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Show HN: Just launched our side project Precorder, new way to record iPhone vids

18 points by kamens ↗ HN
@jasonrr and I just launched a side project we've been working on over weekends for the past couple months: http://airshipsoftware.com/precorder .

Precorder is a video recording app that constantly saves the past few seconds before you ever hit the record button, so you can wait until something interesting happens to start recording without worrying about missing a precious moment or winding up w/ hours of boring footage. The website explains more w/ pictures of dolphins and stuff.

This is an experiment of ours in many ways. All advice welcome.

12 comments

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sorbus
Huh. I remember hearing about a camera which did this at one point (it was a setting, I recall), so there's certainly some market for this as a feature. Not sure if it coincides with iPhones (I would find it awkward to hold one up and point it at stuff continuously), but it might.

Your website looks great, I think. You might want to move the "on sale" sticker in front of the iTunes link, though - it just looks a bit odd as it is. Replacing "Never edit your videos again" with "Never miss a scene again" or "Never miss a moment again" (a slight rephrasing of the heading for how it works) could also work better, as well as making it more obvious what the app does on first glance.

I'm sure that others will have more and better advice, though.

rsobers
I agree with replacing "Never edit your videos again" with "Never miss a moment again."

On first glance, I understood the purpose of the app. But when I read "Never edit your videos again" I started to question my understanding. Made me think I missed something.

Nice job, guys!

kamens
We eventually settled on "Never edit your videos again" but maybe we should switch it back.

We were closer to "Never miss a moment," but the bottom line is that you can already never miss a moment by recording the entire 2 hours of footage.

...but then you have two hours of boring footage in need of editing.

That's probably more thought than we should ask of quick readers though. We'll consider switching.

SHOwnsYou
I think you're definitely over-thinking this.

The average user doesn't record all the time so they would be missing all kinds of great video opportunities.

With your software, they're still not recording all the time but now they don't miss any great video opportunities.

Great page by the way. To the point and great design.

kamens
Thanks for the input, all. We're changing it.
pkamb
I'd say "Precorder turns you into a better videographer." could use some work as well.

1st: "Never miss a moment." 2nd: Tell the user how/why they'll never miss a moment by using your app.

Something like "Save the 10 seconds of video before you press the button" or whatever. Get a little technical.

michaelbuckbee
I think you might be thinking of the Looxcie - http://www.looxcie.com/
sorbus
No, I would definitely remember something so unique looking. It was a DSLR, I think ... it may have been something like "press the button and take thousands of pictures really quickly, then select the best one," which is a bit different from what I first remembered.
mcotton
This is a cool idea. This is a very common feature in security camera DVRs and people love the idea once they understand it. Good job.
pkamb
Your thumbnails of the dolphin are a cool idea... but could be done a bit better I think!

1st frame: Boring, waiting for something to happen. 2nd frame: Cool thing, but not the best part! You missed it! 3rd frame: The best part. Thanks to precorder you caught it on film.

I think that's what you're trying to do, but the second and third frames are currently the same picture. Make the second frame the tail going into the water (you missed it), the and the third the dolphin's head.

Or, a kid at a little league game: 1st: Waiting to swing 2nd: Running to 1st base 3rd: Beautiful shot of him hitting the ball.

Etc.

kamens
This is a cool idea. Thank you!