Show HN: Use your phone to present slides on any screen

by alakin • 13 years ago

113 70 13 years ago

alakin13• 13 years ago

Hey guys, creator of the site here, I'd love to hear the community's thoughts on my first serious MVP effort!

Shenglong• 13 years ago

I'm still trying to figure out what your product does, and how it works. Questions that come to mind at first glance (although I'm sure I can reason some through, and take guesses... and probably think of more):

- I just download this onto my phone?

- Where would the presentation be stored?

- What do I have to do on the presenting machine?

- What does the remote look like?

- Is the remote going to force my screen not to lock?

- Will my screen be bright and distracting to my audience?

- Why is there no information? Is this malware?

- How do I get rid of the Tip box which is covering text, because I'm using 200% zoom on Retina?

- Why is there a log in? There's no accompanying register.

- What software does this work for?

Also, your logo is really fuzzy, and your HRs don't match up... but that's just me being picky!

liampmccabe• 13 years ago

Pretty terrible feedback. It's one of the most simplest apps to use.

-I just download this onto my phone?

"Scan the QR code with your phone. Once you're connected, you can use your phone to present slides on this screen."

-Will my screen be bright and distracting to my audience?

Seriously?

Alakin, ignore most of these questions. I couldn't get the back button to work but apart from that, fine job!

jre• 13 years ago

This is pretty cool and I like the concept.

The problem I see is that by requiring a working internet connection on your smartphone and the computer you use to present, this add a number of points of failure. I'd feel safer with just a USB key (+ publicly accessible copy on the web) and a PDF.

It would be cool if you'd show the presentation on the phone too and let the presenter use the phone (or tablet) to draw/highlight stuff live.

yogKarma• 13 years ago

Nice work guys. The demo is quite exciting and easy to understand. I would use it for its cool quotient - I can press next on my phone without anyone noticing - magic! Though, network connectivity and document confidentiality are major concerns. What do you think?

MichaelApproved• 13 years ago

Great product! -Would be nice to have a demo video. -How do I change my account password.

shadowflit2• 13 years ago

Some thoughts from my typical meetings...

Almost all of the presentations I have seen at work have been shared with people on the phone as well (using terrible sharing tech, I might add). I agree with other posters that having an offline backup solution is important, but given how losing network connectivity already breaks meetings for us, I think having to load up from a USB drive would be an acceptable delay.

A portion of our meetings have demo sections. Either showing off features of some web app from their computer, or VNCing into a server and demo'ing functionality from terminals.

We have to hook up a computer to the projector in a room regardless - there isn't one already there. Having multiple presenters in one meeting would definitely go smoother, though it doesn't happen that often. Startup time would definitely be faster though, as noted our web conference software sucks.

I also like the idea (posted elsewhere) to be able to draw on the slides / point things out.

I loved the demo :)

infinitone• 13 years ago

This is actually pretty neat and I would def. use it. One note, i'd add on the linked page is more/better/visual explanation.

alakin13• 13 years ago

Def agre, will probably film a little video explaining how to connect the phone. Thanks!

joshmlewis2• 13 years ago

I scanned the QR code and then pressed next/back a few times and then it said connected on the screen. Then I wasn't sure where the demo was even though it said to try it out. I eventually saw the little link at the bottom right hand side and clicked on it. Then it presented the slides but kept going automatically very sporadically and nothing I did stopped or moved anything.

You might want to give a better walkthrough and explanation. :) Really cool though if it is solid. You have to be careful with slide control because this is LIVE and people want things that are absolutely solid and going to work 99.99% of the time. One mishap and you've probably lost that customer if it was in a live setting.

alakin13• 13 years ago

Hey thanks for the comment! Any chance you still might have the URL for the remote, so I could figure out what happened there?

joshmlewis2• 13 years ago

No I can't find it offhand. If youd like some design help I'd be interested. I've been looking for another project to design for a side project. Email is in profile!

nuttendorfer• 13 years ago

Reminds me of Photobeamer (https://photobeamer.com) which is equally cool!

corin_2• 13 years ago

Error in Firefox Nightly 22.0a1 (2013-03-21) for me, and it's repeatable: http://i.imgur.com/UhtZcpw.png

In both Firefox and Chrome the QR code on the homepage only appears after a refresh or two.

Overall really nicely done, though the two reasons I wouldn't use it personally are 1.) Confidentiality (most decks I would ever want to present I can't upload to some random MVP site) 2.) Branding (I'd want to be able to white label, or self-host).

shrikant• 13 years ago

Maybe it's a bug in Nightly? The app worked perfectly on my Aurora build (21.0a2)

corin_2• 13 years ago

Probably is, but thought I'd mention it in case the cause isn't something that will have disappeared by the time this version becomes Aurora/standard release.

jbellis• 13 years ago

Cute, but as someone who presents at conferences many times a year, I would never rely on a network connection.

verelo• 13 years ago

pretty cool, could be very handy for sales presentations but its unusual to be lucky enough to get access to a network of a company you are pitching to.

jakozaur• 13 years ago

Nice MVP, but it's not ready enough to use it.

I would need at least:

- offline mode, even if everything goes down it should work using the remote + I would like to know that we lost connection. Not sure if it's already working.

- authorization using QR

E.g. my best use case for this site: lightening talk session. Able to have multiple presentations linked to each other and be able to rearrange them from different computer.

saraid216• 13 years ago

I'm not sure it's good enough if it doesn't say, "Welcome Mr. Stark" when I connect...

alakin13• 13 years ago

Haha, that scene was definitely part of the inspiration for the project.

IronMan Clip: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v...

imagross• 13 years ago

One of the things preventing me from using this all the time is that I can't click through the presentation manually on my computer. At least if the internet connection failed, I could have that as a backup plan and continue with any presentations.

mosselman• 13 years ago

A friend of mine and I coded the same thing a while back. There are many draw-backs like the aforementioned network reliability.

Still it was pretty fun to see the slides move when we moved a finger across the phone's screen.

gala8y• 13 years ago

I really like your idea and its pretty self explanatory once you watch the demo. I also like that your demo is somehow hidden - you can't just watch it, you just use the product for the first time and learn it. Don't change it - it's fun and makes for a 'wow' moment.

After some time I started to wonder why I would need a QR... well... QR must be pairing a unique computer/ip/browser (?) with the phone, right? Nice.

I would not bother to add too much explanations on the main page - now its a little mistery and I like that demo is 'hidden' (see above). Also, dont add that both presentation machine and phone must be connected to the internet - it is evident and even if it is not, well, people will figure it out.

Edit: As others mentioned, need for network connection introduces some serious uncertainty. I just get it and would never take a plane (slide 5?) without a copy of my presentation on me.

Have not been presenting for quite a long time, but will surely give it a go when I do.

We recommend Scan for (iPhone) or Google Goggles for (Android). You might want to fix ()'s: (for iPhone) (for Android)

Thumbnails for slides on the phone must be your next feature, am I right?

alakin13• 13 years ago

Thanks for the comment! Yup, I'd prefer that the user would actually slide left or right and see the thumb on the phone, but that will probably come once I learn IOS dev.

Side note: If any mobile devs would like to join the team, shoot me an email - anton at Uslide.net

imissmyjuno2• 13 years ago

>I also like that your demo is somehow hidden

I don't. I opened the page, stared at the massive QR code, tried to get an idea about the product based on the right-hand side list, and closed the page still unsure how the product works exactly.

enjo• 13 years ago

I know there is a demo somewhere... I have no idea how to find it.

andyl2• 13 years ago

Love it. I liked that the intro text was minimal, and I just started seeing slides flip on screen. Unexpected!

andyl2• 13 years ago

By the way - I've got a corporate app that has a file-store for presentations. This would be a perfect add-on - is there a way to embed/integrate with your app?

alakin13• 13 years ago

Hey, thanks for the comment - we will probably be looking to integrate much later. Focusing on the core product at this point.

rolleiflex• 13 years ago

Brilliant work. I'm starting to use it, and I'd pay for it.

For me, it replaces:

0) Having to carry my MBP around if the only use is the presentation,

1) Plugging my Macbook Pro in, always carrying a Thunderbolt/vga and Thunderbolt/dvi adapter,

2) Trying to fiddle with almost always flaky cables to get projector working,

3) Setting up a ad-hoc wifi network, connecting my iPhone to that network,

4) But before that, removing the other saved Wifis because somehow both MBP and iPhone tends to ditch that Wifi and connect to the other ones available that has internet access, by default,

5) Open BetterTouchTool Remote on my iPhone,

6) Connect to the MBP from the app,

7) And finally start presenting.

I end up doing a presentation every week, at least. Job well done. I'm your first customer if you sell it.

wingerlang• 13 years ago

But you'd still need to have a computer to go to the website right?

tekniiq• 13 years ago

do people make slides on their phone?

modarts• 13 years ago

It was explained on the site that you upload your presentation or document to the site when you've create your account.

mqzaidi• 13 years ago

Looks awesome from the demo,but I can't sign up because you are classifying my perfectly valid .me email as invalid address.

alakin13• 13 years ago

This is odd - is anyone else having this issue?

If you dont mind, could you please send me your email address? anton at uslide net

lie07• 13 years ago

This is brilliant.

splatzone• 13 years ago

Nice, but it should be possible to progress the slideshow with the mouse/keyboard if the phone connection dies.

lakeeffect• 13 years ago

Its like Nokia's photobeamer.

Usu• 13 years ago

Absolutely love it. +1 for the ability to continue with the keyboard should the network melt down.

CoryG89• 13 years ago

This is pretty cool, I like just being able to scan a qr code and start presenting. However, I just finished creating a presentation using Reveal.JS, it would be awesome if I could upload my reveal markup and use that.

shocks• 13 years ago

I can't get this to work? I scanned the code but the page I get doesn't work on my phone.

I am using Firefox 22 on PC, Firefox browser on phone.

jroseattle• 13 years ago

Can I open up a uslide-controlled presentation on another browser and see the slide changes? That would be mega-handy for our remote presentations.

alakin13• 13 years ago

Sure - just enable the share feature (top right corner when you log in) and you can just email a link to the broadcast from the remote interface (at the top).

Feel free to contact me - my twitter is in the profile.

alexqgb4• 13 years ago

LOVE this, with one major caveat. I hate, Hate HATE the ads. It's a visceral level of rage that I find remarkable since that's not how I generally respond to in-app ads.

They're just so very very wrong in this context, mainly because they're deliberately distracting. For someone trying to focus on delivering a presentation, this is 100% unacceptable. It would be tolerable (barely) if the ad never changed, but when the damn thing changes every few seconds, it's more than enough to break one's concentration. And that is LETHAL for public speaking.

I know HN guidelines discourage the use of caps for emphasis, and I almost never use them for this reason. But my negative reaction was SO strong that it's worth breaking protocol just to emphasize how awful those intrusions really are.

Aside from that one hideous, terrible, awful, repulsive, glaring deal-killer of a flaw, this app is brilliant. Bottom line: I'd pay $5 for a version without ads. I'd refuse to use it with ads.

alakin13• 13 years ago

Which QR code app are you using?

alexqgb4• 13 years ago

Scan for iPhone (the one they recommend on their site).

valgaze2• 13 years ago

It seems like there a ton of these clever "control a webpage with your phone's browser" demos that they probably deserve their own shorthand name.

Is there already a name to shorthand this whole process/idea? "screen pairing"?

whatshisface• 13 years ago

"Remote controls"?

valgaze2• 13 years ago

Sure, but I really mean the whole process that makes this sort of thing special (using a uniquely generated code, making a QR, having to come up with transmission methods from phone, etc)

kekelo2• 13 years ago

Nice thinking with the QR-code pairing, it's really easy to get started with.

I will give it a spin and see how it differs from http://presefy.com - which I'm currently using.

derwildemomo• 13 years ago

Great idea and nice execution. The demo works great and there's definitely a wow-moment.

It's a bit unfortunate that uploading a keynote-presentation threw an error ( didn't say what the problem was, just that the presentation couldn't be converted ) and uploading a ppt messed up the charts. So, maybe it would be wiser to simply just accept pdf-documents and rely on users to do the conversion – it's a complicated task, versions change all the time and mastering pdf alone is maybe enough work for a mvp. just my two cents.

but you definitely got a user.

brettcvz• 13 years ago

Overall, very slick. I'd recommend also being able to upload a presentation from the phone (by selecting it from gmail, dropbox, etc) so I could do the majority of the setup on my phone and minimal on the presenting computer.

leetrout• 13 years ago

This looks really cool, fantastic idea!

Unfortunately the site doesn't work with IE on Windows Phone 8. Can't click either of the green buttons seen in this screen shot- http://sdrv.ms/X4gN6 (possible a bootstrap issue).

Hopefully I can snag my wife's droid tomorrow and give it a whirl!

_b8r0• 13 years ago

If I can make a suggestion, build an official iphone and android app for this, and charge 99 cents.

You can then add the ability to do live annotations to presentations from the phone/tablet and keep that exclusive to the app.

This whole app is brilliant, I hope it really takes off for you and you make a metric fuck-ton of money out of it. Superb idea.

richo• 13 years ago

When I connect with my phone, I still have to log in?

Why can't you embed a token in the QR code? I use huge pads for passwords and typing them in on my phone is traumatic and awful.

alakin13• 13 years ago

I know what you mean. Working on this aspect, for sure.

mbudde• 13 years ago

It doesn't seem to work in Firefox for Android. I scan the QR code and the page says I'm connected but when I click "Try Uslide Demo" nothing happens.

koutsi• 13 years ago

This is old news. http://presefy.com does this even easier. No need to use QR-codes. So setting up is faster and easier.

kekelo2• 13 years ago

I've now tried both and have to say that they are both easy to use. Still I like Presefy (http://presefy.com) more because it's so easy for anyone to remotely view the presentation from my unique presentation url and not a randomly generated url.

DonaldDerek• 13 years ago

You can achieve the same on http://preso.ly using your SlideShare account ;)

Show HN: Use your phone to present slides on any screen

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