SKJM Blog

We received this post today on our discussion forum detailing how a vacationing couple used iCam to help thwart a pair of robbers attempting to break in to their home:

While we were visiting my parents in Connecticut two days ago, my wife received a call from our security company indicating that our monitored Broadview Security alarm had gone off around 3:00 pm that afternoon. At the same time, we both got a text notification that motion had been detected on one of our iCam webcams. We immediately checked the iCam app and, sure enough, two guys were trying to break in to our house – on video. Since she was on the phone with the alarm company, she asked them to send the police right over as I called 911 in Connecticut, who patched me to my local 911.

We watched as they attempted to break one tempered glass door – not once – but three times with a brick. Finally, they threw the brick through the door RIGHT IN FRONT of our iCam. The breaking glass triggered our glass break sensor and the alarm sounded. They then fled.

The police arrived very quickly and surrounded the house and entered with guns drawn as we watched live on our iCams in Connecticut from out iPhones and iPad. The iCam software also broadcasts the audio, which allowed us to hear the officers announced themselves as the alarm sounded. It was surreal.

My wife and I really think this iCam iPhone software along with our Broadview alarm thwarted this attempted robbery of our house.

Vince and Janet – happy SKJM iCam customers

We also like to watch our cats, too, but hey, we’ll watch burglars as well.

Many thanks to Vince and Janet for their forum post and video of the action!

UPDATE: Looks like the story was also picked up by the local news: http://www.wfaa.com/news/iPhone-app-thwarts-burglary-for-out-of-town-couple-101350129.html

The iChatr application has currently been removed from the App Store due to reports of a number of users exposing themselves during the random video chat sessions.

We are currently discussing possible solutions to the problem with Apple.

(This is why we can’t have nice things.)

Thanks, Apple!

We are finishing up work on the next version of iCam that contains a major overhaul of the “zero-config” connection logic that allows iCam to connect from both WiFi and 3G without having to open ports in your firewall or forward ports in your router.

We are looking for users from all over the world to help us fine-tune this new release, so if you would like to help, please check out the details here.

Thanks!

EDIT : With the release of iCam 1.3.1, we have concluded beta testing. Thank you to all of our testers!

An iSpy Cameras reviewer from the UK recently wrote that:

It’s basically a copy of “live cams”

which is interesting since this is what Live Cams 2.4 looked like when it was released on September 9, 2009:

Here is what iSpy Cameras 1.0 looked like when it was released three days later, on September 12, 2009:

And this is what Live Cams 2.5 looked like when it was released on September 24, 2009:

So naturally we beg to differ.

iSpy Cameras can be purchased for $0.99 from the App Store.

iCam user always watchin posted the following review on the US App Store detailing how iCam helped him put a burglar in jail:

icam put a man in jail

After being broken into two nights in a row, I decided to buy a network camera and icam. Only hours after setting up icam I got a motion alert pushed to my iphone. I view the webcam and see a burglar in my shop. I quickly call 911 and informed them of the robbery in progress and was able to give a description of the man doing the robbing. I had a heck of a time explaining how I was able to give a description of the guy and knew of the robbery from 25 miles away. They asked if I could still view the webcam and I had to explain that I stopped viewing the action on my iphone in order to call them using my iphone… Long story short, a thief is in jail today thanks to icam

We love hearing stores stories (Thanks, Alfred!) like these, and are glad that iCam could help.

We are pleased to announce the release of our latest application for the iPhone and iPod touch: iSpy

iSpy allows you to view and control public video cameras from around the world in real-time from your iPhone or iPod touch over WiFi, 3G, and EDGE.

Here is a demo of it in action:

It is available for sale today on the App Store for the special introductory price of $0.99

Our last blog post outlined some suspicious looking App Store reviews for our iPhone dice game, iFarkle.

Well it looks like whoever has been doing it (we have our suspicions) has tried to cover their tracks a bit.

We changed iFarkle’s iTunes Application Description to suggest taking any negative iFarkle review that suggested purchasing Three Jacks Software’s “Ten Thousand” with a grain of salt … So now one of two suspicious reviews (the one from codemonkey57 has been edited to no longer mention “Ten Thousand” … The other review (from The Cheesemaker) recommends “Then Thousand” but has upped its rating from one star to two.

Well isn’t that nice of them?

Oh, it is also important to note that it seems like editing an App Store review pops it back up to the top of the list when sorted by Most Recent.

Also, our previous blog post also mentioned that these two reviewers’ only other reviews were rating down another competitor of “Ten Thousand” and rating up both of Three Jacks Software’s own software, thereby adding to the suspicion. Well, now both of those users have reviewed a number of other apps to try and hide that fact, but sorting by Most Recent when looking at a user’s reviews seems to sort based on when the review was originally written and not when it was last edited, so ultimately it doesn’t hide a thing.

Stay tuned to see what their next shyster move might be!

UPDATE : Apparently our suspicions were correct. Thanks to Google, it appears that codemonkey57 is the developer of Doodle Games, Three Jacks Software.

UPDATE #2 : The negative iFarkle reviews have been removed and it appears as if the account names of codemonkey57 and The Cheesemaker have changed. Strange.

I am sure you’ve all heard stories about companies writing fake reviews on the iPhone App Store, pumping up their own apps whilst rating down the competition.

Well, we received a tip the other day that it looked like Three Jacks Software (the maker of a dice game that competes with our own iFarkle) had been writing bad reviews for both our product and another one of our competitors’.

If you check out the most recent views of iFarkle and Farkle Deluxe there are 1-star reviews from two users, codemonkey57 and The Cheesemaker, that recommend users buy Three Jacks’ Ten Thousand instead. Checking out all of those users’ reviews reveals that they gave both iFarkle and Farkle Deluxe 1 star and gave Ten Thousand (Three Jacks’ game) 5 stars. The only other review both of those users have given is for Three Jacks’ other iPhone application, Doodle Games. (They both rated it 5 stars.)

I would say that our tipster may be on to something.

Next, if you look at all of the reviews for Ten Thousand, they are almost all rating it 5 stars. Well, if you check what those reviewers are also reviewing, you see that Baby Builder 22 has only rated two apps: Ten Thousand and Doodle Games. (Both were given glowing 5 star reviews.) The same goes for Wolfman1973 as well.

Now, granted, they may have had nothing to do with it … There is nothing that ties those accounts to the company itself.

But the evidence really is quite compelling.

So what do you think?

Let us know in the comments below.