Everyone who's ever worked in an office knows that from time to time it gets pretty boring. I'm not saying that people are lazy and work-shy, it's just that sometimes you have to wait because of someone else. And when people get bored, they find something to do.

A lot of offices have some specific traditions for fighting boredom. Some people throw paper planes out of the windows, others play videogames, everyone's got their own thing. There are work groups that have come up with entirely new games of their own, which are played using ordinary office supplies and the like. They even host championships and the winners receive prizes during company picnics. I've even heard of an office that bets on normal daily things. For example, how many cups of coffee does a certain colleague drink during a day.

If some office worker happens to read this post, I'm sure he or she can name some of their own office's traditions. But why not share those with other people (and workers) around the world? Set up a few cameras and when something is about to happen, start filming and with the help of Yaika! this broadcast will reach all of the world. This way you might get a few new ideas of your own. Be sure to ask for permission from all of your coworkers beforehand :)

If an executive happened to stumble on this post, then he or she shouldn't be too alarmed. In reality people do a lot more work and play around much less than I've made it look like.

As time goes by it gets more and more difficult to get the attention of consumers. Advertisers have to constantly come up with new and radical ways to make their product noticeable among the general public. But it doesn't really have to be all that complicated.

People now use the term viral advertisement, which is pretty much self explanatory. But to those who didn't get it - a viral advertisement is something that spreads all by itself using the Internet's social networks, just like pathological viruses. This, of course, doesn't mean that they're like spam, being distributed against the will of the receivers. No, the users spread it out of their own free will.

A good viral advertisement always gets straight to the point, but does it in a humorous way. It has to be different from others, stand out. Otherwise the word-of-mouth phenomena won't work, but that is crucial to the success of a viral advertisement, because people like to share funny and interesting things with their friends. I have a great example that was uploaded to Yaika. You can find it here. First of all, it's a beautiful girl, which automatically draws the viewers' attention. Secondly, it all starts with a humorous approach from the very beginning. And finally, everything is made clear with simple and easy-to-understand examples. It's a perfect template for anyone thinking of doing something similar.

If you are at least a bit inventive and funny, then viral advertising is the way to get your products or services out into the public, because it exploits the possibilities of the Internet's social networks and the word-of-mouth phenomena. Your goal is to make something unique and humorous, but at same time talk about the product itself. This is the way to get the attention of consumers.

I think photo albums are a thing of the past. Video is taking over the world with great speed. You'll notice this trend within recording all kinds of family events and memories in general.

Most of us have a whole separate cupboard specifically for storing all those photo albums. Even I have one :) But more and more people record their lives in video format (this already began in the VHS era). I would like to suggest the idea of video albums. That doesn't mean you'll have to designate another cupboard for stacks and stacks of DVDs and cassettes, but instead you upload them to the Internet. For example, make a separate channel for family events here on Yaika! and start uploading your home-videos.

But what to do with all of those photos collecting dust in the cupboards? Well, you can lend a scanner from a friend or visit your local office supply store, most of them have a service for digitalizing your data. This way you can have all your albums in a digital format, too. There's a whole bunch of websites for maintaining photos and some even let you edit them in some way or another. Then there's the possibility of making a slide-show out of the photos and saving them in video format, thus allowing you to upload them to your family channel on Yaika! Unlike many other video hosting sites, Yaika! allows you to make the channel available to only friends and family.

If a picture is worth a thousand words, then a video is worth a thousand pictures.

As you might have noticed, every channel has an "Add post" button. Clicking that allows you to publish ordinary text blogs on your own channel. But unlike many other blogging sites, Yaika! has a very comprehensive text editor that has all the main features you can usually find in office suite software. You don't have to have any knowledge in HTML to use it.

All the most frequently used editing options are available. You can add pictures to your text (although the pictures need to be hosted somewhere on the web), you can hyperlink any word and you can even make tables inside your posts, if that makes it easier to understand. It's possible to insert flash-animations and videos. Changing background and font colour is allowed too. It also has the mandatory "Find and Replace" function. There's even a spellchecker.

If your post requires additional formatting and a presentation of some more complicated information than just text, you can easily write it directly in Yaika! There's no need for a separate text editor. But it's also entirely possible to use it for just writing plain text :)

Recording videos here in Yaika! is a bit different than what you're used to. Of course, I don't mean by principle, recording is still recording, but the difference lies in what you can record.

Firstly, your own live feeds. Just push the "Record" button and after the show is over, you can watch it again and again from your channel. If you have more than one cameras filming, you can choose at any time which camera is being recorded at the moment. You might feel like a real director while doing this on-the-fly editing. Just like actual TV people sitting in the studios, you have a comprehensive view of what all the cameras are showing.

In addition to your own shows you can also record other people's live feeds. Maybe you see someone showing something very interesting (at least to you), but you're afraid the broadcaster will delete it from his or her channel later on. No worries! You can record the show and save it on your own channel. This allows you and all other interested to watch the video again with no limit.

You can expect similar exciting technological solutions from Yaika! in the future, too.

Almost each and every one of us enjoys some kind of humor. It's fun to watch something on the TV and laugh out loud, there's no denying it. It's a known fact that laughing reduces stress and relaxes almost every muscle in your body(that is why we feel weak after a laughing fit). Why not amuse others with your own little jokes?

Once again Yaika! comes to aid. Here you can easily broadcast your own sketchshow. Take a couple of your funniest friends alongside and start writing down some ideas. There can be many sources for inspiration. You can make up your own absurd situations or watch some already known shows (Big Train, Monty Python, Blackadder, Dave Chapelle). Still, most of the material comes from real life.

A good idea is to act out some of your own awkward moments in life (we've all had those). Believe me, they're even funnier in hindsight while being a bit exaggerated. You can always portray some of the most common parts of today's popculture. There's plenty of shows out there that have some really funny sides to it that you can make a parody of.

Just like other websites with social capabilities (e.g. Myspace) Yaika! too offers the features and possibilities to make new acquaintances and maybe even close friends. It's entirely possible you'll find your soulmate. Interesting people always attract a lot of other people, who are mostly interested in getting to know one another. Why not use Yaika! as a dating service? A video allows you to get to know the person much better than staring at a picture.

With the recording feature, each one of you can record a somewhat of an introductory video of who you are and what you do. You can place your little video on your channel so that everyone could see it as the first thing see when looking at your account page. After finding someone you can create your own private channel and chat some more over there. It might very well happen that you find an interesting person to talk with or you might even find your future significant other.

Now all you have to do is write down some of your best qualities, sit in front if a camera and start reading them out loud :)

The following might seem a bit too futuristic, but keep reading anyway.

Let's say you have to organize a party. Now, half of the people are too far away to actually attend, but the urge to have a good time with said people is huge. You can then let someone else organize another party at that remote location and then link the parties together via webcams and Yaika!

Indeed, that would require a lot of cameras and big screen TVs on both ends of the parties so that the effect or partying together would really seem real. But this means there are going to be noticeable expenditures. The aforementioned problem will subdue with time as the cost of electronics is always decreasing, but there's a far bigger issue - people might feel too weird when trying to have good time with other people via webcams. But then again, all new things feel awkward at first.

Of course, if this all is going to happen, it's going to be in the distant future, but it's something to think about. The Internet gives us endless communicative possibilities, we just have to find ways to use them.

Yaika! has once again had a version update. We've added a few new features. The most noteworthy of those would be the prominent banner on the front page saying "Get it on!". Clicking this banner allows unregistered users to try and broadcast a live radio- or videoshow using Yaika!

After logging in, all the registered users can see a list of the latest news on the right. The center of the page now features a window with the first lines of the latest post published on this very blog. You can remove if this window if need be. The bottom right corner has a list of Yaika! highlights (the most visited pages).

That's it for now, but there are more upgrades to come soon :)

Everyone who's a least bit interested in video games, has on an occasion ro two played a first person shooter (FPS). That means that the player, obviously, see the game from a first person perspective. Those games are quite popular because of their online capabilities. Most of them also offer a "spectator mode", which allows the player, as the name states, spectate the ongoing match. One might learn some new tricks or just kill some time this way.

A few days back I started thinking about the possibility of a spectator mode in other games. Most games of other genres don't have that feature out if the box. For example, you'd really like to see, how your friend goes through that particular track with a unreal time in that racing game or how someone gets through an especially though place in a platformer. This is where Yaika! comes in :)

Using special software, you can record anything happening on your desktop just as it you would with a webcam. Then you can broadcast your desktop over Yaika! on your own channel. You can use this trick with different FPS games that actually feature a spectator mode. This way you can lighten the load of the game's own server.

Hopefully I gave you some tips to improve your gaming experience :)

There comes a time in every blogger's life when they experience the feared "writer's block". You have a blog, you have loyal readers, but alas, nothing to write about, nothing to share with your peers. There's always the possibility of not writing. But you can also find ways inspire yourself.

Listen to some good music. Go to your local record store and buy a new album. Look for something totally new and unknown for yourself, try something different. Take a couple of your friends and go see a movie. I, for one, suggest the latest comedy starring Steve Carell called "Get Smart" - I guarantee you almost two hours of laughing out loud. If you crave for something more serious then I heard the new Batman movie "Dark Knight" is quite interesting. Later on you can write your one small (or large) review.

There's also travel stories. People like to read about others' adventures and the fact that they take place in a foreign country only adds to the excitement. Writing one's memories is also a way to kind of relive those events. Reading other people's travel blogs is a great way to get new ideas for future destinations. If you have access to the Internet, you could alsu use Yaika! to make live broadcasts on location.

Or you can just go for a walkabout, who knows what you'll encounter on the way. The world full of wonderful things, you just have to make the effort to notice them!

Blogging began it's trail of success at the start of the 21. century. It was the time when the term Web 2.0 was coined and new innovative solutions allowed us to creatively use the Internet. Blogging itself is one of the most finest examples of the Web 2.0 principle. But why do people blog?

There's a plethora of reasons. Of the ones that first come to mind, I'd suggest vanity. There's no denying it, people like to show off their success and be comforted when things are bad. It's easy to get noticed. As the Internet provides anonymity to some degree, people feel more free to talk about different uncommon subjects without the fear of direct consequences. Also, the writer gets immediate feedback, making into more like a discussion.

The other major reason is voicing your opinion. You see, the blogosphere is a actually a vast audience, the only difference being that information between the users travels at immensely fast. Ibid the whole interface of different blogging services provides an easy way to publish all kinds of texts and make them easily available for everyone. It's nice to see that the so-called "little people" can also voice their opinion without the hassle of ordinary press.

There are also the people who just like to express themselves artistically. There are many bloggers who regularly publish parts of a continous imaginary story. It's a nice way to play out your fantasies and sometimes escape the boredom of everyday life.

In general the increasing popularity of blogging has been good. People share their thoughts and lives with others, getting new ideas at the same time. Now, Yaika! has made sharing your life extraordinarily easy, come on and give it a go!

Our CEO Valentin Ivanov had the idea of making this website a few years ago. Back then he wanted to attach a camera to his remote control car and then connect it to the Internet. The idea of driving around and seeing things while still sitting behind your computer seemed quite exhilarating at the time. But it might have had something to do with the popularity of the "Home Alone" movies. Unfortunately, that idea never became a reality. Valentin was also inspired by the fact that he was constantly abroad for business trips and therefore far away from home. So he began to think that it would be nice to be able to share all the experiences and sights with the rest of the family and friends. This is how the idea of personal broadcasting came to be.

Valentin got really eager to make this happen, when he one day discovered that he didn't like anything he saw on TV. He felt that he wanted a bigger say in what is shown on TV, be a part of the shows. Thus Yaika! was born. The name comes from "Ya i kamera" which is Russian for "Me and my camera". And that is what Yaika! essentially is. It's just you and your camera with the whole world in front of you so that you could share it with others by only pressing a button or two.

The team was assembled and started really working on the site in autumn 2007. It took time to properly formulate the concept, come up with the design and build a framework for the site. About 7 months was spent on the main programming, configuring the services and setting up equipment. Creating a website as complex as Yaika! from scratch is a lot of work and it hasn't been all fun and games. But in other words - Yaika! is actually almost a year old.

Active testing is still done by our team here at Yaika! We're constantly adding new features, testing if the servers can handle the workload and if the overall system is stable. A lot of internationally known professional consultants and web engineers are also involved in the progress. When Yaika! goes off beta this autumn, you can be sure that it will be a safe and stable environment.

Remember, a few days ago I wrote about people, who became famous with the help of Internet? Well, today I'd like you to point your attention towards the fact, that many already famous people use the Internet to show themselves and talk to their fans.

One of the first celebrities to do so was the rapper 50Cent, who started broadcasting using a popular american video site. This gave him an easy and, more importantly, cheap way to turn to his fans and talk about all kinds of things concerning his career. At the same time he's showing that he too uses the Internet like every other ordinary person out there. People like to relate to celebrities and seeing them do the same everyday things others do makes them feel special in some way.

There are others, like Destiny's Child former member Kelly Rowland, Scrubs' star Zach Braff and so on. Yaika! will hopefully be the place for local star over the world to show themselves, as some have already shown interest in it.

Our website is more than just a platform for broadcasting, it's also a comprehensive social network. All the users can add other users as part of their network and see those friends right on the front page after logging in. This allows you to have a clear overview of all of your friends' channels. Of course, you don't have to only add your friends, it's also an easy way to keep an eye on interesting people or channels (although subscribing to a channel might be more comfortable).

A big part of the social network is the integrated message system. The users can send messages to eachother using the website's own means. There's also no need to ask for mail addresses or using separate mail clients, it's all been taken care of. You can also send videomails. I already discussed its benefits a few days ago.

If you consider the publishing/broadcasting capabilities I mentioned yesterday and today's topic of social network, you'll have to agree when I say that Yaika! truly is the all-in-one lifecasting platform to share your life and thoughts with others.

Maybe all the Yaika! users haven't noticed that you can also post ordinary text blogs on your channel in addition to audio and video. We haven't forgotten the feature all other blogging sites offer :)

That's essentially what Yaika! is, an all-in-one lifecasting platform to share your daily events and thoughts. We have all the methods of publishing - radio, video and text. Of course you can save all of it, too.

To be honest, this very blog is actually an ordinary channel, the only difference being that it's Yaika! official blog and has a big link to it on the header. I could easily stream videos on this channel, but we've just decided that it'll be a text blog. The soon-to-be-opened technical blog, on the other hand, will be mostly videos. That still doesn't mean we can't post text there from time to time.

That's the whole beauty of it, you have a freedom of choice. Every user can choose their own way of showing their lives to the public (or just some close friends). Some more shy people don't want to show themselves on video straightaway, so they start a modest text blog, nothing wrong with that. No one has an obligation to make video or audio shows, but if you'd like to, we're here to provide the possibility to do so :)

Your have your own channel at Yaika!, you broadcast shows regularly, talk about different noteworthy topics and from time to time you provide the viewers with a few everyday tips and tricks. But still, for some reason your channel doesn't have too much followers and there aren't any more coming along. This means you have to use other means to make your channel more popular.

One good way to improve your shows is inviting other people to join you. This ensures a discussion will emerge and watching a dialogue take place is much more interesting than your lonely ranting. This also means that all the friends of the guest will probably watch the broadcast, too. And to be fair, it's more interesting to actually talk to someone than go over current affair topics on your own, live or not.

You should also advertise you channel. I don't mean buying primetime slots on major TV-stations, but mentioning it on other blogs and sites you have an account on (e.g. Myspace, Facebook etc.). You can also use the embedded code provided next to each channel or video to put a Yaika! video player onto any of your other blogs. You just have to copy a small piece of code to your blog post and there you go!

A larger audience means more feedback in commentaries and such. This makes it easier for you to improve your shows even more as people give suggestions and whatnot.

I encourage you to use the tips I've provided and I'm quite sure the results will be quick to show themselves.

I've noticed that in the last few years playing an instrument (mostly the guitar) and forming a band has become an immensely popular activity. Being in one myself, I'm somewhat familiar with the scene. Most of these bands come together just to spend some time with friends and play a few cool tunes, but there's a large amount of musicians out there, who are seriously trying to become known. This text is mainly meant for the latter :)

I'm sure there are a lot of very talented young people in many of those bands, but the problem is they're not getting enough exposure. This is mainly because of the nonexistent fanbase. But to gain fans, you must perform to a wider audience. You can always try and go to concerts and music festivals, but that's usually quite difficult for a new band. Where else can you find huge amounts of people? That's right, the Internet.

As I've written before, it's incredibly easy to broadcast anything using Yaika! You might think that the onboard microphone of the camera won't have the needed sound quality, but I suggest you use an external sound source. The best way would be to run a cable from the mixer straight to the computer. I'm hoping every decent band practice place has a soundboard.

Now all you have to do is tell all your friends about the upcoming online performance and provide them with a link. If the music is good, the people will come, because word-of-mouth is one of th most powerful marketing tools. You can always record those very performances so everyone could enjoy them on their own pace.

Our website is actually a quite practical environment, too. All the inventive people can find plenty of ways to make Yaika! work in their advantage. I'm going to offer a few ideas of my own :)

In addition to the aforementioned talkshows you can also post some kind of educational videos or tips on how to do things. You can show your friends how something particular works, how to repair or build something. One of my colleagues thought that a live cooking show would be quite interesting. It would be a much more interactive version of your local cooking show. The viewers can be part of the show - cook along with the host and call in to ask for advice or commentary on their own dishes.

If you happen to have a pet, who needs a watchful eye to look over him, or you just want to create a primitive and cheap surveillance system, Yaika! would still be the way to go. It's easy to setup a webcam or too and the best part is, you have access to your live feed from every computer connected to the web.

I encourage you to write your own ideas in your blogs or in the comments section of this one.

I've always said here in this blog that it's quite easy to gain popularity online. Internet success-stories are becoming pretty common nowadays, mostly because it's getting easier and easier to show yourself online. This also attracts more attention-starved people. The best way to get the attention of others is to do something completely fresh, uncommon and funny.

One of the first Internet superstars was The Numa-Numa Guy. He took a then popular club hit and recorded a video of himself lipsyncing the whole song using among others lot's of weird and funny looking facial impressions. Being hilarious and uncommon simultaneously guaranteed success. I'm actually quite sure that this wasn't his intention at all.

Some of these stars become commercial successes, too. A comedy group from New York called Derrick Comedy uploaded a few of their sketches onto Youtube. After having a few million views there they started getting requests from people willing to pay for their sketches. In other words, the started making money off their hobby.

But last year we all got excited because of a bloke called Tay Zonday, whose song "Chocolate Rain" became one of the biggest Internet successes we've seen so far. Until now he has had already over 26 million views on Youtube alone. What made Tay so special was his exceptionally low voice and the humorous subtitles during his performance. Another remarkable thing was that after a while a number of celebrities made parodies of this newcomer (usually it's the other way around). It went even so far that he had an appearance in the popular show South Park. Tay also got numerous invites to different talkshows.

These are only a few examples among the many more. With the help of Yaika! and it's technical capabilities you too can became an Internet superstar and enjoy being a celebrity (even for a while).

If you have been fed up with what ordinary TV can offer you and are considering making a reality show or an entertainment program of some kind, keep reading, because I'm going to provide you with a few tips on how to do that. It basically boils down the three following components: laptop, camera, web connection.

First the camera. If your using an Apple laptop, make sure you have a camera with DV (Direct Input) output and you'll also need a FireWire DV cable. This makes your life a lot easier and greatly improves quality! But you can also use generic webcams with Macs with the help of a program called macam. Macam allows you to use a number of different webcams with only on setback. You can't switch to outdoor mode with most of the cameras, which means that most of them will record just plain white picture in the outdoor light. But to really get a good picture, you must buy the Logiteck QuickCam® Vision Pro, a Mac-only webcam with superior quality. It's predecessor Logiteck QuickCam® Pro 9000 is also good and compatible with Windows.

But when using Windows it's a lot easier - all the major camera providers support the Windows OS without any noticeable problems. There still are a few kinks with Vista, but they will be ironed out in time. I already mentioned a webcam worthy of your attention. There are others, but I don't really like them: one's not too good with colors, the other can't handle dark rooms etc. But I generally prefer cameras over webcams.

What else to check on a camera? Well, the following features should be on every camera: it can work as a PC-camera over a USB or FireWire DV connection, the camera has a good optical zoom (it's difficult to get a good picture with dynamic zoom and if you were to send it over the Internet, it's going to be even worse), the camera's recording format is set on 4:3 and it must have some kind of color enhancement software. Our team uses (for testing purposes) a Samsung VP-MX10 camera. It's an outstanding camera, but still a bit weak with colors.

Now on to the web connection. There are many ways to connect your laptop the Internet. If the venue has a LAN network then all you have to do is plug in. If possible you can also use a WiFi connection. The pro of wireless Internet is the ability to move around, but the major con is that it might not be as stable as a wired connection. The third considerable way to connect is 3G. Most civilized places have 3G coverage nowadays and it's stable enough if you don't move around too much. If your using phone-tethering to tap into the 3G network I suggest you use a USB cable instead of Bluetooth to connect your computer and phone (no real difference, but it's safer). It's better to use a mobile modem (provided by most mobile operators).

The computer is just as important. Make sure that the batteries are fully loaded before broadcasting (also find out how long can your computer run on battery power) or find an electrical socket, but that decreases your ability to move around. You can also use extra batteries which can be plugged in on the fly. Our team uses APC batteries. Be sure to adjust your computer's settings as it would be bad if the computer went on stand by or shut down its harddrives during broadcasting. Yaika! uses the latest Flash technology, which is supported by all the major web browsers.

Now you just have to press record and point your camera towards the action :)

As you might have gathered from the title, our team has made some noticeable improvements to the website. We've been hard at work for weeks and the result is finally here. Among others we have the long-awaited recording feature.

Now to more specific matters. The first thing the users will notice is the somewhat upgraded look of the site. Each video now has a gray circle with the letter i in it. Rolling your mouse over it allows you to see more information regarding that particular video. You'll also see the new header with some new buttons. The "Blog" button which links to this very blog is now easier to find. The other new button is the "Videos" button which brings me to one the new major features.

Users can now upload their own videos to Yaika! Like everything else here, this also has been made as easy to use as possible. For now, each user has a total video limit of 5 hours which can effortlessly compete with other sites offering the same functionality. Watching the uploaded videos is remarkably hassle-free and thanks to all kinds of technological innovations in use we've been able to reduce buffering time to almost none. This means no waiting for a video to load, even when you want to start watching it from some middle part. There's also no need to worry about any copyright infringements as Yaika! doesn't allow other users to record or download any of your videos, thus eliminating the chance of your videos being illegally published somewhere else. You can always show your videos in other places if you'd like to yourself using the embedded code provided next to each video or channel.

When you upload a video to the Internet, you expect to get the credit for it. But what if someone else copies the video and posts it somewhere else? Exactly, you might lose the ratings that originally belonged to you. That's what our site's strict no downloading policy aims to prevent. Now no one can steal your video, upload it again and take your ratings.

As I already mentioned in the introduction, we now have a fully working recording feature, so you don't have to limit yourselves with live broadcasts anymore. As with the uploaded videos, the same no downloading rule applies to the recorded videos. We've also improved our webconnection, so uploading stuff should go quite swiftly and this adds to the simple-to-use experience that is Yaika!

Come visit our freshly upgraded site and explore the new features on your own :)

Oprah Winfrey, David Letterman, Jerry Springer - I'm sure you've heard all those names before. They're the hosts rather successful talkshows. You know, different guests come on the show, some of them very famous, other just well-versed in their line of business. They talk about all kinds of contemporary things like the upcoming movies and so on. You've surely seen one or two of these shows.

With the help of Yaika! you have the possibility to host your very own talkshow. Other websites allow you to upload recordings only (e.g. Youtube), but with Yaika! you can do actual live shows. Your own livingroom can be the studio and interesting people from your everyday life the guests. There's no need to rent some studio space and you don't have to convince any of the major channels that your show is going to be a hit :)

Yaika! website's technical innovations make it even easier. Instead of flying in guests from faraway places, you can just have them set up their own webcam and make a call to your show. At the same time all the viewers can see the guest speaking, too, he's only a mouseclick away. The host can also allow the viewers to call in and ask questions. It's all very interactive!

Actually, an few talkshows have already been aired here on Yaika! and we can now say with confidence that it works just as it should.

A few days ago I wrote about the technical side of broadcasting. Well, today we're going to look at it from another angle.

By definition ethics is a branch of philosophy, that encompasses right conduct and good life. In layman terms it's an assemblage of ideas which are approved by the society.

But what has this all got to do with live-streaming? You see, there are things you can and things you can't do while broadcasting. It doesn't necessarily need to be prohibited by law to still be wrong, so you should be careful not to upset anyone.

It's common not to show nudity and profanity on public shows which are viewable by minors. Freedom of speech of course grants us the right to talk about anything, but it shouldn't encourage people to use profanities.

One of the most important things is that you must always inform all those filmed that they are being filmed. This especially applies to all kinds of private conversations and the like. It's not pleasant to find out, that you've said something indecent to potentially the whole world. The same goes for locations. If you're not broadcasting from a public area, you must always ensure you've the permits needed for filming in that particular area. More often than not, it's prohibited by law to broadcast from some places, so be careful.

So, the next time you plan on broadcasting something, be sure to follow the aforementioned tips and you'll likely stay out of trouble :)

One of the most interesting features in Yaika! is the ability so send video-mails. It's quite simple - you push record, say what you have to say and push send. The recipient gets a notice in their inbox saying that they have received a video-mail and a link to said video. The recipient then has to do a one-time registration (unless he or she is already a member of Yaika!) and watch the message.

I think this opens up a plethora of new possibilities. First of all, there's no need to actually type anything in (except for the recipient's address, of course). Second of all, we now have the added benefit of body language and facial impressions. This allows us to get our message across much more easily and we don't have to waste our time going through those pesky emoticons :) More often than not it's actually easier to describe something with your hands than your voice. But the best part is still the simplicity. It only takes five minutes (depending on the length of your message) to record and send a message.

This will have a pretty big impact on ordinary mail, because when video-mail start to gain popularity, more and more people will understand and appreciate its benefits. For now, the mail only provides a link to the video, but in the future, I'd imagine there will be add-ons for the mail clients, so that they could play the video without opening a browser.

It's important to note that if you do not wish to show your face (too shy or whatnot), then we've also got that covered here at Yaika! Why not send an audio-mail instead? Everything is the same, just no videofeed.

Come and try for yourself :)