Patrick in Germany sent an email alerting me to the release of teamslide 1.8. I talked about the initial release of the product two months ago. That's a pretty short timespan for a second version to come out. Back in my software development days, I would have done it for one of two reasons. Either the software was buggy as hell when I released it and we had to fix a lot of things quickly, or Marketing had forced us to release a product on a predetermined date, forcing us to omit features that weren't quite ready for prime time. I'm guessing it was the latter scenario with teamslide, as they have added things that seem like natural inclusions for the product and were probably part of the development plan from the beginning.
The software is now integrated with Skype VOIP computer telephony. You can click on a participant name and initiate a Skype call and you can send a presentation invitation as a Skype instant message. This is the second low-cost conferencing product I have played with this week that integrates with Skype for audio communications (the other was Convenos). Skype must be happy that the web vendors are jumping on the bandwagon.
The second new feature is the ability to push an internet URL to participants. They can open the address in a new browser window. It doesn't look like there is any "follow me" or "watch me" functionality once they open the address... they are completely independent in their interactions with the web site. This is a nice convenience feature, especially if you put together surveys, feedback pages, or other interactivity boosters on the web page.
The most important new feature is the ability to place annotations on the slide you are presenting. You can either click-place a pointer on the screen or you can draw a rectangle around an arbitrary region on the slide. I'm a big fan of annotations on PowerPoint slides. It helps focus your audience's attention where you want it to be. The new implementation is very simple... you don't get choices of line color, thickness, or style. But it serves the purpose.
I'm always interested in seeing products develop. Good for you, telepark!
Technorati Tags: PowerPoint, teamslide, telepark, web conferencing
