1. adambarrios1's Avatar
    while everyone's waiting for skype to come if it ever does, check out reelportal in the appworld. there's nothing to download on the computer and i was able to chat with four other people at the same time. all they have to do is type in the same "room" name that you create when you first log in. be sure to either have head phones on or make sure you start with your volume all the way down and keep your mic far from the speaker if you're on the computer. headphones work best for the PB. also the flower icon with the + will increase video quality if tapped a few times. there is text chatting incorporated too if you'de rather type. once you're on tap the webcam and mic icons to turn them on. tapping the cam icon a second time switches to the rear facing camera. its pretty slick and its free so you can't beat it. if anyone needs any help with trying it out you can bbm me and i'll log on. enjoy everyone!

    *note- if you try doing it while tethering it will say "server timed out. retrying" give it a few seconds and it will connect. the quality isn't nearly as good as wifi, to be expected though
    Last edited by adambarrios; 05-06-11 at 05:17 PM. Reason: update
    05-06-11 04:58 PM
  2. nademon's Avatar
    not a bad stop gap until skype becomes available. just tried it out and it seems workable for now thanks for the link.
    Tinyk likes this.
    05-06-11 06:07 PM
  3. calcareer's Avatar
    This really works and it is so easy to set up. Not only can you use this to have video chats with several people across multiple platforms, but it is designed to be "always on" like a telephone. I set this up on several web cam computers and use them to monitor different rooms.
    I'm still playing around with it, but I'm not sure why we would need to wait for Skype whem there is an application like this NOW!
    05-06-11 06:32 PM
  4. Pegasus829's Avatar
    Great spot, thanks!
    05-06-11 07:12 PM
  5. yzf.shaun's Avatar
    Seems to do the job well. Couldn't realy test it properly but set up on PB and then opened web browser on the net book. Seems easy enough to use.

    Great find thanks.
    05-07-11 11:27 AM
  6. reelportal's Avatar
    @adambarrios I'm the developer of ReelPortal. Thanks for your feedback.

    I just want to mention that most recent laptops/netbooks have echo cancellation (AEC) built-in the HD Audio driver, but they usually default to OFF. So you just need to enable it. On Windows, it's usually under the Control Panel. I found that these audio drivers do a better job (probably because it utilizes hardware AEC) than pure software AEC.

    Adobe is currently beta testing a version of Flash/AIR (for PC) that has software AEC. So I think it will come to the mobile platform soon. I'd imagine the audio chipset in these tablets would have hardware AEC, but wonder if there's a way to switch it on.
    paladinjn likes this.
    05-13-11 09:24 PM
  7. adambarrios1's Avatar
    @adambarrios I'm the developer of ReelPortal. Thanks for your feedback.

    I just want to mention that most recent laptops/netbooks have echo cancellation (AEC) built-in the HD Audio driver, but they usually default to OFF. So you just need to enable it. On Windows, it's usually under the Control Panel. I found that these audio drivers do a better job (probably because it utilizes hardware AEC) than pure software AEC.

    Adobe is currently beta testing a version of Flash/AIR (for PC) that has software AEC. So I think it will come to the mobile platform soon. I'd imagine the audio chipset in these tablets would have hardware AEC, but wonder if there's a way to switch it on.
    thanks i appreciate it. i'll definitely have to let my family know about this, it worked like a charm. they absolutely love this so much better than skype and so do all the friends i've told. the only thing that's been asked by everyone is will it be offered to ipads and android phones, not just android tablets? thanks
    05-13-11 09:36 PM
  8. reelportal's Avatar
    Wow, that's cool to hear. Skype is like a 800lb gorilla in this field, so I don't expect a lot of ppl to get my "no account required" approach.

    For Android phones, all I'm waiting for is Adobe to update AIR to support the front camera. Then, it would be on par with the Playbook. Currently, only the back camera works.

    For iPhone/iPad, I think I can do it in a couple of weekends. The only obstacle for me is that I'd have to buy a Mac computer, an iPad, and pay a hefty Apple developer fee . It'd take sometime to save up to buy all these stuff.

    RIM makes it so much easier to develop for the Playbook, at zero cost.
    05-13-11 10:35 PM
  9. adambarrios1's Avatar
    that's right i remember reading about that issue with the androids. sorry about all the apple fees, i guess that's one more reason why people should switch to the playbook now. users and developers the same. if you are ever able to make it for the ipad let me know if you need testers. i have a friend who just switched to the playbook and gave his wife his ipad2 that would try it. he was blown away when i showed him reelportal. my wife also has a mytouch4g that i like to try your app on as well. so i'm definitely looking forward to your updates, you've definitely developed something great thats only going to get bigger and better. let me know if i can ever help with anything, your work is appreciated.
    05-13-11 10:46 PM
  10. jessi449's Avatar
    Has anyone else been having issues getting the pc/web version to work? Ive been trying to test this out with a friend, but whenever she goes to the site she always gets a "connecting to server" message and nothing will come up.
    05-14-11 12:19 PM
  11. Vidge's Avatar
    I haven't had any issues with it. It's been great!
    05-14-11 12:23 PM
  12. reelportal's Avatar
    @adambarrios Yeah. Any other software I make, it'd probably for the Playbook first. Also, thanks for the offer. I will let you know.

    @jessi449 Does she have a Playbook or another PC to try on? My guess is perhaps she has a firewall that blocks port 1935 used by ReelPortal.
    adambarrios1 likes this.
    05-14-11 03:21 PM
  13. drethos's Avatar
    that is very cool thanks for the free app. awsome
    05-14-11 04:09 PM
  14. jessi449's Avatar
    She is using a pc. Ill have her check the firewall settings.
    05-15-11 08:06 PM
  15. reelportal's Avatar
    @drethos You're welcome. Glad u like it.

    @adambarrios I have a prototype working on the iPod Touch 4th Gen, which should also works on iPhone4/iPad2. Quite a few things are broken due to Apple's restrictions, but the basic audio/video streams are working fine. If you're interested in testing it, please send me an email [email protected]. I'm still figuring out how to distribute it to testers though.
    06-03-11 03:27 PM
  16. lawmom4's Avatar
    @reelportal my son and I just set this up on his laptop and my Playbook. He is travelling to Ecuador for a year and I have been trying to find an alternative to Skype. Thanks for this great app!
    06-03-11 08:11 PM
  17. reelportal's Avatar
    @lawmom4 you're welcome. it's good to hear how everyone is using it.
    06-04-11 06:52 PM
  18. dsaynt's Avatar
    Awesome App!! I'm absolutely delighted!! hopefully other tablets would come on board and we'd have super cross platforming. Anyways I'm glad the playbook got it first!! Now I've got bragging rights where my ipad loving friends are.
    06-06-11 10:29 AM
  19. reelportal's Avatar
    Thanks for the compliments! Yes, iPhone/iPad version is the last major platform to port to. Then I can put more effort on the audio/video quality, as well as making the user interface nicer.

    I'd appreciate it if you leave me a positive feedback on AppWorld.
    06-07-11 10:08 PM
  20. Cazurela's Avatar
    while everyone's waiting for skype to come if it ever does, check out reelportal in the appworld. there's nothing to download on the computer and i was able to chat with four other people at the same time. all they have to do is type in the same "room" name that you create when you first log in. be sure to either have head phones on or make sure you start with your volume all the way down and keep your mic far from the speaker if you're on the computer. headphones work best for the PB. also the flower icon with the + will increase video quality if tapped a few times. there is text chatting incorporated too if you'de rather type. once you're on tap the webcam and mic icons to turn them on. tapping the cam icon a second time switches to the rear facing camera. its pretty slick and its free so you can't beat it. if anyone needs any help with trying it out you can bbm me and i'll log on. enjoy everyone!

    *note- if you try doing it while tethering it will say "server timed out. retrying" give it a few seconds and it will connect. the quality isn't nearly as good as wifi, to be expected though
    Just tried it with my wife's Captivate and my Playbook! Works amazing! bye bye Skype...
    06-07-11 10:11 PM
  21. reelportal's Avatar
    @cazurela great to hear! but i thought the Captivate doesn't have a front camera...well you can always receive incoming video, and send video out the rear camera
    06-07-11 11:02 PM
  22. Wbrian's Avatar
    @cazurela great to hear! but i thought the Captivate doesn't have a front camera...well you can always receive incoming video, and send video out the rear camera

    Could always use it in front of a mirror...
    06-10-11 09:01 PM
  23. Wolfgan's Avatar
    Or try something like Home | iSnapMe.com
    06-11-11 09:30 AM
  24. sterling_bandit's Avatar
    @reelportal, nice work on the app. you ought to set up a paypal thing for donations, it was free after all and some off us wanna show our appreciation. thanks man, great work!
    06-11-11 02:16 PM
  25. reelportal's Avatar
    @sterling thanks for the suggestion. i actually put in the donation thing on the download page a couple weeks back, but perhaps it's not as visible. so i just moved it to its own separate page now.

    Reel Talk - www.ReelPortal.com: Donate

    i'm also looking for donation of server time (i.e. hosting a public ReelPortal server).

    btw, not many ppl may realize this, but the server software is also free to download and run on your own network.
    06-12-11 02:39 AM
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