Codec Wars: Yahoo! Messenger 10 + GIPS Video
Yahoo! Messenger 10 beta came out last week, switching to the Global IP Solutions? VideoEngine for 1-to-1 voice calls. Y!M video calling is not backward compatible; all users must be on Y!M 10. Interop with MSN doesn’t extend to video calls, so friendship across networks is still limited to commodity text IM. Yahoo! recommends at least 300 Kbps download and 128 Kbps upload, video cards with 96 MB memory, and Microsoft DirectX. This compute burden comes from the audio and video codecs. Yahoo! adopting GIPS’s video plumbing is a coupe for GIPS. Yahoo!’s choices influence other software companies; GIPS just became a safer choice for video. Despite Yahoo! only using the GIPS VideoEngine for limited 1-to-1 video chats, this opens up room for Yahoo! to expand to video conferencing and game-related video applications. So far this year Skype published its home-grown SILK wideband audio codec, Google bought On2 for its video codecs, the telecom industry held its first conferences on "HD telephony," Microsoft released a bandwidth-consuming HD webcam, and Yahoo! boosted the quality of its video codecs. Moore’s Law and mobile broadband seem to be pulling industry to higher fidelity. Screenshots and comments: Installing Yahoo! Messenger ? Step 1 of 4 ? Welcome to Yahoo! Messenger ? Typical Install "Typical Install" includes everything: two browser add-ins, setting Yahoo.com to your home page, and making Yahoo! your default search engine. Installing Yahoo! Messenger ? Step 1 of 4 ? Welcome to Yahoo! Messenger ? Custom Install Installing Yahoo! Messenger ? Step 2 of 4 ? License Agreement and Terms Installing Yahoo! Messenger ? Step 3 of 4 ? Ready? Set. Install! The payload is about 16 MB without toolbars. Skype comes in around 20. Installing Yahoo! Messenger ? Progress Message – "More friends = more fun" Progress messages set expectations and guide users to features they may not discover on their own. Installing Yahoo! Messenger ? Progress Message – "Keep Friends at your Fingertips" Installing Yahoo! Messenger ? Progress Message – "A better video and voice experience" Installing Yahoo! Messenger ? Progress Message – "Continue the conversation on your phone" Installing Yahoo! Messenger ? Step 4 of 4 ? Installation is complete! Yahoo! Messenger 10 – Login panel It’s a loooong panel. Import Contacts The import contacts wizard suffers from the Password Antipattern, asking you to trust Yahoo! with your logins to other services. Most of the sites Yahoo! imports contacts from support OAuth. Still no contact import from other Yahoo! properties like Delicious, flickr, and upcoming. Or from Skype. Yahoo! Messenger Video and Voice Setup – 1 of 3 – Microphone Yahoo! Messenger Video and Voice Setup – 2 of 3 – Speaker Yahoo! Messenger Video and Voice Setup – 3 of 3 – Camera Goofy face not included. Yahoo! Messenger 10 Home Page A Messenger "home page" isn’t new. This design keeps the distracting advertising apart from news and tools. The Yahoo! Mail tab again shows messaging media are converging experiences, just as Web Messenger is part of Yahoo! web mail and the Yahoo! home page. GIPS news release below: Global IP Solutions Powers The New Yahoo! Messenger Video Calling New Video Call Feature Available for Everyone on Yahoo! Messenger San Francisco ? August 24, 2009 ? Global IP Solutions (Oslo Børs: GIPS) announced today that Yahoo! Messenger, a leader in real-time communications with more than 133 million users worldwide, is using GIPS VideoEngine? to enable new high-quality video calling with the launch of Yahoo! Messenger 10. Since early 2006, GIPS has provided the underlying voice technology for Yahoo! Messenger, allowing friends, family and colleagues to communicate. Now with the addition of the video calling feature, everyone on Yahoo! Messenger can enjoy video calls enabled by GIPS VideoEngine for superior sound, picture quality and user experience. ?With the launch of Yahoo! Messenger 10, we?re allowing people to instantly communicate with friends and family around the world through new interactive and social features like video calls,? said Dave Merriwether, senior director of Yahoo! Messenger. ?The GIPS VideoEngine enables us to provide the Yahoo! Messenger community with the best video experience possible. Now people can enjoy full-screen, face-to-face chats with friends and family at no cost, in the familiar Yahoo! Messenger environment.? ?Yahoo! Messenger is the leading communication platform that provides people with the greatest choice to stay connected to one another through text IM, PC-based calling, mobile text messaging and now video calling,? said Emerick Woods, GIPS? Chief Executive Officer. ?We?re proud to work with Yahoo! to deliver a truly differentiated high quality video experience for the hundreds of millions of people on Yahoo! Messenger around the world,? added Woods. To download the latest Yahoo! Messenger 10, visit http://messenger.yahoo.com/winbeta tags: gips, codecs, yahoo, skype, video, voip, google, on2, videoengine, conference, conferencing, competitionCall me at +1-510-316-9773, Skype me, follow @skypejournal and @Phil Wolff.
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