The Tragic Death of the Flip • Hacker News Board

Re: The Tragic Death of the Flip

#11

Post by GuoQiangBen » Thu, Apr 14, 2011, 9:22 PM UTC

bediger wrote: post #9

GuoQiangBen wrote: post #6

As someone who has had to do a lot of live streaming to the internet via webcams/camera setups the FlipLive sounds amazing. If it was really as user friendly as the traditional Flip camera (which was a great product and I'm sorry to see go) it would have gained at the very least a sizable niche following, especially with the burgeoning lifestream movement. Its a pity that this is not going to be released, but theres…

Are you a "cam girl"?

haha rereading my post I guess that would be my first thought too - I actually do some recording of events for my university. And its a real bitch trying to get the equipment functioning, a plug and play like option would be ideal

Re: The Tragic Death of the Flip

#12

Post by tomsaffell » Thu, Apr 14, 2011, 9:31 PM UTC

hammock wrote: post #5

There’s a second part of the tragedy, too, something that nobody knows. That new Flip that the product manager showed me was astonishing. It was called FlipLive, and it added one powerful new feature to the standard Flip: live broadcasting to the Internet. That is, when you’re in a Wi-Fi hot spot, the entire world can see what you’re filming. You can post a link to Twitter or Facebook, or send an e-mail link to frien…

FlipLive is kinda awesome, but as you said... when you’re in a Wi-Fi hot spot... Personally, I cannot think of too many occasions where the average person is: 1)in range of wifi, 2) has something worth sharing with an audience who are available there and then, 3) wouldnt rather use Skype video conferencing so as to get two-way communications. There are a few, but I'm not sure there's enough.

Re: The Tragic Death of the Flip

#13

Post by bpeebles » Thu, Apr 14, 2011, 9:36 PM UTC

tomsaffell wrote: post #10

bpeebles wrote: post #2

This article doesn't mention it directly, but after reading the bit about the FlipLive makes this more likely to me: the wrong people in Cisco finally realized what Flip might be able to do. Which is replace Cisco's teleconferencing enterprise business. And doing so even a little bit would probably cost them a pretty penny, so they're dumping it to protect what they see as their "core" business.

There was never any risk of v1 of FlipLive cannibalizing the teleconferencing business - it was one-way only - no way for the 'viewers' to send a stream back to the publisher's camera. BTW - I wrote some of web software (the ActionScript) for FlipLive.

Interesting, yeah I hadn't thought through to the two-way part of it. And I might be totally off-base, but it just felt like it maybe it we edging close.

Re: The Tragic Death of the Flip

#14

Post by hammock » Thu, Apr 14, 2011, 9:54 PM UTC

tomsaffell wrote: post #12

hammock wrote: post #5

There’s a second part of the tragedy, too, something that nobody knows. That new Flip that the product manager showed me was astonishing. It was called FlipLive, and it added one powerful new feature to the standard Flip: live broadcasting to the Internet. That is, when you’re in a Wi-Fi hot spot, the entire world can see what you’re filming. You can post a link to Twitter or Facebook, or send an e-mail link to frien…

FlipLive is kinda awesome, but as you said... when you’re in a Wi-Fi hot spot ... Personally, I cannot think of too many occasions where the average person is: 1)in range of wifi, 2) has something worth sharing with an audience who are available there and then, 3) wouldnt rather use Skype video conferencing so as to get two-way communications. There are a few, but I'm not sure there's enough.

More than 40 hours of video uploaded to youtube every second of every day. A good portion of it is people just sitting in their bedroom talking about all the stupid shit they just bought at Target. And if they could record and upload in one easy step, that's a huge market right there.

Re: The Tragic Death of the Flip

#15

Post by marze » Thu, Apr 14, 2011, 9:55 PM UTC

I wonder what the practical consequences are for the decision maker(s) who wasted $650M corporate funds buying then dumping Flip?

Re: The Tragic Death of the Flip

#16

Post by hkuo » Thu, Apr 14, 2011, 9:57 PM UTC

tomsaffell wrote: post #12

hammock wrote: post #5

There’s a second part of the tragedy, too, something that nobody knows. That new Flip that the product manager showed me was astonishing. It was called FlipLive, and it added one powerful new feature to the standard Flip: live broadcasting to the Internet. That is, when you’re in a Wi-Fi hot spot, the entire world can see what you’re filming. You can post a link to Twitter or Facebook, or send an e-mail link to frien…

FlipLive is kinda awesome, but as you said... when you’re in a Wi-Fi hot spot ... Personally, I cannot think of too many occasions where the average person is: 1)in range of wifi, 2) has something worth sharing with an audience who are available there and then, 3) wouldnt rather use Skype video conferencing so as to get two-way communications. There are a few, but I'm not sure there's enough.

I think the main difference is that with Flip Live, you would be able to broadcast a public live feed to a large audience. So basically more like Ustream (one to many) than Skype (one to one). And normally, Ustream users show a live feed from a single fixed webcam, while this would have added an aspect of mobility.

Re: The Tragic Death of the Flip

#17

Post by eli » Thu, Apr 14, 2011, 10:02 PM UTC

tomsaffell wrote: post #12

hammock wrote: post #5

There’s a second part of the tragedy, too, something that nobody knows. That new Flip that the product manager showed me was astonishing. It was called FlipLive, and it added one powerful new feature to the standard Flip: live broadcasting to the Internet. That is, when you’re in a Wi-Fi hot spot, the entire world can see what you’re filming. You can post a link to Twitter or Facebook, or send an e-mail link to frien…

FlipLive is kinda awesome, but as you said... when you’re in a Wi-Fi hot spot ... Personally, I cannot think of too many occasions where the average person is: 1)in range of wifi, 2) has something worth sharing with an audience who are available there and then, 3) wouldnt rather use Skype video conferencing so as to get two-way communications. There are a few, but I'm not sure there's enough.

Forget about live, I'd buy a flip that had the ability to automatically upload its videos whenever it's in a hotspot and save to card when it isn't.

Re: The Tragic Death of the Flip

#18

Post by eyeareque » Thu, Apr 14, 2011, 10:07 PM UTC

hammock wrote: post #5

There’s a second part of the tragedy, too, something that nobody knows. That new Flip that the product manager showed me was astonishing. It was called FlipLive, and it added one powerful new feature to the standard Flip: live broadcasting to the Internet. That is, when you’re in a Wi-Fi hot spot, the entire world can see what you’re filming. You can post a link to Twitter or Facebook, or send an e-mail link to frien…

While that is nice, couldn't (and isn't) this possible on any smart phone with 3G/4G and a video camera?

Re: The Tragic Death of the Flip

#19

Post by tomsaffell » Thu, Apr 14, 2011, 10:07 PM UTC

hammock wrote: post #14

tomsaffell wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

FlipLive is kinda awesome, but as you said... when you’re in a Wi-Fi hot spot ... Personally, I cannot think of too many occasions where the average person is: 1)in range of wifi, 2) has something worth sharing with an audience who are available there and then, 3) wouldnt rather use Skype video conferencing so as to get two-way communications. There are a few, but I'm not sure there's enough.

More than 40 hours of video uploaded to youtube every second of every day. A good portion of it is people just sitting in their bedroom talking about all the stupid shit they just bought at Target. And if they could record and upload in one easy step, that's a huge market right there.

Yes, but they didnt have to spend $200 on a new device to do it - they just used the camera built into their $400 laptop

Re: The Tragic Death of the Flip

#20

Post by tomsaffell » Thu, Apr 14, 2011, 10:08 PM UTC

eli wrote: post #17

tomsaffell wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

FlipLive is kinda awesome, but as you said... when you’re in a Wi-Fi hot spot ... Personally, I cannot think of too many occasions where the average person is: 1)in range of wifi, 2) has something worth sharing with an audience who are available there and then, 3) wouldnt rather use Skype video conferencing so as to get two-way communications. There are a few, but I'm not sure there's enough.

Forget about live, I'd buy a flip that had the ability to automatically upload its videos whenever it's in a hotspot and save to card when it isn't.

I agree. FlipLive did infact do this (not automatic), albeit with some drawbacks that I cannot discuss in public. Even with those drawbacks, I think this was probably the most compelling use case for the average person.