App Review: Mighty Meeting for TouchPad 5
HP has made it clear in its positioning of the TouchPad that the device (and, indeed, the entire webOS ecosystem) is being targeted squarely at the enterprise market. One launch day app that is clearly designed to leverage that targeting is Mighty Meeting, which enables TouchPad users to organize and manage Web-based presentations, utilizing Mighty Meeting's own dedicated servers (rather than a screen sharing setup) to host and coordinate both the audio, video and (PowerPoint or PDF) slide portions. The app is simple and works extremely well.
Keep reading more after the break.
Mighty Meeting (the app) itself is free, as is a basic account, but Mighty Meeting (the company) charges users for "Pro" accounts (which add larger slide and storage options and longer video lengths) as well as "credits" ($10 per thousand) that can be used to pay for setting up Web-based meetings and/or audioconferences. (The company has a variety of plans available for both individual and site-based licenses.) After you set up your account, you can upload presentations either through Mighty Meeting's Web site or by e-mailing the presentation as an attachment to a specified address. After a bit of processing time, the presentation shows on your TouchPad (and your Web-based Mighty Meeting account), and you can start a conference any time by pointing attendees to your unique Mighty Meeting "room" URL.
After starting the conference, your TouchPad shows a multi-paned interface with an People/Audio[optional]Chat panel on the left, and your slides (if any) on the right. To add a set of slides, just tap Slides at the bottom right. A search box shows up and you can search for and select the desired presentation. Once it's loaded, you can swipe from one slide to the next--attendees in your Web-based "room" will see the slides change almost immediately. Tapping Slides again brings up thumbnails of all slides, to enable easy navigation to specific ones. The audio conferencing service works fairly well (it requires each participant, including the presenter, to have a telephone number at which he or she may be called to be added to the conference; it does not currently utilize VoIP directly through the app).
The app functioned almost flawlessly in our testing, although there were a few occasional glitches (e.g. presentations sometimes did not show until we typed a blank space into the search box, and the thumbnails and slide images weren't always displayed). We cannot say yet whether this is an issue with the Mighty Meeting app or webOS 3.0. Also, as with other Web conferencing services such as GoToWebinar, the slide processing removes any animations within the PowerPoint file; presenters must design their slides accordingly.
Glitches aside, this app and the accompanying service are must-haves for those of us who teach or present frequently as part of our jobs.
Pros
Simple App and basic account are free Variety of pricing options Works well for PowerPoint and PDF ResponsiveCons
Occasional display glitches No slide animationsScore
3.5
5 Comments
Sweet! Can't wait to give this a try.
I suppose this is one answer to some of the image/video out needs, at least when it comes to presentations. I use Citrix's GoToWebinar quite often, and so something like this definately interests me.
I wonder about the use of video though. When using GoToWebinar, I will sometimes use a video that I play with some type of video player app (like quicktime) and it comes through to my Webinar participants pretty well. Officially, Citrix doesn't really support the use of videos (note the lack of support for Powerpoint animations), but it does work for me. I'm wondering if this Mighty Meeting service would do the same?
Very nice.
Next on the wish list... "Synergy-like" integration of this app with apps Evernote, Onenote.
When integrated with conference calls, this is exactly in the sweet spot for using a tablet.
I'm looking forward to using less notepads, and keeping my laptop docked.
An app that will allow you to present to other people? Doesn't that mean you'll need to set up an appointment WITH other people?
Too bad you'll have to make that appointment with another OS because the folks at webOS STILL haven't allowed the ability to add another user to a calendar appointments...
How many years does it take to figure that one out?
hmmmmmm.....
for what it's worth, if webOS wants to play in the business world, which we all believe that's where they want to go to, then they need to add a Webex client to their OS. This is a huge miss for them as ios can do this very well and is very much used in the business world.
In fact, webOS 3.0 on the TouchPad does add the ability to send calendar invitations. {Jonathan}