WORLD CUP GIVEAWAY: Week 2

Enter to Win!

We’re in the thick of it! All week we’ve been discussing our favorite moments, exciting plays, and of course, who we’re rooting for. In the meantime, it’s been awesome to see all the entries from last week’s contest. After much deliberation, we picked Billy B, who answered our Mad Lib:

I am so excited for World Cup 2014 that I entered this contest so I could give my best friend the opportunity to record the World Cup event.

Good job, Billy! See, nice guys win too. We hope that your friend loves their Replay Capture Suite AND we’ll be touch with you about that jersey.

Want one too? You’re in luck. Each week until the World Cup ends, we’ve got a giveaway opportunity! Answer our question this week below and be entered to win our awesome Suite of products and a FIFA World Cup jersey of your choice!

Question This Week:

What’s your 2014 World Cup ritual?

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    Note: By entering this contest you’ll be signed up to receive the Applian Technologies monthly-ish newsletter. You must confirm your subscription in order to be entered to win. Don’t worry…you can unsubscribe at any time. Please look for a confirmation email from us!

    WORLD CUP GIVEAWAY: Week 1

    Enter to win

    IT STARTS TODAY! Are you excited? We certainly are! Any month-long tournament that pits the best athletes of multiple countries against each other in “the most beautiful game” is always going to be an event. In honor of this rare (okay, every four years) occurrence, we’ve decided to launch a weekly fun giveaway.

    What do you have to do to enter? Glad you asked. Basically, nothing! Each week we will pose a fun and interesting question, simply send your answer along with your name and valid email address and – BOOM! You’re entered to win.

    What will you win? Aside from our amazing Suite of products valued at $125, which you can keep for yourself or fellow soccer fan if you already own a copy, we are also going to award you a high-quality official FIFA jersey (of the team of your choice), valued at $90 a pop!

    This week, our inaugural question is in the form of a Mad Lib (225 characters max). Answer away!

    Question This Week:

    I am so excited about World Cup 2014 that I ______________.

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      Note: By entering this contest you’ll be signed up to receive the Applian Technologies monthly-ish newsletter. You must confirm your subscription in order to be entered to win. Don’t worry…you can unsubscribe at any time. Please look for a confirmation email from us!

      GOOOOOAAAAAAL: World Cup 2014 & Replay Video Capture

      Record the 2014 World Cup with Replay Video Capture

      World Cup frenzy has officially begun! And whether you’re rooting for your geographical homeland, cultural favorite, or just watching for the fun of it, the month-long once-every-four-years tournament is definitely an exciting event to get “into” even if fútbol isn’t your most-watched sport.

      One of the big bummers about the internationally played tournament is that the live games come on at all kinds of crazy times. We’re not exactly big fans of getting up super early on a Friday morning just to see if Spain will make it to the finals, nor would we be very good at our jobs if we left work in the middle of the day to catch a match, so thankfully, we’ve made Replay Video Capture to help you record and keep all the 2014 World Cup action.

      Check out our tutorial video on how you can use this (amazing) product to replay the matches at your leisure… preferably in your teams’ colors and appropriate national beverage. (Sangria? Red wine? Tea?)

       

      Stay tuned here for more World Cup fun. We have some stuff up our sleeves! Be sure to check out the free trial of Replay Video Capture before kick-off THIS THURSDAY, JUNE 12th!

      Try it for FREE today!

      NETFLIX CONFLIX: What We’re Watching

      Sometimes the hardest part of watching a movie is simply picking one out. To help you avoid those cinematic confrontations, here’s a list of Netflix Streaming movies and shows that we’re super into right now. In fact, feel free to “win the war” and schedule Netflix to record with Replay Video Capture even when you’re away. So when the time comes, you’ve got some serious ammo ready. You’re welcome!

      Bob’s Burgers: Your new answer to the Simpsons. This adult cartoon is hilarious in all the right places and a perfect way to get some giggles when you come home after a long day of work. Without the annoying commercials, animated shows like this one are totally worth the time.

      Record Bob's Burgers on Netflix with Replay Video Capture

      End Of Watch: Not exactly family-friendly, but this riveting thriller about Los Angeles cops is intense and feels real enough that you walk away with a new perspective of police work. Amazingly acted, this emotionally gripping story is worth sitting through.

      Record End of Watch on Netflix with Replay Video Capture

      Muscle Shoals: A top-notch music documentary for those interested in rock, blues, and soul. Illustrating the sounds that seeped from the small Alabama town, Muscle Shoals during the 50s, 60s, and 70s, the films features cameos from Aretha Franklin, Mick Jagger, Bono and Alicia Keys. You’ll be tapping your foot the whole time.

      Record Muscle Shoals on Netflix with Replay Video Capture

      Drinking Buddies: This under-rated indie comedy about two friends who take a vacation with their significant others is a far cry from the rom-com nightmares. If you’re looking for the realism, humor, tension and feel-goodness that actual relationships bring, then this one should top the list.

      Record Drinking Buddies on Netflix with Replay Video Capture

      Oh, and you should definitely record these now rather than later because Netflix has a tendency to discontinue streaming movies and crush your Instant Queue to smithereens. Plus, we think you might just want to watch these again, so recording them with Replay Video Capture is highly recommended.

      Check out how to schedule Netflix recordings above. This way you can schedule Replay Video Capture to record when you’re snoozing or away from your PC. Don’t have this magical software? Go buy it today and use the coupon code NETFLIX2014 to get $5 off your purchase of Replay Video Capture!

      Let’s Talk About Replay Media Catcher and HTTPS

      Replay Media Catcher HTTPS/SSL Scanning

      Keeping up with the constant changes in streaming protocols is just the job for Replay Media Catcher‘s Engineers. They like a challenge and frequently whip up very smart solutions to very tough problems. If you’ve installed the most recent version of Replay Media Catcher, you’ll see that we’ve made some great improvements. And if you like to download streams from YouTube, then you’ve likely seen the new prompt to install a CA certificate. So what’s that all about? Have no fear! We’re here to break it down for you. Let’s get nerdy, shall we?

      YouTube and some other sites now stream their media over an HTTPS connection by default. So what is HTTPS? Hyper Text Transfer Protocol Secure is the secure version of http. Typically used when a secure connection is necessary. Like for ecommerce transactions and such. When you connect to a website that is using HTTPS, the session is encrypted with a Digital Certificate.

      Let’s first look at how Replay Media Catcher downloads, then we’ll explain how installing the CA Certificate helps it to do it’s job better.  When you switch on Replay Media Catcher, it starts sniffing the network traffic. Looking for media to download. As you come across streaming video or music, Replay Media Catcher decodes that network traffic and if it understands what it is seeing on the network, it tries to detect and download the media based on intelligence we’ve written for that protocol. Pretty slick, right? That’s how Replay Media Catcher can download so much more without browser plugins. It simply does not need them. It only listens to the network.

      Let’s say you’ve switched on Replay Media Catcher’s monitoring and you’re happily browsing along and decide to download the latest viral video on YouTube. Remember we said that YouTube is now streaming their media over an HTTPS connection.. SSL is the standard security technology for establishing an encrypted link between a web server and a browser. When you see HTTPS in the URL, you are using the SSL/TLS protocol to speak to that website. Replay Media Catcher will then not understand that traffic and disregard it.  That sounds like bad news, right? Nope! Read on…

      If you’re running Replay Media Catcher version 5.0.1.46 or later, you’ll notice a new prompt when it first sees media from a site that is streaming over HTTPS. This prompt explains that in order for Replay Media Catcher to scan for media that is streamed over HTTPS, a CA certificate is required to be created. A CA (Certificate Authority) is an authority in a network that issues and manages security credentials.

      You can choose to allow HTTPS scanning or not. If you choose no, Replay Media Catcher will ignore any HTTPS streaming and you’ll be sad. That breaks my heart. Say YES!

      Replay Media Catcher HTTPS

      If you choose YES, (and we recommend you do) then Windows will prompt you to install the CA certificate.  Windows presents you with this:

      Windows Security Warning

      The title of the window says “Security Warning”. Yeah, well…it’s not a problem. Windows is just letting you know that a certificate is about to be installed. Windows says that it cannot validate the certificate as actually being from Replay Media Catcher, but have no fear. We have created a certificate called Replay Media Catcher 5 SSL Scanner Root. Essentially, it allows Replay Media Catcher to scan HTTPS traffic like that being served by YouTube for downloadable media. It is absolutely safe. And you are not putting yourself or your computer in any danger by installing it.

      Don’t miss out on all the great streaming goodness that Replay Media Catcher can download. It’s waaay smarter than any other streaming media downloader. Guaranteed!

      Don’t hesitate to contact us with any questions!

      Nice Feature Update for Replay Radio

      Free update for Replay Radio

      We just finished cooking up a nice little free update for Replay Radio.  Now you can set a scheduled recording to split into seperate files. You choose the intervals however you like.

      The new Splitting feature is located in the Advanced tab of each of your scheduled shows.

      Schedule - Advanced

      We also squashed a few bugs, improved file conversions and added support for line-in recording.

      This update is FREE for all current Replay Radio 9 subscribers. Go get it!

      From Our Desk to Yours: Adventures in Customer Service – Part 2

      Adventures in Customer Service

      Welcome to another installment of From Our Desk to Yours. Applian Technologies has always been a customer-oriented software company. With a number of products that help people record video and audio off the Internet, we’ve learned a thing or two about customer service over the years so we thought we’d share how we roll. We care so much about it; this one is a double volume post. You can read Part 1 here .

      What We’ve Learned

      • Use tools, fools. Take advantage of the best services offered. We love Zendesk for managing every single ticket submitted by our customers. And Basecamp is great for tracking and reporting bugs to our developers. We’re always on the lookout for new services that make our service better. Got any others we should know about?
      • Sometimes people would rather fix it themselves. We offer lots of self-help options, like user guides, FAQ’s and an online troubleshooter. An online tool to find a lost activation code is really appreciated by our customers and cuts down the time our team has to spend searching for it. We appreciate those customers who (like us) love to troubleshoot and solve problems – even though we’re always here for that extra support.
      • Keep updates and upgrades simple. We try to avoid over-complicated language and processes so that you know exactly what you’re getting when our genius engineers come up with new releases or improvements. Here’s our upgrade and update policy.
      • A happy staff is a loyal hard-working staff. We allow them to work from home and provide them with the tools and equipment that they need to do their work efficiently. They are true team players and recognized as experts and professionals. Just like our customers, we would not exist without a stellar support staff.
      • Keep Developers out of Customer Service. Let’s face it: software developers are a breed all their own. Ours are diligent and brilliant coders that survive on caffeine and chocolate. And like most proud parents, they’re super-connected to the products they create. They can take criticism personally and get grumpy if not treated with the utmost care. So, we let our strategists and Level 2 support communicate any shortcomings and feature requests directly to them. We speak nerd so you don’t have to.
      • Make it easy to get in touch. Our customers really like the convenience of the self-help tools that we provide. And we’ve heard great things about our ticket-based help desk, which you can read for yourself here. We’re often asked why we don’t offer customer support by telephone. It’s a fair question and one we don’t mind explaining; telephone support is expensive. So much so that we’d need to charge for it, or increase our software prices. Neither option has ever seemed very appealing to our customers. So we stick to what works.

      As a customer, what are some of the ways that a company can show you that they value your business? We hope we’re on your list of favorite companies. If not, let us know how we can do better.

      Dr. Wilson’s Possibly humorous Distraction – Vol. 3

      Dr. Wilson's Possibly humorous Distraction

      Today, we are doing SCIENCE! Did a parent ever warn you not to stick a soda in the freezer? Sure, that may have been a rhetorical question, but what about sticking a can of soda in liquid nitrogen? NurdRage on YouTube does all kinds of science experiments … and you should probably let him do them instead of trying yourself.

      Oh, and if you are having trouble downloading YouTube videos with Replay Media Catcher 5, make sure that secure http (https) is not being used. See here for more information.

      New Feature: From PC To Plate in Seconds!

      From PC to Plate!

      Online hunger is a serious epidemic and surfing the interwebs can lead to significant increases in appetite. Applian is proud to announce that we’ve developed a brand new feature for our Replay Video Capture software that’s sure to curb your cravings. Now you can simply capture the delicious meals you see online and have them replicated to your desk. Everything from apple tarts to zucchini bread, Replay Video Capture now truly “captures everything”!

      Our industrious engineers and developers have found the secret sauce of “capture code” that will bring your favorite screen-nourishments straight to your keyboard and into your mouth. Using Replay Video Capture’s easy-to-use interface and usability, capture the recipe results from all those streaming services online.

      Watch our demo video and start salivating:

      So grab your forks, friends. Check it out today!