Show HN: QuicklyChat - A video walkie-talkie for the workplace

I'll explain what the difference is here. I suggest all software developers learn to use something like http://www.vischeck.com/ on their UIs:

The colors "Green" and "Red" aren't visible at all to R/G colorblind people. There are actually two different types of cone deficiencies (for R/G colorblindness, the most common one), missing red cones, and missing green cones (Deuteranope and Protanope). Turns out, it doesn't really matter that much which one you're missing, as the world looks much the same to you: All yellow and blue. There are some differences, which do mean the specific yellows you see are different from the other type of R/G colorblind, but for software developers, both types of common colorblindness can be lumped together: Only use Yellow and Blue as indicator colors, or colors that clearly go to yellow or blue, or use secondary markers.

For severe cases, the colors you see are pretty much only yellow and blue. For less severe cases, the person actually is only missing SOME of the red or SOME of the green cones, and can tell some colors, but not very well.

There is also a Tritanope which actually has problems distinguishing blue/yellow, but they're VERY rare.

normal color vision: http://www.vischeck.com/images//hats_norm_big.jpg

Each type of R/G colorblindness: http://www.vischeck.com/images//hats_deutan_big.jpg http://www.vischeck.com/images//hats_protan_big.jpg

Vischeck.com (which I'm just a frequent user of) will also Daltonize images for you. What daltonization does it it takes colors in an image and moves them around in the different color spaces to make it so both normally color sighted and color deficient users can see everything.

I am not an expert, but merely a software dev who tries to do right by the color deficient, 8% of North american males.

You've actually tried to solve one of my personal frustrations, which is good. My biz partner and I do a lot of work remotely while running continuous video.

Skype, which should be the "obvious solution", is a wreck. Every 15 minutes the app goes into some sort of CPU loop consuming >100% cpu on my MBP. It destroys my productivity. Restarting every 15 mins is not going to happen. After a dozen software updates they seem to only be able to make the problem worse.

Facetime is hopeless. Lots of CPU, retarded upright-iphone aspect ratio. Also has problems staying connected.

Google Hangout is ok. It's our current solution. It's something like ten mouse-clicks to get a session started, and drops the connection every couple hours. Still, it's the least annoying solution.

I tried QuicklyChat... and it didn't work. Not even close. Trouble connecting to my partner, trouble getting sound or video working when connected. The UX was terrible. It's way too raw to be called "beta". Sorry.

Awesome idea. We previously had audio/video quality problems with all tools but Skype. How do you solve this problem? As I understand providing high quality video and audio is still quite a bit challenge.

Is there any only mic version? Or do you think it defeats the purpose?

Finally, a small suggestion, make question lines bold in the FAQ which will make it much easier to read.

Re: FaceTime on the desktop: If you point at the local video preview thumbnail, a button for changing the orientation of the video you're sending from portrait to landscape will appear. If both you and your conversation partner do this, the problem you describe goes away.

I've never noticed a lot of CPU use from FaceTime, personally.

In QuicklyChat, when you're available and receive a video chat, your client automatically answers it, and the video appears in an unobtrusive notification window in the corner of your screen. We think this better captures the dynamic of a coworker walking up to your desk and being in your peripheral vision.

Most other video chat clients pop up an answer dialog which steals focus, and makes your computer ring, and that immediately interrupts you from what you're doing, whereas when people walk up to your desk, they generally wait until you acknowledge, or use body language/visual cues to determine whether it's a good time to interrupt.