Shouting Loud

Flipzu for Android v1.1 is available

2012-02-17T17:33:00.001-03:00

Hi everyone!

We're really excited to introduce the latest upgrade for the Android version of the Flipzu App. Here's a summary of the new features:

User profiles

I'm sure you ever wanted to check out every broadcast made by a certain user, right? Now you can, by tapping in a user nickname or photo in the Player:

And this is how a profile looks like:

By the way, here's a tip: by pressing on the user's photo you'll be able to see it in full screen mode ;-).

Broadcast delete

This is one of the longest-awaited features. Did you ever mess it up with a broadcast? No problem. By long-pressing on the desired broadcast in your "Me" tab, now you can achieve this.

UX improvements

If you have a tablet or a phone with a high resolution screen, now you'll be able to see text labels next to the most important buttons in the action bar. And if you don't have one of these neat phones, don't worry: the icon will still show up with no text, in order to save space.

Sharing

Now not only broadcasts can be shared, but also profiles too! And you can do it straight from the action bar:

And of course, you can show your love for Flipzu and share the App itself thru the option in the menu :-)

General fixes

Last but not least, several responsiveness and stability fixes are included in this version, making it more tolerant to system freezes and ANR situations.

As always, you can send us your suggestions, comments, questions to android@flipzu.com

Happy broadcasting!

Flipzu para Android versión 1.1

2012-02-17T16:31:00.000-03:00

¡Hola a todos!

Estamos muy contentos de presentar la versión 1.1 de la aplicación de Flipzu para Android. A continuación, un repaso de las novedades.

Perfiles de Usuario

Más de una vez habrás querido ver todas las transmisiones hechas por un determinado usuario, ¿no?. Ahora esto es posible, accediendo a través del reproductor y presionando en la foto o nombre de usuario:

Y así es como se ve un perfil en sí:

Ahh, y un extra: seleccionando la foto del usuario ésta se verá en pantalla completa ;-)

Borrado de Transmisiones

Esta es una de las peticiones mas antiguas de la aplicación, y finalmente está disponible, a través de la pestaña "Yo" de los listados y haciendo "presión larga" (long press) sobre la transmisión que querramos borrar.

Mejoras de usabilidad

Ahora los usuarios de pantallas grandes podrán ver mejor los iconos de la barra de tareas, ya que éstas mostrarán una descripción de las acciones más habituales. Si tu teléfono o tablet no posee espacio para estas descripciones no importa, sólo el icono se mostrará.

Compartir

Ahora también se pueden compartir las transmisiones y hasta los perfiles favoritos, directamente a través de la barra de acción:

Y por supuesto, también podés mostrar tu amor por Flipzu y compartir la aplicación misma, a través de la opción del menú ;-)

Arreglos generales

Por último, aunque no por eso menos importantes, se han solucionado algunos fallos generales y mejorado la tolerancia de la aplicación a frizados del sistema.

Como siempre, por favor escribir comentarios, dudas y sugerencias a android@flipzu.com

¡Felices transmisiones!

Flipzu y Facebook

2012-01-18T13:47:00.000-03:00

Hola a todos,

Debido a reclamos de los usuarios, la integración con Facebook seguirá tanto en el sitio web como en las aplicaciones de Flipzu.

¡Gracias a todos por expresar su opinión!

Flipzu and Facebook Connect

2012-01-18T13:46:00.000-03:00

Hello everyone,

Due to popular demand, Facebook Connect will still be available on both Flipzu Website and Apps.

Thanks to everyone who expressed their concerns!

Flipzu for Android v1.0 is available

2011-12-29T17:42:00.001-03:00

Hi everyone!

We're pleased to announce the availability of version 1.0 of our application for Android.

Featuring a complete redesign, it also includes long-awaited features like Follow-Unfollow, a seek bar for recorded broadcasts and better support for tablets.

As usual, you can fetch it from the Android Market. Please report any problem to android@flipzu.com

Enjoy and Happy New Year!

Flipzu va a mejorar la integración con Twitter

2011-12-19T14:02:00.001-03:00

Hola a todos,

Vamos a estar enfocándonos en Twitter (No se podrá utilizar la cuenta de Facebook para ingresar a nuestro sistema). Por favor asegúrate de asociar tu cuenta con una cuenta de Twitter en http://flipzu.com/settings/account para no perder ninguna transmisión.

Hacemos esto porque queremos hacer un sitio mas divertido e integrado. La opción de compartir con Facebook seguirá estando al final de cada transmisión.

Pedimos disculpas si esto le genera algún inconveniente a alguno, pero creemos que al final Flipzu proveerá una experiencia de usuario mucho mas divertida.

El cambio se hará efectivo el 15 de Enero de 2012.

Saludos,

ACTUALIZACIÓN: debido a reclamos de los usuarios, la integración con Facebook seguirá tanto en el sitio web como en las aplicaciones de Flipzu. ¡Gracias a todos por expresar su opinión!

Flipzu to improve Twitter integration

2011-12-19T14:00:00.000-03:00

Hi there,

We will be focusing our system on Twitter (You won't be able to login with Facebook). If you use your Facebook Account to broadcast, please be sure to bind your Twitter account in http://flipzu.com/settings/account so you don't lose any broadcast.

We are doing this because we want to build more entertaining "live" features. Facebook sharing might be available at the end of the broadcast.

We apologize if this is an inconvenience, but we believe that at the end Flipzu will provide a much better and nicer experience.

This change will become effective on January 15, 2012.

Cheers,

UPDATE: Due to popular demand, Facebook Connect will still be available on both Flipzu Website and Apps. Thanks to everyone who expressed their concerns.

Flipzu and SoundCloud integration

2011-11-17T17:58:00.001-03:00

Are you a SoundCloud user?

If so, now you can attach your SoundCloud account to Flipzu so every broadcast you make will be automatically uploaded to SC when it ends, even when you broadcast from your cell phone!

To do so is very easy: just go to your Flipzu account settings page and "Connect with SoundCloud".

Enjoy!

Redesigned Widget

2011-11-09T17:25:00.001-03:00

We have redesigned our embeddable widget!

Robert Scoble - why Microsoft is gonna get squeezed in tablets, from Microsoft's (former) biggest tablet freak. no Flipzu

If you've been using the old widget, the new one will automatically appear in your website :-)

We hope you like it!

Flipzu en Jautu

2011-10-27T17:01:00.002-03:00

El día 28 de Octubre se celebrará Jautu, la primera Conferencia Taller, en las instalaciones de la Facultad de Ingeniería de la Universidad de Palermo. La coordinación está a cargo de Pablo Fernández.En la misma quien escribe (Dario Rapisardi, alias @elvincha) va a hablar un poco sobre los comienzos de Flipzu y su enfoque.

Se pueden inscribir en http://jautu.org/iinscribite/¡Espero verlos ahí!

Cómo crear tu propia radio con Flipzu y Mac OS

2011-09-06T12:49:00.000-03:00

El siguiente tutorial es válido para Mac Intel y con OS 10.5 en adelante (OS Lion 10.7.1 incluido)

Instalación del software necesario

Para poder emitir audio desde la Mac directo a Flipzu es necesario instalar dos programas.El primero es Audio Hijack y se puede bajar desde http://www.rogueamoeba.com/audiohijackpro/
El segundo se llama Soundflower, y se baja desde http://code.google.com/p/soundflower/downloads/list

Una vez instalado tanto el Audio Hijack como el Soundflower (en ese orden) hay que reiniciar la computadora.

Configuración

Una vez reiniciada la máquina, hay que ir a la carpeta de Aplicaciones y sobre la carpeta Soundflower apretar Cmd + i. Darle permisos de lectura y escritura a todos los usuarios que aparecen abajo. Si tu nombre no figura en la lista, agregarlo haciendo click en el “+”. (Imagen 1)

Imagen 1

Posteriormente a esto, abrir Soundflower bed y luego AudioHijack.

En AudioHijack seleccionar iTunes y apretar Hijack. Eso va a permitir que el audio de iTunes pueda ir hacia la web. (Imagen 2)

Imagen 2

Luego seleccionar Default System Output y en la salida seleccionar Soundflower (2ch) como muestra la imagen. (Imagen 3)

Imagen 3

Finalmente, en las Preferencias del Sistema -> Sonido -> Salida seleccionar Soundflower (2ch) como dispositivo de salida. (Imagen 4)

Imagen 4

Entrar a Flipzu.com, loguearse y cuando Flash pida permiso para usar el micrófono (Imagen 5), hacer click con el botón derecho del mouse (o dos dedos en el trackpad) y en Configuración ir a Micrófono y elegir como método de entrada Soundflower (2ch) (Imagen 6). Autorizar y listo!

Imagen 5

Imagen 6

Si se quiere escuchar lo que sale al aire, en la barra de menú hacer click en la florcita y seleccionar Built-In output en Soundflower 2ch. (Imagen 7)

Imagen 7

Este tutorial fue escrito y compartido por el usuario GPulvi (Gabriel Pulvirenti) para toda la comunidad de Flipzu. Pueden encrontrar su perfil en http://flipzu.com/Gpulvi . ¡Gabriel, mil gracias por tu colaboración! Te has ganado tu cuenta Premium, bien merecida :).

Cómo crear una radio online con Flipzu y Windows 7

2011-05-29T20:09:00.007-03:00

¡Hola gente!

Hace un tiempo les mostraba cómo mezclar voz y audio con Ubuntu Linux. Como prometí en aquel entonces, aquí hay un pequeño tutorial que enseña cómo hacer lo mismo en Windows 7.

Antes de comenzar, una aclaración importante: lo que voy a mostrar aquí depende de una funcionalidad del mezclador de Windows llamada "Mezcla Estéreo" o "Stereo Mix". Lamentablemente, esta funcionalidad no está disponible en todas las tarjetas de sonido. Si este es tu caso, podés probar actualizando tus drivers.

Ahora sí, al tutorial.

El primer paso es hacer click con el botón derecho sobre el icono del parlante que está en la esquina inferior derecha de la pantalla. Allí, seleccionamos "Dispositivos de grabación".

Una vez abierta la ventana con los dispositivos de grabación, es muy probable que sólo vean el micrófono. Lo que vamos a hacer es mostrar todos los dispositivos posibles. Para esto, haciendo click con el botón derecho sobre el fondo de la ventana seleccionamos "Mostrar dispositivos deshabilitados".

Ahora sí, además del micrófono, debería aparecer también el controlador de "Mezcla Estéreo", entre otros. Si no les aparece, lamentablemente la tarjeta de sonido no soporta esta funcionalidad.

El siguiente paso es activar la "Mezcla Estéreo" y marcarla como predeterminada. Para esto, hacemos click con el botón derecho sobre ésta y primero activamos, y luego la establecemos como dispositivo predeterminado.

¡Ya casi estamos! En este punto todo lo que salga por los parlantes de la PC (como por ejemplo música) estaría entrando por el "micrófono". Pero es probable que ahora lo que digamos por el verdadero micrófono no esté siendo capturado.

Para esto, ahora debemos ir a la pestaña de "Dispositivos de reproducción", y editar las Propiedades de los altavoces.

En la pantalla de Propiedades nos dirigimos a la pestaña "Niveles" y nos aseguramos que el nivel del micrófono no esté enmudecido (en Mute). Debería quedar algo como la pantalla de abajo:

¡Listo! Ahora sólo queda iniciar una transmisión en Flipzu y probar la configuración. Podemos hablar, poner algo de música, y el medidor de volumen del grabador debería moverse de forma acorde.

Es normal que al comienzo haya que ajustar un poco los niveles de volumen hasta obtener el balance adecuado entre música y voz. Nótese que para ajustar el volumen de la música, por ejemplo, hay que hacerlo desde el control del reproductor, por ejemplo el Windows Media Player.

Espero que este pequeño tutorial les haya servido. Si tienen algún truco adicional para crear shows de radio por Flipzu, no duden en hacérmelo saber.

¡Saludos y suerte!

Connecting both Twitter and Facebook accounts with Flipzu

2011-05-05T15:57:00.007-03:00

Hello everyone!

At Flipzu, we try to do our best at integrating with social networks like Twitter and Facebook. We aim to make it easy to log into Flipzu and start a broadcast right away.

However, sometimes we want to do more: like sharing our content with our Facebook friends and Twitter followers at the same time.

In order to achieve this, the first step is to go to the Settings page, in the top-right corner of your screen:

Afterwards, you'll be able to connect another social account (in this example, Facebook) with your current Flipzu account:

If you already had a Flipzu account associated with the social network you're connecting with (Facebook in this example), then you'll be prompted to merge ALL your Flipzu content in both accounts into a single one:

And that's it! As a bonus, you will also be able to customize your Flipzu username.

If you're having any issues with this new feature, please don't be hesitate to drop me a line.

Cheers!

Cómo configurar Flipzu en español

2011-03-22T19:31:00.004-03:00

¡Hola gente!

Según habrán notado algunos, desde el día de ayer Flpzu también está disponible en castellano.

El idioma del sitio debería configurarse automáticamente si están utilizando un navegador en español, pero en caso de que no sea así, se puede seleccionar el idioma manualmente.

Para esto, deberían ir al menú "Settings" ubicado en el desplegable de la esquina superior derecha, justo bajo su nombre de usuario:

Y luego seleccionar "Spanish" de la lista de idiomas. Por ahora hay sólo dos, pero eventualmente se agregarán más:

¡Listo! Tu elección de idioma será recordada cada vez que vuelvas a iniciar en Flipzu.

Cualquier duda, inconveniente o recomendación con respecto a las traducciones pueden escribirme a dario@flipzu.com.

¡Saludos!

How to mix voice and audio on Ubuntu Linux

2011-02-06T15:22:00.011-03:00

Some months ago, I wrote about how to record high quality audio in Flipzu and Ubuntu Linux. Today, I'm going a little bit further, and I'll explain how to mix voice and audio in the same stream, which is really useful if you want to create your own radio station.

In order to do this, we'll have to configure PulseAudio, Ubuntu's audio subsystem.

Note: All the screenshots here were taken with Ubuntu 10.04, but these instructions should work with every GNU/Linux system using the PulseAudio subsystem.

What we're going to do

When we record our voice, the web recorder grabs the audio from an Input Channel, in this case the microphone. Likewise, as we explained in the previous tutorial, we can also grab another channel, like the Audio Output, to record the audio that comes out from the speakers.

So, our mission is to mix these two channels (microphone and audio output) into a single one, so we can record from this new, unified channel.

System setup

As a one time process, we need to create a "virtual output" that will contain the mixed audio.

We can do this on a shell with the following commands:

$ pactl load-module module-null-sink
$ pactl load-module module-loopback
$ pactl load-module module-loopback

That's right. We create a "null sink" (the virtual output) and two loopback connectors (one for the microphone, and the other one for the audio output).

Since we don't want to type those commands every time we broadcast in Flipzu, we can edit the "/etc/pulse/default.pa" file and append the following lines to the end. We open up the editor as root:

$ sudo nano /etc/pulse/default.pa

and we add:

load-module module-null-sink
load-module module-loopback
load-module module-loopback

That's it. On some systems PulseAudio will reload automatically, but I recommend rebooting the system, to make sure everything keeps working properly.

Channels setup

In order to make advanced configurations in PulseAudio, we need to install the "pavucontrol" tool first. You can find it in the "Ubuntu Software Center", or install it from the command line, as you wish.

Once the software is installed, we start the PulseAudio Volume Control application (it's in the Sound and Video menu), and we start mixing the channels.

In the "Playback" tab, we show "All Streams" (bottom right corner) and we redirect the loopbacks we created at the beginning to the Null Output:

Then, we switch to the "Recording" tab, we select "All Streams" in the bottom-right drop down menu, and we'll see, again, both loopback devices. We keep one from "Analog Stereo Internal Audio" (the microphone) and set the other one from "Analog Stereo Internal Audio Monitor" (the audio output). And that's it.

We go to http://flipzu.com/bcast and start the web recorder. After we do this, we'll see the ALSA Plugin appear in the PulseAudio Volume Control. This is our web recorder:

And, as you see in the screenshot, we configure the ALSA plug-in to grab the audio from the "Null Output Monitor", which is our channel containing both microphone and audio output.

Finally, it's time to test it out! Play some music in your PC, or say something, and you should see the Volume Meter in the recorder move accordingly:

Final Tips

If your tests succeeded, now you're ready to do some serious broadcasting. Don't forget to take a look at the "Input Devices" tab in the PulseAudio Volume Control, in order to adjust the volume of your microphone or audio output so they match properly. This settings vary from system to system, so you will probably have to play with these a little bit.

Have fun!

How to make an Online Radio Station

2011-01-23T20:07:00.008-03:00

Go to http://flipzu.com
Click on "Broadcast Now"
Enter your Facebook or Twitter account
Click on "Start Broadcast"

... (hey ... you're LIVE!)

RSS feeds in Flipzu

2011-01-17T19:28:00.001-03:00

Hello podcasters! Today I'm going to introduce a feature long awaited by many of you: RSS feeds.

That's right. Now each profile page (eg. http://flipzu.com/flipzu) has an embedded RSS link ready for autodiscovery by popular RSS clients or web services like feedburner.

Our free mobile apps, in combination with RSS feeds, makes Flipzu a great platform for live mobile podcasting.

So give it a try! If you're a heavy podcaster, don't hesitate to drop me a line. Suggestions are always welcomed!

Qué es Flipzu

2010-12-30T16:07:00.004-03:00

Flipzu es una aplicación móvil y social para compartir voz y audio en tiempo real en Twitter y Facebook. En la práctica: sacás el teléfono, apretás un botón, y todo lo que capture el micrófono sale en vivo por Internet, compartiéndolo al instante en tus redes sociales. Lo mejor: después queda grabado.

Las aplicaciones móviles son gratuitas, y funcionan con redes 2G, 3G y WiFi. Además, no requieren cuentas de usuario, sino que se ingresa directamente con las cuentas de Twitter o Facebook, de forma fácil y segura.

De este modo, cada amigo o seguidor nuestro podrá ver al instante cada vez que presionamos el botón de REC, y así podremos compartir mas.

Audio Móvil: Flipzu en la calle

Flipzu para móviles está disponible en las plataformas Android (2.1 para arriba) y iPhone (3GS o superior), y su uso es muy simple: apretás el botón de "Start Broadcast", y salís en vivo. Así se ve el grabador en iPhone:

Y así en Android:

Aunque mejor verlo en vivo en un dispositivo, donde queda muy mono:

Como se puede apreciar en las fotos, además de poder grabar, también recibimos información acerca de la cantidad de oyentes en tiempo real, la duración de la transmisión, y hasta podemos ir leyendo los comentarios que los oyentes van dejando en nuestro flipcast. Por si fuera poco, el tiempo de grabación es ilimitado desde el teléfono. ¿Qué tal?

Los usos que se le pueden dar a Flipzu en el celular son virtualmente infinitos:

* Realizar una entrevista en cualquier lugar.
* Grabar podcasts en la calle.
* Compartir las habilidades musicales.
* Mostrarle a los amigos las "habilidades" de uno en un bar nocturno.
* Transmitir un recital, con tan sólo poner el celular en el bolsillo.
* O simplemente dejar el teléfono apoyado en la mesa, y grabar una conversación entre amigos.

En fin, los usos son enormes, y están en la imaginación de cada uno. Por ejemplo, ¿qué hubieras hecho con Flipzu en aquel recital que no te podés sacar de la cabeza?

Grabando desde la web

Esta opción fue la primera en estar disponible en Flipzu, y es tan simple como ir al sitio web a la sección de Broadcast y luego presionar el botón rojo de REC. Listo, ¡estamos al aire! Todo lo que entre por el micrófono de la computadora va a salir en vivo.

Grabar desde la web tiene un encanto totalmente diferente al dispositivo móvil, que merece mencionar.

Desde la tranquilidad del hogar, uno puede desde grabar un podcast de voz, o bien compartir los sets favoritos, y hasta cumplir el sueño de tener un programa de radio propio.

Para este tipo de transmisiones mas Pro, y tener una mejor calidad de sonido, se puede jugar con las opciones del mixer, o bien utilizar algún programa gratuito como ZaraRadio, que convierten al grabador web de Flipzu en un verdadero estudio de grabación.

Consiguiendo las aplicaciones

Flipzu es gratuito, y se puede bajar tanto desde al App Store como desde el Android Market, haciendo click desde el teléfono en los botones de abajo:

O bien buscando la palabra "Flipzu" desde los respectivos teléfonos.

Mi nombre es Dario y junto con mi amigo y socio Lucas queremos desearles a los usuarios de Flipzu unas muy felices fiestas. Cualquier duda, consulta, inquietud o pregunta, nos pueden escribir a dario@flipzu.com o bien lucas@flipzu.com.

Por supuesto, ¡saludos de fin de año también son bienvenidos! Aunque para eso nos gustaría mas escucharlos.

¡Felices transmisiones!

Flipzu for Android is available

2010-12-01T16:34:00.004-03:00

Since yesterday, Flipzu is available for cell phones running the Android operating system.

If you're looking at this blog post from your phone, then you can get the App by clicking below:

This is brand new, so if you experience any problems, don't hesitate to drop us a line.

Happy broadcasting!

High quality audio broadcasting with Flipzu and Ubuntu Linux

2010-10-10T19:11:00.012-03:00

One of the things our users love about Flipzu, and I love it too, is it's simplicity. You hit a red button, and you're live on the Internet.

But sometimes we want to do things that at first seem a little bit complicated, or unappropiate with the current user interface. For example, would you like to broadcast the music you're listening to, the mixes you make, or your band's demo in high quality?

&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;a href="http://flipzu.com/MoreDeepHouse/2732"&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;MoreDeepHouse - Deep House XXI on Flipzu&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/a&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;

If you want to, you can! And it's easier than you think.

Today, I'm starting a series of tutorials showing how to make this kind of broadcasts with standard tools. I'm beginning with Ubuntu Linux because it's what I use and what I love. All the screenshots in this demo are from Ubuntu 10.04 but it should apply to any GNU/Linux distribution with the Gnome desktop as well.

So, let's start.

Mixer settings

The main idea behind this is to redirect the audio output to the input, usually occupied by the microphone. Doing this is simple: click on the speaker icon on your top bar, and select Sound Preferences.

That will open the Sound Preferences window. Click on the Hardware tab, and select Analog Stereo Output. That will redirect every sound that goes out from the computer into your audio input.

That's it!

Flipzu

Next, go to your Flipzu and start a broadcast. Play some music in the background. You should see the activity meter move as it goes.

If it moves, then it's working!

Putting everything back

When you finish broadcasting, maybe you want to undo what you did and leave your microphone input as before. For this, go to the Sound Preferences window again and choose Stereo Audio Duplex as your profile in the Hardware tab.

Last step: click on the Input tab and select the device you want to use for your sound input, usually your microphone. In my PC, it's name is Internal Audio Analog Stereo.

And we're done, same as before.

Doing more

Many things can be done with pulseaudio, the Ubuntu audio subsystem, and this mini-tutorial can only get you started. But if you liked it, and feel that you want to do some more, then you should check out this great tutorial that teaches you how to mix your output and microphone input into a single channel. That tutorial is specific for Skype recording but it's also great for doing your own radio show with Flipzu.

Do you have any more tips? Think something is missing? If so, drop me a line: dario@flipzu.com. I love to learn new stuff.

Let them hear you!

Flipzu's Antenna Labs

2010-08-24T06:30:00.004-03:00

Live broadcasting is our thing. It's what we do. And we want to do it from everywhere.

That being said, we know that there's been some problems with the antenna reception with the latest iPhone. Fortunately, Apple's been spending some bucks trying to solve the issue, with their 100 million dollars Test Labs, which you can see here.

That's impressive. But we want more, since bad signal in the cell phone still affects fluidity in Flipzu.

For that reason, we're pleased to announce the heavy investments made by us in order to build our very own Antenna Labs:

That's Lucas, trying frenetically to improve Flipzu's bandwidth management in the iPhone, with the help of our ~~saucepan~~ Faraday Cage.

Further updates to the Flipzu iPhone App to hit the Apple Store soon...

Hello, Widgets!

2010-08-17T23:23:00.007-03:00

One of the most requested features by our users has been the ability to embed your favorite flipcasts into your website. Well, say hi to our embeddable player:

Deep House - Deep House LXVI en Flipzu

That's one of my favorites mixes, made by @aldanaaramburu.

You'll find the embed code in the new "Share" tab below the player:

that will open up all the sharing options. Just copy and paste the code included in the text box:

As you can see, the code is an iframe, which is what youtube is using for their new HTML5 player. So hopefully this flash-less approach will work in a wider set of platforms.

If you have issues embedding the player, please let me know.

Happy sharing!

Update: it seems to be some issues with IE8. Working on it!

Web Recorder updates

2010-08-11T23:57:00.002-03:00

There has been a few updates and fixes regarding the web recording. Most notably, now it should work with more browsers during Live broadcasts.

Here's my test, a friend of mine performing live with his band:

http://flipzu.com/elvincha/1600

And yes, that was broadcast number 1600 in Flipzu :-).

Enjoy!

Flipzu API, take one

2010-08-06T04:24:00.019-03:00

One of the first things I always wanted to do regarding Flipzu is to document and publish its API.

Even if it's nice to see a well documented API, I personally prefer to see examples. That's why I thought it would be much more interesting to write a small sample code here, so you'll see how easy it is to build an awesome application that streams live audio on the Internet. If you're hardcore and want to skip all this example thing, just jump to the bottom and take a look at the API specification.

In this example I'm going to make a shell script that captures your voice, and streams it thru Flipzu.

You'll need:

curl

arecord

oggenc

netcat

I did this example in Ubuntu 10.04, but it should work on any Linux with the bash shell and the mentioned utilities.

If you're also using Ubuntu, Debian or any other Debian-based distro, you can install everything with:


sudo apt-get install curl alsa-utils vorbis-tools netcat-openbsd

I'm going to separate this tutorial in two parts. In the first one we will tackle the authentication mechanism, and then we will broadcast live.

Authentication

For the sake of this example we will use the mobile API, which is simpler. I will show you how to use OAuth and other authentication mechanisms in the future.

So, for the mobile API, we'll need a mobile password. To get it, go to http://flipzu.com/mobile and grab yours if you don't have it yet.

Now, the first thing we're going to do is to request an access token from the server. For this, we will use the http://flipzu.com/xml/request_token/ web service. And we will provide a username and password to this service via a POST request. For example, using curl...


$ curl -s -d username=user -d password=secret \
   http://flipzu.com/xml/request_token/
<xml>
<response status="OK">
<token>88b10df9b8c8684d0de0a9a25c2d37a4</token>
</response>
</xml>

...we get an "OK" response with an access token. That token will identify us for the rest of our session (it's like the session ID saved in a cookie), so we need to save it somewhere. With some simple cut'ing and grep'ing we can achieve that:


TOKEN=`curl -s -d username=user -d password=secret \
  http://flipzu.com/xml/request_token/ | grep token \
  | cut -d\> -f2 | cut -d\< -f1`

Next, we need a key, which is the one that will actually authorize us to record live audio (the previous token just identified ourselves). A tip: if your broadcast stops for some reason (network failure for instance), you can reconnect and use the same key so the server will append the new data to the previous one.

For example, with curl:


$ curl -s -d access_token=408b0f307dfb86a0f6d9e308748d9fb8 \
   -d mobile=yes http://flipzu.com/xml/request_key/
<xml>
<response status="OK">
<key>cac8214bfa274ab21290211c1564e88d</key>
<server>flipzu.com:10002</server>
<mobile>yes</mobile>
<live>yes</live>
<rate>22</rate>
</response>
</xml>

And there you go. We got a response status (OK), a key, a server field with the address of our streming server, and other fields that are pretty much meaningless (specially the rate part, which is some legacy stuff that will go away soon, only useful for browser recording by now).

Again, we need to save the key and the server fields somewhere. Well, just the key is enough if you want, since the server is always flipzu.com as of today. Let's keep it simple for the sake of this example:


KEY=`curl -s -d access_token=408b0f307dfb86a0f6d9e308748d9fb8 \
  -d mobile=yes http://flipzu.com/xml/request_key/ \
  | grep OK -a1 | grep key | cut -d\> -f2 | cut -d\< -f1`

And that key is the end of the Authentication section, since it's all we need in order to broadcast. So let's go to the fun part.

Broadcasting

Let me tell you one thing about broadcasting: it's freaking fun. And it's simple too! Basically it works like this: you open a connection with Flipzu's server, write your key, and if you get an "AUTH OK", then you're ready to go.

"What do you mean by ready to go?" you might ask. Well, as of today, Flipzu delivers 64kbps MP3 to its clients. That bitrate will surely change as we grow, but for sure I'm telling you that it will be constant bit rate MP3.

But you shouldn't really care about this. All the transcoding is done in the server in real-time. That being said, you can actually upload a WAV file, but that will take a lot of your bandwidth (if you even have that much bandwidth available, consider a mobile application).

So you should always encode your audio into something nicer to the network in the first place. To give you an idea: Flipzu's iPhone application delivers AAC, but that's because that's what the iPhone does best. In this example we will use OGG. You could also use MP3 if you want. It's up to you. Bear in mind that not everything will work. Play with it, have some fun and tell me your experiences.

Returning to the broadcast, we will capture our microphone with the arecord utility, pipe it to oggenc in order to convert it to constant bit-rate OGG, and finally pipe it to netcat, who will write the data into the server's port. This can be done with a one-liner, assuming we have our key in the /tmp/key file:


$ arecord -f cd -t raw | oggenc - -r --managed -b 64 \
  | cat /tmp/key - | nc flipzu.com 10002

If something went wrong with your key, the server will close the connection. Otherwise, start talking non-sense and go to http://flipzu.com/your_username, where you will see your live broadcast. Click on it. If you can hear yourself, we have a winner! You'll notice a 3-5 seconds delay, depending on your connection. That's normal.

If you can't hear yourself, check your mixer settings, or play with arecord a little bit to see if it's everything OK.

Here's the whole script: http://flipzu.com/static/examples/streamer.sh

And here is what I recorded while doing this post: http://flipzu.com/dario/1532. If you feel embarassed just by listening to it, don't worry, it's normal :-). Nice opportunity for you to do better!

Playing

You don't have to always use the web site in order to listen to your broadcasts. As I said before, Flipzu delivers MP3s, so there's two ways to fetch them:

1) During a LIVE show, you can listen to the live broadcast in http://listen.flipzu.com/$USERNAME. You can pass this URL to a player like mplayer and it will work like a charm. Or to anything. Remember: it's MP3.

2) For a recorded show, it's in http://flipzu.com/aircasts/$UID_$BCAST_ID.mp3. See the API below on how to get those two parameters.

Another couple of things: bear in mind that Flipzu is pretty new, so this API will surely change in the future. We'll try to keep compatibility, but it's unlikely. So keep an eye on this blog for updates.

I'm sure you also noticed that we don't use application keys. If you use this API, we have no way to know right now if it's you or ~~our moms with their iPhones~~ any of our millions (?) of users. That's why you will be regarded as a very cool person if you let me know when you use this API in a project.

To finish this mini-tutorial, I'll write down the API specs as of today. I hope you find it useful and have fun with it.

Let them hear you!

API description


POST http://flipzu.com/xml/request_token/ : returns an access token
Arguments:
  username: mandatory.
  password: mandatory.
Returns:
  status: OK/NOK.
  token: token or NULL.

POST http://flipzu.com/xml/request_key/ : returns a key.
Arguments:
  text: broadcast description, optional.
  geo: lat-long, optional.
  access_token: the one we got with "/request_token/". Mandatory.
  mobile: "yes" or "no". Defaults to no by now. Optional.
Returns:
  status: OK/NOK.
  key: the famous key.
  server: streaming server to write data into.
  mobile: if it's a mobile broadcast.
  live: if it's a live broadcast.
  rate: unused.

GET http://flipzu.com/xml/verify_key/$KEY
  Returns: OK/NOK // user ID // username

GET http://listen.flipzu.com:10005/stats?bcast_id=$BCAST_ID
  Returns: stats of a LIVE broadcast. Right now, only number of live listeners.

RAW http://flipzu.com:10002 : streaming server address:port.
  You need open the port and write the key from "/request_key/", 
   followed by a newline (\n).
  Returns: AUTH FAILED / AUTH OK $BCAST_ID. This broadcast ID then 
   builds the broadcast url: http://flipzu.com/$USERNAME/$BCAST_ID.

Flipzu for the iPhone is available

2010-08-03T17:01:00.003-03:00

It finally happened last night: Flipzu is available for the iPhone.

In order to use it, first you'll need to go to http://flipzu.com/mobile and login either with your twitter or your facebook account. After that, pick a password and that's it! This is a process that you'll have to do only once.

You can get the App here:

This is all brand new, so any comment/bug/suggestion, drop me a line.

Edit: There's no need to create a mobile account any more. Now you can login with your Twitter of Facebook account.