Live Cams Pro v2.0 Coming Soon ...

We have been indicating Live Cams Pro v1.94 would be the next version released but this is no longer the case.  There has been significant changes to Live Cams Pro that we decided that it was worthy of an increment of the major release version so we named this upcoming release Live Cams Pro v2.0.  This new release has the same underlying functionality with some enhancements such as video recording, preliminary RTSP support and a significant change was made to include an improved easy to use user interface.

Future blog posts will have more information on the timing of the Live Cams Pro v2.0 release.

Live Cams Pro now available!

You've probably noticed a slowdown in the updates for Live Cams in 2011. This was due to our intense efforts to produce an entirely new product - Live Cams Pro!

What's new with this app? Why should you get it? Here's the scoop:

1. It's a FREE download. You no longer have to purchase the app to see what it can do. If you try it out and like what you see, in-app purchases are available to unlock the license for public or private camera features. Any purchase will also remove the advertising banner from the main screen.
2. It's a UNIVERSAL BINARY. In simple terms, this means a single version of the program can be installed on all of your iPhone/iPod/iPad devices. If you've purchased a license and then install the app on another device that you own, simply go to the settings screen and tell the app to "Restore Purchases".
3. AUDIO SUPPORT (private cameras only) for many models of Axis, TRENDnet and DLink cameras. We are expanding this offering and as we add support for additional brands and models you will receive free updates.
4. MAP and LIST view modes! If you want to save bandwidth on 3G connections you can switch away from the thumbnail viewing mode and change to a simple text-based list to select cameras from. If you are viewing public cameras and want to select them from a map, that's also supported!
5. GPS features! One of the new built-in camera lists is called "Nearby" and it will find the nearest 100 cameras to your current location. Keep in mind that there are roughly 5000 cameras in the app but they won't necessarily be in your neighborhood or even your city. We will continue to add more content as time goes on.
6. Advanced camera settings. If you enter your own private camera information and it uses one of the camera profiles that support these features, a new menu option will be available that lets you adjust camera properties like contrast, brightness, motion detection on/off, night mode, etc. See this feature matrix to determine what the current features are for each profile.
7. Push notifications. The app supports push notifications so that we can transmit messages to individual devices. Currently this feature is unused but in the future we intend to add additional capabilities to take advantage of it!
8. URL launching. Other applications can launch Live Cams Pro by opening URLs with the "livecamspro://" prefix. This could be used by more complex configurations to automatically launch the app (perhaps when your camera's motion sensor is triggered). We'll talk more about this in a future release :)
9. Full orientation support. All device orientations are handled for every single screen in the application. This means you are free to choose if you hold your device on the side or in portrait mode.
10. Optional thumbnail titles. Swipe up or down on thumbnails to toggle the visibility of the thumbnail titles. On iPhones and iPods this is vital so that you can see the entire thumbnail and not have it obscured by text.

NOTE TO EXISTING LIVE CAMS CUSTOMERS:

This application is primarily geared to new users and private camera owners who wish to take advantage of the extra features. The public camera list is identical to that of the Live Cams and Live Cams HD applications. It is your choice to purchase the public license again for this application or to continue using the older product line. The application was built and released as a free download so that we can increase visibility in the competitive app store marketplace. 

Here's the link to the app in the US app store: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/live-cams-pro/id428145132?mt=8

Tsunami Caught on Camera by Live Cams users!

The recent Tsunami (caused by an 8.9 earthquake in Japan) washed up on the shores of Waikiki and was caught on camera by several users of the Live Cams and Live Cams HD apps. Here is a recent news article regarding the tsunami.

Here are the photos (too bad someone moved the camera during the approach!):

Image 1

Image 2

Image 3

It's approaching, and the waters recede

The tsunami arrives!

Waves are near the hotels

The peak is near

The water levels are at their peak

Image 9

Image 10

Image 11

Image 12

Image 13

Another surge approaches

Image 15

Image 16

Image 17

Image 18

New public cameras added!

To see the latest cameras added to the public camera database, click "Select" and then "Recent". Cameras are ordered from the newest to the oldest (by the date/time they were added to the database.

Here's a screenshot of the Live Cams HD application with the most recent cameras selected:

iCamView Profile broken in v4.90 and v4.91

It has been brought to our attention that the iCamView camera profile is no longer working (the last working release if v4.8). We have verified this and have fixed the problem but will not be able to release another update until Apple reopens after the holidays.

For now, you can get video using the 4.9/4.91 release by adding your camera using the JPEG image via URL profile and the following syntax:
http://HOST:PORT/pda.cgi?user=USERNAME&password=PASSWORD&page=image&cam=1

Replace all of the words in CAPS with your own values.

Again, we're very sorry and hope to have the fix released as soon as Apple reopens for business in a week or two.

Live Cams HD 1.9 - Image size change!

As requested by many of our Live Cams HD users, the iPad release now shows cameras at their native resolution by default. This means that after selecting a thumbnail and launching the video screen the cameras will often load as a smaller size than before. This is because the camera may be sending 320x240 or 640x480 video and the iPad is using a 1024x768 screen.

For now you can simply pinch-zoom the images to stretch them and get the same result as the previous release. We are adding a settings option in the 2.0 release which will allow you to control the default behaviour. In this way you can decide if you prefer the native resolution (which makes the video look crisper, yet often smaller) or the stretched images that will always fill the screen.

We were hoping to add the toggle switch at the same time as we introduced this feature but we ran out of time to submit the app to Apple before the holiday shutdown. Version 2.0 will complete the feature and hopefully offer some additional goodies!

UPDATE - Due to overwhelming response we have reversed this change and released a patch to Apple. The Live Cams HD release is v1.91 and the Live Cams release is v4.91
We will re-introduce the feature in the next major release along with the toggle option to turn it on or off.

Live Cams - Adding Cameras

BLACK FRIDAY SALE!

Live Cams and Live Cams HD are now 66% off their full retail price on iTunes! ($0.99 US each)

Grab them quick before we restore the full price ($2.99 US for each of Live Cams and Live Cams HD)!

New features arriving soon!

We are still waiting for the 4.80 and 1.80 releases of Live Cams and Live Cams HD to be approved by Apple. With these releases come several exciting new features (among other enhancements)!

TV OUT
For those using an iPad or iPhone 4 with a component video cable or a VGA cable you will be able to view the fullscreen video for a camera on your HDTV. This is currently a very simple implementation (nothing is shown for any screens other than the video screen) but should get the ball rolling as we start to figure out how far we can take this!

REORDER PRIVATE CAMERAS AND FAVORITES
This one has been on our to-do list for a long time and we've finally got it ready. We have replaced the "Add Camera" button with a new title, "Manage". If you select either "My Cameras" or "Favorites" the button will become enabled. After selecting this you will see a table which lists all of the cameras in text form and it will allow you to delete them (or remove from favorites) or reorder them. Simple drag and drop allows you to change the order of items in the list. Pressing the "back" button will repaint the screen with the new sequence.

We do not currently have support for assigning cameras to groups (and we know many have asked for this) . We hope that this initial step gives our users better control over their camera lists.

IMAGE ORIENTATION
From the video screen for a given camera you can now choose the tool icon and select "Image Orientation". This will give you several choices such as "Normal", "Flip", "Mirror" and "Flip + Mirror". If you change the orientation you will notice that Live Cams remembers this setting on subsequent loads of the app. Each camera can be configured independently using this option.

Live Cams 4.71 approved and back in the store shortly!

Apple has approved the release of Live Cams 4.71 and we are happy to announce that it will be live in the App Store in the next hour or so. We removed the 4.7 release after hearing that owners of devices with OS3.0 and OS3.1 were experiencing crashes. Unfortunately due to the way that the app store works we were forced to remove the app for all customers even though it worked fine on newer firmware.

We apologize for the delay but we remain committed to having only the highest quality releases available for sale. Live Cams HD v1.7 is still waiting for review by Apple but should also be available in a few days if there aren't any issues.

Development continues on Live Cams v4.8 (allowing you to re-order your private cameras, and more!).

Live Cams 4.7 undergoing testing

We have had a fantastic response to the latest 4.6 and 1.6 releases of the Live Cams product line. We are approaching the two-year anniversary of the creation of Live Cams and we are very excited to see that it is still a very popular app in the iTunes App Store. Currently Live Cams is in the top 100 paid apps in the UK.

That doesn't mean we rest! We have been busy with our usual bugfixes and enhancements and are performing our last few days of testing on the 4.7 and 1.7 releases.

Live Cams 4.7 and Live Cams HD 1.7 contain a number of significant enhancements, including:

- Fix for "hanging" app caused by moving the app to the background and then resuming it on a different network (ie, pause the app on Wifi and resume on 3G)
- More reliable thumbnail generation from camera profiles which can only load snapshots
- Streamlined UI with new slider images, new toolbar images (instead of button text) and a new look for the PTZ preset list
- Eliminated the customized battery status indicator on the video screen and replaced it with the official iPhone status bar (which shows your true network connection and the realtime battery indicator). This can be toggled offscreen just like the titlebar and lower toolbar
- Memory leaks resolved relating to PTZ button presses
- Select Trendnet devices can now be rebooted from the advanced controls menu
- DLink DCS 2121 and DCS 5635 PTZ and preset support added
- Planet ICA-H610 profile with PTZ controls added

Update available, Android port underway!

After being under "review" for 7 days, Apple has finally released the 4.6 and 1.6 versions of Live Cams and Live Cams HD. The major change in these releases are the fixes for crashes caused by sliders and Canon camera profiles. If you continue to experience crashing when using the app, please contact support@barryegerter.com as soon as possible so that we can examine the issue. The application appears to be very stable on our test devices so we hope that it behaves as well for our customers :)

On another note, there have been a lot of requests for an Android version of Live Cams in the past few months. I'm happy to report that Google has now opened up the marketplace to Canadian developers and we are going to start porting the app to the Android platform. From first glance we will likely target the 2.1 OS as our lowest supported device. Development will be underway in a week or two and we are hoping to have a release near the end of the year. We may scale back a few features in order to get the first version out but we will definitely continue to enhance it once completed!

Live Cams 4.6 and Live Cams HD 1.6 submitted to Apple

We have released another minor update to Apple while we undergo some major engine updates (to be labelled as a 5.0 release and 2.0 HD release). Here are the details.....

New overall features:
- Corrected pinch-zoom issues with JPEG camera profile (the video frame was shifting after a new frame arrived)
- Fixed crashes related to the use of Canon cameras and PTZ slider controls

New camera profiles:
- Hawking HNC290G
- Sanyo VDC-DP9584N with PTZ and presets

New camera-specific features:
- Corrected zoom in/out increments for Axis 241S and 240Q servers using RS-485 port for PTZ control
- Fixed PTZ and presets for Trendnet IP400 and IP600 models, as well as their Airlink equivalents
- Corrected the aspect ratio display issues for the Dedicated Micros camera profile
- Added auto pan/tilt features for DLink camera profiles that were previously missing this
- Added PTZ and preset support for Compro IP530 and IP540

Pinch Zoom!

As many of you have noticed, the latest versions of Live Cams and Live Cams HD support pinch zoom on the video screen. This allows you to digitally zoom (stretch the pixels) any camera in the app.

To use this feature, simply use two fingers and pinch or expand while touching the camera video. The image will stretch to a maximum of 4 times magnification and will shrink back to original size. Once magnified you may also use a single finger to pan around the image and see parts of the picture that are now offscreen.

The pinch zoom effect does not currently work while you are using the "Control" feature to perform PTZ functionality. We hope to add this in future versions of the software.

If you take snapshots you will still get the full image saved to your photo album even if you are zoomed into a particular area of the video frame. This will allow you to save the full resolution image to another computer and you can again zoom and crop the original as you desire.

Major enhancements under development - Audio, MPEG4, and more!

That's right, we are currently researching how to decode audio from MPEG4/H264 streams and hope to include support for this in a future release of Live Cams!

For now we will not be responding to any questions about these features because the development is still in early stages and we are not sure what the limitations or capabilities are. Our intention is to allow existing camera profiles to take advantage of MPEG4 audio/video streams if the device supports this and if the output is compatible with the decoder that we are implementing. MPEG4 has many variants and we will try to include as many as possible.

Audio streams are not part of the MJPEG (Motion JPEG) file format which is why there hasn't been any audio support to date. MPEG4 is a container for many types of data including audio and video. Once working we should be able to playback audio from MPEG4 streams and video from JPG/MJPEG/MPEG4 streams.

There haven't been many blog posts for quite a while due to recent incorporation of our business. We are now officially known as Eggman Technologies Inc.

Live Cams and Live Cams HD continue to enjoy top ranks in dozens of countries around the world. Live Cams has been in the top 20 utilities for the US, UK and Japan for nearly two years now and as always, we are very grateful for our customers and your support!

Camera Resolution

Many people ask about the resolution settings for various cameras in either Live Cams or Live Cams HD. There is an important setting within the application (and in your camera firmware) that must be used to obtain optimal results.

Higher Resolution versus Faster Video


You will see this option in the settings screen and may have wondered what the effect is. Essentially there are three different resolutions used within the app when possible:

1) On the thumbnail screen.

The application requests low resolution video or stills in order to display as many thumbnails as possible while keeping the responsiveness reasonable. Your iPhone/iPod/iPad requires a lot of CPU in order to crunch larger images down to fit in the thumbnails. Most of the time the app will request 160x120 images for this screen.

2) On the video screen, with the Faster Video setting.

As the video screen loads, it shows the existing thumbnail as a placeholder while the request for video is made to the camera. This image looks chunky and blurry because the thumbnail is stretched to fill the screen while maintaining aspect ratio. The video request is made for 320x240 resolution if the camera allows the resolution to be dynamically adjusted. This keeps bandwidth low and allows for a higher framerate on your portable device. Again, CPU usage is the key.

3) On the video screen, with the Higher Resolution setting.


When you select Higher Resolution in the settings screen it tells Live Cams that you want the best quality even though framerates will likely be reduced. When asking for video in this mode, Live Cams will not tell the camera to send it a specific resolution, but instead it will allow the camera to send out video in its default quality and size. This is the important thing to note! If your camera is set to output 320x240 video as a default but can transmit 640x480 images then you will not be receiving the highest quality available. Make sure that you configure your camera to output the best images possible by default.

Hopefully this clears up some confusion and perhaps allows a few Live Cams HD users to get the best results for their devices.

Live Cams 4.2 is out - but problems exist!

Apple has finally approved the sale of Live Cams 4.2, but within hours of release there have been several reports of loading issues. It seems that devices running 3.1.2 (and possibly older versions) of the iPhone OS will not load the app properly. Phones that have iOS4 installed seem to work fine. A patch is currently under development and will be submitted to Apple for emergency release shortly.

For those of you who failed to read this in time, your options are to either upgrade to iOS4 or wait a couple of days for Apple to release the patch. You could also restore a previous backup of Live Cams if you have one synced with iTunes.

UPDATE (July 25th):
The fix has been submitted to Apple and a request for emergency release has been issued to them. The cause of the crash was due to some changes in the latest Apple SDK. These changes (unknown to us) caused the app to attempt to load features only available on the iPad when running on OS 3.x
We hope that the update is released as soon as possible.

Identity Theft - An Acceptable Practice with Apple

It seems that identity theft is something that is A-OK with Apple. Yang Ke from QUUS.US has stolen my app name, product logo and app description, in addition to my camera database which is password protected because it is intellectual property that I created and belongs to me.

Since stealing these items they have also effectively replaced me in the app store ranks. Their version of my software has now taken the #1 free iPad app slot and the #7 paid app spot in the US. I was previously at #13 and have dropped far out of the top 100 since their claim to being "me".

I've seen movies about this on TV and not surprisingly I can relate to the main character (Sandra Bullock) who has her identity stolen in cyberspace and eventually loses her home and livelihood. I'm not letting that happen to me!

I urge everyone to contact Apple at AppStoreNotices@Apple.com and let them know that you don't like scammers stealing my name! I have demanded that they remove the apps from sale but they have done nothing other than forward emails to the other author asking for their "opinion".

They said it was a coincidence:

"we are so sorry that we have a these coincides with barry egerter , we have replaced our logo and app name when we found this problem. we promise that the infringe of the barry egerter is totally unconsciously, we are so sorry once again ."


Would they also like to replace my lost revenue and future business as a result of their scam? If my sales continue to slide at their current rate I will be forced to close my business and look for other work. This is not acceptable.

Live Cams 4.1 and HD 1.1 now submitted for review

All bugfixes to date have been built into the next version of Live Cams and submitted to Apple for review. No major changes other than a few camera profiles added (3xLOGIC and Axis Q6032), some PTZ controls for LILIN devices and the PTZ buttons and window are refined. It will likely be several days before Apple has a chance to review this.

Top 100 iPad app in all 8 of the "big eight" regions!

I use MajicRank (by Majic Jungle) to monitor the ranks of my two apps and today I've reached a milestone with Live Cams HD that I had not yet achieved with Live Cams. There are 8 regions that are considered to be the largest markets for iDevices and today the HD version reached the top 100 in all 8 regions at the same time!

Here's a screenshot:

The iPad market is much smaller than the iPhone/iPod market but this is still nice to see. After being the #1 app for iPhone and iPod I've now got a personal goal of reaching the same spot with the iPad. I'm close in the US but I can't see how the app will be more popular than the Apple apps that cost $10 each. We'll see in the next few days!