Adobe Connect upgraded to offer conference recording and mobile streaming

Although Adobe is a household name when it comes to computer software, it hasn’t made serious inroads in the world of videoconferencing services, despite being on the ninth version of Adobe Connect, its flagship Web conferencing system. In this world, Webex and Citrix remain synonymous with online video communication, education, and training.

Today Adobe is rolling out some impressive upgrades that it hopes will increase its competitiveness in this space, with the release of Adobe Connect 9.1.

Adobe senior product marketing manager Rocky Mitarai gave me a personal demo of the new version of the service and it’s looking good. The focus of the system is on “going above and beyond basic screen sharing,” says Mitarai, “with a particular eye on things like training and webinars,” which require more sophisticated videoconferencing environments.

Adobe Connect is optimized for mobile clients, and this is one of the key areas in which Connect is getting an upgrade in version 9.1. Now even more of the service’s desktop features are available on mobile platforms, including the ability to stream recordings across any mobile device. (Formerly, pre-recorded streams were only viewable on desktop clients.) The new version also offers support for multipoint videoconferencing with two live and unlimited paused webcams. Mobile platforms can also now be branded with a customized background (like your company logo), and more advanced features like interactive quizzes are now supported on mobile devices, too.

AdobeAdobe Connect 9.1 for the Apple iPad

Another major feature of the 9.1 update is an enhancement to tools that let you save and re-stream live recordings. Existing tools (both on Adobe Connect and other platforms) to do this, says Mitarai, are difficult and cumbersome. Adobe Connect 9.1 now lets you record any videoconference, host and stream it from the cloud, and post it online just about anywhere, including Youtube. Recordings can be edited (and things like the chat box and attendee list can be removed) before the video is finalized and stored in the cloud. Video conversion costs extra, and this is charged as a service on a per-minute of video converted basis.

Other enhancements are also coming to expand Adobe Connect’s ease of use and increase user productivity. Widescreen webcams are now supported (the user can toggle between a 16:9 and 4:3 aspect ratio), and the active speaker’s name is now placed as a caption at the bottom of the window in which he can be seen talking.

One thing remaining the same is Connect’s unique feature of creating meetings with a persistent URL that remains static for future meetings. This way, users needn’t be re-invited to recurring meetings every week. They can bookmark one URL and use it in perpetuity. Materials uploaded to the meeting space—like slide decks or other supporting files—are retained for future use, as well, saving users time and centralizing storage. Adobe Connect is also distinguished from most other Web conference platforms by letting attendees very quickly jump into a meeting. For most, a single click is all it takes, with no additional client download required (aside from Flash, upon which Connect is built).

Aside from charges for video conversion, pricing isn’t changing. Adobe Connect is sold per named user or host, by simultaneous users, or per minute. The named host model runs $4,200 per month for 100 hosts.

Christopher Null is a veteran technology and business journalist. He contributes regularly to PC World and Wired, and is a technology columnist for Executive Travel magazine.
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Will Smith makes unexpected appearance at Defcon hacker conference

American actor Will Smith captured the attention of Defcon attendees when he showed up unexpectedly at the hacker conference on Sunday apparently to do research for an upcoming movie.

The actor attended a talk that featured Apollo Robbins, a renowned sleight-of-hand artist, security consultant and entertainer, who is best known for picking the pockets of Secret Service agents during an encounter with U.S. President Jimmy Carter.

Smith came at the invitation of Robbins, who is coaching him for an upcoming movie, said Chris Hadnagy, the CEO of social engineering consultancy and training firm Social-Engineer and organizer of the Defcon social engineering contest.

According to Hadnagy, Smith was brought in through a back door so he can sit in and hear the talk that he, Robbins and Michele Fincher, another Social-Engineer representative, gave.

The talk included a demonstration of Robbins' skills, as he called an attendee to the stage and stole his watch, wallet and mobile phone in front of the crowd.

Smith was so impressed with Defcon that he decided to walk around, Hadnagy said. "We went to the vendor area and showed him lock picks, RFID (radio-frequency identification) stuff, Pwnie Express [hacking equipment] -- he was thoroughly impressed."

Smith then visited the Social Engineering Capture the Flag contest room where he greeted some people, gave some autographs and took some pictures, Hadnagy said.

"We showed him some things we did for our [social engineering] class," Hadnagy said. "He was very interested in how profiling people is done and social engineering. He wanted to understand the human part of hacking."

Smith had to leave after 20 minutes, otherwise he risked getting mobbed, Defcon founder Jeff Moss said.

There were about 15,000 attendees at Defcon this year, according to the organizers.

It's not clear if Smith was at the conference doing research for a role in an upcoming movie or for a movie that he plans to produce.

Smith didn't share the name of the movie, but said that it's likely that it will be made, Moss said.

Some pictures of Smith at the conference accompanied by Jeff Moss were posted by attendees on Twitter.

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