Fun Feature Friday: Clik This

Comments (Archived):

1. I saw the news coverage on this last night on Techmeme and was intrigued. So, I tried it out on the computer in our living room that’s hooked up to the TV. My seven year old was with me and was as interested as I was – and he was surprised to see me adjust the volume of the video from my phone. So simple to do. We watch a few videos. Great fun!And I knew at that minute that you would be blogging about Clik today. 🙂 I’d love to be able to queue up videos on the handheld. Also, it would be great to see the video’s descriptive info as well. Overall, an awesome platform in the making. Looking forward to what others do with it.

   1. Jim, I couldn’t get it to remotely control the volume. I had to use the volume control on the destination device. I was using an iPhone.

      1. the phones volume controls are clik’s volume controls

         1. Hmm…that’s not how it worked for me. The volume control was an onscreen (little screen) slider. Actually, I didn’t try the volume buttons on the Android.But on the iPhone, the volume buttons only changed the ringer volume…didn’t seem to be “connected” to Clik.

            1. hmm. i’ve never tried clik for ios so i could be wrong about thatmy android client works that way

            2. Yes, this is a limitation/rule that on iOS we can only use the volume buttons for the device volume itself.Makes me jealous of Android…

            3. Hi Ted..Aha…I knew there was something not right with the volume on the iPhone. c’mon Apple !

2. Very nice ! I just tried it and it works beautifully with a YouTube video. I can see this becoming a killer for showing presentations. So, I want to just bring my iPhone, point to the screen and run my PDF or PPT from it. 

   1. exactly. airplay but totally open to any third party and you don’t have to be on the same wifi network

      1. #featurerequest for slides app: – make sliding finger on the smartphone act like a mouse movement on the PC/remote screen- allow remote sharing

         1. clik is not likely to build this presentation appa third party developer ismaybe someone in this thread today!!!!

            1. Building the command and control ecosystem(s).  Nice to see that you/they expect others to build other features/solutions.  Will it drive cars someday?  Here’s a feature (NYU ITP winter show) that might be added for audience participation: http://bit.ly/wFmjwl

         2. yes!! slide and swipe!

   2. #livinginthefuture

   3. I was messing around with Airplay yesterday but this might be better for presentations.

   4. My first thought was presentations as well.  Could be very cool

      1. Hey all, Ted from Clik.During one of our hack weeks one of our guys made an app that taps into your google docs, then let’s you put up and control your presentations from your phone. It’s still rough, but it has been pretty cool to walk into meetings, say “can you point the browser at clikthis.com for a second?” and then just point my phone at the screen and start giving the presentation.

         1. Awesomeness.

         2. I want this now. Actually, it could point to a dropbox file too. Dropbox should be all over this. They like to be embedded everywhere. Ping them Ted, unless you have already 🙂

         3. can we make it not dependent on clikthis – make is more SAAS so I can point to my own domain.Better for business branding 🙂

   5. This is a big deal. But does it show advanced animations on the phone?

3. Worked seamlessly on my Android Nexus One.Later, I tried it on my iPhone and something choked…but it’s highly probably that it was my router or net service. I didn’t get back to it before bedtime. So who knows.

   1. hmm. that shouldn’t happen. #bugreport

4. Queue and fire up Netflix too. Pandora, Rdio, Spotify too.

   1. ted demo’d clik to pandora’s CTO last week

      1. How about Boxee integration? Or does Boxee already have a smartphone remote?

         1. Teds been running clik on boxee for months. Point boxee’s browser to ckickthis.com and your done

5. Ha that is so cool. I have thought of a use for this for a business partner of mine that he can implement in his business immediately :-)thanks Fred!

   1. sweeeet

6. Its a great idea, I hope there’s a Windows Phone app in development.

   1. they are good at windows phone development so i think its likely

   2. Yes!!

7. They are good these Canadians, eh? ….Clik, Wattpad, Engagio 🙂 

   1. #winning

   2. The Great White North. Beauty, eh?

   3. No doubt!  :-)Just tried Clik.  Very cool indeed!  

   4. Terminal services for non-techies, this has potential. Curious of the limitations, will try this morning.

8. This is pretty cool. We were playing around with it last night in the office. Neat stuff. We’re already thinking of some cool ideas around it and exfm fullscreen.PS: Pimpin’ ain’t easy 😉

   1. #backtobackpimping

   2. Exfm would be awesome…

9. Really awesome. Best app I have seen this year. 

10.  This is great! Solves the problem I’ve had at house parties where everyone will try and congregate around the iPad or line in cord to try and get their turn DJing. Hopefully it won’t make us all antisocial just staring at our own phones all night though ;)YouTube’s a great place to start, but I can’t wait till they open this up to all the other media we have on our phone. Being able to just “point and clik” at a screen and have it just work has so much potential.

    1. No “point”; that’s the point…just clik.  😉

    2. Feel free to ping me if you want early access to a digital jukebox experience that does everything you see in Clik and much more.

       1. I’d love to play around with something like that. You can message me at [email protected]

11. Wow, totally awesome.  You’re right — sounds funny to describe it, then makes perfect sense once you do it.  The “just point and it works” aspect of it is so money.

12. Lolz.I used to have a watch which could tune into and then control TV’s.I remember sitting in science class watching a video in high school and driving the teacher nuts by changing channels and screwing around with the volume.The teacher ended up banging and shaking the TV set completely flabbergasted at what was happening.Good times! Clik will become a pranksters new best friend

    1. I remember doing the exact same thing with a pocket pc Good times.

13. I just tried to download it and when you search “clik” in the Android Market (Droid X), you get 29266 results – and I don’t see this one at the top.  Maybe they could add a QR code to their website that will take my phone to the right app.  Abandoning attempt for now. I’m a bit geeky, but maybe not geeky enough to find this app.

    1. i had that problem yesterdayawesome idea for the QR code on their websiteuntil then, point your phones’ browser here to download the android app http://discover.clikthis.com/

       1. Got it – thanks.  In fact, I went there on my computer and it sent the app right to my phone.  I had gone there before, but didn’t try the install button.  Since I was logged in to my Google account, it automatically knew my devices. Surprising but cool.  The app is great.

14. There are about 5 million game ideas I want to build on top of this now…once they release details/documentation on the platform for developers, I’ll try to find some time to hack at least one or two out 😉

15. Very cool technology.  Fun Friday’s are good, but I think a feature like this will always do nicely :)I hope their dev community thrives – I’ll be fooling around with them immediately.

    1. As a developer, I would love to hear your thoughts on what we have built at Screenreach (dev.screach.com). 

       1. I’ll take a look at it. Pester me if I don’t get back to you!

       2. It looks like an interesting platform that you guys are working on. I’ve climbed through some docs and watched some of the videos, and it looks like neat tech, though the concern with any platform like yours is whether or not you can capture enough content to make it worthwhile for the end user. That said, APIs that let your users interact with the world are super cool.My email is rob.v.hunter at google’s mail service. Send me an email and I’ll write back there so as not to write 2 pages here 🙂

16. Yes, the search algorithms are (ironically) very slow to update in Android market.Try searching for “clik” (with the quotes). Hopefully it will improve soon

17. Weird, double post

18. Here’s a thought…While your boss steps away, browse over to Clik on his computer…scan…then return to your desk. When he returns, fire off a RickRoll. Keep your head down.

    1. clik has huge prankster potential

       1. I think what fart apps were to iOS, prank apps might be to clik

          1. there be a south park episode on how canadians used clik to spy on america…

       2. And might just be a mob’s best friend.

       3. Huge hacking potential period.  Clik on a computer and walk away, looking at whatever that person is looking at…

          1. Logmein from the phone used to (and likely still does) leave a visible window behind alerting desktop users to a third party watching/controlling.

             1. smart

19. I love this feature – what impresses me the most is how seamless and intuitive the technology is. I am very excited about the potential here for security too – Google is already using this kind of QR-code scanning technology in order to increase login-security in public placeshttp://www.readwriteweb.com… 

20. This is brilliant. Have some ideas around it for parents of youngish kids.Best thing i’ve played with in ages. Was like a magic trick when i showed colleagues earlier 😉

    1. Steven, I want to show you a dozen more magic tricks. Check out some of the work my colleagues and I have done at Screenreach (www.screenreach.com). Trust me, this is not a spam reply, but rather a call to check out a technology platform that I know will resonate with you.

21. Immediate thought was that it needs adding friends and sharing as part of the fabric. If my wife can take the pic and send it to me i could choose a few things for my kids to watch (i usually do that when in the house).

    1. Instead of her sending you control, what if you could send her the content, and then she could put it up?

    2. it would be cool to use the kik messenger service to facilitate that

    3. If your wife takes a pic and emails you would it already work if you had clik installed? I think it should, never having used it though I’m uncertain.

22. Clik. Be part of the Clique. Amazing. So many use cases!

23. I’m gutted – the app sounds fantastic and I downloaded it, but I can’t get past stage 2. My HTC Desire focusses in and out but doesn’t seem to acquire the QR-code. Sounds like a lovely tool…I guess it could be the degradation of the phone camera over two years of being sat in my pocket!Searching “Clik” rather than Clik in the Android marketplace get’s you right there, but surely a lesson for all mobile entrepreneurs to avoid spellcheck targets.

    1. Weird. Maybe try standing further back?

    2. Make sure the big circle is totally just outside the QR code. I had a similar experience because I wasn’t properly seeing the entire code.

24. Yes Canadians seem to have a niche in the remote control from mobile.http://www.maideinc.com/ is a similar concept but requires software on the PC/MAC side.

    1. By the way, guys who have created Maide are from the same university and incubator program. Waterloo has absolutely insane number of startups per capita at the moment.

25. that is pretty cool.worked very smooth on the iphone 4.

26. Amazing app! Difficult to explain though. They need to work on that. Once you try it it’s so easy, but you have to get people to try it. This community is not very representative because we try everything that Fred throws us, but I can see many people not wanting to install an app if they don’t understand what it does. A video demo at the home page would help.

    1. That may be good enough for this stage.Facebook didn’t go from 0 to a billion overnight. Imagine the melting servers 😉

27. We see about 4 new companies every day. Kik came in earlier this month and showed us Clik. Straight into our top 10 of awesome ideas… ever. We can think of about 50 companies in here who should immediately build onto Clik including Spotify.

    1. the music apps are a natural for this

       1.  The uses are huge – I am guessing if you can take a photo of the QR code and email it to someone with the app. They can then “Clik it” and “show” back on the original screen. (or even send the QR code to a group of people etc)A camera app is also an obvious angle, gaming will be all over it, How long before a billboard in Time Square flashes up a QR Code?… Great investment.

          1. Yup. Ted does that trick a lot

    2. Music is indeed one of our key verticals for the Clik platform. Already demoed Clik to, probably, every single major music service during the Music Tech Summit. Great things ahead!

28. I like it even though I absolutely detest QR codes. Clearly QR is not the road to the future. Also interesting as I’m a big AirPlay user and believe that AirPlay is Apple’s most under-appreciated and most disruptive OS. Yesterday’s news that the upcoming Mountain Lion OSX will support AirPlay is a huge deal, especially given the scale of the iOS development community. Imagine being able to stream any webpage, app, video or game from your iPhone or iPod Touch to any OSX screen or via Apple TV. Clearly Clik’s cross-platform approach is critical as is growing its app ecosystem. Looking forward to seeing how this shakes out over the next few years. 

    1. Hey Mark, would love to get your feedback on Screenreach (www.screenreach.com). We have an open platform for building two-way interactive applications between a smart device and any content on any screen. We use key codes, GPS, and sonic triggers in place of QR codes to sync phones and screens.

29. Both in your post and on the company’s website, there is an allusion to the fact that the concept is difficult to describe. EG ” Clik is a brand new Smart TV platform that lets you turn any screen with a browser into your screen by simply scanning it with your smartphone.Huh?”&”Sounds strange the first time you hear it”This is the perfect opportunity for a 30s video or animation to quickly demo the product.  Display it promiently on the homepage, and boom, no confusion.  Dropbox and Flipboard do it well.  I ended up downloading it and giving it a whirl (pretty neat trick) because I had the time and inclination, but not everyone will.  

30. great app. congrats to the kik/clik team. I am sure a lot of work went into this.Now, what I really want is this. point the phone at someone’s face and control them 🙂 like making fred write a check for $10M :)Can you guys do that?

    1. If they can’t Smith&Wesson has an app for that, but it doesn’t use the phone.

31. YES YES YES!!!!!!!This is exactly what is needed for mobile/web/tablet integration!!

32. Very interesting..I should take a look

33. Nice coverage. Who is doing PR for them I’m looking for a firm.

34. Very cool Fred. Anything that gives me the power of a desktop but also keeps me away from desks is a good thing.

35. That is really f’ing cool! ..I’m really impressed with the low latency for control.I want an “enter an URL” feature 🙂 and clickthis.com can just create an iframe to that URL :)edit: with some straight forward embed code – any site could become clikable 🙂

36. Neat trick. Looking forward to hearing more about this as a developer platform. The company I work for, Backflip Studios, makes a bunch of popular mobile games like Paper Toss, NinJump, DragonVale, Ragdoll Blaster, and more. I’ve been thinking about AirPlay a lot lately. Clik’s ability to work across mobile devices and on the open web is really interesting. 

37. Very cool application. Interested in seeing what the Clik team comes up with next. Could be some cool opportunities to collaborate on Clik meets Screach experiences. Building unique engagements on the interactive experience layer is going to be huge.

38. This is RAAAAD.

39. The lesson here is that by Apple keeping things like Airplay and iPad mirroring as proprietary protocols – people will figure out ways around such limitations. Well done. So cool. Can’t wait to see what people build. Keep us in the loop Fred!

40. This concept is not that new. Products like Qootia (http://www.3fs.si/blog/tag/… have been using this principle to play games on a big screen using your phone for ages. It was actually easier in many ways as you didn’t have to download an app, but you merely called a phone number, during the call the keys you pressed would be detected and you would control the content on the screen.Perhaps the mistake was not developing this into a larger platform for 3rd parties like Clik is doing. The downside is also that you had to have the number set up for the purpose, but I suppose that could be automated later on.

41. 🙁 it keeps disconnecting

42. I stopped using Logmein due to subscription costs, but enjoyed playing games or watching flash on my phone from anywhere. I’ll try this out.

43. Downloaded (iOS) and tried it – worked as promisedOnly suggestion for Kik is that they possibly consider listing possible use cases –  add a page on their site  – just to help start the flow of creative juices.Not sure if there is a concern – re:QR codes are universal – wondering if they some unique branding to the Clik QR code is required so that the user know they need the Click app —   I can image people who don’t have the app – trying to scan the QR code w/ nothing happeningChicken or Egg – again it seems like getting to critical masses is important for this tech to take off.Two Apps vs one – wondering if  they (Kik) thought of baking this functionality into the Kik app – may help adoption of both products.

44. Is this a pivot for the Kik team?

    1. no. this is the first tech they built. then the decided to build a messaging app and launched that first. but this was always part of the plan.

45. Wow.  Just like magic.  It’s been a long time since I tried something and had to gather everyone around and say, “Watch this!”  One of our family friday night fun things to do is take turns playing music…we have you-tube on the TV, Spotify on the stereo and everyone lines up and takes a turn.  Of course we have category requirements (best date song, best rebellion, work, etc.).  One of the fun things is listening to the boys “explain” their selection.  This App will be a part of the fun from now on.On a promotion basis, I would suggest the Clik team load up the initial you-tube list with video demos, etc when a new user starts to use it.Thanks for sharing.  I’ll have my development team brainstorm some uses once there are more publicly available developer details.

46. Wish they could make it works like a gamepad. The guys at http://www.airhoc.com made an app that makes iPhones into a real gamepad by creating a device driver on your computer. But right now it only works on Windows XP.

47. Good job Fred and Kik.  This one is a useful game changer!

48. I emailed them about getting API access and the [email protected] email bounced.

    1. i just let them knowi also encouraged ted to reach out to you

       1. Thanks, I really want to get access to the API. This is amazing, yet so simple when you think about it.

49. i suspect it is Clik’s lawyers who wrote thati guess what you are saying is that entrepreneurs should take the time to write them instead??