Webcams Offer View To Another World
Omar Gallaga, tech culture reporter with the Austin American-Statesman, talks about webcams: how they work, what kind of networking programs will give you the most bang for your webcam buck, and just how much you should spend on a decent webcam.
Join The Discussion
ROBERT SIEGEL, host:
I'm back with Omar Gallaga. And Omar, I have to confess I did not find installing a Webcam to be easy and in the end not worth it. And also, as Kestral put it there, it's like talking to a little person thing who has a recognizable voice. You know, we're not talking ready for your close up, Omar Gallaga, here. It's a fairly crude image.
Mr. OMAR GALLAGA (Technology Reporter, Austin American-Statesman): It depends. I mean, there are some cameras that are much higher end that go up to about $100 that are, you know, near HD quality. If you have a really good Internet connection on both ends, you're going to get a much higher quality video. It's going to be much more lifelike.
SIEGEL: I've been hearing about video telephone calls of one kind or another as being in the future. Since I was a little kid, this is the closest we've ever been to it. But we're in a big economic downturn. Is this something that people are going to be able to afford to do and to become very common nowadays?
Mr. GALLAGA: Well, given the fact that you can find a Webcam to add onto a PC for as little as 7 to 10 dollars, I did a cursory look at Amazon.com and found several Webcams that, you know, are just fine as far as quality and under $10. So just adding one onto a PC, downloading free software like Skype or AOL Instant Messenger, even Google Talk now does video. All of these programs are free and the Webcam is cheap. So it is the next best thing to having a videophone. And you can do it really on the cheap yourself.
SIEGEL: This is much more useful as a family to family or friend to friend arranged method of communication. You can't just go around cold calling strangers this way.
Mr. GALLAGA: Well, actually there's a lot of Web sites, communities that have kind of built around the idea of Webcams. There's a site called Seesmic - that's S-E-E-S-M-I-C - where people record short messages to each other and have a conversation back and forth over their Webcams. Some of these sites like Qik.com - that's Q-I-K.com - allow you to do live broadcastings. You can actually have your own little live TV show going on the Web, and people can be commenting and chatting with you as you are broadcasting.
SIEGEL: Omar Gallaga, who covers technology culture for the Austin American-Statesman. Thanks a lot, Omar.
Mr. GALLAGA: Thank you, Robert. It was good to see you.
SIEGEL: Good to see you this week. Next week, we'll be back to sound only, and we're going to offer up an "All Tech Considered" tech gift guide for the holidays. And we'd like to know what you'd like to know. The best way to reach us is through our blog at npr.org/alltech. If you didn't have a pen handy for my chat today with Omar, just go to the blog where he posted all of his notes. Again, npr.org/alltech.
Copyright © 2008 NPR. All rights reserved. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information.
NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.