The mobile collaboration site, iPad 4 Lawyers put up a post reviewing meeting apps for the iPad. (You can read it here.) The author included all the big ones in his comparison: GoTo Meeting, WebEx, Adobe, and Fuze Meeting. And for the most part, the comments he used to describe our competitors are pretty much the same things we’ve noticed when testing out their apps.

In response to the review of our iPad app (he gave us “a solid B+”), we have to say…thanks! And we’re confident we’ll get into the “A” category very soon!

His one major area for improvement – a desire to annotate directly from the iPad – is a feature request we’re aware of and are working on.

That said, he missed 2 major features that would be sure to interest any tech-savvy attorney.

Video conferencing – Don’t forget, Fuze Meeting allows video conferencing from almost any device! Start up a video conference in lieu of driving across town for a meeting, and the time you saved could mean that you’re home before dinner. You can learn more about video conferencing on the iPad over here.

Interoperability with Dropbox & SugarSync – Getting your files into Fuze Meeting from the cloud couldn’t be easier! Not only do we have our own cloud-based storage, we operate quite well with cloud storage darlings Dropbox & SugarSync. Here’s a video of how it works, and you can read more about it over here.

UPDATE: Our 2-day demo for displaced DimDim users will take place

January 11th and 12th from 9-5 Pacific time

Stop on by any time for a lesson on how to easily transition from DimDim to Fuze Meeting!

Click here to join the demo!

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Original Post:

When Salesforce announced their acquisition of DimDim this afternoon, twitter was alight with tech-savvy folk wondering what they were going to do for a web meeting solution when DimDim locks its digital doors.

@heatherlloyd

OMG, @dimdim aquired by saleforce and being shutting down. Crap. Suggestions for Web-friendly Webinar platforms? Anyone? Anyone?

@ JulReDesigns

Oh @DimDim. Your timing couldn’t be worse. #acquired

Well DimDim alum, come on over to Fuze Meeting. We have a lofty vision of being the best online meeting service available – helping you collaborate online quickly and easily. We’re browser based really simple to use AND we have native apps for the iPad, iPhone, Android and Blackberry.

We’ll have a special webinar next week just for helping DimDim alum learn about making the switch to  Fuze Meeting! Stay tuned for more details.

So…if you happen to be an ex-DimDim user who really needs a home for collaboration. Well, we’ve got you covered.

Check out our packages and sign up for a free trial and check the blog later this week for information on making the transition from DimDim to Fuze Meeting.

Have you seen our home page right now (click on the learn more)? We are embracing the fact that we’re fantastically 4G. And, that we’re in fact, the ONLY option if you have a 4G device.

So – what does it all mean?

For you non-techies out there, there are two things you need to know about 4G for now:

1. That download and upload speeds are wicked fast
2. That it’s an entirely different technology than is used for 3G

This means that if you don’t have a 4G device, you won’t be able to experience the benefit of 4G – connection speeds when you’re on-the-go that rival those you currently have on your computer. If your mobile device can go as fast as your computer, you’ll become less dependent on the computer for the sake of a good connection and THAT means that you just got more mobile.

So what will you notice?

Fuze Meeting customers on BOTH 3G and 4G will still have the great meeting experience that you’ve come to expect, so don’t fret if you’re not planning to make the switch from 3G – you’ll be just fine. BUT, if you’re meeting in 4G, you’re going to notice crazyfast upload and download times. So uploading content on the fly will be so easy that by the time you say “hold on a sec while it’s uploaded” the image or file will already be up on someone’s screen. All 4G-ers on a meeting will be able to see video about 10 times sooner than the 3G mobile attendees.

Nice, huh?

And, video conferencing from a mobile device (it’s coming!) is going to be unbelievable. You know those commercials where people are chatting it up on their smartphones and all you can think is YEAH RIGHT you’re obviously on wifi, buddy? Well, in 4G you’ll get the same unrealistically amazing quality that you *actually* see in the commercials.

See? Now that’s just great news for everyone!

Here’s a riddle for you – Let’s say you’re going to schedule a one hour meeting for ten people.  How many hours is that in total? If you said 10 hours then you are CORRECT!  When you think about it – the true cost of meetings are staggering.

No wonder 37 Signal’s founders Jason Fried and David Heinermeier Hannson in their latest book REWORK called most meetings “Toxic” (they wrote a whole chapter on it!).   And they may have a point – the majority of meetings fall well short of their objectives for a variety of reasons – Agendas are too vague, no clear purpose for the meeting, no one is in charge, and worst of all, meetings have a tendency to procreate. (Into another meeting, and so on, and so on..)

So what’s the solution?

Trumpets blow – (ta da ta da!!!)

1.       Send a typed agenda with the meeting invite. Agenda item #1, announce the meeting objective and clearly state the purpose for the meeting. (It also helps to set a time limit.)

2.       It’s your meeting, own it! Be sure all points of view are given a respectful hearing, but remember  it’s your job to make sure everyone stays on topic and to suggest a “why don’t you take this offline” when the moment presents itself.

3.       End on time. At this point hopefully your meeting was a wild success, but if your attendees know that your meetings end on time come rain or shine, they’ll be that much more ready for a no-nonsense meeting next time you meet.

4.       Send out minutes of the meeting (or a meeting recording via Fuze) within 24 hours.  This recording can serve as a record of what was discussed and can help you assign follow-up duties.

Follow these simple rules and you’ll be well on your way to hosting healthy meetings for you and your team.

Happy Fuzing!

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This blog post was brought to you by guest blogger Floyd! When not rocking out with his band (yes that is HIM rocking on the mic), you can find him dishing up the live demos for Fuze Meeting. Say hello!

With our iPad app flying off the virtual shelves like the need-to-have business app it is, we’ve had a strong uptick of people joining our live daily demo which gives us great insight to the types of ways that people use Fuze Meeting. And we thought Grandpa Grumpy was just so very interesting!

Jay Norman AKA Grandpa Grumpy designs beautiful children’s books. (You can check them out here.) He actually started designing them because with him in the US and his family in the UK, his grandsons don’t see much of their (self proclaimed) grumpy grandpa…so he designs books to let them know he’s thinking about them.

And… he’s excited that Fuze Meeting HD capabilities will allow him to collaborate online with other artists, designers and authors to share images and ideas!

We’re thrilled to do our part to help Grandpa Grumpy reach his overseas family and help launch his budding business.

Well, you know by now that we’re the only ones around who allow you to host a meeting from your iPad, but meetings have one host…and lots of attendees! So of course, we don’t want to leave them out of the mix, so we’ve put together a little tutorial that will show you how to get IN to a meeting that you’re NOT hosting.

Enjoy! And please let us know in the comments what how-to’s and tutorials you’d like to see!

Quick product update for all y’all. We’ve added 11 new local dial in numbers so NOW…you can meet with people in 18 countries and they will be able to attend the meeting without paying international fees. (But don’t forget, we NEVER have fees when they dial in using SKYPE.)

How it works:

Say you (let’s just assume you live in the US…) have a meeting with a potentially awesome new client in Italy. Let’s call him Giovanni.

Until now, it has been mighty expensive for Giovanni to call in to the Fuze Meeting line because first he had to call the US…which costs him precious Euros.

So now…Fuze Meeting offers Giovanni a local dial-in number IN Italy. So when Giovanni picks up the phone, he calls a local number which we connect into to your Fuze Meeting conference line. Giovanni loves what you have to say, becomes your new favorite client and you say “Wow. I’m sure glad Fuze Meeting has such a great international dialing plan!”

And here’s the updated country list with local dial in numbers:

Wow.

I mean, we knew that we had a pretty cool thing going with our iPad app, but all the same, it was a pretty huge treat to walk in and see THIS in iTunes!

BOOM! #1 Free business app in the iTunes app store thankyouverymuch!

Yep. Our new iPad app is off to the races. We’re thrilled that the world of Apple consumers finds our new app just as exciting as we do!

Need an online meeting? Have an iPad? Give us a spin (and don’t forget to rate us!)

Download the app here!

First, hit play. Then, read on.

You recognize something.

The sound of something accomplished.

The sound of something bigger than your wildest dreams.

The unmistakable sound of successful collaboration.

Yes – we are finally here to announce…

Fuze Meeting is now available on the iPad,

and your iPad will never be the same.

Unlike some of the ‘other guys,’ we’ve actually got the ONLY web meeting software that will let you start and host meetings entirely from your iPad…without ever having to submit to your laptop. Holy smokes.

We’ve got a TON of other great features, too…which we’ll go over individually in future posts.

But as a quick overview, here are some of the perks  you can enjoy!

• We’re the only online meeting software that supports Keynote presentations (on and off the iPad)
• Cloud-based content library as well as interoperability with “open with” apps (like Dropbox)
• iPoint Laser Technology that transforms your finger into a digital laser pointer!
• In-App VoIP ON the iPad including full duplex mode (AKA walkie-talkie mode) so you can still participate if you forgot your headphones.
• And as always, high definition content sharing, federated IM, storage in the Fuze Cloud, Fuze In, and the lot! All at your fingertips.

There’s more. Oh yes, there’s more. But for now. Go to the Apple Store and download the free app.

And we’ll see you in a meeting!

Then we’ve got another solution!

We learned that some of our customers were actually using Fuze Meeting to transfer giant files before they shared them in a Fuze Meeting. Which…made us realize…hey, we bet most people don’t know that they can use Fuze Meeting as an alternative to something like YouSendIt.

So…here’s a way to get a great perk out of a product you’re already (or should be) using!

We present – a quick how to video no how to use Fuze Meeting to transfer large chunks of content. Enjoy!