Stream It. Record It. Keep It.
You may have noticed we’ve slightly changed our web site recently, and added a new personality to the top of every page. Meet Riki, the Burn Owl:
Riki stands for “Record It, Keep It”, but it doesn’t have to – you can make up your own acronym if you like. We think Riki embodies the fun aspect of our software, while also giving off the vibe of owl-ish wisdom.
Now… back to giving Riki some new and improved recording products to keep under his wing….
After reading a lot of commentary, and doing some testing, we’ve decided to lower the price of Replay Converter to just $9.95 last week. A lot of people are downloading videos to copy to other devices or DVD’s, or to prepare them to make mashups, and Replay Converter does a great job at this.
We decided that as a company it’s best to encourage more people to use our products, even if it means making a little less money. So if you’re looking for an easy to convert FLV files, or other things downloaded from the web, give Replay Converter a try.
A big thank you to our customers! Recently we sent out two sets of emails asking some of you to answer a few marketing and product development questions. The responses we received were amazing! We were incredibly surprised and pleased by the number of you who took the time to answer our questions; thoughtfully and carefully. We are so lucky to have such a wonderfully supportive and smart customer base.
You may not realize how small a company Applian is. While it’s true that we sell our software worldwide there are only a handful of us who develop, support and market Applian products. The answers we receive from you are incredibly valuable to us both in understanding how to position our current products but also in guiding us in developing future recording software. It means a lot that you have provided so many smart insights and ideas. Thank you.
We just wanted to let you know how much we appreciate you! And please feel free to keep sharing. We are always happy to hear new and unusual product usage stories or to hear your suggestions for future products and features.
Thanks!
All the best,
Bill & all the folks at Applian
So Google just announced their Google TV. It’s not like this is a surprise, and it’s nothing really revolutionary. It’s essentially a Windows Media Center combined with the ability to play YouTube-like on-demand clips on your TV.
From our perspective, we saw this coming for a long time. We used to advertise heavily on Google Adwords, until one day the criterion for advertisers magically changed and we were blacklisted. Now, you can’t run any Google ad that links to Applian.com. Even our corporate credit cards have been banned. Why did this happen? It’s very likely that Google has been negotiating content relationships with the big studios, who HATE anything having to do with recording media.
If Google could show these big guys that they too hated recording, it would help smooth the way towards getting these deals signed. Curiously, some of our competitors still advertise on “record streaming media” and other similar searches.
Legally, Google has the right to refuse to run any ads they deem unfit. However, if they are blacklisting specific advertisers to protect another part of their business, then it’s my understanding that this practice is illegal. Any IP lawyers out there want to chime in?
Despite Google’s efforts, our business is thriving, as we have many different ways of recording streaming videos through our Replay Capture Suite – all of them legal. Our Replay Video Capture will always be able to record Google TV legally, no matter what kind of copy protection scheme they put on top of it.
We just discovered that cbs.com, abc.com and nbc.com are no longer using a video encryption system to stream their videos. Apparently they have become smart to the fact that getting more distribution of their shows (with the ads included) makes more business sense.
This also means that Replay Media Catcher can capture episodes from these sites. So if you want to make a recording from these network shows, you can do so with Media Catcher.
See for yourself – give downloading videos from CBS, NBC or ABC a try!
After a lot of work, and a few false starts, we’ve finally published what we consider to be the best Skype recording solution ever: Replay Telecorder.
Both voice and video chat conversations can be recorded, just by clicking the Start button. As with all of our products, we have made it as easy to use as possible.
Replay Telecorder is a true stream-capture recorder, which means that you get perfect bit-for-bit recordings, and there is no messing around with audio hardware settings or video capture windows.
Check it out!
Quick Applian news: we launched our brand spankin’ new web site last week. We’ve tried to simplify the navigation, and make more use of video throughout the site.
More cool stuff coming…
If you share a computer, and have ever downloaded videos that you want to keep private, you’ll be interested in our new Video Padlock software. Introductory priced at $19.95, Video Padlock makes it easy to password-protect hundreds of videos that reside on your PC. Entering a single master password gives to access to your video library. Without a password, no access.
You can try it now free from here:
http://applian.com/video-padlock
Let us know what you think!
If you’re interested in seeing one of the dumbest business ideas ever, have a look at the new Comcasttown.com web site. I heard an ad for it on the radio, and was thinking “Cool. Now I can stream those Comcast TV shows to my PC.” I am a subscriber, so I figured they had finally worked out some content deals to get me the TV I already pay for onto my PC.
What I got looks suspiciously like the Webkinz kids site. (My kids play on it constantly, so I know it well. And it’s great – for them.) Basically, you’re given a “room”, and you can buy virtual furniture for it with virtual cash, and there’s a Facebook connect thing where you can invite your friends to come over to your virtual room and do god knows what.
The irony is that this is a wrapper over Fancast.com. Why shouldn’t I go to Fancast (or Hulu) to watch TV on my PC. Why should I be bothered with this nonsense? Worse, it appears you only get the top 5 shows on Fancast – unless you hunt for more I guess. I ran out of patience before investigating further.
What are they going to do next – come out with a line of Comcast stuffed toys? “Commies”? I’d buy one if it was a likeness of the idiot who came up with this idea so I could stick pins in it.
Let me watch the Cable TV I pay for on my laptop so I can ditch my SlingBox! That’s what I want.
On the plus side, the ad jingle was really, really catchy. And… no, that’s it.
At Applian, we’re really good at designing cool products and marketing them well. If there’s a marketing angle here I don’t see, I’d love to be enlightened. Especially by anyone from Comcast. So, if you’re from Comcast, come defend yourself in the comments!
As online video grows in popularity, some people are considering disconnecting their Cable or Satellite TV services and consuming everything online. Services like Hulu, although owned by the big networks, are showing the promise of an online-only world of programming.
Others want a la carte Cable. They ask “why should I pay for channels I don’t watch?” KInda, sorta makes sense at first.
Most experts think this pay-as-you-go model is unlikely to happen in the near future. The NY Times had a good explanation of the economics and social benefit of bundling cable service. Mark Cuban also breaks this down nicely.
What will happen is that if you have a Cable or Satellite subscription, you will also be able to consume the same media online. Time Warner is already working towards this.
The Cable and Satellite and the Networks aren’t going to kill a very profitable business. But by enhancing it by making the content you already pay for available online, they will get more viewership and be able to serve more ads.
This seems like the best possible solution that balances the interests of consumers and the media companies.