whipped up a workaround with the help of some mirrors and some coding skills. Although it's yet to be independently verified, the contraption (done for the C-4 developers conference "Iron Coder Live" contest) is apparently based on a slightly modified Huckleberry MacBook "periscope," and employs some hastily coded software to properly orient the image and rely the video from one iPhone to another (with a web server lending a hand in that process). Unfortunately, you can't yet make a fool of yourself in public unless you have some comparable coding skills of your own, although we're guessing that won't be the case for long.
