June 2011 - Posts

Tuesday, June 28, 2011 11:25 AM

ooVoo Goes to Washington and Rocks the House!

A lot is happening at ooVoo.  We have gone from launching our iPhone app last month, to launching the world’s first group video chat for iPad, and now the U.S. House of Representatives announced today that the House has enabled its Wi-Fi network to allow Members (435 of them) and staff to use ooVoo!  

“We are pleased to announce that, after working with Republican Leaders and various House stakeholders, Members and staff can now use popular video teleconferencing services within the House network to communicate with constituents. “During a time when Congress must do more with less, we believe that these low-cost, real-time communication tools will be an effective way to inform and solicit feedback from constituents.

We thank the CAO for ensuring that Members and staff can utilize these services while maintaining the necessary level of IT security within the House network, and look forward to identifying additional technological solutions to communication and transparency roadblocks.”

 – Joint statement issued June 28, 2011 by Committee on House Administration Chairman Dan Lungren (R-Calif) and House Technology Operations Team Chairman Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah) 

We had known that many Members already used ooVoo to communicate and video chat. Our engineers engaged with the House technology operations team for several months to help bring this usage into compliance.  Security was a prime consideration, and after extensive diligence, the evaluation team determined that ooVoo provided the security required for use in the House.   Brogan Taylor, ooVoo’s Vice President for Business and Subscription Sales, headed up the effort.  He told me that it was ooVoo’s data encryption that provided the comfort around ooVoo’s security.  In addition, each member will be able to use ooVoo’s Enterprise Administration panel to manage specific permissions and security settings such as the abilty to block sending and/or receiving files, disable call recording and force text encryption.

The announcement points out that the House network now supports ooVoo and Skype, with a caveat that Skype users will be limited to video calls on the House’s public WiFi to minimize security risks associated with its peer-to-peer networking.  ooVoo has no such restrictions.   

The end result is that the electorate will be able to use ooVoo to communicate more effectively with Congress, and Congress will be better able to stay in touch using ooVoo, saving costs and allowing for more fluid communication.  FYI… our PR team is spreading the word about ooVoo in the House to press and analyst contacts.   
So, now you can say “ooVoo me” on Facebook, on your iPad and to your Congressional Representative! 

 

Posted by ooVoo Chris | 8 comment(s)
Wednesday, June 01, 2011 9:46 AM

ooVoo for the iPhone and iPod Touch is now available

On May 27, 2011 , ooVoo released the much anticipated iOS application to the Apple iTunes Store supporting ooVoo on the iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch.  With this release, ooVoo will be one of the first video chat programs to be available on any platform, including PC, Mac, Android and iOS.  Unlike Apple’s FaceTime, ooVoo iOS users can video chat on both 3G and WiFi which allows users to video chat anytime, anywhere.  ooVoo is also the first video chat application to bring 6 way video calling to mobile devices.  The application also allows users access to their favorite features including text chat, voice calling to mobile and landline phones and the ability to invite contacts right from your phone.

Within 48 hours of the release ooVoo immediately became one of the top 10 free apps for iOS and the #1 free app in the social networking category.  We were also reviewed by over 800 users as well as Gigaom and Ubergizmo.

 

ooVoo first unveiled video chat for iOS at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona February of 2011.  In the 3rd quarter of 2011 they will be releasing an application fully supporting the iPad.  This application will utilize the entire screen as well as improving the features available.

 

You can download ooVoo for your iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch from the iTunes store. 

 

Posted by ooVoo Chris | with no comments