Goldmail is a new service for creating narrated slide shows. I've seen other multimedia presentation products, but never one as drop-dead easy as this. It's a great tool. And I say this despite the fact that Goldmail's CEO, Guy Longworth, introduced the product to me with worst pitch I've ever heard anyone give a writer: "Text is lifeless." Gee, thanks.
To create a talkie in Goldmail, first you grab your images, either from your hard disk, by taking screen grabs, or by creating text slides in Goldmail. You sort the images into the order you want. Then you press Record, and while you're talking, click the "next slide" button to advance the show (you can also use an audio file from your PC). Goldmail records the transition points. It's a more natural authoring environment than any other I have used.
As you are recording your message, you press "Next Slide" to advance the slide show. That's really all there is to Goldmail, and why it's so easy to use.
Once you've created your presentation, you get an option to e-mail it, link to it, or embed it. I like that the app doesn't pretend it's an e-mail client or a blogging tool--but it gives you just what you need to work with the tools you already use.
The image uploader in the Goldmail download is better than most Web-based image apps.
It's not flashy, though. There's no control for transitions. You can't overlay a music track. You can't embed or record video in a show. And it's far too easy to backtrack and mistakenly erase your audio track. But for creating a slide show, either of photos you want to share with your family or of a collection of slides you want to make into a business or academic presentation, it can't be beat.
One major downside: The Goldmail authoring platform is downloadable software. There's no Mac version. The team is working on a Web 2.0 version that will be open to everyone, but it's not here yet.
The consumer version of Goldmail is free and allows unlimited views for your talkies, but all messages end with advertising. There's a pro version for $9.95 a month that has no ads and that offers tracking, so you can see who's viewing your messages and when.
Longworth says he's already having success pitching Goldmail to nonprofits and other companies who want to send out pitches that tug on the heartstrings, which a talking slide show can, I admit, do better than most text.
The Goldmail site is live now, and I expect the company to make its big announcement on Monday.
See also: Vizzvox and VoiceThread (review).
Read on to see an embedded Goldmail presentation.
... Read more
VoiceThread is a photo sharing tool that launched earlier this month. It lets users upload photos from their hard drive or Flickr, and add voice and text annotations to each slide. These 'VoiceBooks' can be embedded in blogs, Web sites, or MySpace profiles. Other users can comment on each slide, with up to 28 comments per picture. The service is selling itself as a voice forum tool.
The VoiceBook creation process is handled entirely within one window, without the need to refresh or hop pages. It's pretty user-friendly, and adding photos is incredibly easy. In just a few minutes, I had managed to put together a small slide show of photos, using the 'import from Flickr' feature.
One really neat feature is the painting tool, which lets you do on-screen writing (like football commentators on TV) to match your voice narration. This is especially helpful if you want to highlight a detail or two on a complex photo. You can also pick the brush color, although to nitpick, you can't select it until you've started your voice recording. Users can also circle and doodle on your image with their personal narration.
Also neat is the photo navigation, which feels a little bit like OS X's Expose. Clicking the thumbnail button will zoom out and show you all the photos in the set. Clicking on any of them will zoom in again. Once you're viewing a photo, you can simply click it to zoom in. It's very intuitive.
ChinSwing (previous coverage) experimented with the idea of audio message boards. For all intents and purposes, quality comments to a photo can really enhance the viewing experience. On the other hand, you're likely to hear something you don't like, or come across some heavy mic breathers while browsing other people's work.
I've embedded a VoiceBook I made below.
- prev
- 1
- next
