Kyte.tv is a new service that lets people create their own TV channel. It's a bit of a mashup between a live blogging tool, a social network, and some of the live Internet TV channels we've been seeing lately with Justin.tv, and UStream.tv. Although, instead of strapping a camera to your head, you can use a cell phone.
The mobile client is a small Java application for several Nokia and Sony Ericsson phones that allows Kyte.tv users to upload photos and chat with others in a Kyte.tv channel. The mobile live blogging component is called "Lifecasting" which lets users upload pictures from their camera phone in real time. You can set it to automatically take a picture every few minutes, or every time you click the shutter. Either way, photos will show up on your channel instantly and viewers will get a visual notification that you're "live."
Kyte.tv's interface lets you swap between programs, chat, and live polls.
(Credit: CNET Networks)Kyte.tv channel owners can create as many channels as they want and add music, photos, videos, polls and text. A channel consists of a display screen, a playlist, and integrated chat room. Each channel also gets its own custom URL and branding, which is chosen by the channel owner. Alternately, there's embed code to place the entire Kyte.tv experience on a social networking profile or blog post (like we've done after the break).
One thing to note about adding music: you can't upload your own tracks. Instead you have to pick from a small selection of music from indie music service IODA. It's a lot like the music integration you get with Photobucket's video Remix tool.
What Kyte.tv has done really well is the live chat room. While it's lacking admin controls and private conversation options, you're getting the same chat experience on your computer and your phone. It's also really easy to use, as long as you're handy with your phone's keypad.
Kyte.tv is a fun service that opens up a lot of options for live blogging. Like we've seen with Twitter, mobile blogging has exploded with the help of easy-to-use tools that can be used and accessed on multiple platforms. Likewise, live video broadcasting has become something normal people can do with services like Pocketcaster and UStream.tv. Kyte.tv is happy medium between the two.
We'll be broadcasting live at various points during the day, so to visit our Kyte.tv channel, just click the read more link below.
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(Credit:
CNET Networks)
YackPack, the group Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) chat and messaging service we covered last month, has launched a new zero-configuration widget to complement its chatting service. The new widget can be placed in blogs, Web sites, social networking profiles, and forums--practically anywhere embeds are allowed. It's dead simple with a single button you push to talk with others. There's no registration, and no need to install any software--it just works.
The widget has three flavors: one that starts live (meaning you hear others chatting whether you want to or not), an opt-in that requires user input to begin, and a custom URL version that will work across your entire site, no matter how many different pages you embed it in. In all the versions, there's a small number in the bottom right-hand corner that will let you know how many other people are using the widget. If you've had enough of their chatter, there's an X button on the top right to put the widget to sleep.
The Walkie-talkie widget joins YackPack's YackPlayer widget, which lets users embed and share audio messages in a way similar to Jaxtr's VoiceBlast, which we wrote about earlier this week. See also Snapvine.
We've embedded the widget after the break to speed up our page load, so just click "Read More" to begin chatting with other Webware readers.
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Lingr is a really slick chat service that launched late last year. Lingr lets you create and manage Web chatrooms, combined with some handy technologies to help you keep track of conversations, even when you're not there.
I recently broke down a few of the top apps for chatting, both Web based and software downloads, but Lingr is a straight up chat destination as opposed to a piggy-backing service. Lingr lets you create your own tags for a chat room to make it easily searchable by others. These tags show up in a tag cloud on the front door of Lingr.com, and grow with size based on popularity. Clicking any of these tags will pull down a listing of rooms that contain that tag. It feels a little bit like Flickr.
Each chat room is pretty straightforward with a user list and a chat area. Room owners can even upload their own graphic to brand the room. Everything written is automatically archived, and can be seen by everyone, which is a little more obtrusive than some other casual Web chat apps (like Yaplet which only keeps 20 lines of chat), but if you're used to Gmail-like back-up, Lingr has you covered.
(Credit:
CNET Networks)
If you want to keep track of live conversations without keeping an open Lingr window, you can use Lingr Radar, which is a small (~400k) download for Mac OSX and Windows. Radar sits on your taskbar (or command bar on a Mac) and pops up with live messages for whatever chat rooms you've set up to track. It's pretty much like an RSS feed for chatrooms. I wouldn't use this, but it's nice for people who want to keep an eye on a conversation while doing something else on their computer.
To share a Lingr room with others, you can create a Lingr badge. Each badge shows basic room information like the room name, and how many people are currently in the room. Clicking the link takes you straight to the room (see embed below). You can also use your own CSS to match the look and the feel of the badge with your Web site. This is great for blogs.
Lingr is a simple solution for Web chat. I like that it doesn't take over your browser window with a sidebar, and the archiving functions are pretty handy if you're into logging things, or catching up on what's going on in a conversation. I'd like to see some skinning options to customize the look and feel of rooms a little bit, but as it stands it's no frills visual style is clean and useful.
There have been several communication tools on Webware in the last few days. Joining the party is Yackpack, a messaging tool that lets you chat live as a group or swap recorded messages to group members, all within your Web browser.
Yackpack creates a visual chat room for you, with floating faces representing users. Playing and recording messages is handled through a slick and simple player that sits in the top right of the interface. Handling who you are and aren't talking to is as simple as clicking icons. Toggling all group members is managed with a single select all button. You also can add and remove users without having to leave the app, which is very nicely implemented.
Leaving voice messages for others is a simple affair; however retrieving them is a bit cumbersome. When someone sends you a message, you'll be notified by e-mail. Clicking the provided link takes you to a separate Yackpack module where you can listen to the message. If you're already using Yackpack, you can just click under a user's name, and it pulls up an in-box of sorts with messages he or she has sent. I'd like to see some sort of notification within the app, though, and a centralized place to view all your messages.
Group chat is fairly simple, although not compared with a software alternative such as Skype. Yackpack is similar to using walkie-talkies or a push-to-talk enabled mobile phone--it's turn-based instead of real-time chatter. This could be a problem in a real brainstorming situation where you can't just jut in with your ideas, and you also might be unable to click the talk button if you're doing something else on your computer.
What might be Yackpack's coolest feature is its ability to embed on Web sites or blogs. Below I've added our Webware tester. Yackpack requires registration, but keep in mind you're providing them with a way to let you know when you've received messages from other users. We've also set up a Yackcast, which is an open channel anyone can listen to.
Yackpack is pretty neat, but not without its caveats. If you're used to Skype's no-nonsense group chat, you're likely to hate the need to click a button while talking. On the other hand, getting a bunch of people to install an application to talk can be a pain, which is where embedding makes Yackpack really neat. The fact you can do it for free is even better.
Thanks Jason
Update: Looks like our embed is having some issues. Sorry folks.
Update x2: And we're back up thanks to the devs at Yackpack.
Update x3: We've taken it off the post to speed things up a bit for new posts. In the meantime, you can still find our Yackpack board here: 
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