Cool testimonial for Gmail video chat

Saw this on YouTube today. It's great to see people having fun with our product.

Tweet your Gmail video chat experiences!

Searching Twitter for "Gmail video chat" or "Google video chat" has been a great way for us to see how people are using the service. Some great recent tweets:

"set up gmail video chat for my parents for while i'm away. they're so impressed that i can click a series of buttons and magically appear." (link)

"Google video chat is pretty awesome in terms of a free service. I am left wondering why Google is not promoting it more aggressively." (link)

"Just discovered Gmail's "Archive" feature, along with a whole slew of things I didn't know existed. Best video chat ever." (link)

Our team keeps an eye on these feeds, so if you include "Gmail video chat", "Google video chat", or #googlevideochat in your tweet, you can be sure we'll see it!

You can also follow me on Twitter at http://twitter.com/juberti

Gmail video chat on a plane!

Video Chatting at 35,000 Feet Works Pretty Darn Well - The Steve Rubel Lifestream

As an experiment I tried having a real-time video chat with my dad using Gmail and it worked relatively well. Video/sound cut in and out. Still, it was all quite manageable as you can see from the screen capture...

Gmail voice and video v1.0.10

Today, we released the 1.0.10 update for the Gmail voice and video chat software. All current installations will begin an automatic update within the next 24 hours. If you do not want to wait, you can visit http://mail.google.com/videochat and re-run the installer.

You can use your Gmail account to find out what version is currently installed. Simply go to the Gmail Settings page and look under the "Chat" tab. You will see the plugin version under the "Learn more" link, in small type.

Here's what's new in version 1.0.10:

General fixes:

• When uploading a log file to Google, we now display an incident ID that you can use when reporting an issue.
• Improved software auto-updates to now complete successfully even if Gmail is open, so upgrading to the latest version now happens more quickly. (We are still working on improving this on Windows Vista.)
• Improved call setup time when behind firewalls that only allow outgoing HTTP/HTTPS.
• Fixed issue where a device access dialog box would sometimes appear when starting a call.
• Fixed crash when using a software firewall that caused UDP socket creation to fail.
• Fixed crash that could occur in rare cases when a timing function returned the same value twice in a row.

Windows-specific fixes:

• Fixed an issue on Vista where software auto-updates could cause the browser to suddenly restart.
• Fixed an issue where having the 'Sony BlueTooth Video' camera device would cause the browser to crash.
• Fixed various issues with code signing.

Mac-specific fixes:

• Fixed an issue on 10.5.7 where the microphone would only work for the first call.
• Fixed several issues with the installer that could cause preflight_script errors or other problems.
• Fixed an issue where the built-in iSight camera could fail to be detected.
• Fixed an issue where audio and video would suddently freeze about 2 minutes into the call.
• Fixed an issue where the plugin could get into a loop and consume 100% CPU.

If you're on 1.0.10 and still having a problem, please report it on the Gmail voice and video chat forums. As always, feel free to email me directly as well.

Lastly, thanks to everyone who has written in asking about support for Linux. We've had to rewrite a key piece of technology, so this has taken some time. However, the results will be worth the wait.

Gmail voice and video v1.0.8

Today, we released the 1.0.8 update for the Gmail voice and video chat software. All current installations will begin an automatic update within the next 24 hours. If you do not want to wait, you can visit http://mail.google.com/videochat and re-run the installer.

You can use your Gmail account to find out what version is currently installed. Simply go to the Gmail Settings page and look under the "Chat" tab. You will see the plugin version under the "Learn more" link, in small type.

Here's what's new in version 1.0.8:

• Added support for the H.264/AVC video codec, in addition to the H.264/SVC codec that we typically use. This allows us to be compatible with video software that does not yet support SVC. When using H.264/AVC, Gmail video chat will send and expect in-band parameter sets, and send using a single-NAL RTP packetization.
• Made several improvements to voice quality, including additional tuning of our echo cancellation and automatic gain control algorithms.
• Fixed a problem where device settings would not be saved in some cases if no webcam was present.
• Fixed a problem where the browser plugin would sometimes not be detected by Gmail, even though it was installed.
• Fixed various crashes in the browser plugin.
• On Windows, fixed a problem where video chat would never work in certain network conditions. This was most often seen when using wireless broadband or other types of PPPoE connections.
• On Windows, fixed a problem where certain Sony Vaio cameras could cause the browser to crash when starting a video chat.
• On Windows, fixed a problem where certain Creative cameras could cause Chrome to display a "sad plugin" when starting a video chat.
• On Mac, fixed a problem where users of PostgreSQL (or any other app that uses a lot of shared memory) would see a "black box" instead of video.

If you're on 1.0.8 and still having a problem, please report it on the Gmail voice and video chat forums. As always, feel free to email me directly as well.

Watch YouTube videos right inside Gmail chat

Last week we launched another new feature we've been working on, media previews in Gmail chat. It's pretty cool. Frequently my friends will set YouTube links as their status messages, but from just a bare link, it's hard to tell whether or not the video is worth watching. However, with Gmail media previews, I can mouseover their name in my contact list to see the video title, and with a single click, I can play it right within Gmail.

It's also great for when friends send you a video link in chat. We parse the link and insert a thumbnail with the video title so you know exactly what your friend is trying to share with you (a rickroll, maybe?) Just click on the thumbnail and you can then watch the video right inside Gmail, without opening a new browser window or tab.

It's a fun feature, and makes sharing videos much more interesting. Check it out!

Gmail voice and video v1.0.5

Today we released the 1.0.5 update for the Gmail voice and video chat software. All current installations will begin an automatic update within the next 24 hours. If you do not want to wait, you can visit http://mail.google.com/videochat and re-run the installer.

You can use your Gmail account to find out what version is currently installed. Simply go to the Gmail Settings page and look under the "Chat" tab. You will see the plugin version under the "Learn more" link, in small type.

Here's what's new in version 1.0.5:

• On Windows, enabled sending and receiving video for CPUs without the SSE2 extensions (such as Athlon XP and Pentium III). Due to the lower processing power of these CPUs, the resolution of the sent video will be reduced. 
• On Mac, added support for the macam USB camera driver library, enabling hundreds of branded and generic webcams for mac users.  Some work better than others; depending on the camera, you may experience low performance or errors when using macam. For best results, we recommend having only a single macam device attached, and closing Gmail before plugging or unplugging macam devices.
• On Mac, changed automatic updates to no longer prompt the user to shut down the browser.
  
• Fixed several issues on both platforms where the plugin could crash during or while ending a call.
• Fixed an issue on certain Sony Vaio notebooks where the web browser would crash during call setup.
  
• Fixed an issue on Mac where the plugin would crash during call setup if the installed version of QuickTime was very old.
• Fixed an issue on Mac where old instances of the plugin would still appear in the Activity Monitor.

The fixes in this version should resolve the vast majority of the "my webcam doesn't work with Gmail voice and video" issues. If you're on 1.0.5 and still having a problem, please report it on the Gmail voice and video chat forums. As always, feel free to email me directly as well.

Snow in Seattle, 2008

Winter's officially here in Seattle. After schools were closed on Wednesday on the possibility of snow, we got a few inches on Thursday, which promptly made driving an interesting physics experiment. Today, it was 13 degrees outside when I woke up, and the forecast calls for 4-8 more inches of snow and winds up to 50 MPH. Brrr....