[kcmagnet]

Just got off video chat with my folks across the country, and thought I'd share a couple of cool O2 enhancements I found.

I usually hook my Playbook into my big screen T.V. for Video Chat, using an aftermarket GPS unit holder as a tripod. This way my folks can see me, my wife and 2-year old son all at once on the couch, and we don't have to saint at a 7" screen that's halfway across the room. With OS1 when I plugged the playbook in through HDMI, I would see my Playbook video chat screen mirrored on the TV. This time, when I plugged it in, I noticed that I didn't see the little "preview" window with my picture in it when I looked at the TV. So I looked over at the playbook to see what was wrong, and I noticed two things:. First, the little "Presentation Mode" icon (like the one that shows up on the video player when you are plugged into HDMI) was glowing. Second, I noticed that the full 7" playbook screen was now my preview window! So now with the playbook sitting right next to the TV, I now had it's full 7" screen showing what my wife and I loomed like on the couch, and the full big TV showing the view of my parents.

I didn't try to switch apps while chatting with my parents, but I'd be willing to bet that their image would have stayed streaming on the TV screen as I pawed through other apps. These may seem like little things, but it sure made video chatting a nicer experience, and I can see it being a really cool feature for work applications, when you are trying to check figures in another document on the playbook while you're video chatting.

PS: For anyone out there with young kids, the "HD audio" added to video chat is an awesome improvement. It used to be that when my dad was trying to say something and my son was screaming in the background, My dad's voice would cut out, and I couldn't hear what he was saying. Now I can hear him over the screaming no problem! It's better than my land-line speaker phone.

Anyways, just thought I would share. Sorry for the long post.

[samson47]

I like your post. It's well written & practical. Thanks for the post. Top notch!