[HN Gopher] Mmhmm
___________________________________________________________________
Mmhmm
Author : definetheword
Score : 234 points
Date : 2020-11-25 17:04 UTC (5 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (www.mmhmm.app)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.mmhmm.app)
| vmception wrote:
| maybe target this to livestreamers - entertainers - than the
| corporate workplace crowd
|
| the pitch seems jarring
|
| but other people seem to have corporate workplace uses for it and
| that's a bigger audience so maybe have at it!
| wyxuan wrote:
| OBS is already miles ahead in this regard: better
| customizability, better integration with existing platforms,
| free, etc.
|
| imo, mmhmm is simple and is really good for presentations in my
| experience, so perfect fit for corporate workplace crowd
| wjdp wrote:
| Tried OBS on Ubuntu to do this kind of thing at work but it
| added several seconds of latency. Is this normal and how does
| OP's app get around this?
| stonogo wrote:
| Linux is a quagmire, but latency problems on OBS boil down
| to needing a fast computer, with a powerful graphics card
| to encode, and carefully configured audio (the default
| pulseaudio setup is usually a problem). Using JACK or
| similar will fix a lot of trouble, but really you just need
| horsepower to process video at HD resolution in real time.
| philsnow wrote:
| In my experience (on Mac), OBS is pretty fiddly and has some
| sharp edges. While editing layouts, I have to make some
| changes twice because they don't "stick" the first time.
| stronglikedan wrote:
| > but other people seem to have corporate workplace uses for it
|
| Probably the same people that include emojis in business
| emails.
| josefresco wrote:
| I started using emojis in business email 6 months ago after
| not using them for my entire 20+ year career. Why? They
| convey tone better than any carefully crafted sentence.
| vmception wrote:
| next time you wonder if you are encountering overt age
| discrimination, remember how your own words and actions were
| the things that actually disqualified you
| kodah wrote:
| > Probably the same people that include emojis in business
| emails.
|
| Probably the same people that would include emojis in IRC
| messages.
| SubiculumCode wrote:
| I agree about the pitch and video. I can't tell if this is a
| business application that would give me more control over my
| meeting presentations, or if this is targeted for casual fun
| and/or streamers.
| vsri wrote:
| I used this app for a while, interesting concept but didn't quite
| do it for me.
|
| One thing worth mentioning: it's a bit tricky to uninstall. Still
| appears as a camera in your system after uninstall. Had to go in
| manually and delete a bunch of preferences.
| SubiculumCode wrote:
| mac only?
| pivo wrote:
| Windows version is in beta according to their site
| fafa87 wrote:
| Where does it say so?
| satysin wrote:
| Installed to tryout it out. I dislike it _requires_ yet another
| user account just to try it out[1][2].
|
| Overall it is pretty simple to use with a decent UI and worked
| fine for my quick test of a Signal desktop app video call by
| selecting the mmhmm virtual camera in Signal.
|
| It did not work in FaceTime as there is no way to change the
| camera from the built in one (however I was able to change the
| audio source to mmhmm audio fwiw). Not sure if this is a FaceTime
| limitation or mmhmm?
|
| For PS20 I would probably buy it but PS10 a _month_ (or PS100 a
| year)?! No. Sorry.
|
| I fail to see why this type of application needs to be a
| subscription service and a rather expensive one at that. Unless I
| am missing something it doesn't rely on a backend service the
| mmhmm developers would need to maintain and outside of adding new
| features it isn't likely the OS APIs used to access the camera
| will change much, if at all, on a desktop OS these days so on
| going development costs to the core camera functionality already
| present is likely to be minimal.
|
| A nice product but not worth an indefinite PS10 a month to me
| personally.
|
| [1] Also there does not appear to be a delete account option
| anywhere on the website. I hate this when forced to sign up just
| to _try_ the software. I have emailed using the address on their
| website to request deletion but it should be a clear option on
| the account management page.
|
| [2] Also accepting an 8 character minimum (requiring upper, lower
| and special character) password while rejecting a 4 word (27
| character) passphrase is laughable.
| fxtentacle wrote:
| As someone who has previously worked on real time audio apps on
| Mac, I find the price justified.
|
| Supporting MacOS with anything that needs kernel drivers
| requires constant updates and the potential market is so small
| that it kind of needs to be expensive per customer or else you
| need to cut corners with the quality.
|
| Windows has 5x the market share, so there you can sell for 80%
| less per user because you'll sell more licenses which
| compensates that. And a windows version for $2 per month sounds
| fair, so then $10 monthly on Mac is fair, too.
| qppo wrote:
| Why do you need kernel extensions for realtime audio on Mac?
| If anything, CoreAudio is a dream to work with compared to
| the shitshow of APIs on Linux and Windows.
|
| Not to mention there are plenty of cross platform libraries
| for real time audio where you would never need to care about
| the difference.
| Bishonen88 wrote:
| in most cases, tools with subscriptions do not need more
| maintenance than products with a one-time purchase (don't
| know anything about this specific case, so dunno if it
| applies here). It's just that after adobe/jetbrains and
| others opened pandoras box, slowly but surely more and more
| devs try to make their tools to a continuous income stream...
|
| It get's really silly to the point that a snipping app has a
| yearly subscription (xnip), calendars have subscriptions
| (fantastical) and many other tools which once would have been
| a $20-$30 purchase all now want $3-$10 a month.
|
| Personally I'm sick of it. I'd rather go back to the 'old
| days'...
| fxtentacle wrote:
| While I agree with you in general, this tool appears to
| rely on a kernel extension for their virtual Webcam. And
| that creates a lot of additional and ongoing maintenance
| work.
| kovek wrote:
| Anyone could make a copy of fantastical and sell it for
| cheaper with less support. What do you think about such an
| alternative?
| ljm wrote:
| Typically also done by forcing some 'cloud sync' into it
| and then using that to justify the switch, moving control
| of your data into their hands and holding it hostage.
|
| That was enough for me to ditch 1password in favour of
| bitwarden.
| maest wrote:
| The problem is, the price is capped at the top by the value
| the buyer gets.
|
| The vagaries of doing real time audio on Macs don't have much
| weight on the price people will pay.
| joshspankit wrote:
| I feel like this is one of the great cases for a "residential"
| vs "commercial" model.
|
| From a software dev perspective, I _definitely_ understand the
| benefit of monthly /yearly subscriptions vs feast and famine
| cycles (with the hope that you can justify an upgrade to your
| users), but it.has.gotten.out.of.hand.
|
| Some of your best customers start out bootstrapping and
| becoming experts in the cheapest (workable) solution. If you
| tell them they're "too poor" for not wanting to pay your prices
| at the door, you just lose out.
|
| With an excellent product, it's even viable to have free tiers
| and then charge businesses $$$ (basically all past Windows
| software if you count piracy as free), or move to a
| Patreon/sponsorship model (Vue.js).
|
| If you have to pay "cloud" costs, I get the struggle of giving
| it away for free, but if it's all on-device? What's your
| argument?
| ldenoue wrote:
| They have a recording functionality that generates interactive
| videos (as a person watching, you can still move the presenter
| around and jump to specific slides and images). So they might
| offer online hosting for your productions, a la YouTube or
| SlideShare?
| epa wrote:
| Tried out mmhmm in beta, very cool. I deleted the app because I
| can't share my screen in zoom to show presentations easily. Its
| somewhat useless if that is not integrated properly.
| dchuk wrote:
| Can this be used with Google slides?
| gcatalfamo wrote:
| This or OBS for mac?
|
| Note: OBS is not hard at all, so I might be looking for something
| less CPU/GPU intensive
| ashneo76 wrote:
| Account on opening up. No. Bye
| [deleted]
| flixic wrote:
| I like this approach. Everything it does can be achieved by OBS
| with a couple of plugins, but this is a very user-friendly
| packaging of great looking presets: use cases over technology.
| Also, super fun name.
| ducktective wrote:
| What part of "Mmhmm" could be regarded as "super fun"?
| yagizdegirmenci wrote:
| Sounds fun, also only the name factor made me click this
| post, it's eccentrical.
| flixic wrote:
| Surprising. Unconventional. Fun to say out loud. Fun to
| share. Looks weird.
| levesque wrote:
| You forgot gets tedious after a short while.
| xwdv wrote:
| It's pretentious and awkward. Wouldn't even bother trying
| the app.
| cambalache wrote:
| Tastefully done it can be used to spice up a little bit
| classes or presentations. God knows that many of them are
| irredeemably boring.
| mrandish wrote:
| The naming process often boils down to balancing a decision
| matrix of objective and subjective trade-offs between
| positives and negatives for a given scope, audience, market
| and requirements (legal, perceptual, cultural, linguistic) as
| well as constraints (time, money, creativity). These tend to
| be priced in different, 'currencies' and individual
| preferences that are challenging to reconcile.
|
| As someone who has done quite a bit of pretty successful
| product and company naming, the choice "Mmhmm" has quite a
| few negative aspects which I consider to be fairly important,
| though not requirements.
|
| - Hard to only hear first then spell correctly. - Hard to
| only read first then pronounce confidently. - Hard to find
| when searched, even in combination with other likely terms
| (e.g. video, streaming, app. - Can be confusing when
| introduced as a new-ish term in conversation. - Such a
| notably 'unique' name can trigger discussion about the name
| itself which can lead to distraction or delay in
| communicating the product's value prop (as seen in the first
| third of their own intro video). - Even for those who may
| find it "clever" or "cute" initially, it will likely become
| annoying over time for those in the company as well as the
| company's most valuable stakeholders.
|
| Against that, the upsides don't appear (IMHO) to be a worthy
| trade-off.
|
| - Short - Quick to say - Unique - Memorable (at least on the
| verbal dimension, if not written) - The domain was apparently
| affordable.
| echelon wrote:
| I asked someone in a stream what app they were using, and it
| took a long explanation to describe that it was "mmhmm". They
| couldn't say it, they literally had to spell it out.
|
| It's kind of bad for discovery.
|
| Still, it's blowing up.
| pgwhalen wrote:
| > It's kind of bad for discovery.
|
| I made the opposite conclusion from your anecdote.
|
| > it took a long explanation to describe
|
| This strikes me as a good thing for this sort of product.
| stcredzero wrote:
| Is this name a reference to 80's video games?
|
| https://wiki.uqm.stack.nl/Mmrnmhrm
| kvlr wrote:
| I used mmhmm today to record a quick demo [1] and think it works
| really well for that. I like the looks a lot more than the normal
| rectangular overlays in Zoom or ScreenFlow.
|
| [1] https://twitter.com/mkvlr/status/1331630391233564676
| mobb_solo wrote:
| I thought I made up 'FUNNER'.
| gtsop wrote:
| Am I the only one who thinks this is a terrible name to help a
| product spread? I can't even imagine myself saying "I am using
| mmhmm for this effect" to my colleagues. They would be like "what
| was that you said?"
| cambalache wrote:
| Something tangentially relevant to this, it is curious how this
| epidemic is forcing rapid change that was resisted for many
| years, and some of that change I suppose will stay. Companies
| resisted remote-working, educational institutions were very
| lukewarm towards remote classes/degrees, now all of that is the
| new normal. It is not a perfect comparison but this reminds me of
| the sweet changes during and just after WW2. It seems society
| needs a kick in the butt from time to time shake things up.
| rodolphoarruda wrote:
| Click the download button and roll the dice expecting to see a
| Linux version available. No luck.
|
| The product looks great, by the way.
| chrisweekly wrote:
| Try OBS!
| RobinL wrote:
| I've used this and it's a great idea, and works well in some
| contexts.
|
| One downside to be aware of is that it routes your
| slides/screenshare through your webcam video feed.
|
| In some apps (e.g. Teams) this can dramatically reduce the
| quality of the slides, relative to a 'normal' screenshare.
|
| There's a setting in Teams to increase video bandwidth, which
| mitigates this a bit. But the slides will still look less good
| (at least, that's what people have told me).
|
| There's also a mix of compatibility - generally if you access the
| video conference in your web browser it works (because the
| browser can see the 'software' webcam they've set up), but the
| software webcam is inaccessible in some desktop apps.
| askbill wrote:
| I've tested it as well (seeing it on the latest Apple keynote)
| and have been having quality issues even when sharing slides
| via share screen, which is what they recommend if there's
| quality issues. Submitted a ticket around a week ago and
| haven't heard back yet.
|
| Really excited at the possibility here. Staying tuned...
| mosselman wrote:
| Is there a open source that will let me replace the backdrop of
| videos? Something for ffmpeg maybe?
| suyash wrote:
| I'm thinking of making something like that, the hard part if
| working with QuickTime apis on Mac to get a virtual camera
| going.
| ficklepickle wrote:
| I just found this which may fit the bill:
| https://github.com/fangfufu/Linux-Fake-Background-Webcam
| kendallgclark wrote:
| OBS Studio. It's very powerful, classic open source, with a not
| amazing UI, but, it does everything mmhmm does and a lot more.
| I use both every day.
| petters wrote:
| I tried OBS studio, but could not figure out how to use it
| properly. Ended up using Xsplit Vcam instead, which is really
| good.
|
| I think I managed to remove the background in a really,
| really crud way with OBS studio. Like using a chroma key
| (green screen). But Xplit does it with any noisy apartment
| background.
| ficklepickle wrote:
| Xsplit offers an integration with OBS, too.
|
| https://www.xsplit.com/partners/obs
| adrianhon wrote:
| Had a lot of compliments and questions when I've used this app in
| talks. It's simple but it's easy to use and it gets the job done.
| SubiculumCode wrote:
| and this probably works with my institution's zoom license?
| adrianhon wrote:
| It integrates with Zoom, yes.
| wyxuan wrote:
| It acts as a virtual camera if you're wondering
| Niccizero wrote:
| Mac only... hard pass.
| ilyas121 wrote:
| Can I use this with msft teams?
| kendallgclark wrote:
| Yes. It just acts like a web cam; does live video interpolation
| of yr actual cam and so Msft Teams can't tell the diff.
| snazz wrote:
| The only app that virtual webcam tools won't work with is
| FaceTime on macOS (supposedly for security reasons).
| fafa87 wrote:
| FaceTime and Safari does not allow Virtual Cameras. I spend
| quite a lot of time trying to make it work on Safari :)
| snazz wrote:
| Huh! I was unaware that Safari was affected as well.
| Thanks for correcting me.
| monkpit wrote:
| The music on the demo video sounds really off, like it's coming
| from a cheap radio. I'm watching/listening on my phone, but other
| things don't sound that way on these speakers. It sounds shrill
| and tinny.
| beaugunderson wrote:
| I use mmhmm to share my screen as a camera in Zoom--this lets me
| share both my face and the text editor I use for meeting agendas
| in a way that lets everyone else see each other instead of just
| my shared screen.
|
| That said, screen sharing hasn't worked since the app update
| released on the 16th and I'm finding it impossible to get a
| response from mmhmm's support (or anyone that works there,
| honestly).
| elondaits wrote:
| I absolutely loved this, and I will show it to my boss in a
| couple of hours, who I already know will like it more than me.
|
| This is a game changer for online workshops and conferences, if
| not anything else for the ability to prepare several "shared
| screens" and switch between them as if switching between
| presentation slides.
|
| The only feature I was surprised is not included is the ability
| to "save" the video size and position for each slide, so it
| automatically appears in the right place, out of the way.
| jidiculous wrote:
| The coolest feature is kind of hidden away in its support
| article[1]:
|
| > A Screen share slide is also a great way to show the screen of
| your iPhone or iPad to quickly demo an app, for example. To use
| your device in a Screen share, first plug it into your computer,
| then select it with "Add Screen Share".
|
| This potentially provides an easy way to use your far better
| iPhone camera as an external webcam for your Mac.
|
| [1] https://help.mmhmm.app/hc/en-us/articles/360056971194
| twinge wrote:
| You can do this free using Quicktime: select the iPad as a
| camera source in Quicktime, and then share Quicktime app
| window.
|
| https://appleinsider.com/articles/18/03/26/tip-record-your-i...
| robofanatic wrote:
| Looks like Teachers might use it for remote schooling
| AlexB138 wrote:
| I played with Mmhmm during beta. It's a simpler to use OBS, from
| what I can tell. It's good for some laughs.
|
| They just came out of beta and announced that it would cost
| $9.99/month. I was pretty shocked to see a recurring fee for such
| a simple app, which, from what I could tell, offers nothing new
| over a long establish FOSS project. It strikes me as more of a
| one time $10 purchase. Would really like to hear how they justify
| a recurring cost on this.
| koalalorenzo wrote:
| What is the FOSS project you are talking about? Anything on
| GitHub/GitLab worth time looking into?
| chewzerita wrote:
| > It's a simpler to use OBS
|
| https://obsproject.com/
|
| https://github.com/obsproject/obs-studio
| kendallgclark wrote:
| OBS Studio
| frereubu wrote:
| If the people who develop this app are here, it took me quite a
| while to figure out that it uses a "virtual camera" to work, and
| therefore potentially works with most videoconferencing software.
| That should be front and centre - for a while I wasn't sure
| whether it was a separate videoconferencing app because the
| screenshots are just the app, rather than it being used in Zoom
| or whatever. The only reference is "Funner Zooming", but for some
| reason that wasn't explicit enough for me without an example Zoom
| screenshot.
| dakial1 wrote:
| I second this. Saw the site, and was not sure if it was another
| Zoom or another Snap Camera.
| AlexTWithBeard wrote:
| It took me a while to figure out what this product is. Much
| more time than I was willing to spend on it.
|
| - Be the star you are!
|
| - Level up your presentations!
|
| - Make high-quality video content in minutes!
|
| - Direct everyone's attention!
|
| What do you guys offer? Bullhorns? Public speaking training?
| Pro camera rental?
|
| I feel like an old fart.
| bryanrasmussen wrote:
| Even after opening the link I couldn't shake the feeling it
| had something to do with that awful Mmm Mmm Mmm Mmm song from
| Crash Test Dummies, I hated that song and I hate this app
| even though they are evidently not connected after all.
| throwaway201103 wrote:
| I guess I'm old too. Unless you're presenting to children,
| I'm not sure who wants this. Adding funny visual gags to your
| content isn't going to do much for me except make me annoyed
| with you.
|
| If you have something worthwhile or compelling to say, that
| will stand on its own.
| robofanatic wrote:
| Well "presenting to children" is a big market now. 2020 has
| brought a lot of different kinds of people online, it's not
| just developers or people in corporate sector anymore.
| These days my kids hangout on Zoom every single school day,
| which is way more than I have ever been in a virtual video
| conference in my life.
| thomascgalvin wrote:
| Yeah, I scanned the landing page, then scanned the "Product"
| page, and couldn't figure out of this was an add-on to Zoom, or
| a competitor with Zoom. That absolutely needs to be made clear
| right at the top.
| IshKebab wrote:
| Yeah I thought it was talking about actually zooming for a
| minute. Definitely took me half of the video to figure out what
| it was.
| gnicholas wrote:
| I tried this during the beta. Unfortunately, as others
| experienced, the resolution is severely limited in certain
| applications (I used Zoom). Zoom compresses the stream as if it's
| video, when it's in fact a slide.
|
| I discovered this when I was setting up for a very important
| presentation and had about 5 minutes to go to a fallback plan. I
| was pretty upset that there was no warning about this, since they
| were totally aware of it, and it completely undermined the value
| of using it in a live presentation.
|
| Later, I had to record a presentation to submit for a conference.
| I used it there and it worked fine in terms of quality. But even
| though I had bought a green screen, there were difficulties that
| resulted in subpar edge detection. I had to change my shirt
| multiple times to create enough contrast, and I had to use a
| background image that was 'busy' enough to mask the static that
| was visible.
|
| Maybe things have improved in the last couple months, but I was
| pretty let down when I tried this out.
| zarmin wrote:
| I'm let down that you tried out new presentation software live
| during a very important presentation.
| rcfox wrote:
| I've used Webcamoid[0] on Linux to do silly camera filters during
| a Zoom happy hour. This one looks a bit more polished, but Mac
| only for now.
|
| [0] https://webcamoid.github.io/
| AshamedCaptain wrote:
| "Desktop software is dead!" "Everything can now be Electron!"
|
| Yes, do this on iOS or Android or Electron.
| Conlectus wrote:
| This project is entirely doable on any of those platforms.
|
| Edit: perhaps with some difficulty for the last hop to a
| virtual device on Electron, to be fair.
| nmeyer wrote:
| Anyone know how it works? Does it create a virtual camera source
| that Zoom can source from?
| adrianhon wrote:
| Yep
| dmix wrote:
| So many basic questions the website could address but seems to
| prefer generic or unrelated marketing copy for some reason.
|
| There's a good simple product idea hidden somewhere in this
| website.
|
| You basically have to watch the video to figure out the
| product.
| fermienrico wrote:
| We've lost our ability to produce content with simplicity,
| decency, discipline and sophistication:
| https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLByTa5duIolYRtq45Cz_G...
|
| Engagement metrics, click ratios and all this fricking noise - I
| want us to go back when watching the History channel on TV was
| actually about History. There are a handful of video content
| producers on the internet that I can watch without getting my
| blood pressure out of control.
| SubiculumCode wrote:
| there is bad content, then there is good content. I follow
| chess streamers and content producers, and I am happy with the
| content and medium.
| cube2222 wrote:
| I've been using it for the few last days, doing onboarding for
| new employees.
|
| So far I really like both how easy it is to record the sessions
| with it, as well as how I can quickly switch between sharing my
| computer screen and iPad screen (using AirServer).
|
| A nice addition being that the recordings will contain my head
| talking in the corner of the screen.
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(page generated 2020-11-25 23:00 UTC)