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. The current versions of iCam and the iCamSource "just work" for about 90-95% of our users, and we are hoping that this new version will get that number up to somewhere around 99%.
Now, you may be asking yourself: "Why do a major overhaul just to get achieve a 5-10% increase?"
Well, the issue is pretty simple: Support E-mails
Since iCam doesn't "just work" for about 10% of our users, every day we need to respond to support e-mails from those users, directing them through the port forwarding process. Answering support e-mails is time-consuming, and takes away from the time that could be spent developing new features. There have even been times when we've had such a large bump in sales (due to
some favorable blog posts) that all we've been able to do some days is answer support e-mails. If we can reduce the support e-mail load to a fraction of what it currently is, then everyone will benefit.
One potential problem of doing a "major overhaul" is that we are unable to test the new logic on all of the networks (and in all of the countries) that are connected to the Internet.
This is where you come in.
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 send us an
e-mail with answers to the following questions:
* Country?
* Mobile Provider?
* iCamSource's Internet Connection? (Cable, DSL, etc.)
* Are you already forwarding ports in your router to connect via 3G? If so, what is your router's make and model?
If your country / provider / internet connection / port forwarding combination has not been tested yet, you will also be asked to provide your iPhone or iPod touch's UDID (
http://www.tuaw.com/2008/08/08/iphone-101-find-udid-with-a-single-click/) so that we can make the beta builds of iCam. We are limited to the number of UDIDs we can use each year as beta test devices, so we are going to try to have as many different test combinations as possible.
Thanks!
